Prayer Request Sunday

My mom, Sally - dealing with depression and has been diagnosed with diabetes. May have to go on medication for diabetes.
My sister, Alicia --- To have a baby. No luck for the last 4 yrs.
My aunt, Thomassene --- has herniated disc and may need surgery. Also over the past week has been dealing with vertigo!
Nancy - is still very sick. Doctors are saying it still may be lyme disease.
Rodney Cain -- is a diabetic, part of his foot has already been amputated. May need to have whole foot amputated. Also is having kidney problems. Please continue to pray for him.
Harriet - depression esp this time of year from deaths in the family.
Rita Moore - her husband fell and broke hip in 4 places last week. Please continue to cover this family.
Betty Whitlow -- has appt. with Heart Doctor on Dec 27.
Loretta--Dad still in hospital.
Our Church - building a new church building, praying God's continued favor over this project. Please continue to cover this in prayer!!!
Angela (me) - As I try to lose weight again this week! That I will not grow weary, but continue to rely on God during this process.
Tanya's Family - was killed in a car accident last Friday. Please remember her family, esp the three children she left behind!

For more requests, please see: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/socalval/Prayer%2BRequest%2BSunday/

Please take a moment and pray for all of these requests. (I will post updates as soon as I get them.)

PRAISE REPORTS:

Loretta - husband is out of hospital after appendectomy and is doing well!

Angela (me) - After more than 5 years, I have received a complete physical healing over the last week!!! Also, lost almost a pound (0.8 lb) this past week!!!

If you have a prayer request, please leave a comment or email me at thomasjaz3@bellsouth.net with your request. And please be sure to email or leave another comment with any praise reports as well!!!

Thanks!!! :-)

Thanksgiving Is Almost Here!!!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is only a few days away!!! This year has gone by way too fast!!!

I do love this time of year though! And I love Thanksgiving!!! Not just for the food, which is always wonderful, but for the time we get to spend together and the memories we get to make each year.

I have always loved waking up and watching the parades while the turkey's in the oven. Our tradition is that DH cooks the turkey -- and he is an AWESOME cook! -- and I prepare all the sides. This is the way it has always been when we stay home for the day. We usually eat our Thanksgiving dinner around 12:30 pm... that is except for the year I accidentally forgot to thaw out the turkey.

This was actually DS's first Thanksgiving and my brain had been missing for quite some time. LOL We had bought the turkey only 2 days before and instead of putting it in the fridge, I put it in the freezer. We didn't discover this until around 8:30 am Thanksgiving Day!

We ended up throwing a pizza in the oven for lunch and didn't get to enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner until almost 7 pm. It was still great and we still get to laugh at ourselves about it every year - actually DH still gets a lot of joy out of it! LOL

We still had an awesome day that year! DS was only 5 months old and that was also the year we began our own family tradition of giving our child(ren) a gift after we eat our Thanksgiving dinner to bring in the holiday season at our house. Every year since then we have done this and it's so much fun!

After we "bring in the holiday season", that's when we begin listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas shows / movies, decorate the house and we usually try to put up the tree within a day or two after Thanksgiving.

I am so looking forward to this week and DS is also very excited this year. Before now, he was a very picky eater and now he eats anything and everything! (Thank God for answered prayer!!!) He is especially excited about all the turkey and, yes, all the football!!! :-)

I hope that everyone who's reading this will have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas season with your family!!!

God bless you!!! :-)

Walk By Faith

I found this great song along with a wonderful testimony by Jeremy Camp on Youtube. I was going to post it on this blog, but there was no link to use to embed it on this page.

Here's the link to the page itself -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKaJr5ZWby4&feature=related

This is one of my very favorite songs by him and one that has gotten me through some really tough times. It's weird that I even found this clip of this song because I was actually looking for a different song!

Before performing the song, he shares the story of why he wrote the song and why the words of the song are still as true today as they were back then. Hope it touches your heart as it touched mine!!! :-)

Why God???

These last few years have been really hard at times, but whether I can see it or not, God has been so faithful!

Even though I can look back now and see where God's hand was in many of the situations, I am still unsure of why we had to go through certain things. There are things that don't make any sense to me and I'm not sure if they ever will or not.

I do know that God has called me to walk in faith and because of that I am trusting that these things were necessary or He wouldn't have allowed them to happen.

I say that completely by faith because at times I still deal with lots of different emotions. I still get upset and even angry sometimes, but I do know that even if I am not ready to completely give these situations over to Him at that moment, He will be waiting when I am.

Before now I have always held onto things and let them control my thoughts, emotions, etc. But now, even though I haven't fully given everything over to God, I am slowly beginning to release these things to Him. Even when these things come to mind, I am trying not to dwell on them anymore.

And God knows that I'm not perfect nor will I ever be. He's not angry with me that I still struggle with things, but He gives me His mercy whenever I am not strong and still covers me when I don't want to be touched.

Thought This Was Awesome...

Not only do I love this movie, but paired with this song, many of the scenes in this video remind me so much of my walk with God over the last few years!

Adopting... or not???

A few people know that we have been considering adopting a little one for a while. We haven't talked about it lately because we feel that we are currently going through a process to prepare us physically and financially so that we can adopt. We are also waiting on God and His timing if this is to happen.


Since I began losing weight several months ago, I have been a little bit confused as to whether we will have another biological child before we go through with adoption. I have a weird feeling that as soon as I reach my goal that I will probably get pregnant. Of course, I was unable to get pregnant before I starting gaining the extra weight and when I did get pregnant, it was an absolute miracle. (I'll be sure to share that story soon in another post!) Not sure if this is just me or if it is in fact God telling us to wait a bit longer before beginning the adoption process. ???



As I said, we haven't really talked about adoption lately even between the two of us. We sent in a preliminary application last December and was told that we would more than likely be able to proceed with an adoption with no problems. Even with that being said, along with wanting to be a lot more financially secure, in April we felt that we should wait another year before starting anything.



We have always felt that God was leading us to adopt from China. I know that there are plenty of babies here in the US as well as a lot of other places. We simply feel called to go to China. And I understand all the new restrictions and that waiting time has gotten even longer, but I still feel God saying China.


I know that God may change His mind and redirect our path at some point. I also know that sometimes God takes us down a certain path to lead us to another one that may be totally different than the one we started on. And if we are to have another biological child anytime soon, I would rather wait until that child is at least a few years old before adopting. Regardless of when it will happen, I feel in my heart that at some point in our lives we will be adopting a child... maybe even several children. I don't think God would have given us this desire so strongly if we weren't supposed to.


Anyway, a couple of days ago I received an email from the adoption agency and I decided to go to their website. It's the first time I've been there in a while. As I read through the articles and looked at all the pictures, I prayed and asked God to remind me if this was still in His will for us to do this. My heart became heavy once again and I realized that the desire is still very much there!


I got off the computer a little bit later and while I was spending time with DS watching one of our cartoons, I noticed there was something flying around. Then I saw two, then three and then I noticed a few more. Finally, I realized that these were lady bugs! Since then, we have had a lady bug invasion and even noticed that almost the entire ledge over our front porch was covered with them!!!


If you know anything about China, you know that lady bugs are a symbol of good luck and have also become the symbol of hope for adoptive parents waiting for their new babies! Coincidence or could this be another confirmation???

I guess we'll see... :-)

SECRET SISTERS!!!

"I am signed up for the Homeschool Moms Secret Sister Session #3!"