Blessings on Me

Ya know, sometimes I sit back and listen to the things going on around me and I have to say "Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me"!
We had such a wonderful service on Sunday. It wasn't meant to be this way, but God is good. As the song services went on, we sang "Because He Lives". In the second verse of that song it talks about how sweet it is to hold a newborn baby. As you can imagine we were up in choir and Missy started to cry. Reality kind of set in, and after the song the choir was dismissed as tears were rolling down the faces of all of the ladies in our church. The message that Preacher brought went right along with it. God put everything together so nicely. At invitation, a few of us went to the alter to pray and at that time Preacher told the visitors in our church about Doug and Missy and Bethanie. Then he asked for all the men to come forward to pray for Doug and Missy. It was beautiful. The reality of losing little Bethanie, anything short of a miracle of God, became real to the church. We are holding to the belief that God can heal that baby, if He has it in His will, but we are preparing and believing that God is right all the time. I love my church family! I am so thankful that God has put us in this place at this time. We may not stay here for the rest of our lives--God might have other plans for us in the future, but for now, this is our home, and this is our church family and we are so blessed and so thankful for it. WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE SERVE!!!

Everyday Life

It seems as if this year has flown by. Are we really in the middle of August? We have so much that is going on and so much coming up in the next few months. Michaela is doing great! Her Steri-strip came off the other day while she was playing outside. She didn't even realize it until she took her bath. This was probably the best way for it to come off. The incision looks great, but we go back to the Dr. on Monday for her to take a look at it.
We are getting ready for school. I am trying to get organized and I really need to get this Switched On Schoolhouse program for John figured out. If I don't he will be merrily doing school work and I won't have a clue as to how to grade it. LOL He is going to be a wiz on the computer I have a feeling.
Mary, one of John's sisters, is re-locating and will be living with us for a while, until she gets her own place. We are very excited! The kids are really excited to have Aunt Mary around.
God is stilling opening doors with our prison ministry at church. In July, John and I were able to go to a women's facility in Newport, AR. John loves to go to Fulton to the Processing Center, and we look forward to the times that we get to go to Oklahoma City to the women's facility there. We get to go at the end of this month. We are already praying and asking God for protection and for souls to be saved. We believe that God is doing a wonderful work through our church for the Prision ministry. We are excited and thankful that God has chosen us to be a part of it.
Pray for us as we get ready to enter this busy season of the year. I would also ask you to continue to pray for my brother and his wife and little girl as well as the rest of our family. As many of you know, they are expecting their second child, Bethanie Grace, but she has been diagnosed with a fatal condition Anencephaly as well as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. If Bethanie makes it full term, she may not live long after she arrives. Melissa is due with her on December 27th. There are so many holidays and special days in the latter part of the year. Pray for God's mercy and strength. We know that He has a plan and a purpose.
On a another note--we are enjoying watching the Olympics. We have watched every race that Michael Phelps has been in, and the gymnastics were spectacular. John Richard is totally caught up in all of it. He truely doesn't want to miss a moment of it. I know this all just seems to be everyday life--but it is our everyday life and I thought you would like to know that we love the place that God has put us in---in our everyday life.

A-OK

I just wanted to let everyone know that we got the results from Michaela's surgery last Wednesday. I realized that I had not posted anything about it when I received great persecution for it. So here it goes...
Everything is great! No problems anywhere. She is such a trooper too. We didn't even need to get her pain medicine filled, all she needed was regular motrin and Tylenol. We go back to the surgeon on the 18th for her to look at the incisions and make sure she is healing correctly. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Stunts, Surprises, and Surgery!

Well, This is going to be a very interesting blog! We decided to go to Silver Dollar City on the absolute HOTTEST Day of this year! I hate the heat, and if you know me at all--you know that I lie not! We took the kids to SDC to see the magician, Peter Gossemer, ride the Lost River, and sweat off 50lbs! (if that were only true, LOL)
Here is Kae playing with the coolest stuff in the world. Play foam--little balls of different colored foam that never dries out. Cute snowman!

Here is the last of Peter Gossemer's show. It really was great--How did he do all of that!

Here is our Surprise! Uncle Michael flew in Sunday night to be with us on the day of Michaela's surgery. Yes, It was just a minor surgery, but he felt like he needed to be here, and we are sooooooo thankful that he was. Michael has the most wonderful wife ever! She told him that he needed to be here if he felt that way. We love you Aunt Katie!!!!


This was the morning of the Kae's surgery--going into the surgery center

Getting all ready. We were so thankful to have Mrs. Khristina as our nurse. She goes to our church and she is a recovery room nurse. God is so good!

They gave her bubbles to blow and crayons and a coloring book to keep her entertained while we waited for them to come and get her. She had already had her "Tylenol cocktail". Just a little tired--not to mention it was about 7:15am and she had been up since 5:30 am.

This can only be described as sheer bordem! We were waiting for Kae to come back from the recovery room.


This was right after they brought her back to us. She is so sleepy. She did great though. She had a yucky looking mole removed from the back of her head and then a good sized cyst and a couple of tiny moles removed from her right thigh. They are sending both off to be analyzed and we should find out more on Wednesday or so. She was such a trooper!