Mission (Im)Possible?

I don’t remember the exact year. I know it was pre-Covid. I was sitting at my desk, mostly pretending to be engrossed in something on the screen because I knew it might buy me a few minutes of uninterrupted peace before I had to go back to the chaos. I was exhausted and just needed a minute or two before stepping back into the ring.

My husband and I have four children. I homeschooled the first three from kindergarten through graduation. When our fourth child was diagnosed with autism at the age of four, we intended to homeschool him too, thinking it wouldn’t be much different than teaching our other kids. By the time he turned 11, we knew we needed help. He needed to not be so very dependent on us for his every need if he was ever going to learn the most basic self-care skills. I needed to not be spending every five minutes managing meltdowns. My other three kids needed to not have their own learning time constantly interrupted. My husband needed to not come home to a wife having reached her mental and physical limits for the day by 4 pm. So, Jeremiah went to school.

But this was spring break, not aptly named for caregivers of special needs kids by the way. Maybe spring pandemonium fit better. Jerry was 14 now and we were in the eye of the storm…Hurricane Puberty. The fluctuation in hormones and roulette wheel of emotions are hard enough for typical kids to navigate during those tumultuous years. Throw in developmental delays and social deficits and you have a category 5. This is where we lived - tears, aggression, screaming, irrational behavior - and that was from just one of the four teenagers living in our home! Add to that an illness that resulted in short-term hospital stays and a long-term feeding tube for Jeremiah and well, you get the picture. It was more of a Jackson Pollock than a Rembrandt.

Now let me tell you about our community. For all of my kids’ lives we attended the same small non-denominational church. My babies were prayed for, loved on, and showered hand-me-downs upon before they were ever born. We were a very close community, family really. I don’t know what we would have done without our community during this period of our family’s life. Some babysat. Some whisked me off for an hour or two of friend time. Some encouraged and cheered us on to persevere when we thought we would not make it one more day. Some provided fun outing breaks for our older kids to give them a “Jerry break”. All prayed. And some, some fed us.

While every single one of the above-mentioned acts of service was a blessing in and of itself, it was the meals this momma was most grateful for (besides the prayers of course). They were a tangible way of saying, “I see you, I hear you, and I love you.” It was someone taking time out of their day to make and deliver to my family a delicious hot meal that made us feel full, physically and emotionally. The timing was always perfect and always God. My intentions were always good at the beginning of the day, but by 3, I was contemplating how many food groups were covered by peanut butter and jelly, which often made me feel guilty for not living up to June Cleaver. Silly and irrational, I know, but it is still how I felt.

Many times during those tumultuous years, sitting at the dinner table full of the labor of someone else’s love, I remember thinking - if I ever make it through this time, I want to pay this forward. Seriously, I never thought when, but if. My days were lived moment-by-moment and often in a fight or flight situation.

By God’s amazing grace and relentless mercy, we did resurface on the other side of that abyss with our sweet boy. I am so proud of how far he has come and, besides God, have so many incredible people who showered unconditional love on our family to thank for it - friends, family, teachers, superheroes in plain clothes also known as behavior therapists…so many.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2022. We are in a new phase of life with Jeremiah. It’s not easy. I don’t think it ever will be. But we are enjoying him in a way we never really could during those hard years. His personality is coming into its own. He is funny and has compassion towards others, especially others who are struggling. He is almost 21 and still gets so excited over going to a theme park, being pushed on a swing, and playing Buddy Baseball. And he is doing some things more independently than we ever thought he would. Admittedly, after the season we had been through, I had become a bit complacent in this new and more-laid back phase of our lives.

Then one day, as I was driving home from taking Jerry to school, I listened to a podcast by Annie F. Downs and she was talking to Tim Tebow about his new book, Mission Possible. First off, if you have never heard a podcast with Tim Tebow, you are surely missing out. His energy and excitement and urgency to live out God’s purpose for his life is both convicting and contagious. I loved the podcast so much, I listened to it twice…and then bought the book. I read it in less than a week, highlighted more than half of it, and have promised myself to read it every January before reading any other books. Here are a few nuggets:

“A mission-possible life has less to do with us and more to do with others.”

“You just do what you can, with what you got, for the glory of God.”

“Living a mission-possible life means watering and fertilizing and cultivating the ground where you are planted, even if it seems nothing more than a wasteland.”

“Never overestimate what you can do by your own power, and never underestimate what God can do when you offer what you have and who you are fully to Him.”

“Pursue the what, and God will take care of the why and how.”

“It’s not about knowing every detail or having an answer for every question; it’s about accepting the mission God has prompted in your heart and following it, one step at a time.”

“It’s not enough to wake up and get out of bed; you have to live with open eyes to see the needs, an open heart to love, and open hands to serve.”

“You know where a mission-possible life begins? With an idea. With one thought that swirls in the mind that is not fully vetted. This one tiny idea is not developed or calculated, but for some reason it’s been deposited on the inside of you. This is what it can seem like when God is encouraging you to move in a certain direction.”

“We are called to love God and to love people. The best definition of the verb form of love that I know is to choose the best interest of another person over your own and act on his or her behalf. Let’s find people who are in need and act on their behalf. When you are willing to be used by God, He will open your eyes to opportunities to step in and fill a gap.”

And that’s when I remembered my desire to pay it forward…to provide meals for other caregivers. After some prayer, guided direction on the practicalities, and encouragement from a few people close to me that I shared the idea with, Well-Seen, Inc. was born. We filed for the Articles of Incorporation in April, the 501(c)(3) in July, and began working on the logistics of the logo and website, social media, fundraising, how to find caregivers and ways to provide meals. We started out saying we wanted to officially start fundraising and go live with the nonprofit in January 2023, figuring it would take approximately a year to complete all we needed to. God led us to and opened every single door from the time we started the process in April until it’s completion BY THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2022! We were warned that getting our 501(c)(3) status could take anywhere from 3 to 6 months or longer. We had it within two weeks of applying. All God.

So welcome to Well-Seen. If you found our site and are learning what we are all about and have read my ramblings so far, then I hope you have discovered that our goal is to love God and love people by serving them. No credit due here please. All glory goes to God. He calls us to live mission-minded lives, plants in each of our hearts a purpose designed specifically for us…usually one that we can personally relate to…and what He calls us to, He equips us to do. Sometimes I think it took me too many years of naval-gazing at my own circumstances with Jerry to “get on mission”, but knowing what I know about God, I believe Well-Seen emerged right on time.