DAILY SUPPORTS

     My definition of support is to sustain someone while they are going through difficult times and help them to maintain their existence by helping to supply them with the necessities needed in life. Throughout my life, I have had the support of my husband, children, family, friends, church family, and professional family. 

     My husband supported me in every aspect of my life.  When I decided to go back to school to obtain my associate's degree, he encouraged me to follow through to accomplish my goals.  He support me by helping with the household chores and the children. He would help cook, help the children with homework, and help prepare the children for bed.  On the weekends, he would help me with household chores and iron all the children's school uniforms for the next week.  All of this was done while he held a full time job.  After I graduated, my husband encouraged me to go back to school to obtain my bachelor's degree, but I put it off and said that I would do it later.  After my husband pass away in 2007, I decided that I need to make some career changes in order to provide for myself and my children, but I was scared.  I could still hear my husband's voice encouraging me to go back to school.  My children also supported and encouraged me to continue my education.  I decided to enroll at Walden University in 2009. My children helped in anyway possible.  They did extra chores so that I could study.  They helped prepare meals.  They also helped me study.  In May 2013, I graduated from Walden University with a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education.  During my husband illness and after he passed away, I had a lot of support from my family(parents, sister, brothers, and aunt), friends, church family, and professional family (co-workers). They cooked meals for my children and I.  They helped with household chores. Some of them would just talk to us and encourage us. Many of them prayed for us.  They were concerned with our overall well being and helped in anyway to make sure that we were okay. I don't know what we would have done or how we would have made it, if we did not have the support of the many people in our lives.

     The challenge that I chose is taking care of my mother after a leg amputation.  This is a very big responsibility.  In order to accomplish this task, I need support from a lot of people.  The support of my siblings is needed for the immediate care of my mother.  The immediate care consist of feeding, bathing, and clothing my mother.  The doctor's recommend that she is not left alone at any time, so I need the support of family and friends to help.  Everyone schedules a time to sit with my mother. I also get support from her doctors and nurses.  They train me on how to take care of her wound and how to administer the medicine. If I would not have gotten the support that I received from everyone, my mother would have been put in a nursing facility.  Thank God for support systems.  Support systems work.