I am Blessed!

I have such an amazing community. Russell has been in Las Vegas on a business trip (I'll let you know the details on that when I get them. It has sounded rough I'll tell you!). While he has been gone I have had someone from my Life Group here every night. Friday night Debra came and kept me company after the kids went to bed. Last night it was Mindi. Tonight Chance, Debra and their kiddos brought us dinner and Brian and Mindi were here as well. Brian did our yard this afternoon. I wanted to surprise Russell and Brian was great for doing it at the last minute. So I had great fellowship this afternoon.

This morning at church I had the opportunity to begin to understand a little more about God. See, we have this system where the boys play in the cave-like tunnel while I drop off Julia. Then I drop off Caleb and then Draden. Well today after dropping Julia off in her classroom, I turned around and Caleb was gone! GONE!!!!! First I went to his class to see if he just wandered over there, but he hadn't. He is a creature of habit and wouldn't just wander away at church. In a strange place, say the mall or something, sure. But at church we have a routine and he doesn't stray from routine. He also wouldn't go with a stranger without making a huge scene. But anything can happen and I started to panic. I quickly took Draden to his class so I didn't risk losing him. Then Chance left his post at the 5 year old room and started helping with the search. By this time I was crying and the sheriff on duty in the church was helping too. We did the quick rundown on what he was wearing while I was tearing around the kids area shouting for him. Finally we went back to the tunnel area and the sheriff told me to stay there and they would look. As a final resort (since I wasn't supposed to go anywhere) I checked the three year old room that he only spends Wednesday nights in. There he was sitting at the table coloring a picture! He didn't even know that he was missing. Someone had put him in the room. I don't know who and I don't want to know. I just want to understand what God was trying to teach me. Maybe it is...Even when I think God is missing from where I think He is supposed to be showing Himself...He is right where He is supposed to be. My last resort was the most obvious place. God is never missing, not even for a moment. He is at peace (or more accurately He is Peace) and is never frantic even when we are.

There are so many ways to apply this to my life and cannot even begin to describe them. But now I just have to refer to this day whenever I feel like God is missing. He is not missing. He will never be missing.

And Thank you God for taking care of my baby and not even letting him be in a situation where he could have felt lost. Help me keep focused on you so that I don't feel lost either.

I'm a Widget!

Check it out! The Breast Cancer 3Day put a picture of me on a widget. I didn't even know what a widget was until today. You click on the widget and you can donate to the cause. Pretty cool!

The past month

On April 7th, Amy and her kids and my three kids and I all loaded up in our two mini vans and took of for a week of fun and adventure to Branson. We left the men behind to do their making a living thing and we took a spring break trip. What a great week it was. We had so much fun with the kids and it was a great time of bonding for me and Amy and a wonderful time spent with the Lord. It is amazing what all you can fit into a day when you aren't stressed out with all the day to day chores of living! Many fun and funny stories about that week, and when I have time I will fill them all in.

I did want to add in here that we lost Stephanie on April 8. I found out about 15 minutes after she left us to go play ball with Jesus. It was 20 minutes before I was going to take the two oldest to a magic show. This was God's timing. He used a magician in a city far from home to comfort me. Isn't God cool?!?! All through the show the magician, Kirby, kept saying how these were all tricks and at one point said that the only real magic is the beauty of the world around us given to us by God. Then he proceeded to make a helicopter appear on stage right before our eyes! Wow! But that wasn't the best part. After he did that he sat down on the stage to tell us one last story. He began to tell us about growing up and visiting his grandma. Sitting on her front porch while she told him stories about Jesus. Then he started to so that trick with the string, where he breaks it into pieces. As he broke the string he talked about how our lives are broken and sometimes we feel lost and far from God. Sometimes we hurt and are filled with sorrow. (At this point he stuffs all the pieces of string into one fist and then slowly starts to pull it out) He goes on to say that if we put our trust in God and believe in Jesus for our salvation He will become the light in our dark world. (At this point one small part of the string glows BRIGHT green.) He continued on, And if we let Jesus do it, He will make us whole. (And at this point he pulled the string out and it what all whole again!) Okay, I have seen this trick done before, but it was the most powerful illusion of the night for me and the most meaningful! I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. God cared enough about me (who had only known Stephanie for a few months) to mend my broken heart through a magic show. He already knew!
I love God and I love how He knows before we even need what it is we will need!