Crazy Life

Yes ...... life has been crazy. First things first though - I have 2 families that if you have a moment would greatly appreciate your prayers and love:

Sweet Joseph's (www.prayforjoseph.blogspot.com) family did not get good news yesterday - on his 4th birthday of all days - his brain tumor is progressing rapidly - precious family, precious little boy. Also, Cheryl Owen's (www.cherylowen.wordpress.com) family - sweet Cheryl crossed over into Glory this weekend - what an amazing family - Rob and I went to the funeral home - you go there to love on the ones hurting - Bubba and Cheryl being Bubba and Cheryl - Rob and I both left being the ones loved on and ministered to. Our hearts and prayers are with you all.

Ryan's eye has done okay, but it over corrected, so is now too far out the other direction - he will have another surgery tomorrow (Friday 8/22) at 8AM - please pray for Dr. Estes to have steady hands and for this to get his eye exactly where it should be - right now Ryan sees one thing with one eye, another with the other - he does okay, but I would think it would be very frustrating for him. Pray for Ryan's safety with the anesthesia also and for quick healing of his eye. Ryan seems to handle all of this better than we do - but I know it has to get old constantly having to be poked and prodded - I certainly don't enjoy watching that sweet little thing walk down the hallway away from me. We were told this was a possibility, but we were sure praying that it wouldn't have to happen. We could also use prayers for blood pressure issues I'm having - my blood pressure is higher than my OB wants it to be - I'm almost 28 weeks, so we don't have too much further to go. I had high BP with both Addie and Ryan, but not until closer to the end. Also, Ryan's next MRI of his brain and spine will be Tuesday 9/2 - we can start agreeing in prayer now for this to be ALL CLEAR.

We have had a really crazy past few months - maybe it'll give you some comic relief because that's what Rob and I have decided to do with most of it - just laugh and shake our heads. Addie and Ryan both got started in school - Addie is loving it even though every day I pick her up and she says "school tomorrow?" - I tell her yes - she responds "ahh - not again!!" They both have wonderful teachers. Ryan isn't as excited, he really is not a morning person and we struggle every morning and usually have tears and lots of frustrations - I'm praying, praying that will all get better very soon. These mornings have been emotionally hard for me as they take me back to the weeks before Ryan was diagnosed - he had started a new mother's day out and cried and never wanted to go - mean old mom that I was, I made him go thinking he would get used to it and end up loving it - how was I supposed to know he had a brain tumor growing in his head - of course, I wish a million times over that I had done all of that differently, but how could you know? Now when I'm dealing with him the morning it is always in the back of mind - is this just Ryan trying to make things difficult or is there more going on here. I hear other moms talking about their bad mornings and their kids crying - so I'm praying it's just simply he's not a morning person. He's great in the afternoons and says he had a "super" day ...... go figure!

We seem to have had a guest in our home the last few weeks - Murphy moved in - I'm sure most of you can relate :). We've tried to kick him out, but he seems to really like it here. It all started with Rob's car - A/C and windows stopped working, in and out of the shop for about 4 weeks - finally got that fixed, had it home for 3 days - then it died on him 10 times coming home from work ...... back to the shop, after a week of being in the shop - they could find nothing wrong with it. Of course, it died on the way to work the very next morning ..... take it to a new shop. In the midst of this our A/C on our house goes out - fixed it - worked great for a few days, then - nothing but hot air again. We completely trust our A/C guy so told him to just be honest -our unit was old and was it worth pouring more money into to it or was it time for a new unit - he said it most likely was time for a new one. Rob and I are just shaking our heads and saying "okay - God this is YOUR money - so if this is how YOU want to spend it ......", that later became - "okay - from our point of view - pretty much all of YOUR money is about gone, so would you let us in on the next game plan" ........ from early on in our marriage my husband has really taught me that all our money is God's money - anyways we prayed - I started praying Malachi 3:10 where God says that if we are not robbers of Him - He will pour out so many blessings that we won't have enough room for them all ...... I also prayed that if we were robbing Him in some way that we just didn't see - to open our eyes and our hearts to that ..... you know you just can't help but wonder when things just seem to hit again and again. Well, would you believe - Rob goes to talk about financing our new A/C - he is told that it is already taken care of it - that God covered it!!!! It is one of those amazing stories that you just sit back, speechless and just KNOW that God provided for you ...... not because we deserved it ...... just because He loves us. You really stop and think "who am I , that you think of me ....". I don't know if those of you who took care of our A/C read this or not ..... but if you do - you will never know how much you blessed our family - we pray that you and your families will be blessed ten-fold!!!! Rob calls the new unit our new Porsche - it is one great unit - as Rob says, we serve an Awesome God!! I would love to say that was the end of our saga - but a few days later Rob and I took my van through the emissions testing and guess what ..... I failed - they gave me a sad face and everything. I just sat and laughed in disbelief ..... so off to the shop goes the van, thankfully they got that taken care of in a day. Our washing machine is also not working - the guy came out to fix it - had to order the part - a new guy comes back to fix it - he tells me that the previous guy was wrong - so now we are waiting on the new part :) - thank goodness for friends who let you do laundry at their house and for a sweet mother-in-law who takes clothes home to wash for you!!!!! Also - Rob did get his car fixed, but decided he just can't relax and drive it anymore -and I can't blame him. So, he went searching for a new car - told the guy his price and what he would like, but never thought it would work out - well, they just so happened to have exactly that in our price range - I have to laugh though because we are both driving mini vans now - identical min vans- color and all - I told Rob if we were going to bite the bullet and take on a car payment to get something he wanted - he said after all this stress - he just wants a car he can trust. He IS our Jehovah- Jireh!! I don't write all of this for pity, etc. - I hope that you read it and it and will be encouraged that God does take care of us ...... sometimes it's hard to accept the ways He provides, etc. - we want to "make it on our own", but He has His own ways of providing ..... and yes, somedays it seems like relief will never come, but then - He completely blows you away with how He provides.

You know all of this does become exhausting and we get weary, but you do just have to learn to laugh ...... I recently reminded Satan that if his plan was to make me love God less that he was failing miserably because ALL he was doing was reminding me how thankful I am that this world is NOT my home!!! I reminded him that My Father was building a mansion for us (I'm pretty sure we don't have to do laundry there either or worry about A/C's :)) ......... one day our Redeemer will stand upon this earth ..... it's a promise!!