In health or in warfare, there is fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord

Is January zipping by for everyone or is it just me! I need to get back in the habit of posting here, but I'm not making any promises....or resolutions.

I'm just not a resolute type of person I guess. There are many things I should be resolute about, but, ehn. So a few years ago, I gave up making New Year resolutions and began asking God to give me a word for the year.

I began this spiritual practice at the end of 2010, being challenged by a group of other pastors' wives I am involved with. Here is my little history of what God's shown me in the past few years....

2011 Joy ....coming after a few terribly stressful years. The housing crisis hit and we were devastated and humbled by it. I lost 2 jobs because of lay offs.  I felt very unsure of myself and vulnerable. These, along with a lot of other things that involved loss, just made it a difficult series of years for us that led up to 2011. In fact, when I got this word after praying for one, I kept rethinking it. I was in such a state of being humbled and vulnerable that I kept thinking it was just wishful thinking and not something from God. But it was, it kept being confirmed to me and I finally, thankfully, accepted it.

Even though it wasn't a perfectly happy and pain free year, God developed an inner peace and contentment throughout that year that I truly realized the truth I did know in my head, I just wasn't practicing it. Joy comes from within, from being submitted to the Lord, grateful and obedient to Him, not from outer circumstances. The word could have been trust, because I was learning to trust what He was doing in our life, but that was the process....the gift was accepting joy.

The beginning of that year found us packing up our home and moving to a very cheap rental house, wondering what would come next. But it was a freeing time too. We no longer had a huge house payment and I did not have to work. We could afford for me to stay home again and it was...joyful. We were content to live in that little rental house and had plans to be there for as long as we could foresee. But the end of the year found us moving into a large, beautiful home owned by a generous person who charged us less rent than the cheap rental house. We learned to be content and find joy wherever we were. It was kind of an amazing journey of letting go of stuff and trusting what God was doing.

2012 Health ....not striving for health (which was my first thought), but a gift of... an answer to a lot of different health problems that did not seem connected. I was beginning to feel very worn down,  used up and in pain a lot. In February an ultrasound for female things showed that I had a left kidney full of stones. Even though I'd had numerous kidney stones before, I had no idea that was where my pain and problems were coming from. After a grueling 2 lithotripsies and an emergency hospitalization, I remembered an old friend's kidney stone problem was caused by an overactive parathyroid gland, so I mentioned that to my doctor. One simple blood test later, I ended up having one of my parathyroid glands taken out and wow, what a difference! I'm so thankful.

2013 War. Scary word, but I was invited to join in the spiritual warfare that was raging against my family and our church. The word Victory was popping up all over the place, even the day after I got this word, so it was a very hopeful time, even though it was a very hard year....the hardest of my life. There were many victories too. Trust me.

This is the main reason I have not blogged very often this year. The things going on in my life and head were a little too personal and not really about me, so I could not share.

2014 Fullness

 Are you kidding me! Bring it! I am ready. Already I am hearing this word pop up in my husband's sermons....even before telling him my word. And see it all the time in my devotional time.  I made a Pinterest board on it. The verse I'm mainly focused on is Psalm 16:11...

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Psalm 16:11 NAS

Fullness only comes from God, so I am eagerly anticipating this year and what He will show me. God is so good to us in that group of women I meet with, giving us a little glimpse of the year, a little prophetic word to hold on to, to anticipate....  Each woman has a story to tell about their words. He is active and working and teaching us so much.

The Dovecot

I love it when I'm doing something ordinary and something extraordinary happens.

My sister Julie asked me to send her Hannah and Bradley's new address. They are on their honeymoon, so I was trying to figure out their house number on my own. I looked it up on Google maps and then clicked on the street view option. I couldn't see the house number but while I was looking at it from different angles something else jumped out at me.

So I took a screen shot of the Google map view.

In one angle of the street view, there are two birds (they look like doves) taking flight right in front of the one eave on the house. It is a tiny, tiny house....400 square feet I think. When my sister Julie saw it last week, she said it reminded her of the little cottage where Meg and John Brook live in Little Women. They called it the Dovecot.

I love how symbolic it is that the doves are just taking off in flight, just like the newlywed couple.

Many, many blessed times and years to them.

Things I haven't blogged about lately...

This is my catch up list! (with very fancy bullet points)

- I sent Maggie off on a mission trip. Our youth group went to Oakland/San Francisco, California to help clean up a neighborhood and be Light to the people there. They have some wonderful stories too!
- Sent Charles off to Phoenix (you are seeing a trend here I assume) to perform a wedding and to pack up our outdoor furniture, grill, chiminea, lawn mower, weed whacker, and assorted other outdoorish things. We didn't have room in our original moving truck for these things and have been begging and borrowing lawn mowers and eating only indoor cooked foods since we moved here so...YAY! We've also broken every folding camping chair we had except one because we sit on our deck so much. Love having our furniture set again. Love having a mowed lawn and grilling food outside.
- I flew to Phoenix 2 days after Charles to attend Hannah's wedding shower at her sister-in-law-to-be's house. Then we went whirlwind shopping to try to find a bridesmaid dress for Emma which was unsuccessful but fun. Then I met Charles at the church, where the wedding he reception he was involved with was wrapping up, hopped into the small moving truck drove with him back to Albuquerque (from which I flew away early that same morning). We arrived somewhere around 3:30am, bleary eyed and almost in an altered state! ;)
- Youth mission team arrived back on Monday night but without Maggie. Her sisters picked her up as they drove through Flagstaff and she has been in Phoenix visiting ever since. She helped with our former church's Vacation Bible School this past week and left yesterday to go to youth camp with her old youth group until Tuesday. She will be home Thursday, when my sister will drive up to visit for a few days.
- I have found that life around here is either full steam, barreling ahead or it's completely quiet and peaceful until your ears are ringing. Maggie described it that it's like being dropped in honey....every. thing. slowwwwwws. doooooown. Meditate on this for a while. It's taken a while to get used to but we are enjoying it now. I think it's healthy and was needed. And now imagine floating in honey without a Maggie in the house. You've gone from honey to molasses in January. I am cracking up because that is exactly what it was like for a week or so. .....and then the barreling starts.
- In one long weekend we volunteered at a field day for the community center's children's summer recreation program. I manned the dart game.....with real darts with one inch stickers on the ends. (Yes, that was as intimidating and stressful as it sounds when you are assisting keyed up K-6th graders with dangerous weapons) Sunburn number one happened.
- The very next day, our church put on a block party. Our church does a block party every summer as a way to get to know the community better. But this year we also did it as a fund raiser for a neighbor of ours named Steve. On Memorial Day weekend, our neighbor 7 houses down the road lost his house in a fire. Sometimes it takes something tragic to bring people together and we have seen how God's used this tragedy to bring our neighborhood closer. No one was hurt in the fire, but he lost everything. As a single dad, he's been blown away by the community's concern and help for him. We had tons of help at the block party, but with prep, set up, greeting and visiting with dozens of new people, helping an out of town youth group get set up and know what to do, and standing for 7 hours, hooo, baby, I was wiped out. We didn't feel it until we hit our front door. It was a great day, full of energy and neighbors becoming friends, and people pouring out money and concern for Steve.
- Had the out of town youth group over for the afternoon after the block party while they did their debriefing and finished their blog and photo booth projects. Fed them tacos. (Thankfully they cleaned up my kitchen afterwards! Very cool.) Then they left for the next leg of their mission trip and we basically collapsed into a heap. :)
- Sunday was youth led worship and service. They all gave testimonies about their mission trip and what God did in their own lives. Leadership team meeting after church until almost 6pm. I did not contribute much, just kind of sat there and tried to stay focused and take notes for the newsletter.
- This week, I demanded Charles actually take a day off. He was very willing after that busy weekend. So we decided to tour northern New Mexico. We drove up to Taos, visited a place he wants to take our young adult group for a retreat in a month and drove home that evening. It was beautiful weather and scenery. This is a spectacular place with a lot of unspoiled wilderness and natural beauty. There is not even a big highway that goes up there, you have to take little state highways and figure out your route carefully to get where you want to go.
- The forest fires here are mostly out now and the rain has finally been falling....almost daily! It's like everything in our yard has come back to life and the trees of our field are clapping their hands in delight of moisture and blessing. It's refreshing to the human soul as well.
- I've been getting curriculum and classes lined up for Maggie because we are going back to homeschooling this year! She is done with dramatic drama in schools and is ready to focus on school and enrichment studies without the anxiety. She auditioned for a concert choir in a homeschool enrichment studies program and made it in. And in a week she will begin driver's education class at a school in Albuquerque. Our last girl to start driving. I find it is one of the most stressful times in my life, when my kids start driving. But God uses it to grow my faith and trust in Him every time! I will have to write on that in another post.


God is good. He is giving us vision and showing us where to join in with Him in this community....where our church fits in and how we can be effective here to show His love and be His Light. 

- ETA: The men's breakfast was held in my house this morning, giving me time to hide out in my room and write this post. Last night I told someone I wasn't going to come out of my room until the kitchen was clean. And it was! Thank you to the guys! My husband made bisquits & sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and orange juice ...another man brought bacon. And now my kitchen is all clean and Charles is out mowing the lawn while I was adding some Miracle Grow to my gardens. Everything is growing great now that the air has a little moisture in it and it's been raining each day. I will try to post a picture soon. 

Bradley and Hannah

We have another wedding coming up this summer. That will make two in one year!

Bradley Cotan has been dating Hannah for almost a year now and they got engaged on Saturday night. We are so happy for them! After seeing how happily settled Jeremy and Beth are in marriage, it fills our hearts with peace and joy for Hannah to have a partner to come alongside her in life too. And we love Bradley and welcome him into the family.

God, bless them with a long, sweet, happy life together.

The couple.

 

The ring.

Instagramming life

Today I spied a sweet thing. From my seat by the window I could see my husband and Maggie, our youngest of four daughters, taking a walk through the woods on a path that meandered back and forth on the side of a hill. Sometimes they were in step with each other and sometimes one would stop to show the other a thing that caught their interest.

A look,
    a smile,
         a meeting of the eyes,
               understanding and kinship.

                And then they disappeared down the hill, all the time in the world, today.

But we know that sooner than we like she will fly from the nest, just like the others have...

And I wanted to write it down
         to remember what a sweet scene I'd witnessed. Words, like a snapshot.

Here are the walkers 12 years ago...

Our God is Greater

Ear to the phone, I was listening to my worried daughter talk about feeling like the enemy has control right now.  What can we do? It seems like he's getting stronger and stronger, she said. She is worried for her generation, for her friends who don't take God seriously right now. So many people following the wrong path...

The one thing the enemy wants us to do is to feel defeated....to see how strong he seems to be.

Then an answer so simple, it doesn't seem possible. One of those "do this, not that" Bible verses...full of wisdom. And it comes with a powerful promise...

Don’t worry about anything; 

instead, pray about everything. 

Tell God what you need, 

and thank him for all he has done.  

~Then you will experience God’s peace, 

which exceeds anything we can understand.~

***His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.***

 

 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. 

Fix your thoughts on -----> what is true, and honorable, 

and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. 

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. \O/

Philippians 4:6-8 (NLT)

...umm, emphases mine.  (in case you wondered)

She sounded much better, light of heart....peace-filled even... when we said good-bye.

Tried and true, that is my favorite Scripture. Thank you Lord, for the Scripture and how You fill each word of it with Your Presence and power.

Finding treasure

Here is something that happened while I wasn't blogging!

Our daughter Bethany got married in October. Her sisters were all bridesmaids and it was a wonderful celebration with friends from far and wide. We are so proud of her and our new son in law!

And they seem pretty happy too. :)

 

I wish I could give you a number on how many times we heard the phrase, "Well that's one down, three to go!" I'm sure it was more than a dozen times. 

I would only hope that they all find such a wonderful match 

and that their weddings are just as lovely and happy!

The man who finds a wife finds a treasure,
    and he receives favor from the Lord.

Psalm 18:22

(we have a little market going on treasures too!)

When joy returns

After the great reorganization to incorporate a new desk into Maggie's room, she has a lot more floor space. A single bed pushed up against the wall frees up way more space than a big full sized bed.

So tonight she celebrated by jumping and dancing all over it. What else do you do with extra floor space when you're 15? Makes sense.

It does to us anyway. Maggie's had a struggle with some depression and anxiety this year. It's been a stressful and sometimes debilitating journey. The tide began to turn when we whisked her out of school 2 weeks ago to start home schooling again (online school). Stress started to ease. She is playing piano and singing again too.

Joy has come back to our daughter, but we had to be proactive and fight for it. And we couldn't do it on our own. We had to ask for help and found it with a Christian counselor and our doctor.  Thank God His help and guidance and for the helpers in this life. God bless them.

Psalm 30:11

The Message

 You did it: you changed wild lament
    into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
    and decked me with wildflowers.
I’m about to burst with song;
    I can’t keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
    I can’t thank you enough.

Treasures

We got to have lunch with our treasures today.



That is all. :)

Making room

Does this happen to everyone or just me?

We got one new piece of furniture today....a very nice desk for Maggie's room from my sister. And we ended up having to rearrange 2 rooms of furniture! It's 1am and I just finished the last load of sheets and a comforter for the 2 beds we switched from room to room.

Maggie came home from being out with friends around 11pm and went straight to bed, plopping into clean sheets... When her comforter was dry a half an hour later, I took it into her room and whipped it up into the air, landing the warm, fluffy blanket perfectly onto my smiling daughter.

Today was a really sweet day.

No Wobbling Zone

Word of the year.....

WAR


I asked God to give me a word for 2013 and I can't say that I like it, I was even kind of shocked that this is the word that kept coming to me.... but I keep getting confirmation that it's the word for me. ....or for my year...


I feel like it is for spiritual warfare. So many things are becoming very clear to me, like a curtain's been parted. I am seeing the need and I am on the assault for my family, my church, my community and people who wave their hands out of VWs as they pass by at 2:22. ;)


I picked up a book called  Praying God's Word by Beth Moore back in October of 2012. It's been sitting in the bag I carry my computer in for 3 months, unread. I fully intended on reading it, but never did. Then I got my word and the next time I was at the church office I actually opened the book. Guess what the topic is! Spiritual warfare. I had just thought it would be an interesting read....a way to deepen my prayer life. But it's all about making war on the strongholds in your life. Day to day life in the battle is not easy and it does not seem victorious. It has a whole chapter on praying with belief. Not belief in God (His Presence), but belief that He will do the things He promised and that He WILL intervene...

...and that don't mean maybe. Believing is an "oh yes He will!", not a wobbly "let's wait and see how it goes".

Words like victor and victory and victorious have been showing up consistently in my daily Bible reading. They jump out at me while I'm reading the Bible. I love that. And 6 weeks into 2013 I am already seeing victories, protection and unexpected answers. Hopefully I can share more of that as I get back into regular writing.



A reassuring thing to me was that I realized that getting a word like war was not a scary thing. Life didn't suddenly become a war zone.


It always has been.


The battle is there every day. I was just asked to join in this year. It's a gift to us.

Anyway, there it is, I said it. *raising my Sword and charging in*

Several Drummers Leaping/Piping/Dancing?

When people sing The Twelve Days of Christmas, it gets old fast. People usually can't remember if the drummers drumming or Lords a-leaping or ladies milking are day 6, 7 or 8. By the time you get past FIVE GOLDEN RINGS people get silly and don't take it seriously anymore.  Consider that my excuse for the past few days. :)

Hard to believe that this is the 9th day of Emma. The past few days have gone by in a blur. I will try to recap just a little bit of it.

1. There was a lot of hiking. We just moved into a new neighborhood in Phoenix by the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, so we are getting out walking or hiking. About 3 minutes in the car and we are at trailheads that head off into the desert landscape and either up or through desert mountains. I prefer through, but Charles, Emma and Maggie have been up several of them this week too.

2.There have been a lot of friends coming, going and staying. We have this tradition....or lack of planning?....that Emma's friends just come, spending day and/or night and I just need to know how many to cook dinner for. It's been this way since Tuesday. We love it. A lot of them are the regulars who have been doing this for 5 years at our house and some are newer. It's amazing to see a group of friends from freshman in high school through sophomore in college ages. They change a LOT and I'm really pleased to see how they've grown and are getting independent and grown up!

3. Wii Just Dance. Just about all of the above mentioned friends have been coerced into playing Just Dance on the Wii game station. Last night there was a big group here and they were really squealing and shouting and laughing so loud that I had to come out and watch for a while too.

4. Netflix. We signed up for a free month and all the people who are hanging out here are watching or at least talking about old shows they used to love when they were little. It is funny to see the different personalities they have but all of them have some cultural iconishness in common from watching the same goofy television shows or movies.  They would mention an old show they remembered and there were several minutes of saying quotes from it or singing the theme songs. So I mentioned Andy Griffith as we scrolled past it on the menu. They all just kind of look at me. Weird people.

5. Eating. I purposely put out all my leftover wonderful Christmas baked goods that have made their way into my house and they have amazingly disappeared! Maisy, our dog, was heavily influenced by this grazing of anything within reach. In fact, we would call her opportunistic ways greedy and gluttonous. She ate a large sized chocolate bar that was in a Christmas stocking.....along with most of the foil wrapper. We worried about her for one day but she doesn't seem to be in distress from it.  She's just a little heavier to pick up.

6. Playing. There has been a little golfing, Settlers of Catan has been almost permanently on my dining room table, today there was  a little remote control helicopter flying around the house (very cool!), and the sounds of Plants vs. Zombies. (yuck) Of course, the best sound of all the games is the laughter and enjoyment from being together again.

7. My favorite thing of the week was tonight though. Maggie was gone to a youth lock in, Hannah was at work and Beth across town on a date, and it was just Charles and I in the living room. Emma and  Sara (the last extra left for the evening) were getting ready to go to the lock in for the worship service.  Then we heard Emma pick up her guitar and start strumming and singing. She sang Slow Fade, Big House, and How He Loves Us. She and Sara sang loud with harmony and passion.

It made my throat get a big lump in it and tears ready to squirt out with gratefulness at how they have taken their faith as their own and are serving God as young adults. The world is loudly beckoning at them to join in the ruckus and they are keeping their focus. After sending our Emma out into the world to be on her own for college last year or to be owned by the army this year, it was so refreshing to see how her faith and passion is becoming stronger than ever.

Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31 (NLT)

The 4th Day of Emma

I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself to think of it!

Christmas Eve found us bustling around getting the house ready for Christmas. Charles took us all to Olive Garden for a late lunch, then a third of our group went to music rehearsal for the evening service. I love Christmas Eve candlelight church service. It feels warm and people are all aglow, hugging and handing each other cards or little gifts.

We worshiped God in song and spirit. We got hot wax treatments on our hands. ;) Part of the fun of a candlelight service is the delicate balance of keeping the dripping wax on your little flat paper candle skirt. The candle won...

On the way home we stopped by a house in our old neighborhood. Every December they put up an elaborate light display and the man of the house, who is a very talented engineer of some kind, sets the lights to music and they are really the best I've ever seen! He puts together a half hour production with various types of Christmas music, from Mannheim Steamroller to Veggie Tales I Can't Believe It's Christmas and Bing Crosby. So fun!

Another tradition is to watch The Polar Express on Christmas Eve just before bed. We turn up the surround sound so it feels like the train is coming through our family room. When it was over I mentioned quietly how creepy that movie is and my daughters were all saying, "YES, it is! I wondered if I was the only one who was creeped out by it!" haha So after the creepy Christmas movie.....

For the first time....

EVER....

...we opened gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning! Very nontraditional and strange, but of course it was fun and this year it was necessary because the Preacher had to be at church at 9:30am. And we had to have waffles, so to save us from frantic chaos on Christmas morning, we opened gifts.

When your children start becoming young adults, the presents are not as exciting or fun to open, but we did have one exciting gift. When we were all done and about to clean up the debri the Christmas tree started to play music box type music. We all just stared at it for a few seconds and then we sent Maggie to find the music box.

And it wasn't a music box. It was a cell phone. Maggie's first cell phone.

And there has been rejoicing and texting ever since.

Three days of fun.....

Christmas shopping is done and the house is clean. Let Christmas weekend begin!

I know Christmas rushes by and the stress of having everything done and bought and baked is high this year...for me at least. But take a few minutes when you are walking through your decorated house or see a Christmas window display and take some time to enjoy it. Really see things and appreciate what you've go this Christmas.

Since I am taking pictures every day while Emma is here for the holidays, I am capturing some moments I've been enjoying. It's been good to not only live through these days, but also to enjoy them and capture them in my mind and heart.

And if these pictures aren't enough, I wish I had taken one just now as I went to turn off lights. I found Emma, all by herself, watching Winnie the Pooh in the family room. ;) That's my soldier.

Maggie and her Pooh Bear cookie.

Maggie, Emma, Tim

Bethany, Sam

Sam and Hannah

Minions, Charlie Brown cast, Sully from Monsters Inc, hula girl and streaker.

On the second day of Emma...

Last night was sister night. For the past 3 years my daughters have been going to see The Nutcracker ballet the week before Christmas together. They get all dressed up and for over an hour makeup, hairspray and shoes fly around while they get ready.

Then we take pictures just before they dash away.



Hannah, Emma, Maggie and Beth






With Samuel.



With Sam and Jessica.

These are the only Christmas gifts I'm needing these days....warm, happy hearts and lots of love and fun. We are blessed to have each other!

Twelve Days: Homecoming

After a 3 hour delay our dear girl came down the airport corridor and into our arms yesterday. She's been at basic and MP training in Missouri since September 6 and it was a long fall! Only one call per week on Sundays (if they got their privileges that week), sparse but wonderful letters and a Facebook fan page were the only form of information and communication with her for the past 4 months. And now she is on holiday leave for 12 days! With us!

We are calling it The Twelve Days of Emma. Bring it!

Day one was celebrated caroling with our church and reunions with friends of Emma who came caroling. Then we came home and finished decorating our Christmas tree. We put it up in early December, but it's only had lights and ribbon on it until last night. We had a little Christmas decorating party with Christmas punch, Fritos and Bean Dip® and little round wedding cake cookies.

Conspiracy 2011

We joined up with a conspiracy a couple of years ago. It's a conspiracy to take back the True Spirit of Christmas. Bring back a heart of worship, simplicity, generosity, love.



You are SO blessed. Even those who live in poverty in the United States have so much more than the people living in third world or developing countries. Most of those people do not even have clean water to drink.

So know you are blessed, recognize it! Then do something to bless someone else....every day!

So maybe don't spend so much on yourselves this Christmas. Then help someone else with that money. Here is just one idea on how to do that....this is what being a blessing looks like! Please watch.....


Advent Conspiracy 2010-2011 Thank You from Living Water International on Vimeo.

-->Military Mom<--

While channel surfing this afternoon, I landed on a PBS show about women in the military. They are not supposed to be put into combat situations, but it is happening all the time. Independent Lens did a segment on the Lioness warriors. This is an unofficial name because officially they are not actually allowed to be in combat. I was drawn in to this documentary, which followed some of the women who had been involved in war in Iraq and other places. I watched with eyes wide open because we have a daughter who is finishing up boot camp right now.

She is with the National Guard, which is a reserve type branch mainly. Emma will have one weekend a month to be on duty, then 2 weeks training every summer.....unless their unit is deployed. Then they are regular Army soldiers. It makes my heart feel thump-ish and my palms clammy to think about that. Watching the documentary was not helping me feel better, but I definitely feel more educated and in a way, better prepared for what may come.

Then while I was watching it, Emma called. They get a once a week call to home. It lasts about 2 minutes. We wait all week to tell her various things we think of and then when we hear her voice, we forget all the things that seemed important and just listen to her and keep telling her how much we love and miss her.

She said this week was a very hard week for her platoon. They had a 3 day training event out in the woods during a storm with 50-60mph winds, rain, hail and a lot of mud. One of the drill sergeant's said on their facebook page that it would be something similar to what you'd see on scenes from Saving Private Ryan. Lots of GI Joe crawling around under barbed wire while machine guns and grenades are going off all around you. She said today that at times the mud became deep and she had to swim through it. Their clothes were saturated with water, sand and sweat.....then they had to sleep in tents, wet and cold. Next was a 12 mile march in full gear, which is around 40 pounds piled on your back.

She said it was the hardest thing she's ever done.

I hope that she will still be able to say that in 6 years when her enlistment is done. I pray that is the hardest thing she will ever have to do....

Wordless Wednesday-Summer vacation

Relaxing



Playing


Click here or more Wordless Wednesday entries.

Point me...in the direction of Albuquerque...

Left Phoenix about 1:15pm.

Places along the road we've traveled so many times zip by as we sit in silence for a while. The red rock ridge of Sedona looked like it was freshly painted and the San Francisco Peaks rose up like Kilimanjaro behind it. Lovely day for driving.

The lowering sun in the west made the rock formations along the border at Window Rock and Gallup look really dramatic as we talk of current events. The world events that are shaking up the world are coinciding with shaking personal lives of so many people we know! What is the deal? We listened on Klove radio to people discussing an appropriate (or honest?) reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death. Yeah, it feels conflicting, weirdly relieving as well as sad beyond all reason.

Then later we listened to NPR reporting on lives affected by the tornadoes in Alabama. Nearly 400 people have been found dead and about that many are still missing and presumed dead. A woman was being interviewed by an NPR reporter. The reporter (deadpan voice, as is NPR's style) said the woman, "like many of the people here in the Bible Belt of the South" credited God as saving her life through the storm. As the woman looked through the ruble of what used to be her apartment for any kind of proof of residency so that she could apply for aid, the noticeable smell of death was in the air, as many people from her apartments have not been recovered yet and are there beneath the ruble still. (I cannot imagine this kind of horror) Then she found a piece of paper, a letter from her grandchild's teacher and there was her name and address on the envelope. "Thank you, Lord!" she said. She said it like the Lord was standing there with them. And He is, thankfully. The NPR reporter just closed with that woman's jubilant exclamation of thanks and "this is yada yada, reporting from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for NPR".

In just the same way, as we see some of our friends and church members going through really tough times, there is always some ray of hope a message or gift from God that comes up in their lives, like a gleaming white envelope among that woman's collapsed home, and they give thanks in the middle of their storm too. Sometimes you just have to grab hold of the Hope among the ruble, and the stench of wrecked lives, and give credit to the One who is the revealer of Hope.

We have arrived in Albuquerque now (someone is already rumbling and poofing beside me) and tomorrow we'll head to Oklahoma City to visit with family before driving down to Plainview to fetch our college girl, who we've missed dearly, and bring her back home with us. In a month Hannah will move home too and we will all live together under the same roof again for the first time in almost 6 years.....for the summer at least. And there will be great rejoicing under that roof by some proud parents, who I know...of. ;)