A Song Says It All

I was sure by now,God,
that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining.
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.


And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm.

Even though I am depressed and upset about a situation that I thought God had already taken care of, I know I must keep praising Him through this storm because He has plans, and even though I do not understand His plans, and I want to step in and do something, I must wait patiently on Him. Not easy to do when there are timelines, but I am asking God to give me the strength to endure and wait. His will, not mine, His timing, not mine. Amen

Reflecting ...

Nursing school is hard! Getting accepted into nursing school is hard! But here I am just 2 and a half weeks from being finished. WOW!

I can't take all the credit though, actually none of the credit. ... 3 years ago I felt led to go to nursing school, and had absolutely no faith in my abilities to be able to do it. I prayed about it, and God told me "Ask, Seek, and Knock.", and He told me to take a leap of faith, that He would be with me the whole way if I trusted in Him. I did, I trusted Him completely, and He was there the whole way, and many times He carried me :)

I owe it all to Him ... It just goes to show that God will not ever lead you to do something that He won't help you get through or do. I praise Him! I thank Him! And I know that I am doing His will by being a nurse ... Now if I only knew what department He wanted me in ...

Feeling Blessed & Exhausted

We just finished VBS on Thursday. I love VBS, but for some reason it wore me out this year. Possibly because we had 15-27 kids every night just in our class (5th & 6th). It was a lot of fun, especially seeing the kids getting excited about being able to put a pie in someones face for not knowing the Bible verse.

I know God was working on several of the kids that were in our class, one that we brought, but they haven't made a decision for Christ yet ... but the seeds were planted, the gospel was shared, and I had the opportunity to witness to the girl we brought, and I have faith that she will make a decision, she just isn't ready yet.

A lot of people get anxious or nervous about sharing their faith and witnessing to others. I do when it comes to complete strangers, but if I know someone, it doesn't bother me at all. I have witnessed to several people who are in my life that are lost, and I pray continually that they will be saved before it is too late.

But back to VBS ... I think all of the VBS workers did a great job this year, and the kids were amazing! When you have that many kids in one class, you expect them to act up, but they were really good considering. I feel very blessed to have been a part of it! I just hope next year that I am able to do something a little more challenging. ;-) But I thank God for the ability to help whereever needed, and for all the kids that came and heard about HIM.

[Insert Witty Title Here]

It has been a week since Austen started using his insulin pump, and things are going very well. I am thrilled at how well it is working and how Austen has taken the initiative in taking care of himself. I know how to work his pump, but he has been doing it all himself.

This is my first week of no school and I guess I am enjoying it ... it would be better if I weren't a tad under the weather with allergies, but it is better than driving to Paducah everyday. Although, I have had to drive to Mayfield for Austen's doctor appointment, and will have to again tomorrow to see the dietitian so she can adjust his insulin rates if necessary.

I have started Professor Grant Horner's Bible-Reading System, where you read 10 chapters of the Bible everyday. It is set up so that you are reading Proverbs and Acts completely through in a month, and you are also reading both the Old and New Testaments, which I like. I read my first 10 chapters last night, and plan on doing today's 10 here in a little bit.

God is good all the time, and I am always amazed and in complete awe of how he works!

ALSO, if you would be so kind to check out my sister's blog, she needs some help with getting to the Living Water's Ambassador's Academy that she was accepted into, so if you would like to donate to help her, please visit her blog. You can pay by PayPal or by credit card.

By donating you are entering in a chance to win a great book!

Insulin Pump - Day 1

Well Austen's first day on the pump was uneventful. He seems to be learning the ropes really well. (Good thing because mom doesn't know how to use it, but I am learning on my own, just in-case) His numbers weren't bad yesterdy, except for one, and that was because he took it off to do some exercise at the BCC and then misread the glucose reading and thought he was low and didn't cover for the food he ate.

They told us Monday night to only get half of his long acting insulin, and then eat breakfast Tuesday morning and not take a shot. Once we arrived at the hospital, she went through the teaching and then he checked his blood sugar and then he put on the pump and gave himself a bolus of insulin. Here are his numbers for day one: (May 12th)

2 hours after breakfast 222
Before lunch 176
2 hours or so after lunch 152 (he thought it said 52 so he ate while at the BCC)
After he got home from BCC 431 (around 8 PM, took a bolus of insulin with the pump)
Bedtime 220
1 AM 209 (May 13th)
3 AM 213
6 AM 186

Because of his age and hormones, they want him to be between 100-140. Once he becomes an adult, they will change that to 100-120.

His monitor that goes with the pump is so cool. As soon as he checks his blood sugar, it sends it straight to the pump without having to do anything. And the bolus wizard calculator on the pump keeps track of all of the bolus' he gets and keeps him from stacking insulin and going too low. It tells him how much insulin was for correction, and how much was for food, and how much is active. It is really a neat invention! Thank God he finally has it. I think Austen will take better care of himself now, because it is easier with the pump.

Update On Obeying God

As mentioned in my previous post, God made it clear to me yesterday morning that I was to apologize to a brother in Christ. I did not know how exactly I was going to do it and at the last minute came up with a plan. I told the person I wanted to talk to them after church, but, I had a deep feeling that I was supposed to go down during the invitation and make a public apology. (something I really did not want to do, and I was trying to improvise) God said uh-uh.

Our Pastor preached on obeying God ... is that not a God moment? ... I was like "OK, I understand, I will do this, just please help me do it graciously." I wanted to do it, I needed to do it, I was just scared to death!!! At the time of the invitation my first thought was to just ask the person to come down with me so that I could apologize to both him and the Pastor (another way to improvise), but again, God said no, he had other plans ... I did not have a plan of what to say ... I just asked God to take over and help me do it.

I ended up making a very public apology in front of the whole church, and afterwards hugged my brother in Christ and apologized again. He apologized to me too, which I had not expected and would have been fine if he hadn't of, but it assured me that God had gotten to us both, and that now everything would be OK.

The only downside to this is that I don't think I apologized to my Pastor, and I had intended to, but once I was put in front of the church with a microphone in my hand, I almost forgot my own name ... I don't speak well in front of large groups. Anyway ... Wednesday I plan on making sure to apologize to my pastor as well.

We felt very welcomed back to our home church. I was hugged by tons of people, and it blessed my heart to know that even when you do wrong, your brothers and sisters in Christ will forgive you and love you anyway! God is good, and all I know is that even when it's tough and not the way you want to do something, listening to God is always the best way. I feel so much better now, and I know that both God and my brother have forgiven me, and now I can be back into fellowship with them both!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Austen's insulin pump was delivered via UPS today ... PRAISE THE LORD! Talk about an answer to prayer, and a 5 year prayer at that. It just goes to show you that it is all in HIS time and not ours.

The box was huge and contained everything we could possible need for a while. It even has a device that inserts the IV cannula into his belly fast so that he doesn't have to do it manually. AND it came with a blood sugar monitor that sends the readings to the pump, is that cool or what?

They calculate that he will use 20% less insulin with the pump, and he will definitely get better control. We just have to be diligent about keeping snacks on hand and a Glucagon kit in case he goes too low. But WOW! After 5 years, he finally has the pump!!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!! We just have to wait to use it until we go to the dietitian and get taught how to use it and she has to set it up for him.

I'm amazed at God's mercy and grace, His love is awesome!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Well we took Tanner to see Dr. Swain in Murray. He said that the lump was not anything serious. It is a hormonal thing, like male boobs, that should go away on it's own, but he is still going to monitor it to be safe. He said that he could remove it if it became bothersome or embarrassing for Tanner, but that it was harmless. I am so very thankful for this news because the radiologist made it sound like it was really bad. I know many of our friends at our old church have been praying for him, the family has been praying, and a lot of my school friends, so I am so thankful that God heard these prayers and everything is fine. God is so good!

Thank you God for hearing the many prayers on Tanner's behalf. Thank you for protecting him and thank you for the peace you gave me last week ... I knew it was going to be a good outcome, and it was all because of YOU! You are a great and glorious God and I don't deserve the favor you have shown to me and my family. THANK YOU! In Jesus' name I pray, Amen!

Catching Up

Last night I was texting my BFF, and she was worried that I was going to be worrying all weekend about Tanner's lump since we don't see the surgeon until Monday. I told her that it is what it is and me worrying isn't going to change that. I think he will be fine. I did not know that at church last night that the kids in TeamKid prayed for him. It could be the reason why I am feeling better about things. I'm sure of it actually because I know that God answers prayer, especially when more than one person is praying for the same thing while believing the prayer will be answered. God is so good!

We have 3 1/2 weeks of school left for this semester ... I can't believe it!!! It seems like I just started the first semester and now I have just a little over a semester left! December will come fast after school starts back in the fall. Especially since we will only have class for two months and then our Preceptor the following two months. Then I will take my Boards sometime in January and I could be working as an official RN sometime after that! My dream is almost a reality, and I can only thank God for it ... and my husband of course, for doing most of the chores to allow me to study.

I have a paper to write today for school, two actually, but one is due on Friday. I also have some studying to do and some note cards to write for medical micro. I am so happy that our micro professor changed the date of our final exam. We have our last unit exam in nursing on the 28th, then we were supposed to have our micro final on the 29th, and then our nursing final on the 30th. He felt sorry for us and moved the micro final to the 4th ... THANK GOD! That was too much! The last two weeks of nursing and micro are bad enough as we have 6 tests! Can we say OVERLOAD? Thank God summer break is almost here, and I can study at my own pace with no pressure to stay on top of everything for my comprehensive nursing final in the fall that covers everything we have learned so far from every semester.

Well I am off to study and do some laundry. have a great, glorious, and blessed day!

TGIF

This has been the longest week to me. I guess because I had two clinicals this week and because of that, had to miss Church Wednesday. I am so happy it is Friday, even though this weekend looks pretty busy too, since ...

I need to unwind, sleep in, and finish painting the trim in the living room.
I need to do more research on local Churches.
I need to spend time and cuddle up with my husband.
I need to get into God's word.

Next week I also have two clinicals, both of which are on Tuesday, but at least I get my usual Thursday off next week. Not having a day off when you have papers to write, quizzes to take, and research to do is CRAZY!

Tuesday I have Management of Care Day @ Western Baptist & Angel's Clinic. I am looking forward to the first one, but not so much the last one. But just a few more clinicals left, and three more tests and this semester is O-V-E-R! Then summer break ... I can't wait!

Also, please pray for us (or continue) as we have many decisions to make in the near future and we want to make the right ones. Thanks so much and have a great, glorious, and blessed day!

This, That, & The Other

Today was one crazy day. It started off with driving to school this morning. I was running late but my gas light was on. I thought I could make it so I drove on. I started running out of gas on I 24 near exit 11. The car died I am guessing about 1/4 mile from exit 11, and somehow coasted off exit 11 to the Exxon station ... It had to have been God getting me there, that was a long way to coast.

Then I went to my Gynecologist this afternoon. I have been having a lot of pain and bleeding when I'm not supposed to be (sorry if that is too much information), and I have a cyst on my right ovary, so I get to have a hysterectomy and my right ovary and tube removed on Dec. 11th. I am thankful for that though, because with all of my issues, I just know that once it's gone, my pain and troubles will be gone too. I know it will take some time to recover from, but it is well worth it if it means that I can be normal again, and enjoy loving on my husband again.

I still have my friend's daughter. I go back to court on the 14th of Nov. I don't see it changing unless the girls daddy gets her. I am OK with keeping her though. I thought it would stress me out but it doesn't. My friend is stressing me out a little bit, but I can fix that.

Just please continue to pray for me/us right now. We have a lot on our plate right now. I have a test Friday that is over a lot of content. I need to study tomorrow, but the girl I am keeping is running a fever, and I may need to take her to the doctor. It's a virus because all of us have had it, so there probably isn't much they can do about it, but I probably still need to take her. I am praying she will feel better by the morning.

God is good, he does provide all of our needs, and he sustains us and carries us when we feel like we can't go on. I thank Him for that, and I praise Him for whatever it is He is doing in our lives. have a great, glorious, and blessed evening!

New Look - Feeling Blessed

Well I kind of got bored with the solid blue and decided to change things up a bit. I like it but I don't, so I will give it a few days before I change it and see if it grows on me. I hope it is pleasing to your eyes.

I am feeling very blessed today. I have a nice size house, it may need a little cosmetic work done, but it is big enough and structurally sound, so that is good. I have 4 great kids - we joke sometimes about having 4 "terrors" but they are really good kids. They are very open and "mouthy" at times, and that gets them in trouble, but I love it that they all feel like they can tell me how they feel. I also love it that my son who will be 16 years old tomorrow, is more concerned with an x-box 360 than cars and girls. I also love it that my kids are sensitive and willing to help others.

I have a wonderful husband who always thinks of the kids and I before himself. He works hard everyday to provide for us, and he tells us and shows us how much he loves us all the time. I have a great family that I adore and love.

I am able to go to school and follow my dream and God's calling on my life. I am blessed with the best friends anyone could ask for. I know I could call several of them day or night and they would help me in any way that they could.

I just feel really blessed today!

God Is Up To Something

God really worked on me last night. I have been trying very hard to make time to read my Bible before I go to bed, and when I do that, I can hear the voice of God so much better. He wanted me to reach out to some of my friends today, and so I did. I just pray that they will have an open mind, and a soft heart, and really listen to what God is saying, not what I said, but what HE said.

Please God I beg you to work in this situation. I know you have tried over and over again, and I praise you for that, and I know that they keep getting in your way. Lord I pray that they will get out of your way so that you can do your will in their lives. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!

Praise The Lord

After a couple of years worrying about my multi-nodular goiter, my ultrasound shows that the nodules have gotten smaller, so for now I have escaped having to have a biopsy ... Praise God!

This & That

I am finding that I grow closer to God by helping others. Doing something for someone, even if it is just praying for them, makes me feel really good, and I learn and grow in Christ at the same time.

I am feeling really good about some things that have been going on. Some friends of mine are having a hard time, and I have prayed for them for a long time, and during this long time I have seen God working, but now HE is really working, and I am praising HIM for it!

I have decided that there should be a law that says that if you are responsible for a diabetic child in any way, form, or fashion, that you should have to go through training. I am really getting tired of people around my son keeping sugary foods around him, or have them included in every "group" event, but expect him not to eat it, and stay on his case about it. Looks to me if they were truly concerned about him eating it, they wouldn't make it available to him, or have events that are centered around sugar. But what do I know?

If I pull him out of the "group" every time there is sugary foods available, he would not get to be with this "group" much at all. He has already been banned from overnight trips with the group because his blood sugar tends to go really high while with this "group" (probably because of all the sugar they keep around him), but I guess it's easier to expect him not to eat it then it is for them not to have it around him. Yeah, that's being responsible ... But they expect him to be responsible. I just don't get it, please God help me get it!

I love my blog, it is a place I can vent and get things off my chest without hurting others feelings. I have found that talking to people does not always work, so this and praying is how I deal with it

Praise The Lord

I am finished with school for this semester, and I passed all of my classes! I am totally amazed at how God gets you through when HE puts you in places you never thought you'd be! I feel so blessed to be where he has put me, but it is very hard, so I know I can't do it without HIM!

I hope your feeling blessed today and are praising the Lord with me!

A Lot On My Heart

I have been super busy with my studies, and haven't had much time for anything. I have also been dealing with some serious issues and personal problems, so I've been a bit depressed and out of sorts lately.

I'm blessed that I have a loving and forgiving savior! After years of dealing with some things that were not pleasant, after years of praying that God would do something about it, I believe he is working on it now. I praise him for that! It is really hard to be a Christian when someone is constantly doing you wrong, and especially when they are hypocritical about it.

I am starting to feel like I can breathe now, just knowing that God is dealing with this situation. Maybe that was my biggest lesson, instead of trying to find someone to help me deal with it, and give me answers on what I could do, I should have just trusted that God would deal with it in his time.

There is one more thing that is bothering me that I am praying he will fix. I am going to do my best to trust that he will and not talk to anyone about it, and see what God does with it. It too is painful, but I am trusting God.

Satan is on a surge, and he is attacking the best people. I have been so emotional these past two weeks because I feel so heartbroken about a particular couple that Satan, has for now, torn apart. I would have never thought that this could happen to this couple, but I am praying daily that God will intervene and heal this family. I love them so much!

Another great couple that God has put in our path, have been a true blessing! I think they are going to join our church tomorrow! I praise God for great Christian people! And the neat thing about it, is that a lost couple is good friends with the four of us (Stanley & I, and this new couple), so hopefully God will use all of us to reach them, and we can be good influences on them and encourage them and show them love.

So even though in some ways I'm suffering with some issues, I am also praising God for what he is allowing me to go through (to teach me), and for working on some things I have been praying about.

I pray that God is working in your life!

God Worked It Out

I shouldn't be amazed, but I am. Something I had been worrying about and praying about, God took care of just like that. Isn't God wonderfully amazing?

Revive Prayer Walks In Your Local Schools

Have you heard of Revive? If not than your in for a treat. Revive is a Christian ministry that goes around praying for local schools. This is a legal event because the prayer walk takes place when school is not in session and the school isn't the one who organizes it.

Watch the YouTube Video:



Many schools are involved, but if your school isn't involved, and you would like to get one started, please go to http://www.reviveprayerwalk.com/find/ and add your school. All it takes is to contact the school or school board, ask for permission, set a date, get someone to unlock the doors (if possible), and then get the word out!

God is moving in these schools and it is amazing to watch and be a part of. Go on and get one started in your schools ------> http://www.reviveprayerwalk.com/find/

See you on the battlefield!

God Bless You!

THE BELL
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)
I am united with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price(1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ(1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation (Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God(2 Cor.5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God(Rom.8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1:21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker. (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted As God's child (Eph1:5)
I belong to God

'The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn His face toward youand give you peace.' Numbers 6:24-26