"Thank you Sen. Kahn and members of the committee …"

There Dan and I were, sitting at the table with two microphones, testifying before six Michigan Senators.

Dan was to my left and a gallery of about a hundred people sat behind us (thank God they were sitting behind us!) and listened to what we had to say.

The Region VII Area Agency on Aging had asked if we’d be willing to testify before a Michigan Senate Appropriation’s Subcommittee about our experiences with the MI Choice Medicaid Waiver Program. You know, that’s the one that provides the in-home care to help me with various activities of daily living, such as cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping, while Dan goes to work at Central Michigan University.

And when they asked, we jumped (okay not me) at the chance to share our story. We often say to our MS support group, “Be your own best advocate.” So when we were given this chance to speak to our legislators, we had to practice what we preach.

And it was WONDERFUL!

When all is said and done, we had the floor for about two minutes to tell how this program helps us to live our life together. And how incredible that these Senators, namely Sen. Roger Kahn and Sen. Deb Cherry, personally thanked us for coming, saying that it was nice to see the faces of the people MI Choice is helping.

 Thanks to Region VII that coordinates the caregivers who help me, many of our state legislators had already seen our faces and knew our story. The agency recently featured us on a poster displayed at a Michigan Legislative Luncheon in Lansing. And it wasn’t just a little poster. It was 2- by 3-foot displayed right there on the welcome table!

We hope that our story helps demonstrate to our State Senators and Representatives how this valuable program truly benefits so many people, as well as the state of Michigan.

With this, we’re even more excited about following up with our legislators at Older Michiganians Day in June, the same as we’ve done the past two years!

In other news …

• The current issue of Wartburg Magazine, the alumni magazine from Wartburg College (Dan’s alma mater), includes a well-written story about us and our efforts to inspire others and increase MS awareness. Check it out! 

• Speaking of current issues: The most recent post on Carnival of MS Bloggers features one of our stories! It’s really exciting to receive such recognition and be included in this online community of bloggers. Big THANKS to Carnival administrator Lisa Emrich for including us. She maintains a very active site that we’ve closely followed since we started a site of our own. 

 • And we were honored to receive a Big Red Bow Award from Herrad, administrator of the blog Access Denied–Living With Multiple Sclerosis. Check it out. Herrad is very sincere and we are so glad we discovered this very engaging and inspiring site!