A Hopeful Future
Increasing hope. It’s in Pause’s mission statement to “...to build resilience and increase hope.” Most of our families have children who will continue to hold their diagnosis through adulthood. We honor labels as amazing parts of who each child is and, at the same time, help build the caregivers ability to move through the difficult pieces of it with strength, new perspective and - you guessed it, HOPE.
It’s important to understand that loving their kids and grieving their diagnosis aren’t mutually exclusive. There is a season of heartache when a child receives a diagnosis that isn’t often talked about. There can be endless love and joy for our child AND disappointment and sadness that the dreams for their life need to shift and look different. When most girls are 15, they daydream about getting married and having kids and those daydreams don’t always include thinking about wheelchair access, mental health challenges or long hospital stays. There will always be this delicate balance of celebration and joy coupled with overwhelm and isolation when navigating special needs life.
We like to call ourselves hope dealers because it’s the key ingredient in building resilience. Our focus lands here because we want the seasons of hard to turn into seasons of hope instead. So, from Parent’s Night Out to crazy Thrive night games to fun family events, you can always sense it in the air - the anticipation of joy and the ability to trust it.
Connection is one of the 4 pillars of Pause we use to build hope because it brings caregivers out of isolation and into healing relationships. One of the events we offer is Thrive Night Out which allows a dozen Pause moms the space to be together for good food, intentional connections and great conversation. Led by Pause staff and Thrive Pointe’s co-owner, Stephanie Shell, Thrive Night Out is hosted in private at a local restaurant and lays the foundation for new friendships. Rooted in vulnerable conversation, these ladies learn they aren’t the only ones feeling what they feel and they have a community of people with unique understanding and a heart to see them win.
Caregivers were able to “leave” feelings of weariness, doubt, loneliness, isolation, stress, exhaustion, fear and unworthiness and “take away” feelings of “inspiration, encouragement, resilience, connectedness, persistence, support and hope.”
Some caregivers shared with us:
“I enjoyed hearing how strong other women are, but also how we all face the same struggles. We are all in this together.”
“This was my first event and I was blown away. I keep feeling like this is too good to be true, lol but so grateful for shared experiences with the company. For the first time in a long time I felt hopeful.”
“I have been feeling very defeated lately. Thrive Night Out helped me regain hope & feel better.”
To learn about the ways you can join forces with Pause to increase hope among caregivers and help us spread our capacity to be hope dealers, click the button below.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
