You just have to be grateful when an amazing person walks into your life and I have been since I met Wendy over 20 years ago. We were in our mid 30's when we met. Our children were young and we were both trying to navigate our roles as wives, mothers, and women of faith. I must say I was a little envious of this tiny, beautiful woman but I was truly inspired when I got to know her from the inside out.
A couple of months ago I asked Wendy if she would share her experiences and heart with a group of directors of special needs ministry. Wendy and her husband have a beautiful daughter with special needs, as well as two sons. I have loved watching their family grow and develop. Over the years Wendy has been open and honest about the challenges, as well as the joys, of being a family affected by a disability. I knew she would be able to give insight to directors and share ideas on how to support families.
As she shared about her journey yesterday, my eyes started to well up with tears. A conversation we had many years ago suddenly came back to me. At the time she had been struggling with feeling like the mission field she had served in, and felt called to, had been taken away from her. She and her husband had been serving in Romania. You could feel the heaviness of the loss she felt. But as she shared yesterday, I was overwhelmed with the joy of seeing that God had given her a mission field and a beautiful one. It was just different than she had imagined.
As Katie grew up and was getting closer to aging out of the public school system, Wendy had started thinking more about the future and how Katie could use her gifts and interests as an adult. She started doing research, pulled a group of trusted friends together, and began brainstorming on what God might be calling her and her daughter to do. Having been on the sidelines of their life, I didn't know all of the ways God had blessed their family and business. I was amazed by how much had happened in such a short period of time.
At one point Wendy shared, "I have never been so comfortable in my weakness." Wow! She has never been so comfortable in her weakness. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 it says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."
Wendy proceeded to share all of the powerful things she had seen God do. She shared that she is not trained in business or in the culinary arts, but God keeps growing Katie's Snack Cart. Watch the video and you will see how Christ's power has rested on Wendy.
The unknowns and fears of ushering our children into adulthood can be frightening, especially when the world doesn't understand the perfect design of all people and the gifts they have been given. Wendy and Katie are an inspiration as a mother and daughter that serve together and as ambassadors to a watching world that EVERYONE has a gift and a place in this world.
I am so happy for Wendy. I am inspired by her courage, her humility, and her confidence in God's power to use her and her daughter in such a powerful way!
If you want to know more about Wendy and Katie, go to https://www.facebook.com/pg/Katiessnackcart/reviews/
(and be sure to "like" them!)
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