For His Service

We had a very memorable Wednesday. I had to have a root canal on a cracked back tooth. At least I was on a pain pill when the rest of the things would happen. :) Noah started running a fever and by 6:00 he was running a pretty good fever. With the sudden on set, we felt confident that he had the flu. Because of his history of pneumonia , we took him to a Children's immediate care, but not before we discovered our basement was flooding. Noah tested positive for the flu and then, at 10:30 at night we began to remove water. As fast as we could shop vac it out, it was coming in. We called our insurance company just to be told that if it is ground water, it wouldn't be covered. It wasn't until we called in the pros with their large vacuum that we discovered that the water ...indeed...was coming in from the outside wall. Ughhhh .!!!! There goes the new kitchen counter tops...and the one room addition we had hoped to do in February. It would take another 15 phone calls or more to...

Thank you for praying for John-Michael. His Mri's went very well...other than him peeing on himself and the machine breaking down for a bit. (I don't think the two things are related, but maybe). They took a little longer to redo a few pictures...about 3 hours of sedation, but he woke up with no problem. We met with his neurosurgeon, Dr. Boydston, and he said the para spinal tumor has changed so little that he is recommending that John-Michael doesn't get any more Mri's for 2 years. This is a great praise. His brain looked totally normal and clean! Thank you for lifting him up in prayer. We had a fun, normal weekend. We went to the mountains as we have every fall ...with the Davis family. It is so very beautiful! We were able to enjoy a view where you could see GA, Alabama, and Tennessee. Great stress release.

The next two days are going to be a little more stressful that normal. wwww.carepages.com/carepages/Johnmichaeldp You see, 5 years ago, we were told by several doctors, our pediatrician and two dermatologists, that our 3 month old son, John-Michael, might have a horrible disease called Neurobibromatosis . It is also called von Recklinghausen , NF, or Peripheral NF. It occurs in 1 out of 3, 000 births. However, there isn't a test you can take to know if you have this disease. You must wait for at least two of the markers of this disease to appear. The marker that John-Michael had as a baby was multiple cafe- au - lait spots (birthmarks). They also look for enlargement and deformation of bones (he doesn't have) , curvature of the spine, tumors in the brain (doesn't have) , tumors on the cranial nerves (doesn't have) , and tumors on the spinal cord (doesn't have). They also look for Lisch nodules, clumps of pigment in the iris (he doesn't have this) and freckl...

As a 19 year old, many of my decisions weren't good ones. One great one was marrying Russell Pate. He has been kind, funny, helpful, and good-looking, but all of that isn't enough to have a good marriage. It ultimately depends on God's grace. He has poured grace upon our marriage. I wish Russell and I could take credit for the survival of our marriage, but we can't. We have been selfish. We have thought only of ourselves. We have not always thought of the other person first. I am so grateful for what God has done. I love the husband He gave me.

Okay...now that I have your attention. .... Loving people is a risky thing to do, a painful thing to do, at times, a discouraging thing to do, a disappointing thing to do...but we need to do it anyway. How boring and unfulfilled life would be if we didn't risk loving others! How meaningless life would be if we didn't allow ourselves to love people even though disappointment, lost, and pain is involved ...especially.....when we love and love well. Right now I feel there are so many people in my life whose hurts effect me. I am unable to forget their pain and problems; it just eats me up and makes me grieve. I am glad I have compassion and empathy for them, but God has to toughen me up. Perhaps this is what God is doing in this stage of my life... toughening me up.....maybe this is why I have friends who ...after 2 years....seem unable to get a foreign government to allow them to bring a 9 year old orphan home as their son....maybe this is why I found out that two of m...

In the mist of several rainy days in Georgia, I am thankful for the few times of sunshine, but my body, and brain, is certainly craving more. As I type, it is raining again and there is another flash flood watch in our area. To the left is a photo of our backyard, last week. I don't think the rain will cause as much trouble, but I do wish to just sit in a window and feel the sunshine on my face for awhile. In the meanwhile, like many of you, I have the rainy blues. I am going to try to count some of my blessings from this past week to bring a little virtual "sunshine". 1. My 5 year old came to me and told me that his older brother hurt his feelings and it also made him MAD! I said, "Did you want to punch him?". He said, "No, because I want to honor the LORD." Sweet. 2. This past week we went to Disney and Sea World. I loved feeding and touching the dolphins! How amazing! I will never forget it. 3. I saw 3 Phoebes in my backyard and at least one...for ...

Sometimes we just need a hiding place; a place to be protected either mentally, physically, emotionally , or all of the above. I am so guilty of not going to the correct hiding place for comfort and protection. Too often I fall back into old habits of looking to other things to temporarily comforting me instead of going to the ONE that can give that comfort permanently. Sometimes I am mad and don't want to go to Him. "How could He allow this to happen to me? To us?" Sometimes I am hurt and He is the last I want to run to....my own pride is in the way. God gave me such a good picture of this a few days ago. I was cutting the grass and I noticed a "leaf" that I was about to run over with the mower..but I stopped and looked again. A butterfly, a beautiful , black butterfly with blue detail. ..a black swallowtail butterfly like the photo above, except for one major detail. It had a torn wing. It appeared as if a bird had attempted to eat it and decided better o...

I learned a new thing you don't do when you are a year away from 40. You don't paint your toe nails the newest color (Midnight blue)... and then decide you LOVE it...and paint your fingernails the same...Midnight blue! How is it that the blue on my fingernails made every vein on my hands a thousand times more noticeable!??! So, I did what any woman would have done; I took fingernail polish remover to it, to undo my error...just to discover that my hands now look like I have dipped them into an ink well. 15 cotton ball soaked in fingernail polish remover..and I still have a ring of midnight blue around my fingernails ... not attractive. So, trust me! Just say no to the blue colors on your hands...possible purple as well, for that matter. Getting old is hard, but it certainly beats the alternative. Enjoy your day, Rachel (Still enjoying my midnight blue toes). http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3304/3640697916_217bb23faf.jpg (not my hands/ just giving you an idea of the color)

My 5 year old was a little car sick before his -one-day-a week school on Tuesday. Let me explain; he only attends kindergarten at a Hybrid school , Veritas Classical School; a school for homeschoolers - attending one day and homeschooling the other 4 days. He told me he didn't think he could go to Veritas because "I feel a little woonwe in my head". I said, "Honey, I don't know what " woonwe " is. Please tell me another way." He said, "You know, when you think you are all by yourself but you are not." Ahhh .... lonely. He was feeling a little lonely in his head. He was trying to tell me that he was feeling anxious. How many times do we feel all by ourselves when we are not? Some say God isn't real that He is only a crutch. Well, let's look at the definition of a crutch. crutch n. 1. A staff or support used by the physically injured or disabled as an aid in walking, usually designed to fit under the armpit and of...

A year after the 9/11 attacks, several of the women widowed as a results of those attacks were asked, “ What has changed most about your perspective in the past year?”  One said, “ The thing I can’t stand is when I hear wives complain about their husbands”.  The little things we allow to annoy us seem so trivial compared to the blessings we take for granted each day.   We all need to look at the big picture and not just isolated incidents that we seem to focus on.  We were looking for Prince Charming, but when we find our he is just a regular guy, we are disappointed.  James 3:2 says “We ALL stumble in MANY ways”. ..this includes our husbands.  Only one perfect man ever walked on this earth, and he never married.  That guarantees our disappointment…if we fall into the “prince charming” trap.  A regular man will have rough edges.  He will have weaknesses.  He will sin against you, disappoint you, and frustrate you.  That is real...

If you want to start being more creative, if you wish to sew, if you want to see my friend's blog, click below. Her name is Lesli. Check her out. You will be amazed. She makes the prettiest children's clothes you have ever seen! http://creative-christmas.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-pillowcase-love.html If you haven't seen my creative outlet, check out my website at.. http://www.scripturepainting.com/

We are enjoying many things these days: watching children dance in the rain, play baseball in the rain, ask silly questions. I am so grateful for just the everyday moments. That is a gift. NF rears its ugly head and reminds me that he is there. When John-Michael tells me his head hurts, I immediately think "Lord, is it a optic glioma ?" When John-Michael tells me his knees hurt, I say, "Does he have a fibroma in his knees?" When I hear of another child going to heaven in their teens due to NF, I ask myself if that is God's plan for John-Michael. That's when I make myself focus on what is true today! ( Philippians 4:8-Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things). Today, he was dancing in the rain. Today, he gave me a surprise gift of 2 pennies. Today, he can walk. Today, he can see. Today, he has a tum...

Losing Control -( A reflection on a chapter from Love Walked Among U s by Paul Miller). This is one of my on-going life issues; I don’t like the fact that I am really in control of nothing. I want to trust in my own abilities to fix things and control things, but what a foolish place to be. When we hear someone say, “I’m losing control” we usually know that this isn’t considered a good thing. We know the person saying it feels as if life is out of his/her hands and out of his/her capabilities to handle and it is. If we heard someone say, “I do nothing on my own. I can only do what I see my dad doing” and we asked people to tell us about the character of the person speaking, we would say: he is girly , weak, codependent, not mentally stable, etc. If we asked believers to describe Jesus, we would get words like: the good shepherd, savior, King, lion of Judah, sinless, powerful, kind, etc. Now we might be amazed to look at Christ words: John 5:19, 30 19J...