The State of My Union

Well here it is…my birthday month. I breathed air for the first time at dawn on 28 July 1951. You do the math. I’m hopin’ I’m halfway through and not two thirds done. Against all odds I have made it to sixty. Sole Deo Gloria. That means ‘all glory to God’. Bach put it at the end of all his compositions.

Repeatedly beaten, raped and tortured by the time I was eight, I never drowned my sorrow in drugs or alcohol or slept around. Sole Deo Gloria.

Permanently crippled at nine, I’m still walking upright and not in the wheelchair predicted for me by forty. Limping sometimes, but upright. Each time I have had a health issue there has been this wonderful miraculous cure. Sole Deo Gloria.

When I finally ‘ran away’ from my family it was to a job in Cambridge, England taking care of four children in a blended family who had just suffered the death of a parent. I got to learn in the British education system and see the Continent. Sole Deo Gloria.

I only applied to one college and got in. A top rated women’s college at the height of the women’s movement. Sole Deo Gloria. ( and yea Mills College for Women!)

I’ve given birth to two children when I was told at the age of twelve I would never carry to term because of my physical disabilities. I delivered my first child two hours after I arrived at the hospital and my second delivery went from 3cm to birth in 45 minutes. Sole Deo Gloria.

I asked for and received for adoption two older special needs children and after twelve years of pouring every good thing I could find into them in the world and from myself, they are living lives vastly different than the ones they were destined for when the agency placed them and have lived to hear the words, “Thank you for all you did”. Sole Deo Gloria. I joyfully love them unconditionally and delight in watching them aspire to lives of texture and substance. Sole Deo Gloria. And they made me a grandmother! Sole Deo Gloria.

Through naivite’ and ignorance and a really obsessive Pollyanna complex I have repeatedly placed myself in harms way with very angry, hurtful, self centered people. In every situation I have been delivered to safety and learned to be wiser, increasing in compassion and humor. Sole Deo Gloria. I have learned the power of forgiveness. Sole Deo Gloria. I have never sought revenge. Sole Deo Gloria.

My whole life I have gotten to sing, play, and hear great music. Sole Deo Gloria. I’ve known the joy of dancing many times. Sole Deo Gloria.
I broke a gender barrier found I had the courage to withstand the fire and got to preach the Good News that God loves us more than we could think, or ask, or even imagine. Sole Deo Gloria

I like myself. I enjoy my gifts and talents. I know the best is yet to come. Sole Deo Gloria. I know I’m blessed and live to bless others everyday with encouragement and hope. Each day I learn to receive more of God’s blessing. Sole Deo Gloria.

To God be the glory. I know that Grace abounds, mercy is ours for the asking and the peace that passes understanding brings Life!

The whole year will be a victory celebration for what God has done in my life. I’m going to finish everything I’ve started, do better at the things I beat myself up for not doing
(like exercise and eating more colorful fruits and vegetables and water) and cram more in for the sheer joy of it between moments of deep reflection. The rest of my life is a dessert buffet and I’m going to taste everything on the trolley!

My fortieth birthday was spent at Camp Burton where I was co directing yet another junior high camp. I had a t-shirt made that said “CHOOSE LIFE”. I am happy to report at my sixtieth, I can say I did…yes indeed I did!

Love,
Deborah