Hi, Everyone! I just was talking with a dear friend of mine. She’s having some upcoming neck surgery. She posted on a website to family and friends. 

My friend Judy said: “Greetings Friends and Family. Just posting a note to let all y’all know that I will be having neck surgery on Wednesday.Got injured at work some months ago and now that my tests, labs, paperwork are completed and approved. I’ve finally got the green light to get’er done. I’ve got several disks in my neck impinging on my spinal cord. I will be having a lumbar fusion to correct and protect my next from further injury. I’ll be in the hospital a few days (no visitors please; the surgeon will be going in the side of the throat, so I won’t feel like talking) But your prayers and well wishes are appreciated. Thanks!” 

I said “I’ll be there visiting you, you won’t see me but you’ll know I’m there in spirit praying for you, giving hugs and encouragement when needed. I will be making you laugh ~ ok smile because of something funny just because you’re special!! Love ya my dear sweet friend. I myself am having back surgery Friday then again next Thursday. They’re breaking it up to make certain what they’re doing will work for me considering my bone disease. Ahh, there’s my Bluetooth keyboard... it deserted me mid thought ~ how dare it do that!! Know that I will be praying for you! 

Judy then responded back “Wow! You take those punches like a champ! I hope I can keep my spirits up like you. You’re an amazing woman, Leah! 

I wrote back Thank you, Judy!! Let’s take the punches together!! Let’s show the enemy who’s boss~ we will do this together!! You’re an amazing woman too, Judy!! Taking the punches isn’t always easy, but we have to take a stand and we ca get those punches and conquer!

I wrote this because I was blessed by her response, but more importantly I wanted her to know that I would be there with her in spirit lifting her in prayer that I would stand in the gap for her. Friends are treasures. We need to care for our friends. I am thankful for the ones that God has placed in my life.

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Afternoon, Everyone! I hope that you have wonderful day today. I posed the question to you because I have had several challenges thrown at me recently. I thought by posing it to you I thought it would give you something to think about. I could have easily thrown in the towel and given up in the storms I am facing right now. I chose not to give up. I chose to face these storms head on.  I know that God will carry me through them. We all face different challenges and storms in our lives; from things in our lives, the children, medical things, relationship things and more. The challenges I am facing right now are medical related. They’re overwhelming to me because they’re coming one after the other.  Yes, I could give up, I could cry over them, I could get angry over them; I could worry; where would that get me? How would that resolve anything? It would not resolve anything, it would only stop me in my tracks. It would stop me from moving forward. I instead have taken each one of these challenges to the Lord. I have given them to Him to carry. I left them with Him and as I go through these challenges I will give all the new information that comes from each one and give it to the Lord. I know the days ahead will not be easy, but with the Lord they will be easier. How you ask? Here are some scriptures that I have read that will help me through the days ahead. I will share them with you here. After I share the scriptures with you I will open up about the medical challenges I am facing. 

Psalms 27:1 

 “The Lord is my light and my salvation —so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”

Isaiah 41:13

“For I hold you by your right hand — I the Lord your God. And, I say to you, Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.”

I Peter 5:7

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” 

As promised I told you I would open up about what is going on with me. The first storm has been my back I have been having lots of pain still from my injury in April with the aquatic therapy. I have now had two surgical back procedures and may be facing a third. A second storm that I am facing is one with my eyes. I was already diagnosed with early stages of glaucoma, but that is begining to change. I was told that the collagen defect due to my brittle bones disease is now affecting my eyes. I may be facing some serious things ahead. They did mention about surgery for the eyes. I don’t know as I am ready for that yet. I know these things generally happen later in your life, but I am experiencing things now.  I did not think I would be experiencing these right now in my life. I also am experiencing injuries that are occurring without my doing anything to be hurt. I was dealing with extreme pain in my left elbow. I did not know what could be causing it. The doctor asked if I had been doing any heavy lifting or gardening; no, I have not. I have been recouping from a back surgical procedure two weeks ago. He said I guess you wouldn’t be then. They took some pictures and ran some scans discovering that the tendon in my elbow is inflamed and tearing. Again the words surgery come out of the doctor’s mouth. Not what I was wanting to hear. We will try other things before surgery. I will try physical therapy then from there we will see what needs to be done to resolve things.

How you take the storms that come in our lives will determine how you come out on the other side of the storm. If we let them control us then we can be negative, we can give up when there is a positive side that we are missing because we have decided to cover that with negative thoughts. This brings me to a scripture that I love a lot because I remember it often.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casing down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this entry. I hope it has given some insight for you to be able to take on your storms in a different way.

Have a great day Moms!!

Greetings, Moms!!! I hope you’ve had a wonderful day today. Were you able to do anything special or fun with your family? I have been taking special care of our son as he had surgery on Monday . The surgery was successful; the pins and tension wire were removed from his elbow. He’s very resilient in that the first day out he says, “Mama, look!!  I can turn my wrist full rotation out!! “ I was greatly excited to see this as this has been a limitation due to the hardware being in the elbow. I just wanted to open this up casually before getting to the challenge. I didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long. 

Now for our challenge to think about. I am part of a Mom’s Connect Group in our church. We read through books to study. We will sometimes do a devotional study as we are now. The current study that we are doing is “Grouchy to Great: Finding Joy In The Journey Of Motherhood.” The challenge that was presented to us was to write five things we are grateful for. We are to do this for the next five days. While this activity may end in our group; I choose to keep it going and will continue in my journal. I find that this activity really puts a different perspective on how you decide to open your day. Maybe you had interrupted sleep. I for example last night and the last few weeks have been up several times in the night due to pain in my back. I could have chosen to complain about it, but I haven’t. I in fact have been putting things up with friends “Thank you Lord for the middle of the night wake up. What do You have planned for us these wee hours??” I will now post for you my five things that I have been grateful for since the start of this activity. 

Monday:

I am grateful for...

1. Family; whether we agree or not we will come around one another. 

2. Special friends that are there for you in good times and difficult times, but that I too can be there for them. 

3. Small Group-Mom’s Connect-friendships made and reconnected. 

4. Pastor who cares for us in the church and those who are not that we mention for prayer. My church family. 

5. God bringing people into my life and opening doors to opportunities that I never saw coming. I am excited to see what God has in store for these opportunities. 

Tuesday 

Grateful for....

1. Successful surgery for our son. Great surgeon, caring team. Huge Praise! First day out FULL ROTATION OF THE WRIST!!! The hardware and tension wire prevented him from having full range of motion. 

2. His friend called just to check on him. The encouragement that came from the phone call. We were all blessed. The support of others praying and checking on him — grateful!! My friend Bev, my co-conspirator who spent the day with us at the hospital-beyond blessed!! 

3. My husband, his service to our country, a Veteran, provider for our family.  That he’s able to allow himself vulnerable to express how great love between us. 

4. God’s Word, able to read it daily; grow from the reading and able to apply to my life. 

5. For being able to change perspective on things in my life that otherwise could be negative. I put a perspective of positivity on it instead. This also has become an area of ministry as I was able to minister to someone at the hospital during our son’s surgery. 

Wednesday 

Grateful for....

1. God’s Amazing Grace! 

2. The Lord is my Shepherd wherever He leads I’ll go. 

3. Beautiful warm sunny day.

4. Middle of the night wake up times. 

5. When plans don’t seem to fall into place-God puts them into place in His time. 

I hope to hear some of the things you’re grateful for. I pray that you will be able to see the good and not let circumstances steal your Joy, but that you’ll be able to keep your Joy!

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Afternoon, Moms! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. This weekend is beautiful, but challenging for this Mom. I have a heavy heart this morning. I don't mean as in the loss of a loved one. I mean that I will be taking our son for surgery on Monday that will be longer than four hours. Last year we were at our camp, our son was trying his best to get a photo of a large snapping turtle. He ran down from our site and he got his shot. He was excited that he captured the turtle the way he wanted to in this photo. He was rushing to get to me back at the campsite. As he was climbing the rocks he slipped and fell straight onto his elbow breaking it in three places and separating it from the growth plate in places as well. We had to go to a hospital facility that we were unfamiliar with they did the diagnosis to let us know of the fractures and separations. They wanted to send us further on to another facility that we were not familiar with. We were told by one that was caring for our son that he didn't recommend that we go up there. He told us to tell them "ok", but then to get home as quickly as we can to the hospital that we are familiar and comfortable with the care of our son.  We did just that which was almost a two-hour ride from where we were. We did that and they told us that he'd be facing an over four-hour surgery to place hardware and tension wire in his elbow. Now the time has passed, we are now a year out from injury. We are now returning to the hospital with our son to have surgery to remove the hardware and tension wire from the elbow. This surgery also will be over four hours. I am having a heavy heart because the part of the surgery that makes me cry is when they put him under. This I feel is one of the most difficult things that we have to do with our children as parents. Not every parent will experience their child going in for surgery. Those of us that have I have heard from every one of them that, them taking their child back to put them under for surgery has been the most difficult for them. It's the fear of the unknown. Every surgery is a risk, but when we have God in our lives and trust HIM, giving our children over to HIM - He's in control. They're in His care. I also think of one of my favorite verses found in II Timothy 1:7.  God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind. I know several of my Mom friends and other Parents have told me the feelings I am having are all natural. I have a dear, a dear friend of mine coming with me and my husband to the Children's Hospital to pray and support us while our son is in surgery. 

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Morning Everyone!! I hope you're enjoying your morning. I have been enjoying mine and have listened to the rain as God let it fall to water his garden and care for all that He's created.  I love how God takes care of us. We may not always see it at first, but when we take the time to look deeper we see it. 

I am writing because I was thinking through the hurt, the pain, the challenges I have faced whether they be by injury, surgery or other obstacles that have come up in my life God is sovereign. He knew the plans He had for me. He knew how I would go through these things. Just as He says in Jeremiah 29:11 " For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope."

He knew the struggle, He placed the right people in my life to influence me in the direction He would have me go. Even if I wanted to be stubborn and not want to comply at first, but in the end, I do and did; I was very blessed. I was very blessed with what He taught me through the struggle, through the challenges. So I challenge you to step out,  walk out in faith when you think you can't He's there, He's by your side -- Take it up!!! Walk with Him!!

Have a great day Moms!!