I Am Strong

Been feeling beat down lately. Saw this on FB and felt a bit better!

Now, please pray for me as I begin the quest, once again, to find

not a "decent," or "good enough," neurologist, but a great one

who will treat me with respect and will also be an advocate for my good

health and not on one big ego trip as insurance money is blithely collected.

Cora's Story

Please, please, please: if you think of her & her husband, send loving thoughts, and tender prayers to my new friend, Kristine.

Their precious daughter, Cora, passed away after 5 brief, but love-filled, days on earth.

Cora's parents are grieving deeply but also fighting a good fight on behalf of Cora.

Please visit Cora's Story to learn more about the impact of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) and how you can pass the word along to expectant friends & family about a simple test that should be done after every birth that can literally save a child's life.

Keep this family in your prayers, please. They need all the support they can get. And as you do, please remember my brother & sister-in-law too. Grief is a long and weary process.

Isn't Cora a pretty baby???

With much love going out to Kristine & Ben,
~Mary

Oh Happy Day

This morning I awoke to peels of laughter and the smell of yummy things cooking. I came downstairs to discover two chefs in my kitchen...making bacon, huge pancakes, and coffee.

Note not only the apron, but the oven mit: these are 2 of Van's favorite things about cooking!

What a great start to a fun day! Van is sooooo ready to go to school! Counting rapidly both forwards and backwards, the alaphabet, following directions, playing mind-challenging games that are for kids ages 8+. A great attention span. I'm so proud of him. He will be 6 this summer, but as he was a preemie, his parents (wisely) decided to give him an extra year before starting him in school...but, as he pointed out: his parents go to work; his brother goes to school; and his sister goes to school-therefore he should go to school! So smart!

Kenyan joined us after school & got to work playing hard. We played games, colored, made Valentines, watched movies, and had a tea-party. What more could one want?

Isn't Gramma cute??

Lucky me!!!

It was a Happy Day!

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Prayer Request Update~

For those of you who prayed for my friend Ashleigh, thank you!!! She is doing well: released from the hospital & recovering under the attentive care of her husband, parents, sister, and little boy. And little baby Shadow is doing well too~yay!!!!

Keep Prayin...

Afternoon update:
Ashleigh is in recovery & is doing well. The baby's heart-rate was low due to the anesthesia, but they are monitoring him. So keep those prayers coming!

Morning update:
According to Ash's sister who is posting for her on her blog....the surgery seems to have gone well. But continued prayers never hurt, right?! Of course, right!
"closing her up"
Ash went in for surgery a little behind schedule...about 7:45am.
At 9:15 we got the word that they were "closing her up" and they had saved the ovary. Tommy the tumor is OUT!!

Please Pray

Please pray for my dear friend, Ashleigh, who is at the beginning of her second trimester with a high risk pregnancy & has to undergo surgery tomorrow for a tumor on her ovary. This is very precarious & I am worried over them. 

On the bright side, they found out last night that their new baby is another boy! Yay! They are great parents to big-brother Carter & I know they will be fabulous parents to baby boy #2.

Anyway, please set your alarms, as I am, to wake up bright and early tomorrow morning at 7am to pray for Ash & baby "Shadow" as they go into surgery. JK-you can pray for them tonight if you want to!

I love you, Ash!!!

Haiti

Please, please, please do not forget to pray and send help & hope to our neighbors in need in Haiti. But remember to be careful about which organization you give to: scammers are popping up all over the place!

I have given regularly in the past to World Vision and know them to be a safe and dedicated place to give to. World Vision has worked in Haiti for 30 years and has hundreds of volunteers there as well as hundreds of people around the world who support children there...to their knowledge each sponsored child has been found safe after Tuesday's devistating earthquake. Amazing!!!

Don't want to give to World Vision? Then how about the Red Cross? Not only was the Red Cross, like World Vision, already in Haiti prior to Tuesday's quake, but they have stepped up efforts as never before to get additional food, water, shelter, and medical care into the country as quickly as possible. In addition to donating money, you can also volunteer your time and give blood to them. While I don't believe they are sending volunteers into Haiti right now, I'm sure your local Red Cross would be grateful for any additional help they can get at this time.

And if you don't want to go online or call an 800 number, giving money to the Red Cross in order to help during this crisis is only a text message away: by texting the word "Haiti" to 90999 $10 will be donated to the Red Cross (the donation will simply be added to your cell phone bill--how easy is that?!)

If you are unable to give financial, give of your time, simply by praying for those who have been afftected by this tragedy and for those who are going in to search & rescue, recover & comfort, to give medical aid, to deliver food, water, and other needed supplies. All of these will be weary and in need of comfort and prayer.

Thank You!

       

Walking through the Shadow.

Dark Night of the Soul~Revisited


I’ve posted on this before~back in May. But it seemed rather appropriate to re-post as I ask those of you who may read this to Pray for Stellan & his heart & his family as they seek God on behalf of this special little one.


As I said before, while I've never experienced what they are going thru, I have had a "dark night of the soul" where it seems the sun will never rise again. It took a few years for that sun to shine again & around that time, I had a dream that was so vivid that I wrote a poem describing what I saw. Years later, I shared that dream & poem with my sister-in-law & she put into pastels what I had described in words.



It was also during this time,that I realized that the 'good' thing about “walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Psalm 23) is that it is not actually the Valley of Death but of the Shadow of Death~and for there to be a shadow, somewhere there must be Light. Thank God that Jesus is indeed the Light of the World and that whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life!(John 8:12)


So please pray for Stellan & family and continue to pray for my dear sister (in-law) & the precious baby boy she is carrying in her womb. Dani has been very sick this week which is always scary when you are pregnant plus J is away this weekend on business.

And here, once again is the painting Danicrafted for the poem I wrote.






Vision—Rubble


A pile of rubble
Shards of broken pottery
Discards
Rejects
Garbage

A Man comes—walks through
the place.
Eyes piercing, searching,
looking intensely…

He bends, drops to His knees.
Scarred hands pry throughthe rubble.
He digs—carefully…
not because of His
hands, which crack
and bleed—opened
again at some ancient
scarred wound.


No—the care He takes
is for the shards.
These He holds carefully—
Mindless of the pain they bring to Him.
Rather, with gentle care
—as a caress—
He lifts each piece
from the rubble,
piecing together a vessel.

Searching for each lost piece,
bringing it back,
that the vessel might be whole.
No piece is overlooked.

Each fragment is valuable—
priceless.

The pieces found,
He turns back to His house,
cradling the broken vessel
in His arms.

Once home, the pieces
are laid out before Him.
He picks up each one
Remembering.
As He remembers,
He washes the piece…
with water & tears.

Washing away the grime
so that each piece
—though broken from the whole—
is beautiful again.

Then, painstakingly,
He begins to put this vessel
—cracked, damaged, discarded—
Back together again.

Each piece telling a portion
of the story of His vessel’s
life.

Time has lost meaning
as He works on.
On—through the evening,
and on, into the darkest part
of the night.

On—never stopping,
except, perhaps, to admire
His work.

As dawn breaks,
the vessel stands
Complete:
each piece in place…
nothing missing.

Whole—whole, but cracked.
He fingers the vessel lovingly.
Running worn hands over
the cracks.

A beautiful vessel…
and yet…
The Potter gently kneads
His clay.
As He does,
Blood from His injured hands
is mixed in and through.

Then He gently applies
this new mixture to His
precious vessel.
Smoothing over the cracks;
filling them in until—finally—they disappear.

Refined,
the vessel is placed in the
furnace.
The heat seems unbearable.
How is it the cracks do not loosen?
Perhaps by some power,
the vessel is held together in
this furnace of affliction.

Ah, yes: ‘tis the Potter’s
own blood which keeps the
vessel whole.

When, at long last,
the vessel is pulled from
the fire, the Potter’s
joy cannot be contained.
There!

There is His creation:
Beautiful
as before any damage
took place…
Only…more so.


The Potter’s joy radiates out…
and by some miracle, pours
into this vessel.
Filling
Filling
Overflowing.

The miracle of the Potter’s
Hands: transforming
that which was destroyed
into the perfect container
for His unspeakable
Joy.

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But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap…

(Malachi 3:4)

"So, we store this treasure in earthen vessels…"

(2 Corinthians 4:7).

Poor Lil TeaRose

Our lil TeaRose is sick...she has a stuffy nose & those blow outs (see yesterday's post Hanging w the Girls) have continued. Tea, however, remains in good spirits so it's hard to even tell she is sick...she's just sleeping more. So, if you are the praying type, please pray our little girl gets well soon. Thanks!!!

And for those of you who have been praying for my sister-in-law (Dani) and her pregnancy, thank you! Dani & the baby are doing well. She has entered her 2nd trimester & is feeling so much better! Active babies must run in this family, because ultrasounds show a little gymnast in there! Tea was so active all the time that nursing staff would gather round to see the little Olympic swimmer during her ultrasounds. So it looks like her cousin is going to give her a run for her money!

Prayer Request~Kayleigh's Family

Oh, what a sad day for the Freeman family, yet a glorious day in Heaven. Little Kayleigh went home to be with Jesus last night. Please wrap this family in prayer as the mourn the loss of their precious little one. I can't imagine what they are going through, the pain in their hearts, but am so thankful that they know that Kayleigh is now wrapped in the arms of our Heavenly Father.