Greetings! I have been thinking how do I open this entry. There has been so much going on in my everyday life. That is not what this post is about. What this post is about is God’s faithfulness. He is faithful even when we aren’t. I know that seems harsh, but it’s truth. We may feel like we are walking with heavy things in our lives alone, but we are not because God is there! He is right there alongside us when we may not feel Him there. 

My husband and I spent time in prayer day after day, week after week, month after month then it became a year then two years. There were times in those times of prayer “God are you hearing us?” He would show us in His Word He indeed was there. I remember one passage of scripture from Psalm 37: 5-7 “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.”  The first part there “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him and He will help you...” This really was the greatest reminder for my husband and I. I am not saying we forgot or doubted the Lord because we didn’t. While praying about  this heavy thing in our life that we were praying that the Lord would answer, provided it was His will. We can say the trials that came up in praying about it, the different negative things people were saying around us, trying to cause doubt and lose trust in God’s faithfulness was a challenge all in itself. I know I would always pray against that negativity. I would pray against the discouragement that it would cause in my spirit. This continued as I said, this went on for two years. 

The more time went on, the more I wrote in my prayer journal about this that we were praying for. The more I dug into God’s Word and spent time talking to Him about this. I remember times of pouring my heart out and the tears would flow. God would bring a scripture to mind, bring a song to mind, He would have a friend bring a word to me; they would say something to let me know He is still there He hasn’t left us. Friends, even our Pastor would say something that would encourage us to continue in prayer, continue in our faithfulness to the Lord. Our Pastor didn’t know what our burden was. He would ask praise and prayer in service when it would come up for “unspoken” that is when my hand would go up because then I didn’t have to say what the burden was, BUT God knew already what it was that was heavy on our hearts. He knew the significance this meant and the impact on our lives if this came about. This reminds me of a scripture the Lord gave me when I was carrying our son through a very complicated pregnancy. The verse comes from Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” We may have been feeling like this won’t happen for a long time if at all. Yes, we did doubt some because of some of the negative thoughts and comments being presented around us. I held on to the passage from Psalm 37 and others that God gave me throughout the two years of praying about this heavy burden. 

God was faithful as He always is. He did things in His time, not ours. He caused us to grow, to trust Him more, to spend more time in the Word and allowing Him to show us scripture to pull us through. I have to say that this was a long, long, long journey, but I am so thankful because God blessed us and answered our prayer for this heavy burden and things will be changing in our lives. I pause to remind you to remember God is faithful! He is there with you when you feel alone. Those are times when He is wrapping you in His loving arms and carrying you through the difficult times to that peaceful shore if you will. He will get you to the other side; maybe not always what you hoped for, planned for, but He will show His will in what He has in store for you, you just have to trust Him.  Thanks for taking a moment to read this post. 

Have a great day Moms!!

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!!

Good Evening Everyone!! I hope you were able to enjoy your day. I did enjoy mine; the sunshine, just the warmth of it all. The gentle breeze, the coolness of the air. Watching the birds and animals playing around outside in the beautiful day. 

I want to tell you just how important friendship is and how you build and keep your friendship when trials come. I say this because I just went through a very trying time with a friend. I say this because friends are very important in our lives; how we continue our friendships really matter. I got to thinking about this being Friendship Sunday and with the events of this week I have to say that I am thankful, grateful that I still have my friend even with the hard time that we just went through.

I would like to open this with many of our issues were misunderstandings. Sometimes when we would disagree on things much hurt went between us. This was difficult to recover from sometimes. Now things have changed between us, we have agreed how we would communicate with one another.   Today we had a conversation that was going well then something was said that my first reaction was to get angry and let my friend know I was very hurt by what was said. I didn’t do that though. I paused, took a step back and answered my friend, but I did let her know that I was hurt by what she said. I was hurt by what it implied of me. She also paused before answering me; she said she was asking a question, nothing else and also said she was sorry I felt hurt. I told her I was hurt by the way it came across or was assumed. I took a moment to stop, wait do not react to what she’s saying. I had to tell myself not to jump in, but to wait, let her talk more. I did just that and even though she asked me to forgive her I said no need to forgive. I felt this was a matter of misunderstanding and rather than she and I to argue through the conversation we talked through the conversation. Now, we have agreed this approach to when things hurt us, we misunderstand or it makes us want to “attack” with words we now pause, wait until what is said is said then read it. Again pause before responding back right away this way there is less arguments and hurt feelings. This approach is different for her and I,  but this is going to the best way. I can say that it will make our friendship stronger for that. I give her Biggest Hugs for standing by me in our friendship to take us on a closer journey as friends.

I hope that this has and will help many of you that may have a friendship that has bumps in the road. Please take the time to really appreciate and talk with your friend when you hit one of these bumps. Do not let a bump cause a roadblock or a destruction in your friendship. Stay close to the Lord, dig in His Word. Look to Him when you have a bump in your friendship and your life He will get you through even when you feel all alone. I can tell you there have been times I have felt alone; not until later did I realize that He was carrying me when I was at my weakest.

I will close this with next Sunday, October 15th is Friendship Sunday be sure to invite your friends to church with you. You will have something else to talk about. A new subject, how great is that? 

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!!

Hi, Everyone!! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend! Feeling blessed to have a nice warm sunny summer day without the rain.  We've had several days this month already with rain and many of us are dealing with flooding. Those that are dealing with the flooding be safe. I pray that you will get through this. Our Lord is amazing! He may bring us to things, but He doesn't let us go them alone. He's right there by our side. He's holding our hand, walking with us through our challenges, trials, difficult times. We may shed many tears, tears of sadness, tears of feeling overwhelmed; there are many types of tears we may shed, but our Lord is there holding us up, wrapping his arms around us. When I think about that this verse comes to mind from Psalm 91:4 "He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection." The reason I think of this verse is how much our loving Lord protects us His children. When we are weak He is there to lift us up. In Him we need not be afraid as He is our refuge. We can take refuge in Him.

Another great passage that comes to mind a wonderful friend shared with me. We have made it our friendship verse. These verses are from I Thessalonians 5:16-19. "Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit." I am thankful that the Lord put Mary in my life. She sent me a great message the day that we laid our beloved Aunt Cora to rest. In Mary's message she said that she felt she needed to pray for me, but didn't know why. When we chatted later I told her that we were traveling as a family about an hour away for the funeral of our beloved Aunt. She then knew why the God put me on her heart. Just as Mary praying for me and my family I do the same when God puts someone on my heart. I immediately stop what I am doing and spend time in prayer. While we don't always know why we are praying for the one that God laid on our heart He guides us through our prayer for them and for their need. He already knows what their need is or are He gets His prayer warriors praying for His children. I am so glad He does. I have prayed for family and friends this way and when I talk to them later I sometimes find out that they were in a difficult situation or something was happening that they needed prayer, but didn't reach out to anyone for prayer. I love when God does this in His own way. I feel He let's us see these moments to encourage us to take it on and heed His guiding us in prayer when He lays someone on our hearts - so don't shy away from being a blessing to someone who needs someone to pray for them. 

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Afternoon, Everyone! I hope you're enjoying your day. I have been enjoying the time with my family and now spending some one on one time with my son. We have been working on a project together that he'd like to get started in the building.  

Yesterday was a day of many appointments with our son. We had to first go to the Children's Hospital for an ultrasound then to the Urologist, Dr. Mason for the reading of the ultrasound. We had discovered over a year ago now a calcification in our son's testicle. He had been experiencing some testicular pain. We found the calcification; at first as all parents do we worried about our son. What are our options? What is our next step?? Who do we see from here?? What is the plan of care?? We then paused after the running of the fast forward button of our minds.  We went to the throne. We went to God in prayer; we sought Him in our next steps. We knew and know He is the Great Physician, the Great Healer.  We trusted Him with this and prayed that in His Will, His timing that this calcification is removed. God has His plans, His ways; we have to trust the way He leads in our circumstances. 

The ultrasound went smoothly, two technicians came in and took pictures as one of the techs was just learning what is expected and being trained. I was fine with this because I was able to be there to see the photographs that they were taking. Meanwhile, our son slept through his entire ultrasound. Yes, he was that relaxed. We then walked across to the urologist's office. We arrived for our appointment and discussed the results with Dr. Mason. He assured us that everything looked good. The calcification was still there but had not changed at all in size or shape. He also told us that unless there was an issue he would see us in two years!! We praise God for this!!! 

We then left for the Diabetes Center to get our son's DEXA scan for his bones. We need to see where he stands with the density of his bones to determine if infusions are again needed or if we can continue on with our break from having to go to the Children's Cancer Center.  I was in the room while they performed the DEXA and what I saw of the previous scan to this one his bones look much better. I will know better after his appointment with the Nephrologist where we stand far as infusions. 

I must say again that I am seeing great things with the Vitamin D-3 that we are taking. Our levels have improved instead of decreasing. I know we are in our Lord's hands. I am so blessed that we are Children of God as it says in I John 3:1-2 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

I will update this post as soon as we have the results of the levels and his bone density. I am not worried about this result. I know God has him in His care. 

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Evening, Moms!!! I pray that you're doing well. I am sure you're days are eventful; praying you are able to get some Mom time. I know when I do I cherish every second. 

When we are in a battle we sometimes can be confused, unsure, unable to discern and the list could go on. I will end it there though. I know when I am under attack I try not to be anxious, this is something that I am working on. I know that it will take time, but God is walking by my side through the battles. He's the calm in my storm. The verse that comes to mind for me referring back to being anxious is found in 1 Peter 5: 7 "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you." I look at that verse "give all your worries" -- give all your anxieties to God, to God why? Why, because He cares about you!!! Don't let the anxiety take you over. Don't let it get you to say, "I can't do this, I am not strong enough..." You are strong enough, You have God by your side. He will walk this with you.

We as Moms go to battle for our children. When someone offends them or harms them in any way we are on the battlefield to protect our children. When someone offends or harms a family member same thing we are out there on the battlefield fighting for our family member to protect them.  We just want what is best. To be the best at fighting on that battlefield we need to be in our prayer closets, becoming, being the best prayer warrior God has. We also need to be out there on the battlefield being trained by God to fight against the attacks of the enemy. Are you ready to join God's Army, to be His Prayer Warrior?? 

Have a great day Moms!!

Good Morning!! Hope you're having a good start to your morning. We had our morning dance, I love these times even though one day to the next the pain level may be different. It's the short times of chatting with one another that I love. Sometimes it can be quite interesting as my husband isn't quite awake when we are doing our morning dance. He will say something that makes me laugh. He's my best friend. We are high school sweethearts. I love the little moments that we get to spend together. The times we get to talk over a cup of coffee even though I am not to have it. I will make an exception for him and special friends.

Speaking of special friends. I got to spend time with one of them yesterday. We went out just to go look for some twist up colored pencils so I could do highlighting in my Bible. The current highlighter I had would soak through to the other side of the page so when I'd turn the page in my Bible it didn't always make sense of what was highlighted. I didn't want to continue through my Bible like that. We found the twist up colored pencils at our local Walmart. These are the colored pencils. I am really liking them. I like that you can twist the point back inside to protect it from being broken off. You can click the picture it is linked to Walmart if you should decide to purchase them.

I want to continue with the time with my special friend. She's great, I enjoy our friendship. I have to say we've had some ups and downs. Not in ending the friendship, just in getting to know one another. We'd "bump heads" if you will with where we may or may not agree on things. One may say that that's not the way it is while the other would say, but you don't see where I am coming from or how I am taking this. I can say yes it may have caused struggles, but in the end, it has made the friendship stronger. My friend knows things that touch my heart and she's sensitive to not make me speak of those things. I have to say I scared my friend yesterday - she's a tough one to scare as I learned, but I got her!!It was fun, but by total surprise. I didn't think I was going to scare her, but I did, hehe! 

The friendships that we develop, have for short times, long times we really need to cherish them because we never know when we may lose that friend to an illness, cancer, or some other reason. God placed these friends in our lives for a reason. Each friend of ours is a gem, cherish them, enjoy the time you have with them each time you're together. Send your friends a message to let them know that you're thinking of them. Call your friends sometimes they cannot write in a message what is in their heart because they can't put it to words, but they can talk it out. Sometimes what's in their hearts is something very painful be patient with them. Take the time to be genuine in listening to them hear their heart. Be the comforter that they need, if they're there with you be the one to hold their hand, hug them, rub their shoulder to let them know you are there for them. You are coming alongside them to help them through the difficult time that they're going through.

Take some time to spend with your friends, your special friends, your best friends, your childhood friends...enjoy your day's everyone!!! 

Have a great day Moms!!