Steve and Gigi Murfitt's Blog

Our goals for 2010

Steve and I have been spending much time thinking about where we want to go with Gabriel’s Foundation of HOPE in 2010.  The passion for serving the disability community is on fire in Steve’s heart to the point of tears when he sees someone in a wheelchair or cane or walker.  Just today at church we met a new friend – Natalie – a beautiful young girl with a smile as wide as the Mississippi.  What a sweet family! 

God continues to place these families in our lives and we continue to pray for the resources to do what it takes to encourage them and to provide for whatever they need. The desire is so strong it chokes us sometimes.  So we need to get busy raising funds and letting people know what we have to offer.

Today I’m working on an application for Joni and Friends ministry affiliate program.  We want to associate ourselves with this incredible world wide ministry focused on ministry to individuals and families affected by disabilities.  We hope our application will be accepted and we can join forces with Joni’s ministry as we both serve these wonderful people.

Happy New Year 2010.  A new decade is upon us and we envision great things for our organization.  We are planning our first fund raising dinner and auction.  We are working diligently to complete Gabe’s first book.  Gigi’s book Caregivers Devotions to Go is completed and waiting for the printer to complete the print copy.  We are making that book available free with any donation during the month of January.

In March we will present our ministry at the Northwest Ministry Conference where we will share more about how we can help other ministries in working with the disability community.

Gabe is taking a public speaking class as part of his college curriculum so we are excited to help him improve his speaking abilities so he can continue to touch lives in this way. 

We have much work to to and we are excited to achieve our goals in 2010.  Won’t you come along side us and help us make it happen?

I learned it all at dog training!

Canine Companion Experience

We are having much fun in Santa Rosa, CA while attending training for Canine Companions for independence.  Gabe was selected to receive a canine service dog.  We arrived on Sunday, August 2, 2009 and we will be here for two weeks.  I will blog our experience to share with you this amazing nonprofit organization that helps families that deal with disabilities.  We’ve been very busy already so forgive me if I don’t post every day.  I’ll be sure to share the details of our experience.  Come back for more info!

Northwest Ministry Conference 2009

We finished our first conference for Gabriel’s Foundation of HOPE today.  It was a successful conference for all of us.  Our booth was well attended and we got some good contacts.  Steve and I presented a workshop about our desire to help individuals and families dealing with disability through our nonprofit.  We also want to come along side churches to help them minister to the disabled community.

We heard stories from families who have struggled with finding resources for their children affected by disability.  It reinforced the reason for our ministry.  We are excited to get to work writing grants and seeking donations to promote our causes.  We know we are doing what God has called us to.  That feels so good.

It was very exciting to meet Rev Dan’l Markham from Joni and Friends.  My heart has been with Joni’s ministry for many years.  We hope to partner with her ministry in the coming months.  Dan is also on the board of directors for Nick Vuicich from Life Without Limbs.  We hope to meet him one of these days.  I think he and gabe would make a dynamic duo sharing their stories.

For those of you who have never been to the Northwest Ministry Conference, it is an amazing and fun time.  The speakers, the worship, the exhibit booths and the workshops are worth every penny spent.  Don’t miss it next year on the weekend of March 18-20, 2010.  You

Thank you to those who stopped at our booth.  It was such a blessing to meet each one of you.  We hope and pray that in the coming months we’ll meet again.  Perhaps Gabe will be able to speak at your church.  I’d love to speak to your women’s ministry as well.

Please keep coming back to our website to learn more about what we are up to.  God Bless.

Gabe’s Freshman Year

Gabe just finished his second quarter of college.  The time has flown by.  He is doing well and enjoying classes.  We are learning along the way.

Gabe stays at a dormitory.  The University of Washington provided him with a great wheelchair accessible room.  They have been very accomodating.  They added a new automatic door that opens both his room door and the hall door with a press of a button or the swipe of his keycard.  It makes it so much easier to enter and exit his room.

We had a meeting with the Department of Vocational Rehab a few weeks ago.  We needed to iron out some misunderstandings about Gabe’s desire to major in Education.  It was discussed that there was concern about that vocation because Gabe wears a hearing aid.  We were able to agree that we all think Gabe would do a phenominal job as a teacher and we do not think his hearing aid is going to pose a problem.  We still have some documentation to provide DVR for their records but I think we are now on the same page.

Gabe’s aid services are provided by Chesterfield Housing Services.  They did a great job matching him with two caregivers who help him during the day.  He’s learnng to be more independent so we are evaluating how many hours he needs this personal care.  We appreciate the care we’ve received so far.

This transition to college is getting easier for me and Steve.  It was difficult at first to release Gabe to the care of someone else.  As we’ve watched him learn and grow along the way, we are able to understand that everything is going to be okay. 

I’m reminded all the time that he is now an adult.  I’m wearing a consultant hat now.  I’ve retired my mom hat.  I’m learning to only give advice if he asks for it.  Boy that’s hard isn’t it?

Parents in Transition

Our lives have been touched in many ways as parents.  Our two boys have made our lives so rich.  As a parent of a child with a disability we have learned much.

 Well, he’s not a child any longer.  He’s now an adult.  So we are in transition.

I have to admit this is not an easy transition.  We are having to let go of Gabe.  He no longer needs us like he once did.  My focus as Gabe’s mom has changed completely in the last six months.  My days were often driven by Gabe’s schedule.  Now that he is away at college, I have found myself with time on my hands. 

What to do with that time?  I have been focusing on my writing.  The book I have been writing about the season of raising our boys is getting more of my attention these days.  I’m excited.

I’m also more ready to write from a different place.  When I was in the middle of the challenges and struggles and the triumphs and joys, it was difficult to put it all on paper.  But now much of that is behind me.  I can clearly write some of the difficult things without soaking the paper with tears.  Oh I still cry about it, but it’s a different kind of tear these days.

I am so proud of who our boys have become.  The difficult times have been worth it.  I’ve learned much in the last twenty-one years of being a mom. 

I’m excited to continue in this transition as we move further into our season of empty-nesting.  I love this season as Steve and I get to know each other again with our focus on one another rather than on our boys.  Some days we feel like teenagers again.  That part of transition is really good!

Welcome

Welcome to Steve and Gigi’s Blog.  This is the place where we will share important information about parenting a child with a disability.  Our goal is to help people in many ways including financial assistance and education.  We also want to help people overcome the challenges they face.  Perseverance is critical in the life of a family dealing with disability.  Encouragement from us and others will help you along the way.

We created an acronym for HOPE: Help, Overcome, Persevere, Encourage

Help–Overcome–Persevere–Encourage

HOPE is what has carried us through the 18 years of raising a son with a disability.  HOPE is what got Gigi’s mother through raising ten children as a widow with a disability.  Gigi’s mom, Helen McMahon Devine, was injured in a high school accident on the stage of the auditorium.  An asbestos fire curtain crushed her spine and left her unable to walk for nearly a year.  Once she recovered from the many surgeries, she limped due to the difference in the length of her legs.

Helen was told she could not bear children because her spine was fused with her shin bone for support.  Yet by God’s grace, she delivered ten children – eight of them by cesarean section delivery.  After Gigi’s dad died, Helen raised all of the children on a teacher’s salary.  Even in the pain of her own disability, Helen was an encourager.

That legacy has been passed down to Gigi and now to Gabriel.  We created this organization as a means to encourage families in the disability community and allow them to tell their stories.  We will also help these families with their financial needs as we write grants and raise donations to increase the quality of life for those in need.

Stay tuned as we continue to launch our various programs.  If you know of someone in need of encouragement, we love to send out encouragement cards.  You can order a card for a $5.00 donationand we will send it to the person you request.  The donations will help build our funds so we can help those families in financial need.

Your donations are tax deductible as a charitible gift.  We are a 501(c)3 organization.

Launching of Gabriel’s Foundation of HOPE

Welcome to our Blog.

We are so excited to launch our nonprofit organization – Gabriel’s Foundation of HOPE.  This organization has been a dream for many years as we have experienced life as parents of a child with a disability.  Gabriel (we call him Gabe) turned 18 just a couple of months ago.  The years have flown.  We have spent time high on the mountain and low in the valley in the 18 years since he was born.

Gabe’s birth defects were a complete surprise to us.  We had no prior warning and no history of physical birth defects in either of our families.  After overcoming the initial shock, we quickly learned that Gabriel was an amazing young man. 

I have chronicled the story of raising Gabe in my journal.  I’ve kept a journal for 35 years.  There are some years where my entries were few and far between.  But over the last 10 or 12 years, I have written almost daily.

We hope to share with you the book I am writing about this experience.  The working title is “He Handed me Hope with His Three-Inch Arms – The Story of a Mother’s Hope for Her Disabled Son”

The next book I’m working on is a compilation of stories of amazing people we have met along the road of raising Gabe.  We’ll start with our incredible Challenger Little League Baseball team where we have 17 amazing families to brag about.  The possiblities are endless as we continue to meet new people with unique stories to tell.

We hope that you will browse through our website and let us know of any family in need.  Our goal is to help encourage families dealing with disability in a variety of ways.

Have a great day.  Thanks for checking out our web site.  Please be sure to let us know if you have any questions.  Gigi