I hope you had a wonderful, peaceful, restful and blessed Thanksgiving!  I just love that holiday and I really thing it gets overlooked. 

We are in the midst of Christmas preparations.  We spent the weekend getting decorations and Christmas tree’s up.  It’s fun being in our new home, putting up the tree for the first time.  The house looks so pretty.  I will post pictures soon! 

Our church started a new sermon series called…”All I Want for Christmas…” and today was HOPE. 

Hope is the expectation of something good to come

That is what Christmas is all about.   A precious gift given to us, Jesus, so that we have hope.  Hope that the best is yet to come!   Hope that God’s love is for forever.  However weak and wayward we are, God can still work through us.  He uses us,  in all our messy ways to bring glory to HIM!  In our insignificance we are significant with Christ!   There is light for this dark world.  Jesus is the light and the way!  We are called to be shining stars to others, sharing what Jesus has done in our lives.  Do you share?

When my youngest daughter, Phoebe was 4,  we were heading to preschool and Third Day was on the radio.  They were playing  There’s a Light at the End of the Tunnel.  Now understand that Phoebe is a huge Third Day fan, so she was just singing her little heart out.  She yelled up to me and asked if I knew what the light at the end of the tunnel was.  I played along and said no, what was it?  She yelled, “it’s Jesus!!”  How stinking cute is that?  At 4 years old, I just thanked God for her young, sweet faith. 

So let me share that there is light for your life.  His name is Jesus.  He is our hope.  This Christmas, if your life is needing some direction, seek the Wonderful Counselor.  If you are feeling weak, seek the Mighty God.   If you are having family troubles, seek the Everlasting Father and if your life is chaotic, seek the Prince of Peace!

 I hope to share more of what is going on at our home.  I have declared December as my rest and reflect month.  The year is so busy and so I am claiming December.  Time with family, time with my hubby, time with my kids, time with Christ! 

Wanted to share this with you.  Enjoy!

Today is September 17, 2009.  Today is the 8 year anniversary of Natalie’s brain injury.  If you don’t know Natalie’s story than hop over to her site and read about it. 

I wanted to take a moment and say a few things about Natalie.  First, she is precious to me and I love her with my whole heart!  I absolutely hate that her life is like it is.  She has taught me so much.  She brings such joy to our family.  Here are some thoughts that come to mind,

Natalie,

you make me laugh when you laugh

you have more hair product than I do girly!

you are such a trooper, going through all the things you do

I know that you love Jesus

you are a testament to God’s love

you are the sweetest thing in the world and others fall head over heals with you within minutes of meeting you

your smile lights up a room

you are a GIFT

I go through agony when I know you are in pain and I can’t fix it

you are part of a bigger plan designed by Christ, be proud of it!

you are my cuddle bug, you always have been and always will be

I treasure each day I have with you

I trust that Jesus has a destiny for you and I can’t wait to see it come full circle

I so anticipate the day that we meet in heaven and you extend your arms and say “hi Mom”, GLORY!!  We are gonna be singing and praising the Mighty One!

I would give up EVERYTHING to have you healed and out of pain!

YOU BLESS ME!   I love you

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

You run this race because your reward awaits you!  I am proud and honored to be your mom.

I feel the need to give some history on myself and my family.  I will refer to things on this blog and I don’t want you to be reading and say, “what is she talking about.”

My husband, Elliott, and I have been married for 10 years.  We met at our fire deptartment.  He at the time was a firefighter and I was an EMT.  We dated, got married and started a family.  Natalie is our first adorable daughter.  We had a great  life as a new little family.  Life was good…

Fast forward about a year and a half.  As the world was struggling through the terror of Sept. 11, 2001 my family was experiencing it’s own terror.  Natalie had become very ill.  She was 18 mo. old, developing very normally and with such a sweet personality.  She had started vomiting and progressively got worse. 

(more…)