Respite

My husband and I haven't always had respite available.  We've tended to be more along the lines of really just relying on one another.  Anyone who has stepped up and helped usually burns out with my son and they no longer help.   I was posting on a trauma mom board about the fact that we were thinking about hiring in some therapeutic babysitters to help on a rotating schedule so that we weren't burning out our help that was willing.  I had no idea where to turn to find resources.  It's just another form of stress added to what we are dealing with every day to search for help.  But, another Mama said to me and it's so true the more and more that I think about it..."if our help is burning out and we're the ones that have them 24/7...can you just think how much we really NEED our respite?"  I will admit that I'm more than ready for school to start in a little over 2 1/2 weeks.  I am fried.  That's how summers usually roll though...June goes ok, July they start going downhill...and August is a really hard month and they go back to school at the end of the month.  So, I've decided to check with our local Christian university to see if they have any psych or teaching majors that would like to learn and get experience with our kids and maybe that will help us get some help and we won't be burning out just one person.  We've had to ask for help quite a bit lately while we've gotten our son started with his neurofeedback therapy and have been traveling an hour and a half each way three times a week.  We'll be able to cut that down to 2 times a week in a few weeks.  I know our kids can be draining.  I am starting to get after doing this for the past 5 years with barely any help or time away for just my husband and I too that we need time out together to work on our marriage as well.  So, we are going to reach out and humble ourselves and try to get some more resources of willing participants to help us.

Lord, we ask for Your guidance for some "perfect fits" for helpers for our family.  We ask for Christians who are willing to learn about our family and not cast judgment for behaviors that they see among our kids or being judgmental in the ways that we parent or ask them to treat behaviors which maybe they won't agree with.  We ask that they will find favor with our kids and that they will enjoy helping our family as well.  Also, I put the worry over having to pay for it all as well on top of everything else that we're having to pay for lately, into Your hands and trust that You will provide for us.  I also ask for help and guidance for any parent reading here that needs help finding some respite care as well.  It's hard to let our guards down sometimes and be willing to trust others with our precious gifts.  Amen