{"id":11464,"date":"2025-11-13T17:17:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceworks-old.citizen55.com\/?p=11464"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:09:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:09:03","slug":"by-the-grace-of-god-and-graceworks-enhanced-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/by-the-grace-of-god-and-graceworks-enhanced-living\/","title":{"rendered":"By the Grace of God \u2014 and Graceworks Enhanced Living"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

As a teenager, the course of life changed unexpectedly for Pegi\u2019s brother, Tom. Tom was once on track to play baseball for the Reds, but life\u2019s twists resulted in him suddenly needing constant care and supervision. The options just weren\u2019t there, and Tom ended up in buildings that Pegi said felt more like institutions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cCertainly not like home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Prior to Graceworks<\/strong><\/mark> >><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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If you ask Pegi, the experience drained the life out of him. When Pegi and her family were frustrated and hitting roadblock after roadblock with care for Tom, the Graceworks Enhanced Living program gave Tom the opportunity to thrive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cThe experience really is incredible,\u201d Pegi said. \u201cI know with Graceworks, he is not a number.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s because Tom now lives at home with 4 other men, within a Graceworks Enhanced Living home. They live in a house, in a neighborhood, and Pegi says it doesn\u2019t feel at all institutional, because it\u2019s not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all become friends,\u201d she said. While Pegi lives in Florida, she says she talks daily with Tom and the rest of his Graceworks family in Cincinnati, which includes his care providers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The whole crew visits Pegi in Florida for vacation, and they also go on vacations throughout the rest of the country, traveling to places like Wisconsin and Tennessee. They go to work; they dance; they play sports; they are active in the community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Since calling Graceworks home >><\/mark><\/strong><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Pegi recalls when Tom had to have an extensive surgery during Covid, how the whole group came together to help him pull through.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cWhen there is a crisis, they pull together,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are good, good men.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For Pegi, and her family, they could not have imagined a better outcome for Tom. \u201cI thank God every day,\u201d she said. “I don\u2019t know how they do it.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cTheir hearts are truly in it, and you can tell they really care. I can go to sleep at night knowing his family is with him. By the grace of God.\u201d<\/p>\r\nPEGI BIVENS<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a teenager, the course of life changed unexpectedly for Pegi\u2019s brother, Tom. Tom was once on track to play baseball for the Reds, but life\u2019s twists resulted in him suddenly needing constant care and supervision. The options just weren\u2019t there, and Tom ended up in buildings that Pegi said felt more like institutions. \u201cCertainly not like home,\u201d she said. If you ask Pegi, the experience drained the life out of him. When Pegi and her family were frustrated and hitting roadblock after roadblock with care for Tom, the Graceworks Enhanced Living program gave Tom the opportunity to thrive. \u201cThe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enhanced-living","category-graceworks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11517,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11464\/revisions\/11517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceworks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}