Tuesday, April 28, 2009

"The Eyes Have It"



** UPDATE : Champ went back to the vet Wednesday morning and the doctor thinks that maybe he did not run into anything after all. She said that Boxers and Pugs are known for eye problems and that some of them actually have their cornea pop off! She said they sometimes lose their eyes due to ulcers. She prescribed another antibiotic, in addition to the drops we were already giving and we have to take him back for another recheck next week.


Ironically, when I went for a walk tonight, I saw a 12 yr. old Boxer that had both eyes so hazed over that it appeared that the dog could not see. The owner said that she had had ulcers and had surgery to do a lens implant and she can see fine despite the cloudiness.

I pray that Champ does not have to go through anything like that. Thank you so much for all your sweet comments and prayers and I will keep you posted on his progress.

One morning last year, we discovered that Champ, our Boxer, had somehow injured his eye. We took him to the vet and she determined that his eye had an abscess on it, most likely from running into a stick or some sharp object.  After a round of antibiotic drops, the condition seemed to be resolved.

Well.... this past Sunday evening, I looked at Champ, and his left eye was all hazy, draining and had an area that appeared to have some blood in it.  It looked just like it had last year.

Walt took him to the vet yesterday and, once again, he has an abscess on his eye. The vet thinks that he ran into another sharp object. I am beginning to think that maybe "our boy" cannot see as well since he is getting on up in years.

Here is a picture of my boy waiting for his eye drops tonight. Bless his little heart. It seems to be so painful.

Please pray for Champ. He goes back to the vet tomorrow morning for a recheck. It doesn't seem to look much better to us, so we are hopeful that he has not done any permanent damage to his eye.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Happy Birthday, Cindy!



In 2008, shortly after I first began blogging, I was introduced to Cindy at Army Brats and Me . Not long after "meeting" her on her blog, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer.


As I began praying for her and following her journey, she became such an encouragement and inspiration to me. There was just a "bond" there that I don't know how to explain.

Several months ago, I learned that she was going to be relocating to a city very near me and I was so excited! I thought to myself, "I hope that I get to meet Cindy in person someday."

Well...several days ago, Nicki at Three Girly Girls contacted me on FaceBook and said that some friends were going to be giving a surprise birthday party this afternoon for Cindy -- about 40 miles from my house.  I immediately said that I would be there!

It was so awesome to finally meet in person someone that I have prayed for all these months and felt like I already knew!

********

Cindy thought that she was coming to a birthday party for a friend's little girl.

This is Cindy when she opened the door to the clubhouse. 

SURPRISEEEEEE!!!!!

This was the moment that she realized that all this celebration was for HER!!!
 
Friends and family loving on her as she arrived.


How adorable is she?  Praise the Lord she is CANCER FREE!!


I finally get to meet the person I have prayed for all these months.

Nicki , Cindy and me


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CINDY!   WE LOVE YOU!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

One Step Closer To Brazil



Look what came in the mail!!!


I was told to allow 4-6 weeks for my Passport Application to be processed, but it came in 10 days!  

***To read more about the upcoming Brazil Mission trip and how God "winked" at me and provided for my passport, go here
(It was Wink #9.)


On the same day that my passport arrived, a check from one of my dear blogging friends arrived, too -- completing the money that I need to get my necessary immunizations for my trip. God is so good!!

Please keep praying that God will provide the support needed to cover the expenses of our trip. 

I am so excited to see how God is going to provide!


"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request
 in your wildest dreams!"
Eph. 3:20 (The Message)

Monday, April 20, 2009

My Journey Book



As some of you may have noticed, I have not been blogging very much lately. I have had a very stressful couple of weeks at work and to be honest, not a lot has been going on in my personal life that was blogworthy. I have pretty much been going to work, coming home, eating dinner and going to bed. Not much to blog about there, huh?

Today was an especially difficult day as I received the news that a very dear family friend who had been battling cancer had passed away this weekend and I was just heartbroken over that news. 

Isn't it just like God to know that I was going to have a day like that today and to have something special waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home!! My sweet blogging friend, Dawn, had made me the most precious gift you can ever imagine and I just had to share it with you. 


First of all, look at this card that she HANDMADE! How adorable is that and inside were the sweetest words to brighten my day, lift my spirits and encourage me in the Lord.

She made me this "Journey Book". I can't imagine how much preparation and work went into making this special gift!



On the backs of each of the pages she had written in calligraphy a verse that I have been memorizing in 2009 as part of my LPM Scripture Memory Challenge and each of the slideout little tags had verses that she chose because they reminded her of me and our friendship. 

Each of them were made with beautiful colors, ribbons and accents -- this one even has a little jeweled butterfly.

Look at this one with the adorable pattern and cute little buttons.  This has been a verse that I have recited over and over to myself in recent days - 

"HE is your CONSTANT source of stability.  He abundantly provides saftety and great wisdom. He gives ALL this to those who fear Him." 
Isaiah 33:6


When I first began blogging, almost a year ago, I never knew that I would meet so many wonderful, godly women and would develop so many special friendships with people that I had never even had the privilege of meeting in person.  

Dawn is one of those special friendships. She is a constant source of encouragement. She is one of the most thoughtful people that I have ever met. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting my dear friend, I hope you'll stop by to visit her right now. 

Thank you again, Dawn, for such a special gift. What an awesome reminder to me of you and our sweet friendship! I thank the Lord for you!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

2009 - Hiding God's Word Verse # 8



For those of you that have come alongside and committed to the LPM Scripture Memory Challenge  -- to memorize 2 verses (or passages) of Scripture each month of the year in 2009 -- can you believe that we are already on verse # 8?? I can hardly believe it - time is going by so fast!


My verse for the first half of the month of April was 2 Corinthians 5:9:

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, 
to be well pleasing to Him.

This has become such a meaningful verse to me as I continue reading the book that my Pastor has written, regarding "living my life on target".  On Easter Sunday, he brought an awesome message based on this very passage of scripture, as well as the 2 following verses. After hearing these verses preached on and covered extensively in his book, I feel that the Lord has impressed upon me to continue on and memorize the next 2 verses in this chapter.

So, as a result...my memory verses for the second half of April are:


"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."

2 Corinthians 5:10-11 (NKJV)

I am called to make it my ambition, my goal, my target, to be well pleasing to Him. It doesn't mean that I am always successful at this --in fact, many times I fail miserably! But, the desire of my heart is that I would be found well pleasing to Him.

Why? Because we must ALL appear before the judgement seat of Christ.

We all have an appointment with God!

In the words of my Pastor, "What we experience at our appointment with God.....and in eternity will be determined by how we live out our faith on earth."

Therefore... I make it my aim, to be well pleasing to Him. 

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tip Toe Through The Tulips



The tulips in our neighborhood are just beautiful this year.  Miss E spent the day with MiMi and Poppa on Friday because her daycare was closed for Good Friday.


I had to walk downtown to pick up something at a local store and I decided to pull E for a ride in her wagon.

 I couldn't resist a photo shoot in the tulip patch.
 
How beautiful are these flowers, and, well....

You already know how I feel about this little "flower" in the middle!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

He Is Not Here! He Is Risen!

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel;
and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

HE IS NOT HERE, BUT HE HAS RISEN."

Luke 24:1-6

HALLELUJAH, WHAT A SAVIOR!!!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

When God Winks

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a coincidence as "A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged". 


I believe that God is the one that plans and arranges those things in our lives - both in the past and in the day-to-day that we live in now. I recently read a little book entitled, "When God Winks" by SQuire Rushnell. He calls these times in our lives "God Winks". He defines these times as "a personal signal or message, directly from a higher power." He says, "they are clear signposts on the path of life, revealing that each of us is guided by a powerful force".

These "God Winks" happen for a reason and that is to let us know that we are not alone. Rushnell likens it to a time when we were kids and were sitting at a dinner table with the grownups. You looked up and saw a parent or maybe a grandparent smiling at you -- and they winked.  That was a reassuring message of love that said, "Hey, kid, I'm thinking about you. You're OK. Hang in there."

Simply put, "God Winks" are messages of reassurance that come to us when we most need it.

I love the idea of "God Winks" in my life. I can look back over my life and see many times that I have experienced them, some of which I did not even recognize at the time. Recently I have been experiencing a number of them in my life.

Let me tell you more......

For years, I have wanted to go on a mission trip and have looked into the possibility of going on a medical mission trip on a couple of different occasions, but it has just never seemed to work out. As I began to hear about an upcoming mission trip to Brazil, I felt that the Lord was impressing upon me that I needed to go on this trip - that it was time. My daughter, Faith, and son-in-law, Chad, are planning to go on this trip, but neither of them had said a word to me about it, other than the fact that they were planning to go.

As I was walking out of church a couple of Sundays ago, I was walking next to a sweet friend and I commented that I loved her necklace she was wearing. She said, "Oh, thank you. I got it in Brazil!" As she said that, I felt a little nudge in my heart. Wink # 1 (-;

Walt and I went out to lunch with Faith and Chad on this particular Sunday, and while we were in the restroom washing our hands, I asked if all the "spots" were already filled for the Brazil trip. Faith said, "I don't think so, why --DO YOU WANT TO GO???" I told her I had been thinking about it and that I felt the Lord might be leading me in that direction. She said, "Oh, that would be awesome!" Wink #2 (-;

As we walked to our seats in the restaurant, Faith saw some friends from Brazil seated in the booth right beside us and she introduced me to them. After talking to them for just a few minutes, I could just sense in my spirit that these were some of the sweetest people in the world. Wink # 3 (-;

We sat down at our table and we started talking about Brazil and the possibility of my going. Faith shared that they were having 1 (and maybe 2) dentists go on the trip -- and then she suddenly remembered that I AM A DENTAL HYGIENIST!!!   Wink # 4 (-;

As I began praying about whether I would go on this trip, of course the biggest obstacle (apart from the funding) would be the time off from work. I was unsure whether any of my employees were already planning to be off during the same time period. When I got back to my office on Monday, I checked the scheduling calendar and, not only was no one off during those dates, but it fell over a period of time that my office was already going to be closed for several of the days. I would only have to miss 3 days of work!  Wink # 5  (-;

When I mentioned to my boss that I was praying about going on a mission trip to Brazil, he volunteered cases of sample size toothpaste that he needed to get rid of because we d0 not use it in our office and do not have the space to store it. I now have a huge box of toothpaste samples in my possession that, Lord willing, will end up somewhere in a little village in Brazil! Wink #6 (-;

I began checking online to see what immunizations I would be required to have before making the trip.  After obtaining the information, my boss suggested that I call a local doctor that used to work next door to us.  I told him that I was pretty sure that you had to go to a special place to get the travel immunizations for missions.  I decided that I would check and  as I flipped to the doctor's business card in my Rolodex, across the bottom were written the words "Travel Immunizations and Vaccines"! I called and spoke with the Office Manager and he said that whatever immunizations that I needed they would not charge me anything to administer the vaccines -- and would only charge me for the "vaccine" itself!
Wink # 7 (-;

As many of you know, my husband has been out of work for over a year, so needless to say we do not have the extra money to fund my trip. My first thoughts were, there is no way that I can afford to do this. This past week, it was confirmed that our team would be able to work the concession booth in the Family Section of two of the major NASCAR races that we have locally here in May. Anyone that works the booth will be raising money toward their trip, so Walt and I both signed up to work those days. (He is working to help raise money for my expenses, too.) 
Wink # 8 (-;

My most immediate need was to secure a passport because you are looking at a girl that has never been out of the U.S! I went to the post office and got an application and discovered that the passport cost $75.00, plus $25.00 to execute it and $15.00 for the passport photos - for a grand total of $115.00. Right now, there is not $115.00 extra dollars in the budget, so I began praying that God would provide the money for my passport if I was supposed to go on this trip. (I went ahead and scheduled my appointment for yesterday.) This past Monday, I received a birthday card from a very special family member and when I opened it up, inside the card was---you guessed it --a check for $115.00!!! I called her the next morning to tell her how God had used her to answer a prayer in my life. She said that she had no idea why she made the check for $115.00, that she fully intended to make it for $100.00, but that somehow she had written it for $115.00 before she knew it! She didn't know WHY she did that! I know why she did, because God took hold of her hand and had her write the exact amount that I needed!! Isn't God awesome!!  Wink # 9 (-;

I know many in this world would call these things coincidences, but I much prefer to think of them as "God Winks" in my life. 

I believe they are direct and personal messages from God reassuring me that He is thinking about me.

I like to think of them as clear messages of reassurance that no matter how uncertain my life may seem right now, He is moving me toward certainty. They are reminders that I am never alone. A signpost from heaven that I am on the right track.

A reassuring message of love that says, "Hey, kid, I'm thinking about you. You're OK. Hang in there."



How about you?  Can you look back and see any "coincidences" in your own life?

Is it possible that they weren't coincidences at all and maybe "God Winks"??

How has God "winked" at you recently?


As you look back over your life, I believe that you will see many times, at various turning points in your life, when God has clearly "winked" at you!

I would love for you to share some of your stories about the "God Winks" in your life.


The next time a coincidence pops up in your life, I hope you'll start to wonder ----Was that a "God Wink"?




Friday, April 10, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRACE!!!

Twenty four years ago today a very special gift from God arrived in our family!
 
Our very own,



And the prettiest silkiest blonde hair!

Everywhere we went, strangers would stop us and comment on your eyes.

You even had one of your friends in school go home crying to her mother that "Grace gets to wear eye makeup!" because she thought you had on mascara!



Grace, you have given us such a beautiful granddaughter in Miss E that, in so many ways, is just like having another Grace around. She has your same big beautiful eyes, your same contagious smile and she is so smart - just like her Mom.





You are such a blessing to our family!  You have such a sweet and sensitive spirit and you have such a giving heart. 

You are an incredible Mom to E!  You work so hard to provide for her and we could not be any prouder of the fine young woman you have become.

It is so exciting to watch how God continues to work in your life. Dad and I pray that you have a wonderful birthday and may God richly bless you this year.  May God give you the deepest desires of your heart!

We couldn't love you more!

Happy Birthday, Gracie Macie!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

2009 - Hiding God's Word Verse # 7

I know that many of you, like me, committed to the LPM Scripture Memory Challenge at the beginning of the year. Some of you have come alongside and joined in on this challenge since then and have committed to memorize 2 verses (or passages) of Scripture each month for the entire year of 2009. 

For me, it has been an awesome blessing and just the accountability that I needed in my life. I cannot tell you how many times God has brought my memory verse(s) to mind at just the right time, in just the right situation, over these past 3 months. 

Can you believe that it is now time for Verse # 7 ?!?!?

This past weekend, Walt and I attended Discipleship 1 classes at our new church on Friday evening and from 9-3 on Sunday.  It was the most awesome 2 days of "equipping" that I can remember in my life as a Christian! I only wish that I could have been through classes like this as a young person! As a result of these classes, I had no trouble deciding what my memory verse would be for this week. 


Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, 
to be well pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9 (NKJV)



What better day than today, my birthday, to make this my goal, my target, my AIM for my life  -  to be well pleasing to Him