A Praise

    About four and a half weeks ago, we were down at my in-laws, spending the day together. We had just gotten home a week or two before from our trip to Pennsylvania, and the kids wanted to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma. Towards evening, the guys came in from work to eat supper. They had been welding all day. Nate sat down to eat some pizza. After he finished eating, he suddenly got a headache and started feeling really bad. In fact, so bad that I had to drive him home. He had to walk real slow and felt very dizzy. My sister drove my vehicle home.     We get home, and Nate goes back to take a shower. He ends up getting very sick. He threw up a few times and just kept saying how the room was spinning. This lasted for a few days. I had a suspicion he had vertigo and looked it up and sure enough, all his symptoms matched. He called and got an appointment with the doctor.
    We went into the doctor and got a prescription which was to help with the dizziness. Over the weekend, Nate slowly started to feel better.  He was in the house a whole week before he felt well enough to venture outside and check any fields. The world had stopped spinning, but he still couldn't turn his head quickly from side to side. For any of you who know my husband, it was very hard for him to be down that long. There is ground to be worked and barley to be planted, so he was chomping at the bit to get back to work.
    Life went on for another two weeks or so. One a week ago, Tuesday, he was down at the shop, talking to our fertilizer rep when his vision went spotty. This last for about an hour. For fifteen minutes of this hour, he also had difficulty speaking. In his mind, he knew exactly what he wanted to say, but when he would try to verbalize it, something different would come out. This, of course, greatly concerned us, so he called the doctor again, and the doctor told Nate that he was going to request an MRI to be done.
   At the thought of having an MRI done, my thoughts when to all kinds of places. The doctor had told Nate that he would be looking for lesions or aneurysms. When I heard the "A" word, I felt very worried. They kill people suddenly, without warning.  When we went to bed that night, I asked Nate if he was worried, and he said no. Then he asked me if I was worried and I said yes.
   I think it's human nature to have your mind go over all the possibilities. Especially the potential of raising your four young children alone. And I must confess, I have a VERY overactive imagination to begin with. So, on my drive over to Sierra Vista on Wednesday to pick up the request for the MRI, I had it out with myself.  
   One thing I have learned is that we have to take every thought captive. By allowing my thoughts to run wild, I was giving in to fear. But God has said that He hasn't given us a spirit of fear. I needed to say out loud, "No matter what happens, I WILL TRUST YOU." And I said it out loud. A lot.
    I picked up the paperwork and ran over to the clinic to schedule Nate's MRI for Friday. That was last Friday, at 3:30. He and I, and Landon went for the appointment. It lasted about 45 minutes. Because it was so late in the day, the doctor said the results probably wouldn't be faxed over to our doctor until Monday morning.
    The body of Christ is an amazing thing. We had so many people praying for us. It was awesome. In our Sunday morning service, we had a special time of prayer and some of the elders and deacons prayed for Nate. And a sweet lady, who has had her own share of trials and tribulations health wise, came over to pray with me. While she prayed for me, the one thing I heard her say a few times was, "Oh that we would be careful to praise you." Yes, we need to praise God when times are good, when they are falling apart, even when we don't know the next step. We must always have an attitude of praise and thankfulness.
    Monday went by and by 4:30 that afternoon we still hadn't heard anything. Nate and I had figured that if we didn't hear anything first thing, there must not be anything too serious going on. So I called the office late that afternoon and talked to a nurse. She said Nate's MRI came back normal. I felt an immediate sense of relief. She said that what Nate has is called vestibular migraines. We needed to schedule a follow up appointment to discuss what that is and what can be done about it.
    So, that is where we are. I feel incredibly humbled and blessed by God's faithfulness and love. I felt His love so much through our friends and family, and their prayers, emails, texts and phone calls. I know there are many who hope for a good report and, instead, are given a much different one. But that doesn't mean that God isn't faithful or loving. He supplies us for each day, whatever comes our way. He will never leave or forsake us. His mercies are new every morning. And He will give us the strength to make it through.

I love this girl

I love this girl. In case you don't know, this girl is my sister. She so graciously came back with us after Christmas, and has been staying with us, helping me out. Which, some days, I need a lot of help! Lord, have mercy! And I know this is no easy thing for her to do. She has great friends back in Pennsylvania, a life where everything is just fifteen minutes away, not thirty, or forty, or sixty, you get the picture.
   She spends a lot of time washing my dishes. If you've read any earlier posts, you will know that I don't have a dishwasher. Yet. But I am on a mission to run for one. Which, by the way, I accomplished my goal last Saturday. Problem is, I haven't been running since! I am going to try and remedy that tomorrow.
  Anyway, she washes lots of dishes. And vacuums, and plays never ending games of Uno and Memory. And helps rebellious nieces learn letters, write letters, and learn to read. And is company to a mom who some days feels like she is going to lose her mind!
   I know when she reads this post she is going to feel embarrassed, (because she's humble like that. In everything. Even the amazing pictures she takes, which, by the way, you can see here) but I just had to publicly state how much I appreciate her giving nature, and the fact that she was willing to give up a couple months of her time, to help a sister out.  I.Love.Her.
  And, in case my baby sister is feeling left out, I love her too. She's in Hawaii right now, learning all kinds of new and exciting things, preparing for a missions trip to Kosovo and Pakistan. (I always want to say Afghanistan, and then people look at me like I am crazy, and I realize I said the wrong country. But they are neighbors. And Afghanistan needs Jesus just as much as Pakistan. But it's Pakistan). And just in the way off chance my brother is reading this post, I love him too. There. That's a lot of sibling love going on.
   I will close this rambling post now. Goodbye.

The Source of Love

Week Three of the bible study I am doing was on the Source of Love. The first question dealt with God's love and how we can receive it.  One thing that stuck out to me was the Scripture in I John 4:7-16. In those verses it states that Love is not that WE love God, but that HE loves us, and that because HE loved us, HE sent His Son to die for us. Pretty humbling, isn't it?
Another question asked how God empowers us in learning how to love. A scripture in Philippians 2:13 says that God will put the desire to love in our hearts for us to act on. And in I Thessalonians 3: 12-13 it says that God will make our love increase and overflow to and for others. He will strengthen our hearts. That is such a comforting thought, because sometimes people are hard to love. Especially when you are on the receiving end of hurt time and time again.
The fifth question dealt with studying Scriptures that tell us how we are to grow in love. In John 14: 21-24, it says that if we obey God, we love God. But if we disobey God, we don't love Him. That felt very convicting to me. I might be quick to require instant obedience from my children, but I am not always quick to obey my Heavenly Father when He asks me to take time out of my schedule to do something for Him. And by being slow to respond, I am being disobedient, and in essence, saying I don't love God. Ouch!
I John 5: 1-3 also talks about how God's commands aren't burdensome. That really struck me. His commands are not burdensome. So when I start to feel overwhelmed and weighed down, it isn't the Lord. It's me, trying to act in my own strength. I am so thankful that God's yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Our memory work for week three was: I John 4: 9-11

"This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His One and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
I don't know about you, but I want to love well. A lot of days it's hard. Especially when you have sick ones, a teething baby, kids who are determined to stretch you day in and day out, death, money problems, marital problems, but God promises us that His commands are not burdensome. He will carry us. He will put His love in our hearts. We can only change the world by loving others with the love He has given us. Sacrificial love.

Six Months

Somebody is turning SIX months old today!

Hard to believe six months ago today, Landon came into this world. It's hard to remember what life was like before he was here. He is growing like a weed and we just love having him!

Homemaking Link up

I am linking up over here today....check it out for some new ideas, inspiration, or encouragement!