Thank you Beth Moore

I resisted this bible study with Beth Moore because I had my hang ups but I am soooo glad that we are doing it. We are doing a study called Believing God. Mostly it is helping me to be disciplined about reading and studying the Bible again. I am so bad at that. And it doesn't matter how many times I hear the same truths over and over, I still get something new from them. Anyway, I was doing my homework this week for the bible study and I came across this story about a miracle that really struck me and is serving as fuel for my faith in the way that I pray and approach God. Anyway, here it is, I pray that your faith may be fueled by this man's testimony.

Rick Jones was a pastoral minister who was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic carcinoma in 1990. This godly family wept together after receiving the report. The Rick asked a question he believes, in retrospect, that patients are better off not asking:"How long do I have?" The doctor replied, "Ninety days at the most." He assured Rick and his family that he would do wnay thing he could to make him comfortable. Though he had issued the diagnosis, something inside the Christian internest compelled him to reject it relentlessly. After much research the doctor discovered a kind of radical surgery that was showing marginal results in slightly extending the lives of some patients with Rick's diagnosis. The most important factor for even marginal success was the absolute inactivity of cancer in any other location besides the pancreas.

The internist found an experienced surgeon who was willing to perform the radical procedure, but on opening Rick up, they found cancer everywhere. The deflated surgeon told those attending him that nothing else could be done and to close him up. Just moments later when he walked away, a man put a hand on his shoulder and said, "James, you can do this surgery. I gave you the talent. What would you want them to do with you?" He turned to see who was talking to him, and no one was there. He returned to the operating room and announced they would continue the procedure. After removing as much infected tissue as possible, he turned away to take several sips of orange juice. When he turned back to his patient, every visible sign of cancer in Rick's abdomen had disappeared. This is a documented event that was caught on videotape. In fact, the sight was so dramatic that the doctor looked straight into the camera taping the procedure and said, "What you've seen here is the hand of the Great Physician." Furthermore, after tissue samples were sent to the lab, the surgeon received a message saying they must have received the wrong samples. The patient whose tissue they received had no sign of ever having had cancer.

Amazing, God is truly amazing. I don't know this Rick Jones guy but knowing there is documentation certainly helps the unbelieving skeptic in me. Thank you Beth Moore for using this story to reveal to me how big and loving our God is.

In a nutshell

My week in a nutshell....

• Caleb got to go swimming for the first time ever. He LOOOVED it! He is such a go-getter. He just wanted us to let go of him and let him swim.
• Ty was home on winter break. He made a little extra cash doing some construction and we started a bit of a home improvement project. We finally took down the wallpaper going up the stairs (i know you are so disappointed) and ripped out the carpet. We are going to paint and upstairs and sand the stairs and put a runner on it. Should look better we hope.
• Ty and I went out on a real grown-up date. Dinner, shopping, coffee, good conversation. I love my husband.
• Got to see friends playing guitar and singing at a coffee house.
• Ty is up north today working on the cabin-will it ever end?
• Tomorrow Ty is preaching in Windsor again.

Good week. Fun week. I love my family. I love my friends.

Girls just wanna have fun

Okay so last saturday, i got to leave Berkley in the dust and strike off for Birch Run with Kelli and Sherri. I must admit I was a little worried leaving Caleb with Ty but i figured that it really was only 26 hours-so would any permanent harm come to him from a weekend with dad? Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got to shop, which is always fun and I even bought some things (with a little encouragement of course). I think my favorite purchase was my Banana Republic boots for $6.00. Not me, but who cares they're fun. We had a great time chatting about life, marriage, kids, families, and our hearts. We laughed, we sat in the hot tub, we shopped for hours and hours, we ate good food. It did my heart good to hang out with such great women.

And Ty and Caleb were none worse for the wear when I returned-yeah.

Far too long

It really has been far too long since I have posted. Ty has been on break this week and I haven't had Keely. You would think that I would have more time to blog, read or whatever but it has been exactly the opposite of that. Why do I have such trouble with the changes in schedules? There are plenty of things that I need to blog about but they need their own space. So here is to a fun week of Ty being home (some days) and Caleb's front teeth finally coming through (say goodbye to Fang).

Little walker extraordinaire

The amazing walker extraordinaire (circus voice). It is so much fun to watch Caleb stretch his boundaries. He is walking, very excitedly I might add, all along the furniture and walls (not on the walls but along the walls). He can go from room to room even and thinks he is big stuff. Caleb has even incurred a wound from his adventures, wild at heart i tell ya. He was traversing from his bedroom into the bathroom when *crash* down he went on the tile floor. Nasty goose egg bruise on his forehead.

While it is very exciting for me to watch him learn new things (especially when he is more content now that he can move more on his own), I think I am already missing the helpless newborn stage. I guess I still get little tastes of it though. Like this morning, he got up from a very short nap and I laid him in my arms and he fell back asleep for like a half hour. So sweet he is. What an adventure parenting is!

Let's take a moment. . .

The Super Bowl...can't say I get it. Actually, I get football in general and fantasy football especially, even less. But let me just take a moment and say "HALLELUJAH" football season is officially over!