Wednesday, February 18, 2009

God's Promise

Last night I had a very disturbing dream. I can not remember the details exactly, I just remember that it had something to do with Taylor not progressing anymore.

Today is my day to do school with Edy. For her writing assignment she does her Bible verses for karate. They use the King James version. I grabbed my well worn Bible, that has gotten me through very many trials, to look up the verse so that she could complete the assignment. After writing out the verse for her to copy, I started to review the different scriptures that the Lord had given to me over the years.

Isaiah has been a particular comfort to me through the years and a book that the Lord has used on a number of occasions to speak to my heart. Many times I do not understand how the passages pertain to my life. I just know that the Lord has given them to me. I highlight them and many times as I review them the Lord brings to light the encouragement. This particular passage was given to me over 10 years ago. I did not know what to think of it, as it did not pertain to the situation that I was experiencing at the time. How faithful is our Lord to prepare the way for us even before we know what path it is that we are to walk.

Isaiah 49: 8-26 (ESV)

The Restoration of Israel

8 Thus says the Lord:“In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages,

9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out, to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’
They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture;

10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.

11 And I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.

12 Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.”

13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

17 Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

18 Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the Lord, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.

19 “Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’

21 Then you will say in your heart: "Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these. Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’”

22 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”

24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?

25 For thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Today I was reminded of a promise that was given to me over 10 years ago. It was about my children. I had no idea then that we would be fighting Autism. It has held our family captive for many years. It has stolen my children. It has ravaged our family. God knew what he was calling Darrin and I to do over 10 years ago. He has given us this path to walk, but he did not mean for us to walk it alone. Scattered along this road have been friends to encourages us, the Lord's hand guiding us along when we just wanted to give up and the Lord's promises that he would be with us every step of the way. He has reminded me of a promise made long ago that in addition to being with us through all of this, He is going to save our children and it will be to his glory.

He is going to save our children. This is a promise, and the Lord does not break his promises. This does not mean that the rest of this road will be without it's valleys. It will still take work, but I am now working toward a goal that is no longer a maybe but a will, and through all of this others will know that the Lord is our Saviour and our Redeemer.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Magic of Borax

We did not replace the carpet when we moved into this house because we did not want to panic about spills and such. Our carpet had seen better days. Mr Winslow had cleaned them for us when we moved in and they were great. They went steadily down hill. Between projectile spit-up and autism smears, juice spots and who knows what else, my ok carpets became worse than some that I had seen in some bank owned homes.

We did not have the money to replace them. We tried to clean them only to be told that it was hopeless and we should just get new carpeting. We were also faced with the fact that new carpeting is full of chemicals that can harm the children. What to do?

My mother-in-law was also wanting to help us get the carpets clean. After being here a week at Christmas time she went home and dug out the book "Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things" by Reader's Digest. It said that you could use Borax to clean stubborn stains out of your carpet. It was worth a try.

I started in front of the bathroom where Taylor had smeared some chocolate that I could not get cleaned up. I mixed a couple of cups of the Borax with some hot water and literally poured it over the spots. It was magic. In the place where I had saturated the carpet it all came clean. I used the steam cleaner to suck most of the water back out. It was amazing.

Knowing that I needed to get most of the carpet saturated, I went to work putting together a system. Darrin purchased a pressurized sprayer for me and I figured out how to get the Borax dissolved so that I could spray it on the carpet.

Here is what I ended up doing:
In a large pot bring about 1.5 gallons of water to a boil.
Add one box of Borax
Stir until all of the Borax is dissolved
Ladle into the pressurized sprayer to the bottom line
fill the sprayer with very hot water to the fill line.
Spray on the carpet.
Use a carpet rake or stiff push broom to work the solution evenly into the carpet. (if you don't do this your carpet will be splotchy)
Let the carpet rest for about 30 minutes
Use your steam cleaner with a white vinegar rinse (same proportions as you would use chemicals) to suck the Borax mix out of the carpet.
Let carpets dry overnight.

I also pre-spot the carpet for the really bad stains.
You might need to repeat the process in very bad areas.

Here is the result:

The result is much more dramatic in real life. I am very pleased with the results. So much so that I was able to get rid of the damaged area rugs that had been covering the worse stains. I am very pleased.

One other thing. You don't need to worry about your carpets being wet because the Borax actually keeps mold from growing so you are actually also adding a mold resistant product to your carpets. Cool!