Life and Faith

This morning I woke up with a heavy heart knowing what the day was going to hold for me. As I got ready for work I was preoccupied with my thoughts for our sweet neighbor's the Alt's. After a meeting at work I left to attend the funeral of their beautiful little girl Lexi. Lexi is 9 months older than Taylor, she had some issues with her liver and had a transplant in St. Louis just over a week ago. Last Thursday she went to be with the Lord. As a mother my heart breaks and wants to scream out for this family! I cannot even fathom the pain and loss they are feeling. I want to bring her back and for her to be okay and for none of this to have ever happened, no mother should ever have to bury their child! But as a Christian I lean on God to carry all of us through this, especially her family. Lexi leaves behind a wonderful mother and father, a 9 year old brother, 7 year old sister, 5 year old brother, a twin sister and a baby brother. I will continue to have faith that God will carry this family through and His Glory will shine for all to see.
This year has put so many things in perspective in my life, back in October I attended the funeral of another friend who's 2 year old son died of cancer, both Pierce and Lexi have touched my life in so many ways! Seeing them battle through diseases that no child should ever have to face and to do so with strength and determination and love for every minute of their life here on earth is beyond inspiring! All of the little stresses of life that seem so overwhelming at times, are really put into perspective when you see a family face the worst days of their lives. I am pledging and praying that these two precious babies will have not died in vain and their lives here on earth, all be it short, will have made a difference not only in my life but in the lives of many many others. Personally I plan on making a change in my life, to be a better mother, wife, friend and daughter, to have more patience and to show those I love how much they mean to me and always say I Love You!

Friends

I was looking through some pictures today just wasting time while printing my tags for JBF and came across some pictures from college then stumbled upon pictures from Jr. High and High School. As I was looking through the pictures memories came flooding back into my mind, fun and silly things I used to do with friends, joys we shared, sorrows we shared, secrets we told one another. I started thinking about how blessed I am to have the friends in my life that I do. My friends have stood by me through the good and bad times in my life and never once wavered in their support or love. I hope they all know how much they have touched my life and how much they mean to me! I would not be the person I am today (mother, teacher, wife, friend) if it weren't for them!! I believe that when you love someone you give a little piece of yourself to them, I honestly feel that I carry a little bit of each of these special people with me every day and I am blessed beyond measure!!!!

Trials....

So I have been thinking a lot the past couple of days about the trials we face in life... specifically the ones I have faced in one way or another. Many of you know about my past and the abusive boyfriend that I had growing up, although it was not my "finest hour" God has used that trial in my life to help me to become the strong woman I am today. Never again will I fall victim to someone like that and I now have the strength to stand up for myself and those I love to protect them from what could harm them. Another trial in my life was leaving Perry and moving to Idaho! Although it doesn't seem like that would be a trial it was for me. When Robby first took the job in Perry I was excited but when he told me we were moving there, that excitement quickly turned into disspare, it was a small town and I was a big city girl, Robby new everyone really well at the church but I still felt like an outsider! However once we moved in it didn't take me long at all to call Perry home and I came to love it more than any place I had ever lived in my life!! (Tulsa and Stillwater)I loved the community, our church family, the peace everything! I did my student teaching in 3rd grade with Mrs. Martin and LOVED everything about it! I fulled planned to graduate, get a job and settle our family in Perry, then we got the news that we couldn't make the Youth job in Perry a "full time" position, so we had to move. I was devestated! I am not a big fan of change, and it took me long enough to fall in love with Perry I couldnt imagine leaving but here we were headed to Idaho of all places. This is where the trial came in, we moved 36 hours away from all of our friends all of our family to a place that was VERY VERY hard to fit in. Robby and I were both so homesick and struggling but once again God used that trial in our lives to pull us together and rely on one another instead of support from friends and family, it made our marriage stronger than ever. Which helped as we faced the next trial we had when we moved home from Idaho and lived with Mom and Dad for 11 months while Robby searched and then found a job and tried to get our feet back on the ground. God used that trial to teach us to rely on him! Then I faced the trial, 2nd hand, of my best friend Debbie losing her son, I have never in my life hurt so badly for someone else. I felt as though my own heart was being taken away, I cried and cried, yelled at God wanted to know WHY!? Once again God used that trial for His glory, Robby and I were able to minister to Debbie and Kris and help them through that time and it brought all of us closer together and has opened so many doors for Debbie to help other women facing the same loss. Once again we are facing a trial, on January 31st my husband turned in all of his issued gear from the City of Tulsa and ceced to be a Tulsa Police Officer because of budget cuts and layoffs. His dream had ended, at least for now. This has been a very difficult time for our family but one I have decided to look at in anticipation for the glory God will get from this trial. I dont know what God has in store for our family, but I do know that He will use it for His glory, and for that I praise Him!!!

Entering the blogging world

Well I finally decided to start a blog, not at all sure what I am doing and honestly don't know what to blog about, but I decided to go with the masses and join the wonderful world of bloggers! I am sitting her tonight catching up on American Idol and watching my kids run around the living room like crazy people!!! I cannot for the life of me figure out how they have all the energy that they do after a long day at school/preschool!!! I certainly dont!

I am pretty sure that if I could find a way to bottle up the amount of energy a toddler and 6 year old have and sell it I could make a small fortune! It doesnt matter how much sleep they get, or how much sleep they dont get, the amount of energy they have would probably keep all of the lights on in Broken Arrow if it were a power source!

Tonight however they seem to have an extra boost of energy, I unfortunately do not and will be heading to bed soon, I just hope and pray they dont destroy the house while I am asleep (daddy will be up with them, but that doesnt mean much!)