Something that has been on my mind for a while that I’ve wanted to share has been about God’s provision in this time of our lives. His provision has been immense. We have never been in need or even in want of anything since Dirk’s diagnosis. He provided before Dirk was diagnosed and continues to provide. 

I know that a lot of people want to help us and support us. And one of the easiest ways for people to do that is financially. But I wanted to share how God has already gone before us to provide. It is hard to say no to people wanting to give monetarily when they feel called by God. Every time someone asks I question if maybe this is God’s provision in advance of something I don’t know is coming. But at the same time, I know that if something does arise, He will once again provide and I know we have a massive army behind us waiting to help if needed. We are so loved and so cared for and it’s very evident. 

How has God provided?

1. My 32-year-old husband took out long term care insurance. Sure, he did it because of Washington’s Long Term Care act and as a way to get out of paying the state every year for the rest of his life but he took out a policy for one year. The renewal came up the week he was diagnosed with ALS. Because of this we can have private in-home care when needed.
2. His amazing company. In February 2022 he switched jobs to a new company and began his dream job. We had and continue to have the best healthcare insurance. He had an amazing and supportive boss and team. A founder of the company found out about Dirk’s diagnosis and decided to keep Dirk on the company through the end of the year after he retired in July 2023 to continue paying our medical premiums. 
3. And then he ALSO offered for the company pay for two additional years of medical premiums through Cobra. When speaking with Cobra recently the agent was floored that we had coverage for so long by a company and had never seen that happen before. The ALS clinic at UW also has stated we are one of their only patients who will maintain commercial coverage for medical. This is a huge expense that we do not have to shoulder. 
4. Great medical insurance. This may seem like an obvious no brainer but yet – if we didn’t have this great medical insurance we would have a ton more medical bills. But, we have hardly paid anything in medical costs due to this great commercial insurance. It also qualified us for co-pay assistance for some of his medications which essentially paid our out of pocket costs to meet our deducible. Meaning…we’ve paid almost nothing this year in medical. Dirk just got a brand new custom fit wheelchair which would have cost over $20,000 out of pocket and we didn’t have to pay a dime. His feeding tube surgery was covered in full. His eyegaze computer didn’t cost a dime. And those are just a few of the things that have been covered in addition to things we have been given or loaned by UW and the ALS association. 
5. We are mortgage free. This story alone is amazing in God’s provision, timing and changing of our and my parents hearts to want to move in together (even before Dirk’s diagnosis). We now live in a multi-generational home with my parents with no mortgage. Just one small story from this was that the day after we found the lot for our new home and decided we wanted to build we received a phone call that someone pulled our expired home listing and was interested in buying our home. I have another blog that goes more into detail about this story. 
6. Financial savings. Due to the pandemic and the interest rate and payments being paused on Dirk’s MBA loans we decided to set aside the money from the sale of our condo and put it in a high interest savings account until we were required to make payments or gain interest on his loans again. Well, by the time those payments were required again we already knew about Dirk’s ALS diagnosis and were able to apply for loan forgiveness due to ALS. He was forgiven $40,000+ in student debt that we would have paid off if not for the pandemic. That in combination with the profit from the sale of our home and other savings we have built up enabled us to pay off our portion of the mortgage of our new home with my parents.
7. When pursuing purchasing a in-home chair lift to enable Dirk to continue to be upstairs with us I was quoted $14,000 for a new chair. Even the install of a used chair was potentially $6,000-$8,000 in addition to the cost of the used chair. After all was said and done it cost us $3,700 for the used chair and install. 
8. My job!! Can we just talk about that I have a wedding photography company that I’ve been able to slowly step away from and can now let it basically run itself with an amazing team of photographers while I get to stay home with my family? Just the timing of this alone – that my heart was in the place to step away from shooting before Dirk needed me to stop shooting and that this was all in place…wow. God is good. 
9. I just thought we would have to pay a few thousand dollars to purchase a ramp for Dirk’s wheelchair and had the thought to ask our occupational therapist if she had any recommendations of where to look for one. She told me to talk to our ALS representative who was our next appointment and without hesitation she put us down that she would have one shipped to us (for free) later that week. 
10. Disability and social security. Dirk qualified for short and long term disability which is the majority of our current income. The long term disability company also had a team of lawyers they supply to fight for you to get social security for both Dirk and the girls. Within just a few weeks we got social security approved. It normally takes 4 months or longer in most cases. And a lot of times ALS patients don’t even get it because its so challenging to get through to them without hiring a lawyer (despite a law being passed that ALS patients are supposed to get it immediately). Well, once again God provided and was one step ahead of us. 

I just wanted to share a few of these amazing stories of how God has provided for us before Dirk’s diagnosis and how He continues to provide. And also thank everyone for their support, prayers and love they’ve showered us with since Dirk’s diagnosis. Will give an update on Dirk’s progression soon.