Giving to others

Being part of a community means both giving when others are in need and accepting help from others. It seems that many people are better at one or the other and whether we struggle with accepting help from others or just taking and draining from the community without giving anything back. Neither one of those are extremely healthy.

I personally struggle with taking from other people, I hate getting gifts. I have no idea how to respond. It is much easier to give to others.

The triathlon challenge Kyle was a part of was both for us as a family. It helped us greatly, we were able to make our house Kyle "proofed." We are getting very close to being done. It helped us out immensely. We as a family didn't just want it to be about us though. We wanted to give some of the money that was raised to others who were in a similiar situation as us.

We decided on giving to camp scholarships. We could have given to research or medical supplies, but we decided on camp scholarships. This may have the littlest value in the big picture scope of life. But we want to help individuals, individuals who struggle throughout the year. Where the families and the individuals effected by dmd can take a break from the disease. After last year spending time at Joni and Friends family camp we realized the importance of this. To be at a place where you are the normal one, where the world caters to the special needs that an individual has and not trying to fit into a world that wasn't made for the us.

Never having experienced that before we didn't realize what we were missing, and we thought many other children with dmd could experience a week of happiness and peace.

We all need both those that give to us and an opportunity to give of ourselves. Even those with special needs or don't feel they have much to give need the opportunities to give. Kyle may not be able to give the way many others can but he is a vital part of both our small community and bigger community. It takes work and creativity but Kyle and others like him can give and we need to continue to give them the opportunities to bless others.