Friday, May 1, 2009

STORMS!

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I've postes last! Thank you to all of you who are still checking in regularly. All I can say is I've been working on The Heart's Journey Home like a mad woman . . . when I'm not being a mama, wife, or teacher. "Being busy" is such a lame excuse, but I promise you, my friends, I have never in my life been busier. Right now I'm tired, but satisfied, and that's a good feeling.

What's NOT a good feeling is knowing you have a storm coming, and, WHEW!, it has definitely been a stormy spring here in Middle Tennessee. The picture you see is actually a picture of our local news channel's website DURING OLIVIA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY! Talk about nerve wracking! It all turned out okay, though, as is the case with most storms. The hard part is weathering it, witnessing the power of Mother Nature. How often we forget the our God is bigger than any storm. Our God calmed the storm not with a huge, showy performance, but with thee simple words: "Peace, be still."

In chapel several weeks ago, Alison's teacher (who has also become my very dear friend), Mrs. Connie Roy, talked to the elementary about how we all go through "storms" in our lives. Now you can imagine that this idea varies greatly from child to child. You may have one child whose "storm" is that their cat ran away, and that really is a "storm". I'm certainly not down playing it. But then you have the child whose parents are getting a divorce or whose daddy lost his job or whose grandparent is very, very sick. I've wondered before how do you explain "big people" stuff like the ecomony, divorce, sickness, and death to children? Fortunately, for me this year, Connie taught that chapel because I took it into my classroom and we talked in depth, I mean really in depth, about life's many storms. How they aren't fun to go through, but when it's all over, you are bigger and stronger and that much closer to becoming exactly who the Lord is shaping you to be. As much as I hate going through a storm (Hate is a very mild word to describe how I feel about storms. Really.) I can't tell you how much I love the freshness and newness of the world outside when it's over. The same is true when I go through a life storm. Hate it during the wind and the rain. Love the freshness and newness in my spirit when it's over. Unfortunately, my students received an application of life storms this week that I didn't want to have happen. My student, the grand daughter of Janet Kraski on our list of prayer concerns, is going through a really, really hard storm right now. Janet lost her very short battle with brain cancer this yesterday (Thursday). Please note that I have moved her family to the list of prayer concerns that have lost a loved one. And please, please pray for them.

PRAYER REQUESTS: Larry Harris (and wife Kathy) have been on my list before. Larry recently had a procedure done on his heart and has been recovering well. So weel, in fact, that they went on vacation earlier in April. On the way back however, he got really sick and had to have emergency surgery. He's still in the hospital recovering from this procedure very, very slowly. Please pray for Larry that he can continue to heal and recover and pray that the Lord will just wrap his wife Kathy in peace and comfort.

UPDATES: Trey Grant is being moved to a rehibilitation hospital already after his motorcycle accident! That is wonderful news! It will still be a long road for Trey so continue to pray for him, his wife, Jen, and their three children. My Olivia had blood work today and it seemed that her platelet count has dropped some over the month. Everything else in her blood work looks perfect so it's still this ITP. It's just going to take time, quite a bit of it from what I understand, and I'm not very patient. Please pray her prayer: "Dear Jesus, Thank You for healing me and please put more platelets in my body. Amen." She'll go back in a month for more blood work. Our little friend, Katie Leach, has reached a point in her chemo treatments that her hair has started to fall out. I know this is hard for adults to have to deal with because hair has so much to do with one's identity. Well, it is for a child, too. The difference is than an adult can at least rationalize that this is a direct cause of the chemo which is directly fighting the cancer. Rationalizing is a lot harder for a kid. They just know that everyone is going to "look at them weird now". People, especially women, value hair and it starts at Katie's age. Think about it, little girls watch fairytale movies and how many of the princesses have no hair??? ZERO! They all (well, okay, except for Mulan, which just may be my favorite) has long flowing thick gorgeous hair and every princess is sought after and beautiful. Well, Katie, you ARE a princess! You are fighting a battle bigger than the one Mulan fought! The Lord will use you in His army one day, Katie. I believe He already is, and I believe He is looking down from Heaven with eyes shining with pride for His special princess! I believe that. I also believe that God is going to work a miracle in out little buddy, Ethan Bibb. The last report I received was a fabulous one! He's going through treatments AND physical therapy and making incredible progress on all fronts. In both Ethan's and Katie's cases they are surrounded by extremely faithful parents and family and countless friends who are supporting the families and PRAYING for them both. Yes, there is power in prayer! So keep praying for them and all of the others on my list who are weathering their own personal storms.

Thank you!

1 comment:

Krista Phillips said...

Thanks for the reports and the great message!