Walking to Daddy

Being a caregiver is very difficult-especially with someone who has dementia. Through times of heartache, I learned that it was okay to cry-to hurt-to fail-to make mistakes-to grieve for what was lost a little more day by day. God was my anchor through the raging tide, which ebbed and flowed into the recesses of my heart. Each day was another day to walk by faith through a sometimes dry and painful valley. Jesus was and still is my greatest strength. Without Him, this journey would not have been possible, and peace would not have been real. My journey is perhaps your own-maybe not only as a child of someone with dementia but possibly as a caregiver of someone who battles it. Wherever you are in your journey, you do not walk your road alone. Many have gone before, and many will come after you. You do the best with what life has given, and you walk each day filled with grace that only God gives. Within these pages are devotions that I wrote during the last year of my father's life. There is no particular outline. They are shared as they came-to encourage my own breaking heart. One day is a cry for healing and understanding, and the next is a lesson the Holy Spirit has shown me. This caregiving journey of faith-roller coaster as it was at times-is shared in honesty to encourage others walking this journey. I discovered that the love of Jesus reaches beyond boundaries that man erects and flows into the hearts of those trying to understand an illness that offers no understanding. Sometimes it is enough to know that you don't walk this road alone. Sometimes it isn't. No one walks in your shoes, but someone can understand the pain in your heart. I couldn't have survived the journey without daily walking straight into the arms of my heavenly Father. I have learned that life's journey is not about me but who He is in me. I'm always Walking to Daddy.