Caregivers and The New Year

This is your American family radio. I this is the program for you as a family caregiver more than 6 million Americans are serving as a caregiver and as we go through the holiday season, that's when we often go home and receive family members or connect with the same things that we may not have been noticing throughout the year for the population of caregivers may have just grown a little bit more as you go through this holiday season with your family members. You're not sure what to do. You're in the right place.

Hope the caregiver is the conviction that we as family caregivers can live a calm or healthier, and dare I say the more joyful life even while dealing with often very difficult circumstances.

Everything in this program is designed to help strengthen the family caregiver to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not in most people to think of caregivers they think of nursing home that is the farthest thing from my life and I've been doing this now more than 35 years caring for my wife to a medical nightmare that has now exceeded 80 operations that I can count and hundred doctors have treated her over these decades since her terrible car wrecks and she lives with significant pain and disability. Nursing homes are not even in the equation for us and I know so many others who are caregiving for a special needs child, 80, 80 family member who deals with the aftermath of a stroke.

Somebody who still with autism. Somebody still with alcoholism or addiction. These are all chronic impairments and wherever you find a chronic impairment you're going to find a caregiver. It's just that simple. How do you help the caregiver. What happens to the caregiver through this journey. How does the stress affect what is their decision-making like all of these things factor into the person who is providing unpaid care. Often, way beyond our training to a vulnerable love and we are all that stands between that level and even worse disaster if something happens to me. My wife's life gets extremely difficult and it's already brewed if something happens to you, what happens to your left and I'm also equally convinced that we as caregivers struggle in the heart first and primary. By that I mean the issues that we deal with as caregivers on a core level are common to the human condition, but we just deal with them in a relentless often unmerciful way where we are forced to deal with the fear and the despair in the resentment and the anger and the heartache and the guilt and the obligation in all of these things every human being deals with we just deal with on a nuclear level is compressed into a matter of hours instead of weeks, months or even years. Of course we have to do medical task is logistics task involving our love one, and a lot of physical things that we must do a lot of cooking, cleaning, laundry, running errands, and so forth. But those are things that are learned and not forgotten. I don't have to spend a lot of time researching on how to do the laundry every time. I know how to do that. It's pain but I know how to do the things that we struggle with other things to keep us awake at night that that cause us to seek our hearts to to shake quiver that we feel rage we would clench your fist that we lose our cool that we become angry or despairing. All of these things are what troubles we caregiver every single day relentlessly and if we don't have something to reorient our thinking to shore us up to point us to safety to land on that we easily get plowed under by the challenges and the demands we have is caregiver so that's what the show is all about to start off with the Scriptures, and since the new year will start off with the Scripture that I think you you may find meaningful is Isaiah 4318 through 19 Almeria first in the new American Standard do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth, will you not be aware of it. I will even make a roadway in the wilderness rivers in the desert not only read to you from the message sometimes is a little easier to understand if you read in several different translations and so forth or paraphrases in this case is a paraphrase here with the message that same verse Isaiah 4318 through 19. Forget about what's happened don't keep going over old history. Be alert the present of about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out. Don't you see it there it is on making a road through the desert rivers in the badly and that a great great verse for us as caregivers to hang onto to start this year with the others "alike, and I'm I'm kind of paraphrasing from where we are but don't don't live the same year, over and over and call that a life you may feel like that movie Groundhog Day. But it's not. We are not doomed. We can have life right now and do things that are creative, exciting, inspiring, moving, joyful, all those things are available to us and that's what I would like to start off my year with as a caregiver, and for you as well. There's an old Hill that was written in the 1500s and was set to attune sets of several tunes of one, probably the most familiar tune it was that it was Ella calm and you may have heard that it Palm Sunday when you hear that song hosanna allowed hose and dosing know that when this text was sent to that tune.

Listen to these lyrics. The year is gone beyond recall, with all its hopes and fears with all its bright and blending smiles with all its mourners, tears by thankful people praise the Lord for countless gifts received and pray for grace to keep the faith which states of old believe now, check out this first see if this is not applicable to where we are as a nation is a world to the we come over.

Gracious Lord, the newborn year to bless defend our land from pestilence.

If peace and plenty of snacks forgive this nation's many sins.

The growth of vice restrain and help us all with sin to strife and crowns of life to gain in that great text for us as caregivers to hang on to think about what's going on with the coven of the Delta.

The omicron or whatever is coming next. I'm sure they'll think of something next, but needless to say, pestilence has been on the mind of a lot of people and here's is him that was written so many hundreds of years ago think this text was written like 1500 with a really understood pestilence back then to and I love this defend our land from pestilence give peace and pledges this but that that the hymn writer goes on to say forgive this nation's many sins. The growth of vice restrain restrain the growth of vice because you can see it in our culture right now and help us all was said and to strive and crowns of life to gain DC how this elevates her eyes to see beyond just our own immediate circumstances that we can see the bigger picture and that bigger picture helps us endure as family caregivers in the midst of sometimes very dark and lonely road.

We got a lot to cover today. I got some very special guest that will be with us to share their insights of of what they've learned along this way all of this is done to help equip you to stay firm and healthy and strong and keep a perspective when it's so easy to get blown off course will be right back with Shannon bring with Fox News and there's more to come over the caregiver. Hopefully caregiver.com were so glad that you were this court to cover podcast we have over 600 episodes that are free to download. Please take advantage of. There's no need for you to go through this all by yourself for so many years and decades. Kind of boring to try to figure these things out on my own. Nobody knew really what to say to me now of aggregating a lifetime is to offer a lifeline to convention caregiver.com right. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife Gracie and recently Peter talk to Gracie about all the wonderful things that emerge from her difficult journey. Take a listen Gracie.

When you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach. Did you ever think the inmates would help you do that, not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by core civic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you helped collect from all of the country that you put out the plea for and their disassembly sell these legs like what you have your own prosody and arms and orange everything when you see all this duty makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know I know what it is been locked in place where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out me in the hospital. These men are so glad that they get to be doing and as one man said something good with my did you know before you became an amputated parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled and I had no idea and I thought Peg leg.

I thought a wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flanks the sea legs and all that.

I never thought about. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that there there helping other people down wall providing the means for the supplies to get over there. What does it do to you. Just on the heart level. I wish I could explain to the world. What I see in here and I wish that I can be able to come and say the this guy right here in East Africa with that. I never not feel that way out every time you know you always make me have to lead I don't want to leave.

I feel like I'm at home with them and I feel like that we have a common bond that would never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had experience with it what you think of the faith-based programs. The core civic offers. I think there is absolutely awesome and I think every prisoner out there that have faith-based programs because he return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and other ones like it, but I know about this one car is an amazingly low rate compared to those who think that says that is with me just has something to do with God is somebody broken people want to donate use prosthetic limbs, whether from a loved one who passed away or you know somebody well-groomed you donated some of your own for the did have it out of the please go to standing with.com/recycle gain recycle. We