Miracles

On this beautiful Sunday morning, I would like to take a moment and thank God for the small and big miracles He has let me witness lately.

- A school principal who has suffered with Leukemia for several years and had no strength, to be able to get excited and look forward to a new school year due to renewed energy and stamina

- A friend with a rotator cuff injury be pain free in a few days

- A stay at home mom of 3 kids 2 and under (she has 9 mo. old twins) bring an extra $500 into the house, without ever leaving it!

- A dear man who has bone cancer that is in remission - but the pain has never left - has slept all week without being woken up by pain for the first time in a LONG time

- A man with horribly painful burcitis in his knee - resume bike riding and is now planning a 200 mile bike trip

I can not express to you how honored I feel to be a small part of this. God, I always knew during all those horrible years of illness you were not going to leave me there. I just had no idea that not only would you deliver me in a bigger way than I ever dreamed, but you also are allowing me to help other people in their darkness. I give you all the praise and glory - You are amazing!!
Your servant, Michele

It's Official!

Reagan is officially a freshman at Montana State University. She got the classes she wanted and is very excited! I am so happy and proud for her. She was so nervous before orientation she was not sure if she was ready, etc... After spending the past 3 days in orientation she is full of confidence. It will be a year of challenges, changes, growth - but I know she will do fabulous - cuz she does fabulous with everything! I know it sounds weird from a mom - but when I grow up, I hope to be even a fraction of the person Reagan already is!

Woo Hoo

We are heading out the door - this is where we are going. It is 60 degrees right now, by the way, and suppose to be upper 40s by 10 pm.

This is who we are going to see - BONNIE RAITT - sold out by the way...woo hoo!! Should be fabulous, and besides, I live in MT for reasons just like being able to be cold in August!

Lizzie's Little Piggies!

See that round silver thing above Lizzie's little piggies?? I thought it's sole purpose was to keep the tub from overflowing? Mine must be faulty cuz I started the bath, headed downstairs for a minute, had a phone call, then another phone call, you know how it goes, right? Then out of the blue I heard a dripping, that grew to a frantic dripping, and "OH MY GOSH, I gotta go" Click.

I ran upstairs, and just as I had suspected, at least an inch of water all over the bathroom floor. By the way, the only way to unplug an overflowing tub, after turning off the offending water of course, is to reach your arm down into the tub - causing more overflow onto the floor as a side affect.

Luckily - hard wood floors upstairs, stained concrete downstairs, 10 minutes later all was cleaned up and fine - except Jake's Keyboard which was directly under the tub on the first floor. It is presently laying upside down and will hopefully still be functional.

Just wanted to share my excitment for today! :)

Hope

I have always heard the statement that "happiness is a choice". This week in a book I was reading the statement was made, "Not only is happiness a choice, Hope is a choice as well." I am not sure why it stuck with me and I keep pondering it. Maybe because there are so many things in the world around me that seem hopeless. I also think there are times when it is hard to be hopeful. I do think that statement may just be right though - if we give up hope then we might as well just give up.

In the summer of 2000 we put everything we owned into storage and began building a house that Sean said we would be living in by fall. After a month of living with VERY generous friends, we ended up in a travel trailer out here at our property. No running water or electricity. I cooked everything on a grill, we showered at the public pool, basically our life sucked at that point! It was then that I found out I was pregnant. And people don't believe in God - oh trust me, he is alive and has a HUGE sense of humor!! :) I became very ill while pregnant, so the assumption was that once the baby came I would be alright. Well, I wasn't.

The years went by, we kept working on the house, while all 5 living in a two bedroom apartment. Hey, it was cramped, but at least we had water and electricity! My health was really bad though. We eventually figured out I was allergic to tons of stuff - gasoline, cleaning products, molds (which had been in the travel trailer and ended up in the apartment as well), perfumes, clothes dyes, pesticides, processed foods, etc... All of those things caused a Vago Vasal near syncope reaction - basically my blood pressure dropped and I became very dizzy and nauseous. I didn't know that right away - it was 4 years and about 16 doctors later that I finally found an internist that would listen to me and not just assume me to be crazy. He is still my doctor today and I love him dearly. I admit I was a basket case the first time I saw him. He looked through that and continued to do tests until he found the problem. I am grateful for that.

Anyway, back to hope! All those years, even in the midst of severe depression and debilitating anxiety - I was not willing to give up hope. I knew God wanted me to live an abundant life and I knew there was an answer - so I never gave up seeking it. I went and spent 3 months with a doctor in Missouri doing NAET - it is a natural way to treat allergies. It helped me some, but I was still reacting to tons of stuff after returning home. I went to a homeopathic doctor named, Dogmar Uhl - I should have been afraid of the name alone! She did "emotional healing" and basically I spent about $1000 and 10 hours screaming on a mattress over a 2 month period. You think I am joking? She had a full size mattress and she would sit beside me and we would talk about my illness and when I felt a negative emotion she would have me scream, bang on the mattress, sometimes kick, etc... All that came out of that was a very sore throat! I saw about 10 different medical doctors that all wanted to put me on antidepressants. I took them off and on and was a zombie - but still had my allergic reactions, I just wasn't as excited about them. :)

My point to all of this is - today I have my life back! I praise God for all He has done, and I am extremely grateful each day for being able to get up and do whatever I want whenever I want - that is a gift. I often encounter people that seem resigned with their circumstances. I was NEVER going to just resolve that I would be sick the rest of my life. I can promise you that if I hadn't found the answer yet - I would still be seeking it, all the way until my death. I was never going to give up hope that I could be well again. I think hope is a choice, whatever the struggle is, marriage, jobs, family, health. By choosing hope, our eyes might just be open enough to see the answer when it comes along. I HOPE so, anyway!

Barney!

This picture was taken at Storybook Island in Rapid City, SD. Reagan and Jake LOVED Barney when they were little. Lizzie watched him a small bit, but did not have near the purple obsession her brother and sister did. There was a time I thought I would be fine if I never saw another singing dinosaur again in my lifetime. Now, well, I wish I would have just sat down with them more...and watched, yes, even Barney. I was too busy, doing laundry or dishes or just glad to have the TV babysitting them for awhile. I wish I would have just spent more time enjoying them instead of spending time fretting over meaningless tasks. Now they are 17 and 16. I am glad God gave me a second chance with Lizzie...a chance to spend more time just doing whatever she wants to do.

Look at those smiles though - I think Reagan and Jake were just as excited to see Barney as I was. It just seems like yesterday they were 2 and 3 and sitting in front of the TV singing with him.

Hello!

It has been a fun trip and I arrived home yesterday. The trip home always seems so much longer than the trip heading out. Something about those LONG car rides that the closer home gets the slower the car seems to move. It was a fun trip. I will tell you more about the whole trip later, but first I have to tell you what happened to increase my faith in God:

This conversation took place about 6 weeks ago now:

karen: "so, you are going to Missouri?"

me: "yes, in august...uuuuggghhh. It will be so hot. One day, when I become a presidential ambassador, I am going to do something about International Conference being in August."

Karen: Pause - "Well, why don't you start praying about it now?"

Me: "well, I never thought of that - GREAT idea"

So, six weeks ago, I began to pray that Missouri would have unusually cool weather while we were there. GUESS WHAT?? IT HAPPENED!! We were even cold a couple of evenings! I walked a mile outside, didn't even break a sweat. I will be honest, it may sound silly to you, but in my opinion, if God can make Missouri cool in August, He can do anything! So, that, my friends is how my faith grew.

PS. I can't wait to go catch up on all of your blogs - thanks Jen for missing me, I am truly honored!