Good News Bad News

We all have gone through the ups and downs of news.   Its good, no its bad, but that's good, no that's bad. etc.  Watch this classic clip from Hee Haw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AohunABHr08

I kind of felt like this when my tests results came back (from all 8 viles of blood that were drawn).  My blood levels were good, but my white blood cell count was a little bad.  My sodium levels were good, but my cholesterol was bad.  My liver tests were good, but my vitamin D level is bad.  Today I went back to the doctor's to recheck my blood pressure.  My blood pressure registered good, but I'm on a pretty good dose of meds.  (That's bad in the sense that I now have another prescription to add to my list)

So see what I mean?  The bad news is that I'm keeping the medical community in business, the good news is that they have the means to help me.  I know, there are many out there that have it much worse than I do.  It's not a competition to see who has the worst list of problems.  We are to emphasize with each other, encourage one another, and up lift one another.  

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

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A guy is in the hospital with two broken legs. The nurse comes in and tells him that there's good news and bad news.

The guy asks for the bad news first.

The nurse says, "We're going to have to remove your legs."

Then the guy asks for the good news.

The nurse says, "The guy beside you wants to buy your sneakers."

You know, the Bible is full of good news, bad news as well.   The bad news is - 
"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"  Romans 3:23 (NIV)

But the good news is - "24 Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."   Romans 3:24  (NLT)

Wow, now that's bad news, good news worth repeating, sharing, and claiming!

I Did Not See That Coming!

Yup, that's what I'm feeling right now - I Did Not See That Coming!
                                     

This is not what I planned on writing about today, but after the way my day went - here I am.
Brief recap, 6 months ago we left our home of 35 years, our church, our jobs, our family and friends.  We packed up and moved 1500 miles across country to a place we had never seen before, doing what we had never put on our radar before.  And yes, you could say - I did not see that coming.  And probably many that knew us did say that.

With that comes many things you need to do - find a place to live, job, new insurance provider, new church, new grocery store to shop in, new bank.  All of those we have completed and not without some bumps in the road.  Next on the list to find was a new physician.  Not a task I was looking forward to when I had the same physician my entire adult life (with the exception of the last 8 months) and one that I had total confidence in and a christian.  

Today I had the opportunity, after securing an appointment with someone I had selected two months ago, to meet who would hopefully fill that spot.  After only a few minutes in the examining room I immediately realized I had made the correct decision.  The medical assistant that began all the file work on getting my information and medical history was amazing.  She was encouraging, patient and compassionate.  Even when the tears came.  Yup - didn't see that coming, the tears I mean.  Then the doctor came in.  Again - amazing woman who was so understanding and encouraging.  While there and doing the initial "work up" my blood pressure was taken.  Now I have always had low blood pressure, something passed down from my mom, and quite proud of the fact.  Not now - it read 162/120.  You got it - I Did Not See That Coming!  It really put a scare in me.  This led to having an EKG.  The good news of the day is that my lungs were clear and according to the EKG - my heart looked beautiful.  That is what the doctor said. :)  Ended up being there for 2 hours.  I will have blood work on Wednesday for the usual and some extra, back on Friday to see how the meds are working and possibly start a sleep med.  Guess what?  Not sleeping well is not good for your health either.  I just figured it was my way of life now.  I will be seeing a rheumatologist for my psoriatric arthritis as well.  Yup, lots going on but she assured me that they would help me feel better and in a few months hopefully feel great.   As usual, I found my sense of humor and said I was good to ensure the medical field stayed busy.  

Wow - not what I planned on when the day began.  I certainly did not see that coming, but I guess that is better that way sometimes.  I will continue to trust that God has got this.  Even when some things in our life right now seem hopeless I know that our true hope lies with Him.  I don't know how everything will turn out but what I look forward to is how God will use this for His glory.  He never promised us that we would have smooth sailing when we follow Him, but He has promised us that we will never go it alone.  I know many of you feel and believe the same.  And many of you are dealing with things as well that seem hopeless.  

Keep your Hope in Him!!!

Travel

So yesterday I traveled 1538  miles and according to mapquest if I would drive it would take me 22 hours and 46 minutes.  Well, I did choose the wiser and quicker way of travel - flying and it took  me 9 hours and 29 minutes.  That includes drive, airport wait and actual flying time.
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I know many if not most of you have flown and probably have some great stories.  Nothing super fantastic happened, but here are a few observances I had.  

1.  A  policeman/security roaming the outdoors area of the Omaha airport was looking for someone to scold. He chose me.  Well to be fare, probably would have included our daughter Emily but she dashed inside to use the facilities before starting to Farragut. We didn't pull in correctly to unload, stopped in "traffic"  (not), etc.  Unfortunately I then left with tears of frustration in my eyes.  I had a "speech" all prepared to share with Emily for our farewell and . . . . .   not happening.

2.  I like kids and it seems they like me too.  ;)  There was a young couple waiting to board with a child that appeared to be around 10 months.  He kept looking my way, I would smile and he would grin every time.  YAY!! :)  It so happened that we sat across from each other on the plane as well.  When we landed I let the mom know that her child was a great traveler.  I decided several years ago that when I see someone doing well, I will let them know.  To counteract all the negativity people like to share.

3.  When you sit by the window, you tend to look out often. I sat by the wing on each flight and would often look out.  Now understand it was dark the entire time I was flying, so what did I expect to see?  Hopefully not something out of the Twilight Zone.

4.  Flying is a way of life for some people.  I sat by some of several that were on the second flight that had attended a softball tournament in Vegas over the weekend.  These were high school girls, doing homework on the plane.  Can't imagine having money to do that.

5.  When you are sitting by that wing and the pilot comes on to say, "We are at the end of the runway ready for take off but we are going to take a moment to let these guys do what they do very well, de-ice the wings."  When I look out the window there is a boom up high looming over the wing with a small compartment at the end of it and a guy inside controlling this large hose spraying the wings.  Several things flash through your brain.  Enough said.

6.  And finally, no matter how many times you fly - it is awesome to return home with someone waiting to give you a big hug.  That doesn't get old.  Pretty great to go inside your house and have your pet shower you with kisses as well.  

It was a great trip, all went well, and it is good to be home - my new home.  Yes it was hard to say good bye, to know that I can't always be there for events, milestones, etc.  But I continue to believe that we are where God wants us to be and we will continue to go about our lives and see what He wants us to do.  

Share a smile today.

Meet the Parents!

After nearly 6 months of living in the state of Washington I made my first trip back to Iowa.  Let me say one of hardest things of this trip has been that I could not go to Spencer to see many friends as time did not allow.

It is sort of ironic as well that my first trip back is hitting a super cold spell again in two days, but at least I am "way down south" and will not have what they will experience back in Spencer.  20 - 30 and even some 40 below wind chills.  Sorry Northwest Iowa, that I am not missing. :)

I was thrilled to be greeted at the airport by our daughter Emily and our nearly 2 year old grand daughter Lyla.  When she spotted me, she grinned, giggled and ran to me.  Couldn't have been happier.  Then that evening I was the recipient of a huge bear hug from our son, Timothy.  The cold is worth it.  ;)

Timothy got engaged in December and we had yet to meet his fiancée, Amanda, except through skype and text.  That also was worth the cold.  She is wonderful and they are SOOOO happy together.  

Today was filled with anticipation as I was to get to meet Amanda's parents at their house and we were to have supper there.  The vision of the movie "Meet the Parents" kept coming to mind.  But it wasn't Timothy meeting his future in laws for the first time, it was me, the groom's mom.  So I could see things going wrong for me as they had for Greg in the movie.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrw3AFW0Z0

It is different not living close by through this next step in his life, different being the mom of the groom (we've done it with two daughters), and well........ just different.

Thankfully I don't think I did or said anything to embarrass myself, I tried not to ask too many questions and tried to listen.  They are a wonderful family, they have graciously opened their home and their family to accepting our son.  It will be great to see what God has in store for Timothy and Amanda.  

In two days Lyla turns 2.  Last year at this time we were in Michigan with my husband's mom as she was nearing the end of her life here on earth.  We missed Lyla's first birthday and I am thrilled I have the chance to be here for this one.  Emily has some fun food and things planned for the day.  Then the next day I return to Washington.  Yes, it will be hard to say good bye.  But it will be great to return home to my family there as well.  And of course the warmer weather doesn't hurt either.

I'm sure there will be more to share in the future.  If you have a place to be or people to meet, do what we all should do:  Remember we are created by God and through Him we are beautiful and exactly who we are to be.  

I'm so excited!

I am so excited!  I imagine there are hundreds of images that come to mind when you hear or say these words.  Of course there is the song that was featured in Flash Dance, recorded by the Pointer Sisters.  This has been used in many shows for various reasons.  Below is one of my favorites.  You can't help but smile at Carlton from The Prince of Bel Air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ1PYN976Gw

And then there are the numerous videos we see of children getting excited when they get some variation of good news such as the arrival of a new sibling, a trip to Disney World, etc.

Right now for me it is that I am flying to Iowa tomorrow to see our Iowa children and grandchild.  I will get to have fun with Lyla who turns 2 on Sunday, I will challenge Gabriel in a few board games, chat with Emily, hug Timothy who will be his old self and tease his mom, and meet our future daughter-in-law Amanda!This gets me excited.   I feel like dancin', singin', being goofy - but sometimes my excited goes too far.  I get anxious, my stomach gets knots in it, I won't sleep well, I will want to pull away from those around me
and curl up in the fetal position.  Ugh.... If only I had a better grasp on my control dials, those buttons I sometimes wished I had to better control.  

Then I wonder how I will be while I am there.  Will the homesickness set in?  Will it feel strange to be back?  Will it be hard to leave?  That can all turn excitement to anxiety as well.  But what I need to do, what I should do, is look at what I can control and what to let go of.   Look at what is the truth and what doesn't matter.  Look at what is truth and what my mind tries to get me to think.  

You see I have a tendency (traits, habits) to get intimidated, to worry about what others think, to get paranoid, to get down on myself.  SOOOO.......

I was reminded of what I have learnt in counseling when Pastor Bryan spoke this past Sunday of those untrue thoughts that invade our mind.  I was taught when something gets stuck there and is taking over my thoughts, I need to write it down.  Then see what is true and what is not.  Erase what is not true and replace it with the truth.  Now repeat that new phrase so it replaces the bad one, the wrong one.  

This takes practice, takes time and does not mean that you never have to revisit this process again.  I also need to remind myself that God's got this, He created me, He sees value in me.  Another struggle, but that is for another time.

So I am going to get back to dancin' and take it a moment at a time to enjoy it all.  Soak it up, have no expectations (then there are no disappointments) and thank God I have this opportunity.   I know there will be tears.  I cry easy (I know many of you are nodding your head right now) - but that's o.k.  Tears of joy and tears of cleansing.  :)  I don't have Carlton's moves, but I have the passion.  

I Don't Get IT!

Wow, how many times have you said this before?  "I don't get it."  You probably did after someone tried to tell you a joke in which they struggled with the telling because they were laughing so hard and when they concluded they looked at you waiting for your reaction to be the same and instead you gave them the blank stare and simply said, "I don't get it."

As a parent you probably have said this when you struggled to teach your child something over and over and they didn't seem to get it, you couldn't understand why and then say, "I don't get it."

Or when you tried to watch a sport for the first time and the rules were complicated, made no sense to you and when you left you said, "I don't get it."

When I look at the views of my blog, how many there have been and where people are located that are reading it, I say, "I don't get it."  I'm blown away and yet I know it would seem small to many bloggers.

United States   5609

Russia                  50

Ukraine                10

Haiti                       9

Canada                 8

Belize                    4

Germany               4

Mexico                  4

United Kingdom    3

France                  2

Maybe there is someone that is close to you, had their life planned out and suddenly set it all aside to do something totally uncharacteristic.  Your response?  "I don't get it."

Maybe it has been with an illness, accident, life changing event that occurred totally unexpectedly and all you could do was say, "I don't get it."

Or there was a time in your life when you prayed and prayed for something, never seemed to get the answer or result you were praying for and looked to God with this in mind, "I don't get it."

There is much that is happening around the world, to Christians, to innocent people, and to children.  There are wonderful strong Christian families who suddenly find themselves with a child who seems to have totally gone the opposite way.  When these things happen, of course we would say, "I don't get it."

A few weeks ago a young man from our home town in Iowa died unexpectedly.  You don't expect an eighteen year old to die from natural causes when he appeared to be in great health, popular, a great athlete.  He seemed to have his whole life yet to live as some would say.  And now this week here at a local high school two young lives were ended.  On Monday a sophomore fell ill and passed away.  Unknown cause.  The next day, another from the same school took his own life.  When reading of these things, how can you not say, "I don't get it."

Many in the world might say if there is a God, why would He let this happen?  You can be a strong Christian and yet falter in times like these and question God.  This is when we as Christians need to encourage one another, lift each other up, and be reminded of who God is.  

We live in an imperfect, fallen world.  We suffer because of sin, and it doesn't even have to be our own - it can be from the affect of someone else.  God doesn't plant bombs, pull the trigger of a gun or create illnesses.  These are results of living in a world full of sin.  I will not try to pretend I have the answers or that I never fall short.  The Bible is full of amazing and unbelievable things that God has done and promises to do.  I'm certainly no match for His wisdom.  In times like this, when things happen that causes us to say, "I don't get it", we need to be reminded of the hope we hang on to in God, through His Son who gave his life for us so that we who profess of Him have the promise of an eternal life free from suffering. And accept that it is o.k. to some times say, "I don't get it."

We will not ever go through anything alone.  God can use these things in many ways to bring glory to Him.  Trust in God, that He remains in control, faith in what we can not see or understand, and hope in our Heavenly Father.  Read Hebrews 11

Blinded by the Snow

Recently I have been reminded in more than one place of the blizzard of 1975 in NW Iowa.  It began on Friday morning January 10 and the winds did not begin to subside until Sunday morning.  The snow was so blinding that I remember sitting at the table in our kitchen silently praying as my Dad would put layers upon layers on and trek outside to do the chores twice a day.  This was the only time I saw him tie a rope between the barn and the house so he could find his way to and from.  And I use the term "saw him" loosely, the snow really was blinding.  We would sit around the kitchen table and play gin rummy over and over and over.  We didn't have a cupboard full of games.  We used candle when it got too dark.  We were fortunate to have a gas stove so we could cook and against all recommendations, use for some heat.  We also would use the battery operated radio to hear of updates on different people missing.  This was before the Internet or cell phones.  There were numerous people that went missing and the local radio station was the only way to communicate and find out if they were safe.  Even though we did not personally know most of the people we would anxiously wait word to find out that they had been found and safe.
After two long days, many livestock lost, and even some humans, the winds died down and the sun once again did shine.  What we saw were snow drifts taller than our buildings and the layout of our yard seemed so different.
We had to shovel by hand around the fence lines of all the yards that held livestock because the level of snow was deeper than the fences.  We had to dig a hole large enough in front of our machine shed to get the tractor and loader out so it could turn around.  (After that Dad always backed it in)  We had to dig what could be called steps down to the door of a small shed that housed our young calves that i would feed by a bucket with a nipple.  Dad had to dump the milk from our dairy cows for days, even weeks because the truck couldn't make it to the farm.  That spring he sold the cows.  And by spring when we could finally clean out that small shed that housed the young calves, wow did it reek!
It was horrific, but I have some good memories from it as well.  It forced us to be in close quarters for a few days, to spend time together and even have some fun.  
Well, it sort of feels like we are in a blinding snow storm now.  And I have been reminded of this - And He gives grace generously.  As the Scriptures say, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."  James 4:6 NLT 
I could go on like everything is fine when it isn't - but wouldn't that be staying proud?  I could keep the struggles to myself, but I believe that God brought us here, that it was His plan.  And I believe that God can use what has and is happening to His good.  
We are in a financial pickle.  Sorry for the wording but to me it really fits.  Our plan was that I wouldn't have to worry about a job when we moved here.  But we didn't plan on having $3000 scammed from us.  We didn't plan on the car payment that we now have due to that.  We didn't plan on the huge jump in health insurance premiums and now I am on government health care.  (Health care is so messed up now.)  I have been looking for a part time job but I have psoriatic arthritis and I can't stand for long periods of time and I can't lift much for weight.  We do believe that I am to continue to be there for our grandchildren.  We also believe that God has a plan.  
So, I am asking that you remember us in prayer.  Pray that the blinding snow subsides, that we see clearly God's plan and that He uses it for His will.  And pray that my mind and sight are not blinded by the lies from Satan.  He knows my weaknesses and gets me to think I am weak and to blame.  I am so thankful for the people that read my blog.  Many I don't know personally but I believe that God is using this as well.