Your Security Badge

"Jesus is your security badge. You don't need any other clearance, because it's His name on your badge. He's got you covered and He is the security guard that will never fail you."

~Pastor Kim Ernst

Blessings

We pray for blessings, We pray for peace
Comfort for family, Protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, For prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand
To ease our suffering


And all the while
You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much
To give us lesser things


Cause what if Your blessings come through rain drops
What if your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, We doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough


And all the while
You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe




When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win we know
That pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home


Cause what if Your blessings come through rain drops
What if you healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life
Is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

http://youtu.be/1CSVqHcdhXQ

Hallelujah

(verse 1)
I love You Lord with all my heart
You've given me a brand new start
And I just want to sing this song to You
It goes like this the fourth the fifth
The minor fall the major lift
My heart and soul are praising
Hallelujah

(chorus)
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujan, hallelujah

(verse 2)
I know that You're the God above
You're filling me with grace and love
And I just want to say thank You to You
You pulled me from the miry clay
You've given me a brand new day
Now all that I can say is
Hallelujah

http://youtu.be/-DeI0YAv6oo

The One You Feed

An old Cherokee told his grandson,

"My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth." The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?"

The old man quietly replied,

"The one you feed"

~unknown~

Pictures-Florida Trip Part 3

MEMORIES LIVE IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER....

Worth it...

"I never said it would be easy...

I only said it would be worth it."

Jesus

Pictures-Florida Trip Part 2

Jesus Loves That Request

"My friend Roy used to sit on a park bench for a few minutes each morning. He liked to watch the kids gather and play at the bus stop. One day he noticed a little fellow, maybe five or six years of age, struggling to board the bus. While others were climbing on, he was leaning down, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment, frantic eyes darting back and forth between the shoe and the ride.

All of a sudden it was too late. The door closed.

The boy fell back on his haunches and sighed. That’s when he saw Roy. With tear-filled eyes he looked at the man on the bench and asked “Do you untie knots?”

Jesus loves that request." ~Max Lucado...Next Door Savior

Pictures-You Make Me Smile

Nothing can stand in your way....

"You got what it takes you can win?

You got what it takes you can win,
Today is your day to begin.
Don't give up here, don't you quit.
The moment is now, this is it
Know that you can then you will
Get to the top of the hill
Part of the fun is the climb
You just gotta make up your mind

That today is your day
And nothing can stand in your way
Today is your day"
~Today By Shania Twain

Today is Your Day

http://youtu.be/OMciyWyugKY

Played this song VERY VERY VERY loud many times today as we moved the last of our
belongings out of our house and made the big move......*sigh* yawn.....

Pictures-Ellie's First "DaddyDate"

Ellie had her first "DaddyDate"....she was so cute....so excited.....they had a great time ;)

She wanted to take along her flowers from the dressup box ;) And Gabe wanted a picture too

Yes....my girls and I are super blessed to have this man in our lives ;) and that he's ours ;)

Free

"No people who are ignorant can ever be free."
~Thomas Jefferson

Lead me...

"Lead me by your truth and teach me,for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you"

(Psalm 25:5).

You are Amazing...

If you are reading this:

Know this...YOU are amazing.

You are beautiful.

I know you've messed up,tripped & fallen down on this road of life.

But we all have... and we all will til the day we die.

Don't let anyone look down on you and make you feel less

than the amazing person you are.

No one is perfect.

We all bleed red.

So today,chin up-big smile-shoulders back...

Go...just be you and don't listen to what the world says.

Dance...love...sing...live.

Please Pray for Baby Catelyn

Please pray for our friends Jeremy and Michelle

and their sweet baby girl:

The following is from her Caring Pages Site to fill you in....

Catelyn Louise was born on Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 2:17 pm. She weighed 5 lb. 7 oz and was 17.25 inches long. Catelyn is a beautiful baby girl who looks just like her daddy!

On Friday, June 24th Catelyn was taken to the Children's Hospital of Illinois. Initially, the concerns around Catelyn's health were surrounding her heart. After numerous tests, her heart has been determined to be functioning properly.

On Tuesday, June 28th Catelyn's vitals dropped to dangerous levels. She went through multiple ventilators without success. That afternoon Catelyn was put on ecmo, which is a machine that oxygenates the blood for her. After a very scary 24 hours, Catelyn's vitals stabalized.

Catelyn remained on ecmo through Saturday, July 2nd. By Sunday, July 3rd the ecmo machine was completely turned off and on Monday, July 4th the ecmo tubes were removed after 24 hours of staying stable with the machine off.

With the machine now off, Catelyn is still not out of the woods. She is still on nitrogen and a ventilator and continues to struggle with keeping her vitals in a consistent spot. Her condition is still very critical but she has shown herself to be a fighter.

The doctors are continuing to search to identify what is causing Catelyn's condition. She is being treated for pulmonary hypertension.

July 7th Update:
Catelyn will be going back on echmo around 4 pm today. If she gets on ok and there are no complications during her time on they will leave her on for 10 days and then when they bring her off the hope is the hypertension will be gone if not then they have exhausted all they can do medically. Medical statistics do not show a likley chance of this working the 2nd time if it did not work the 1st time, however our choice was to give it a try and hope for a miracle from God or accept Gods will...

Florida Pictures....

For those of you who don't have facebook and haven't seen our Florida Trip yet.....
well i just posted the first set of pictures but it put it back on July 3rd.....so you will have to
go back to that date to see them. sorry :(

Relationships

"Why didn’t it matter more to love well? Where did I think I really would find happiness?

And I wonder if it’s the fact that relationships don’t bring us paychecks, rarely accolades.

Loving well, stepping over hurt, laying aside self and desires, draws on more of our interior resources than investing in a career, a skill, a personal pursuit. And yet, there are no promotions. No public status. No guarantees.

Relationships grow only in a hot house of of humility, selflessness, open-handedness. Hard things that are inherently risky: for all that, you can’t control the outcome.

Investing in relationships requires courage. It mandates daily fortitude and intentionality to make moment by moment decisions to prioritize relationships while balancing vocational demands.

Do my daily decisions support my belief that relationship is the essence of reality?"
~Ann Voskamp...http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/06/how-to-live-your-best-life-2/

Pictures-Farm Day!

The monkies and I decided last week we needed to visit "Jacob's Farm" one last time before he moves on to his new job.....*sniff*

Perfect day for a picnic!

we left BabyMonkey home with Daddy....if you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk......if you give Aubrie a dump truck and rocks.....she will sit and play allllllllllll day ;)

and then when she gets bored with that, she will go inside and go to her new favorite spot ;)