The Lighter Side of Caregiving

Live on American Family Radio, this is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How you doing? How you holding up? What's going on with you?

This show is for the folks that stay up late at night. The ones that push the wheelchair, the ones that mop and clean, get up and go to work, do it all over again, go back and forth to doctor's offices, deal with pharmacists, insurance companies, mental health facilities, name it. The ones who go through tons and tons of bills and paperwork and EOBs and special needs children, all the above that affects the family caregiver.

There's so many different scenarios. There's always a caregiver. When you have a mental illness, there's always a caregiver. When you have an alcoholic, when you have an addict, that's a chronic impairment, you have a caregiver.

There's always somebody. And the caregivers, they without mercy, beat themselves up and look at their job performance. And this show has introduced the concept, okay, if you're going to judge yourself by your job performance, then I'm asking you to be fair and judge yourself by your attendance record as well, which is flawless because you keep showing up. And I don't care how bloody and bedraggled you are when you show up and you're probably swearing under your breath sometimes, I get it, but you keep showing up. This show is for you and we're glad that you're with us. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. Now I tried this last week and the show, I usually try to take the calls as they come because I want to talk to you where you are. And if that's where you are today, it's okay too.

You can call in and go whatever direction you want to go as a caregiver, whatever's on your heart. But I do try to introduce themes to you. And last week I tried very hard to introduce some humor to you guys and evidently nobody was in the mood for it.

And so given what's going on in our country, I understand that. However, we still could use a little bit of humor and I'm going to start off with some scriptures on that. But first I want to, well, let me give you one scripture here.

Ecclesiastes 3.4, we all know this one. A time to weep and a time to laugh. Now we as caregivers, we have plenty of weeping going on in our life.

I'm in my 35th year as a caregiver. I get it. And for those of you just now joining the show, we have people coming to the show all the time. Most of them by accident. You'll hear that a lot with you. Hey, I found your show by accident. Hey, I stumbled into your show.

I wasn't even planning on listening to your show. We hear that a lot, but it resonates with caregivers. The topic of what we're doing resonates with these folks and they hear somebody speaking in their language. I liken it to when you go overseas and we work over in West Africa.

I've been doing that since 2015 with a prosthetic limb outreach my wife envisioned after she gave up both of her legs. And when you go over to a country that everybody speaks differently than you do, even if they speak the same language, the accent and so forth is different. And if you're in the airport or the market and you hear somebody talking in your dialect, in your accent, particularly from the South, like I am, if I hear somebody talking Southern over there, man, your ear can pick that out of a crowded market.

And I've done that. And it just tugs at your ear and you say, whoa, somebody speaking my language. That's what this show is. We're speaking to your language. I speak fluent caregiver here. But the good news, better than that, is that caregivers are savior's native tongue.

That's who he is. That is who our savior is. He is the ultimate caregiver for a wounded bride.

I put that dedication in my book, Hope for the Caregiver. And at the beginning it says, solus Christus, Christ alone, the ultimate caregiver of a wounded bride. And the body of Christ is indeed a wounded bride. And he loves his bride and she's wounded and he cares for her.

And that's us. And so I wanted to lead off with some things though that we have tons of weeping in our lives, tons of it. But do you have any laughter? Scripture says there's a time to weep and a time to laugh. Psalm 126 2, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. And they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. That's what they're saying about people, the people of God.

They say this among the nations. They're looking at us and they're saying, wow, the Lord has done great things for them. And did you know that people look at you as you endure the things that you do as a caregiver? They look at me, they look at you, they look at us as believers. And are they saying, wow, the Lord has done great things for them. You know, they could say that while we push a wheelchair.

It's absolutely mind boggling to them, but they can and they do. And I've often said that my wife, when she goes into a room, causes a theological discussion in the minds of people in the room. Cause she walks in, she wears her legs uncovered. She has two prosthetic loads. She wears them uncovered. And so they look real robotic and Gracie is very beautiful.

Go out to my website, hopeforthecaregiver.com and you'll see. And she just lights up a room. She's got a belly laugh that is, that'll, you know, she, she can rival drunk Vikings the way she laughs. And it's an enigma to people. How can you go through all the stuff you've gone through?

80 surgeries or whatever. And, and she and I are goofy and, and, and she'll come into a room though, laughing and people will look at her with just incredulity because they're saying, wow, something's different here. There's extreme suffering. We see it. And yet there's joy.

And do you know they could do the same thing with you. And I know that there are times when, when we don't go into a room with laughing, there are times when we were weeping. We've had plenty of that, but there is a time to laugh as well.

And so I wanted to introduce that concept. I'm going to tell you a couple of funny stories along the way, and I want to hear yours. If you've got something that's just hilarious that hits you along the way and you think it's funny, you know, bring it on. Let's, let's laugh about it.

And I'll give you a few of ours that I think will cause you to laugh. And also I want to start off with a song that I think that you guys will, a lot of you will know, but I'm going to see if you know it. And this was my favorite here when I was about five or six years old. This was my favorite hymn that we sing in church. There's something about the way the melody hit and the, the, the music and the, the pace of it and the tempo and so forth.

And I just loved it. And so I thought I'd see if you know this hymn. I will step over here to the caregiver piano and I'll just come in on the chorus. Do you know that one?

888 for 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. If you know that hymn, that was one of my, that was actually my favorite hymn, first hymn that I ever had a favorite hymn for. That was it when I was about five or six years old. And, uh, I'll never forget my dad was a pastor at this church in Atlanta. And, uh, the assistant pastor there, uh, knew that that was my hymn.

For whatever reason, he, his name was Jim. And, uh, he, uh, when we sang that song, he would make a point to, to connect that with me, you know, and after the service. And I just loved that hymn. So if you know that hymn, 888-589-8840, then I'll give you another scripture about laughter. Luke 6 21, blessed.

This is Jesus talking. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.

And if you look at the, uh, the amplified version of that, it unpacks it. Blessed that's, you know, forgiven refreshed by God's grace. Are you who weep now over your sins and repent for you will laugh when the burden of sin is lifted, you will laugh.

And, and so this is the promise that God has. And I want you as my fellow caregivers to know that there is a time to laugh and there are funny things that happen along the way, and it's okay to laugh at them. And if you have a story like that, this is your time to share it. 888-589-8840.

And if you know the song that I played, the old hymn, 888-589-8840, and we'll take your calls for that. And I've got a funny story. I've got several stories.

I'll tell you about Gracie and me, uh, along the journey. And I think you'll chuckle with it, you know, and if you've got something that's breaking your heart today, that's okay. Bring it to us. We'll, we'll deal with it together.

Okay. 888-589-8840. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the caregiver.

This is the show for you as a family caregiver. It's your time. Come on, take advantage of it. We'll be right back. Have you ever left the stove on?

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This is a show for you as a family caregiver. I think, and I'm going to just jump on a limb here. I'm watching all the calls log in here and we're having some problems with the phone system. Are we not Mark? And I don't know what's going on because we're getting, I mean it's just the whole thing is lit up but something's happening and they're dropping. So Mark if you, I'll let you sort that out while he's doing all this. But it's 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. And I think Mark is working on the phone lines for whatever reasons. It's going a little bit wonky. And then I hear that sometimes that Facebook is, we stream the show on Facebook and I hear that it's having a difficult time as well. But you know what?

We'll just do the best we can with what we got. And but that's not, you have to call Mark Zuckerberg on that one with Facebook. So I'm sure that you want to call Mark Zuckerberg anyway. But 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. All right, we're going to talk about laughter today. And hopefully Mark will get all the phone lines sorted out.

You know, I'm thinking they're calling in. I may just try to grab one of it, just go straight live Mark and not even let you screen it and just go with it. But let me see if I can do that. All right. Good morning. This is Peter. How are you doing? Fine. Tell me who you are because my call screening software is messed up.

So it's going, you're just going straight to me. So tell me who you are and where you are. I am Shirley and I am in Mesquite, Texas.

Mesquite, Texas. All right. And how are you feeling this morning? I feel good. I just got up. But I feel great. Have you had any coffee yet? I'm making it right now as we speak.

I tried several times to call and could not get through. But I heard a song you played, In My Heart There Rings a Melody. There you go. Well, that was my favorite song when I was a little boy.

It still is. I love the song. In My Heart There Rings a Melody.

Yes. And I thought about that for us today because I'm going to talk about some things today that make us laugh a little bit. And do we have joy or do we walk around? I'll never forget it. And y'all don't tell this to anybody, okay?

Everybody just keep this quiet. But when we lived in Nashville, we lived there for 35 years and we just moved out to Southwest Montana. But on national Sunday morning on one of the TV stations there, there was a church that had rented the time, bought the airtime on a local TV station. And when I was getting up and getting around the house, I turned on the news or something.

And this was one of the major affiliate networks there, network affiliates there in Nashville. And they had this group up there singing and there's about eight to 10 folks and they had them in two rows and then somebody's at the piano and they were singing. And it was the most horrific experience to watch. I mean, it was like, you know, fingernails on a chalkboard to listen to these people. And they were so dour. And it's not that their music was bad.

It's just that they looked like they were at a funeral. And I thought, as believers, do we not have enough joy to light up our faces? You know, and that's why I love that hymn. In my heart, there rings a melody of heaven's harmony. And you know, and it makes you just feel like you're just kind of, you know, able to skip down the country road when you sing that song.

And I love that song. And so I'm glad that you knew that Shirley. Now, Shirley, are you a caregiver? I was a caregiver. Who did you take care of? I took care of my husband for two years with cancer.

Well, how did it go for you? Well, you made a comment a while ago about how we beat ourselves up. And I beat myself up for two years after he passed, thinking that I would be able to get him on his feet again. Now, I knew in my heart that this was all about God. And my Lord told me one night, Shirley, prepare. I'm going to take him. And I had it in my heart that, okay, this is going to happen.

Get ready. And then things happen, and you just pull yourself right back into thinking, hey, today he's doing well. I think he's going to, he's going to make it. He's going to make it.

He's going to fight this. Well, you know, my comment now is cancer is a very, oh wow, it robs both the ill and it robs the caregiver, especially if you're related now. I have been a caregiver for others, even my mother, my dad for one week before he died, just others in my family. But I never had the feeling that I could do this myself. Is that making sense?

It makes a lot of sense. But with my husband, I did, because he was mine. We had been married a long time. And I knew exactly what I needed to do. And I was dependent upon the Lord to help me get through. But yet I took the reins so many times.

And during that time, and then as, as things begin to really shut down, you know, and you begin to be so fatigued that it's, you just do crazy things. And I can remember taking him to the dentist to have his teeth bonded because they were falling out, or they were just so loose he couldn't chew. And they had given him some appetite enhancers. And he was hungry. And so I take him to the dentist, and I'd forgot his partials. And I went back and I remember driving and I was just so sleepy. And I thought, this is dangerous. So I got back out there.

And they bonded his partial and to where the partial would fit and bonded his teeth. And so we're driving back home. And we have a big curve to get on 635 and here in Mesquite. And as I made that curve, I was really going fast. And my husband, with all the drugs he had had and everything, he said, Whoa, whoa, you know, and I started laughing and putting on the prank. When we got home. I said, Glenn, I'm so tired. And I'm afraid to leave you here in the living room. So I just crawled in his bed, which was in the living room, his hospice bed, and fell asleep. And when I woke up, it was dark in the room.

And I glanced over and could see him sitting in his chair, but he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, just looking at me. And I said, honey, why didn't why did you let me go to sleep? And he says, I think you're just worn out.

Bless his heart. I think you were just worn out. It was he that was telling me what he saw. And even my daughter made a comment. She said, Do you know that he was so alert to see how you were driving so recklessly with him on those drugs? And she said, That is a marvelous thing. Well, and you know, and that's a that's a sweet memory that, you know, hey, slow down, baby, slow down.

You know, I already got cancer. I don't need to get something else here. And so I get that. And I love that.

I think it makes it it brings a smile to your face, you know, even after all the heartache that you guys went through. And surely I do very much appreciate you God. I'm glad you got the song in my heart there rings a melody. I love that.

There's within my heart of a melody, you know, in that a great him, though. And I have many books. Well, I do, too. And I love it. And I think from what I understand, I'm the only live radio show in the country that has a keyboard hooked up to the board so I can play these things.

But that music is a big part of my life and the hymns are a big part of my life. And I love me too. Well, surely I'm going to jump here because we're having some problems with the phone system. People not able to get through so I'm going to jump on this. But thank you very much for the call and thanks for listening on it. Let me go to Good morning. You're on the air live here.

Our call system is messed up. So tell me tell me your name and just your first name and where are you from? Peggy and I'm from North Carolina. And where are you from in North Carolina, Peggy? Where are you from in North Carolina? Micah Steele?

Micah Steele? Yes, I have heard. I'm from South Carolina.

So you know, I'm very familiar with a lot of places. But anyway, well, tell me a funny story this morning. And for those of you trying to call in, Mark can't answer the board. When he'll pick up, it won't go there. So just hang tight. We'll get to your calls.

I'll just answer them live on the air because that's the kind of guy I am. So go ahead, Peggy. Whoops, I lost you. Did I lose you? Well, now she hung up there.

So 888-589-8840. I was thinking about when Shirley was telling us about her husband and he said, whoa, whoa, whoa. We live in Southwest Montana.

We've been coming out here for many, many, many years. Gracie's family has a place out here and Gracie and I just decided to move out here from Nashville. But early on in her journey as an amputee, and we're talking about humor this morning, early on in her journey as an amputee, we decided to go horseback riding. Well, now Gracie at the time, she had these particular prostheses that were called a pinlock system and there's a little button on the inside of the prosthesis, kind of right below the knee area where your calf is.

And that would release the pinlock that would do this. And it was, and she was riding the horse and she's wearing straight leg jeans and the horse was moving along and her legs kind of flapped against the saddle and it released the legs and the legs dropped, but they got stuck in the straight leg jeans at the bottom. And so she is, the horse is really confused because here's Gracie's legs are beating this horse to make it go faster.

And it does, because that's what horses do when you kick them. And she's, it's got these two flapping legs there and Gracie's screaming for all she's worth. And my son and I, my oldest son and I chased her down on our horses and, and got her and slowed the horse down. And, but she couldn't, she couldn't put her legs back on until she got back to be able to take her jeans off to put her legs on.

And so I kind of had to pull, tug them all the way through the jeans. And my son, I put one in the, I was carrying one across the palm of my saddle and then my son put the other one in the rifle scabbard on the saddle and he was muttering the whole time while leading his mother's horse back. It was, it was quite a moment for us.

So there is a time to laugh. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is hope for the caregiver.

We'll be right back. I'm Peter Rosenberger, and this is your caregiver minute. Most caregivers regularly take someone else to see a physician, but when was the last time we saw our physician? We often grow so weary of taking others to a doctor's office that the thought of going to another one or taking time off of work again, well, it's just too much. Caregiving can be daunting and relentless.

Those challenges sap the desire to fix a healthy meal, much less scheduled time to go to yet another doctor visit. Yet that visit can very well save a caregiver's life. Caregiving can often feel like a full contact sport and it's hard on the body as well as the heart.

Make the call, keep the appointment for yourself as a caregiver. Doing so ensures treatment of the one body standing between your vulnerable loved one and even worse disaster, and that's yours. This has been your caregiver minute with Peter Rosenberger brought to you by Standing with Hope, a ministry for the wounded and those who care for them. There's more information at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to Hope for the caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. He'll give you hope for your sorrow, joy for tomorrow. That's Gracie from her CD Resilient. If you want a copy of that, go on out to hopeforthecaregiver.com and just click on her CD cover, hopeforthecaregiver.com and you'll see how to get that CD.

It's a great CD. She does a great job. All right. Our phone lines are all messed up, so I'm just going to them cold. I have no idea who's on and who's doing what, so we're just going to do the best we can. How about that? I've got a lot of calls lined up and I can answer them live, but our call screener at the studio can't, so just bear with us.

Let me just jump right here. All right. Good morning. Tell me your name and where are you from? I'm Mary Ann and I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Now tell me your name again.

It was a little bit muffled. Mary Ann. Hello, Mary.

And you're from Baton Rouge. Yes. Well, that's okay by me if it's okay by you.

Oh, yes it is. All right. Tell me Mary, what's on your heart and mind this morning? How are you feeling? Well, I do have a little joke.

You do have a joke? All right. Give it your best shot there, Mary.

Okay. It was this lady. She was on the phone talking with, chatting with her friend and she was describing X238 to her friend over the phone. So it was these two little guys coming walking up the street and this decided to go and rob her. So when they got to her door to go into the house, they heard her according to scripture X238 to her friend.

So one of the fellows told the other guy, he said, man, let's go. This woman had an X238 and they took off. She got an X238. All right. Mary, you know, you got me on that one. That's funny. Let's go.

This woman got an X238. Let's go. All right. Well, Mary, thank you very much for making me laugh on that one. That's funny. See that again.

Well, there's a time to laughter. So let me, let me jump on this one. Good morning. You're on the air. Tell me your name and where are you from? My name is Patrick.

Hey Pat. I've given you this information, your show information to a lot of people. I catch it every time I can when I'm on the road on the weekends and I know in my heart, my wife and I are going to be caregivers real soon for her parents and your ministry is a blessing.

But I'll be very brief because I know there's a lot of callers. The music on the show, on the start of the show, and I want to know who that is. That music blesses me more than anything.

Can I get that information? You mean the opening theme song? Yes.

Oh yeah. I wrote that. I wrote that with a buddy of mine, Chris Latham. He is a Grammy award winning engineer from Nashville. And years ago we went to college together. In fact, he was sitting, he knew who Gracie was before I did. He was sitting in chapel the day they announced that Gracie had had her car wreck. This was at Belmont university in Nashville. And, and then I got to know Chris after I transferred in after Gracie's wreck.

I didn't know Gracie when she had a wreck. And, uh, but he was working out at Opryland in Nashville and he was working on the 10 Lizzies, the old timey cars. And he had this little melody in his head that he was working on. And then unbeknownst to him, uh, I was working on a groove on a guitar, uh, for that. And, um, it was, um, and I was, I was just playing this group and I got together with him and I said, I need to have a theme song. And so we got together and wrote this thing and we never did put lyrics to it. I think we go see, you know, this is a theme for Peter's show. This is the thing for Peter's show. I don't know what we're going to do with it, but it's a, yeah, I wrote the theme song for that and, uh, and I wanted to be, yeah, I don't have it.

I don't have it anywhere where people can download it or anything like that. I just got it embedded in the song, but you could listen to it every time I play the show, but it's, um, I wanted something that was a little bit more, uh, energetic and, and positive because so many people, when they think of caregivers, Patrick, they, I mean, they just, you know, they want to play dirge music and I want something that had some energy. I've been a caregiver since I was 22. Okay.

So you can't, you can't go this long. Uh, like I said, I'm in my 35th year of this and just sit around and just, um, play and sing dirge music and, and, and sad music. You gotta, I mean, you know, I, I grew up listening to great stuff, you know, I mean, I had the privilege of growing up in the seventies where we had great music back then.

Right. And, um, and so I just wanted something that was a little bit more peppy and, and energetic. So I, I wish I could send it somewhere you could download it, but it's, it's not out there. It's just on my show. And, uh, but Chris and I wrote that and, but you can listen to it every week when you, when you tune in the show.

I will. Well, thank you very much. And thanks for, thanks for listening to the show and being a part of what we're doing here. All right, let's go.

Uh, next one, the list here. Good morning. You're on the show live.

Tell me your name and where are you from? Peggy from Mike. Oh, Peggy, we lost you from Mike steel. Hang on, Peggy. If you hang on just a second, I'm going to get another one.

Cause I have to answer them live and I won't put them on hold. Uh, hang on just one second. Okay.

All right. Hang on. And we're going to come back to you because we're doing this level, all this, all this talent. And I've got great hair too.

Isn't this amazing? Y'all I'm just kidding. So hang on. We'll come back to you. All right, let's go to Peggy.

I don't know what happened, why we lost you, but you're in Mike steel, North Carolina. Yes. All right. Tell me something. Tell me, tell me, first off, how are you feeling today? Great. Wonderful.

All right. My parents have cancer. Well, my dad had it, but he had surgery, but my mama, she's eventually going to lose her life with it.

She has stage four, but my sister was in a car wreck when she was 17 and she could not walk. She was paralyzed from the chest down and she was coming over to mama's house and we had to care her up the steps. Well, nobody was there but me and I thought I can do this Mary. And so I went to care her up the steps, lost a wheelchair, and she went bouncing down the steps.

From that day on, she would say, who's over at mama's? I don't want you to carry me. If you'd have been part of that group that tore up the roof to get that guy down to Jesus, y'all to dropped him in front of Jesus. Is that what you're saying?

That's it. You know, we did a, um, we did, I may have to bring this one back. Gracie did a commercial for me, um, for the show.

She said, uh, listen to Peter for hope for the caregiver. He's been my caregiver for over 30 years. He's only dropped me a couple of times, but he's made me laugh in the emergency room. So that's a, that's the story of my life. And, uh, you know, we have, uh, I've actually, um, we did a bit, Jeff Foxworth that I did a bit on. You might be a caregiver if, um, a while back and, and, uh, we did it together. And one of the things I did, and he said, write out some jokes.

I said, these aren't jokes. This is my life, Jeff. And one of them was if you've ever hooked up your, your dog to your wife's wheelchair just to see if it would work. And I did, I hooked up our dog, Mac, he's an Aussie, and I hooked him up to her wheelchair and she's on our street back in Nashville. And I got the footage of this and she's screaming while he is racing. My son, our youngest son was come on back, come on back. And he's just, he's got a harness on it.

He's just racing up the street, pulling her in the wheelchair while she's holding on screaming. And it was just hilarious. So, you know, there's a time to weep and a time to laugh. And surely you've got a lot of stuff in your life that is weep worthy, but I'm glad that you found a time to laugh and, and, uh, you might want to get one of those lifts that go up the stairs from now on.

How about that? But have you ever thought about this? God tells you in his word, I will give you peace. And even though I've got all this junk going on, I've got a happy, I am happy 99% of the time. And I have peace all the time. So if you're talking to caregivers, you know, even, even when it's bad, God gives me some type of peace and I, you know, it's just awesome. But anyway, he has saved us.

Well, thank you. Listen, he saved us from something far worse than what we're dealing with as caregivers. And once we grab, wrap our minds around that, we can do her. You know, if God, you know, like my sister, I always thought that he would heal her here on this earth, you know, because of certain things that happen, but he didn't.

And I was never angry about it or anything like that. I just thought he would heal her here, but he chose to take her home. She's here now, you know, and a lot of people that misconception that they're supposed to be healed right here right now. And, you know, God's got bigger plans that we don't know anything about. So well, he does. That is, that is encouraging.

He, and that's the reason Gracie did that song. He, we, you know, the plans he has for us are beyond anything we can understand. And yes, there is weeping and weeping and do it for the night, but joy comes in the morning and that's what gives us the courage to be able to look at these things with joy, with peace. It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt because it does. And Gracie and I've had, you know, you can't go through what we've gone through and not have great sorrow, but there are moments of like, I remember this is, don't tell this to anybody else. Okay. You promise?

Don't tell this to anybody else. But I remember after her 80th surgery and they had to go in there and work on her elbow because a nerve had gotten pinched. This is her 80th, eight zero that I could count. And we were at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and we're, we're, uh, we're leaving. I helped her get her dress back on afterwards after the surgery, helped her get her legs on and she's got her arm in a sling.

All right. So she's got these two metal legs sticking out from beneath her dress, the hemline of her dress because she doesn't wear them with skin covering on it. You can go out and take a look at her at her website. And then she's got her arm in a sling. Now Gracie, when she goes to surgery, she doesn't just show up. She it's, it's a production for her.

And she, she said, look, if I'm going to go in there, I'm not going to, I'm going to have my hair done and everything else. So she does. And Gracie's a beautiful woman.

Go, don't take my word for it. Go out and Google her. I Google her all the time. And, uh, she is just a beautiful woman. Uh, and, and, and so here she is, uh, pushing in the wheelchair into this elevator at Vanderbilt and she's got her arm in a sling and two robotic looking legs sticking out from beneath her hemline of her, of her dress. And the elevator was one of these big elevators and everybody was just staring at her and it got to be a little bit annoying after a while that they were just being so blatant. And finally I just blurted out worst hysterectomy ever and everybody just started staring at their shoes. They were so very, Gracie just looked at me and rolled her eyes. And as I, and as I pulled around the elevator, I shot over my shoulder. She put up a fight, God love her. And then I put, and she laughed all the way to the car in her wheelchair after her 80th surgery.

And if you could make a woman laugh after all that, that was a good day's work. We got to go to break. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for the call over there and Micah Steele and y'all behave yourself.

We'll be right back. I'm Gracie Rosenberger and 26 years ago I walked for the first time on two prosthetic legs. I saw firsthand how important quality prosthetic limbs are to an amputee. This understanding compelled me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana in West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie and I'm standing with hope.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. In my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms, on fold out cots, chairs, even the floor. Sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse, but let's don't talk about that. As caregivers, we have to sleep at uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. We use pillows for mypillow.com.

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Now y'all will never hear that song again without thinking of my wife and her legs falling off while she's trying to ride a horse and get stuck in her jeans and beat that poor horse. It was a moment. 888-589-8840. Now if you call in, I'll just answer you live on the air because our call screen is unable to get to the phones.

So I'll do it myself. 888-589-8840 if you want to be a part of the show. And if you're just now joining us, we're talking about laughter today. We're talking about joy. And I started off, I'm going over here to the caregiver keyboard and I'd started off with the hymn.

If you know that one, we'll be glad to extend the trivia question. All right, so I'm going to go live to the thing and I'm just going to put you on hold and I'll get back to you so you can hang on just a second. Good morning. Just hang on just a second. I'll be right with you.

And good morning. Hang on a second. I'll be right with you. See all the phone lines are lit up down.

I got to go to each one manually and answer. So hang on just one second here and I'll put everybody on hold. Good morning. Hang on. I'll be right with you.

All right. Tell me your name and where are you from? Hello. Hello. You're live on the air.

Our call screen is down. So you're just going straight to me right here on the board. Tell me your name and where are you from? My name is Cara and I'm from a little town in Kansas called White City. Um, my twin and I, uh, took care of my mother and brother for probably 15 years. Um, I was the last 10 years of that, but, um, I've got a pretty funny story about an old dog. Bring it on.

Bring it on. Um, my sister and I were going to college at the Nazarene college in, um, away to Kansas and we lived in our grandpa's house. He lived there to be, he built that house and lots of gravel roads existed in the Kansas City area.

And, um, some people were worried that a couple of young girls are going to move into a, into a neighborhood that had a high crime rate. So, um, long story short, a fireman and his wife had adopted, um, a golden retriever, a mint, and they named him brother. Well, um, we ended up, uh, getting this dog and they gave him to us and he was the biggest blessing that we've had. He was very protective.

However, he had been on the street and running with a pack of dogs. They had known him for a while before they decided to take him in. And we ended up, uh, hearing gunshots the first night we had him. So we, we called the police and he ended up, uh, seeing the police officer pull up and he literally broke the chain and ran off the first night we had him. And, uh, Jim and Linda called us a few hours later and said, uh, brother's back.

What happened? He left y'all high and dry, huh? Yeah, because he had known, um, you know, that officers, uh, I think, you know, he, he didn't like that, but they brought him back and we went and got him or something. And he turned out to be so great. And, and, uh, we had him for five years there and one time he broke loose and came back with a mongrel.

Bless her heart. She had names really bad. And we had been looking for him all over the place for about three, four days.

And we thought it was hopeless. He was gone, but he came back and under the porch, grandpa built an old porch and he came up and under, we were so happy. And all of a sudden this, this other dog, she was a female and she stuck her head out from under the porch.

And brother was still, he wanted us to just love her and accept her and all this stuff, you know, but she, she had, um, names so bad that there's no hair at all on her except up around her shoulders and stuff. So anyway, he wanted to be a care, he wanted to be a caregiver dog. Well, listen, I appreciate very much you sharing that.

I've got a several other calls. I got to get to it. I appreciate you sharing that very much because when you, when you're a caregiver and you have a dog, there's going to be a funny story.

There's going to, something's going to happen because dogs are just that way. And I very much appreciate you calling on that. Thank you so much.

Uh, go ahead. You're on the air. Tell me your name and where you're from. From ONA and from Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville, North Carolina. I know it. I know it and I'm glad to see you. How are you doing this morning? How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great. Uh, but, uh, I was a caregiver for my mother and father. Um, my dad passed on Monday, but, um, I, I have, it may not sound like a funny story at first, but you know, just cause things that happen when you're a caregiver, you just kind of have to look back and laugh at. But while I had my mother and father at the same time, my mother had Alzheimer's. So when we would go to the doctors, I would put my dad in a wheelchair, put him at the front door, go get my mother, put her in her little seated Walker and push her to the front door. But throughout our lives, my father used to have this habit of when you walk in a room, he would put on this face like this contorted face and his mouth wide open and his eyes back up in his head. And it was funny. So when I, one day we went to the doctor and I got him out, put him at the front door, went and come my mother and then he had this face on and I was like, quit fooling around. We don't have time to waste, you know, but he had actually had a little mini stroke. And like I said, it doesn't sound funny now, but looking back so many times throughout our lives, it, you know, all three of us after it all happened, had to look back and laugh because, um, you know, we were so used to it being a joke and it, and it wasn't that day, but it's okay.

Cause those are, those are wonderful moments too, that you could look back and say, you know, you just have to let it be. I've got a niece who is 32 years old and she is, she has cerebral palsy. Um, and she is developmentally disabled as well, about like an 18 month old. So she's immobile.

She's nonverbal and she's in a wheelchair all the time. And she laughs. She, to watch her laugh is just a joy. But now the things that make her laugh, if you hear any sounds that sound like body noises, it just makes her just howl with laughter.

And, and I have four brothers, so I want you to do the math and figure out how many sounds like that go around. And it's just, but it's a joy. We all laugh with her because it's funny. It's just funny.

And if people have a hard time with that, you know, I don't know that I want to be friends with people that have a hard time with that because that's just life. It's just laughter. And her name was Kelsey and she brings so much joy. We all get, you know, you could just scrape your foot across the floor and it makes a sound and she thinks that's what it is and she'll just start laughing.

And in fact, my mom and dad are listening right now at home in South Carolina and I know they're laughing thinking about it because it's just funny. It's just life. And so I thank you for sharing that story with me and I really do appreciate that very much that you share it and you behave yourself today over in Fayetteville. All right.

Yeah. And thanks for airing the show. It's very comforting. Thank you. Well, you're, you're welcome.

You're welcome. I love doing it. You know, I will tell you that, you know, speaking of mom and dad, they're listening on their Alexa device and when I say the word A L E X A, it'll turn on everybody's devices. It's within earshot. But my wife, uh, when I first got her one, uh, cause you could listen to, you know, the show, uh, you could stream the show, uh, through AFR, um, on Alexa. And, uh, but when my wife first got set up with this and we were getting her going with, uh, her Alexa device, she would argue cause you have to speak in a way that the, the, the computer will recognize and she would argue with it.

It would just be just insane moments. And I came home one day and there was a lady that was there helping me with her that day. And she'll back this up cause this really happened. And, and I came home and Gracie's sitting there in her wheelchair that day and, and she's just fuming.

I mean, just fuming. You just see smoke coming out of her ears. And my wife is a formidable woman. I mean, she is, she is tough.

She's tougher than train smoke. And so I asked her, I said, what's going on? And she said, I've had it with, you know who?

She didn't want to mention the name of the device cause it would turn on. I've had it. I'm going to trade her in for Google. And, and I I've just done with it. I've just had it.

I've just had it. I'm just going to, I'm just going to tear it apart. And I looked over at the, the Alexa device and I said, Alexa, how are you doing?

And I promise you, I promise you this truly happened. Alexa said, to be honest, it's been a pretty rough day. And I thought my wife has broken Amazon.

She broke the internet. So that's my wife. And uh, that, those are, those are great moments.

You just, you know, you just learned to laugh with it. All right, let me go to Andrew in Jacksonville to see if we can wrap this up here. Andrew, good morning. How are you feeling? Uh, yeah.

Good morning. Yeah. How are you feeling Andrew? Good, good. Tell me real quick. We only got about a minute anxious.

Yeah. Well, don't be anxious. We only got about a minute.

Andrew, hold on. We only got a minute, so I need you to get right to it real quick. I don't want to have to cut you off.

So go ahead real quick. Okay. Well, I'm a caregiver for my daddy.

He's 85 years old and we're from Taiwan originally 50 or 55 years ago. And um, I just wanted to express that, you know, I, I, you know, I believe in the Bible, but at the same time, I struggle with, you know, believing the happiness of the rejoicing after the weeping, you know, so that's something I need to work on. Well, I don't, I don't know that you need to work on it. I think, why don't you let it be worked on on your behalf? Um, Andrew, because if you try to manufacture it and try to use, okay, I'm going to make myself feel happy.

I'm going to make myself feel joyful. That's not the point. The point is you just focus on what God has done and let him handle that part. Okay.

He's much better at it than we are. And if you let him do the work in your life, once you understand just what it is that he has saved you from, just what it is that he's offering to you, then the joy part will take care of itself. Okay. Immerse yourself in the goodness of God and watch what happens in your life with it. I'm sorry we had to go so quickly here at the very end. We're at the very last here, but try that Andrew. Don't try to squint your eyes real hard and make yourself feel joyful. Just concentrate on the things that God has done. He has done great things for you, for me, for all of us. And that's the message of hope for the caregiver. That's why we have hope. This is Peter Rosenberger, hopeforthecaregiver.com.

We'll see you next time. This is John Butler and I produce hope for the caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife, Gracie, and recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for and they're disassembling, you see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know, I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out.

Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea.

You know, I thought of peg leg, I thought of wooden legs, I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there. What does that do to you?

Just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave. I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them. And I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that CoreCivic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome. And I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and the other ones like it, but I know about this one, is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much. That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limbs, whether from a loved one who passed away or, you know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.