Joyful Sorrow — Kristin Neva

We had another close call last week. I was out mowing the fields while a nursing assistant was caring for my husband, Todd. She was one of his first caregivers after he lost his ability to walk and bathe himself due to ALS. At the time, Todd still…

“Two are better than one,/ because they have a good return for their labor:/ If either of them falls down,/ one can help the other up./ But pity anyone who falls/ and has no one to help them up.” — Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV) Because my husband, Todd, has…

My 16-year-old-daughter, Sara, watched a TED Talk by Angela Duckworth on grit in her AP Language class. Sara was not impressed. “I don’t want to have grit,” she declared. Many of her high school friends are taking college math classes while she is on the standard math track. She sees…

On my daily walk, I take a detour from the field and into the woods because I’m on the hunt for birch bark and pine cones. It’s the season for collecting natural accents to use on my Christmas wreaths, which I’ll start making in a month. I sell them…

After college, I worked at an after-school youth program. I loved my work, and I made ends meet on my modest salary. I met and married my husband, Todd, who had a good job, so when we started a family, I decided to stay home with our children. I…

This past weekend, my husband, Todd, coached our son, Isaac, in making and installing a shelf in our daughter’s bedroom. It was a corner shelf with an obtuse angle, so they had to measure the angle, cut the boards to fit, and join the two halves of the shelf together.

Last week at Walgreens, the cashier asked me if I got the senior discount. I’ve never been asked that before, but perhaps the stress of caring for my disabled husband has finally caught up to me. “How old do you need to be to be considered a senior?” I asked.

As summer comes to an end, we’ve recently passed a couple milestones. Our son, Isaac, celebrated his 13th birthday at the end of August. That was not something we thought my husband, Todd, would live to see when he was diagnosed with ALS. Isaac was only 9 months old…

Power wheelchairs are expensive, and while Medicare covers the base cost, many beneficial features are an additional out-of-pocket expense for those already facing the high cost of living with ALS in the United States. Nine years ago, we began the process of ordering a power wheelchair for…

“Are you ever going to go faster, Mom?” my 12-year-old son, Isaac, asked earlier this summer when I caught up to him at the bottom of a hill, where he was waiting for me. I enjoy mountain biking with him. At times I ease off the brakes on a smooth…

“It’s just one night. It’ll be fine,” my husband, Todd, said after his night caregiver contacted me late one evening to explain she was dealing with a family emergency. Todd is paralyzed from ALS and needs to be turned and have his limbs adjusted throughout the night. It was…

Months after my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS, our church’s worship leader asked us to participate in a Sunday morning service with “Cardboard Testimonies.” We watched an example on YouTube in which music played while people stood in front of the congregation and shared their stories. Presenters didn’t…