I am expecting a Miracle

My daughter is in the second trimester of pregnancy and she started to have an episode with MS. Usually when she has an episode, she goes to her neurologist and he hooks her up to IV with very strong steriods. She has three treatments, one per day, which usually lasts several hours. Well, since she is pregnant and there is no guarentee that the baby will not be affected by the steriods, she is opting out of the treatments. Good choice!!!! She is so totally focused on the baby. I am not going to go through the whole story. But I did want to post this....I AM EXPECTING A MIRACLE. I do believe that this episode will subside with the help of God and that there will be no further episodes for the duration of the pregnancy.

And so, I am thanking the Good Lord in advance for the miracle He is about to grace us with.

Thank you, Lord.

A Big View of God

Was doing my readings today from a book that Max Lucado wrote called "Grace...for the moment". He has taken small parts of the many books that he wrote and compiled this book with a reading a day. I want to share it with you.

Exactly what is worship? I like King David's definition. "Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together" (Ps. 34:3 NASB). Worship is the act of magnifying God. Enlarging our vision of him. Stepping into the cockpit to see where he sits and observe how he works. Of course, his size doesn't change, but our perception of him does. As we draw nearer, he seems larger. Isn't that what we need? A big view of God? Don't we have big problems, big worries, big questions? Of course we do. Hence we need a big view of God.

Worship offers that. How can we sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy" and not have our vision expanded?

from his book "Just like Jesus"

GOD IS GOOD

I got up this morning, jumped in the shower, poured myself a cup of coffee and sat out on the patio with Bob. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. We both agreed that it felt as though we were on vacation, sitting there relaxing with each other looking at the beautiful flowers in our garden.

GOD IS GOOD!

Put things in presepective

Hi everyone,
Just checking in with you. Tonight, I have had been given a gift...my sister, and her husband along with their 3 children came to visit us. (ages 8yrs. 4 yrs, and 3yrs.) You know, when things get mixed up....children can just staighten it out for you. They can put thing in prespective for you. Thank you, JC, Daneil and Bella. Because, I needed to be straightened out!

Happy Father's Day

I think of all of the men in my life that I can pay tribute to this Father's Day.

First of all, I am keeping my dad in my heart on this day. Although he has gone from this world, he is always close to me and I continue to love him and speak to him. "Happy Father's Day, Dad".

I keep all of the dads in my prayers today...my husband, who has been a good dad to our daughters and a wonderful "PA" to our granddaughters. My father-in-law, my brothers-in-law, my cousins, my niece's husband, my nephew (his wife just miscarried last week, so I keep them especially close in my prayers today), my friends. I would like to acknowledge one man, who I haven't seen in years. I worked for him for about 8 years and he taught me so much about being a dad, a mentor and a friend. "Happy Father's Day, Tom".

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there.

Love,

Jo-Ann

Look Beyond

Do you ever look around you, in this most familiar world of yours, and think that maybe there is something more to it than what meets the eye? Do you wonder where your loved ones have gone once they leave this earth? Is this the ultimate existance or is there another dimension to our wourld that we cannot see with the eyes of this world. Do you ever think about the connection we have to one another, you may be searchig for an answer to an internal question and in conversation or reading a book, the answer is right there? Have your answers been cofirmed? Or you feel a strong sense to pray for someone for a reason unknown to you, only to find out that they desperately needed prayers. I have sat many times and pondered these thoughts in my mind. Maybe we have to learn how to see past the physical and fix our eyes and our hearts on the spiritual aspects of this life. This is very hard to do because we are such physical beings and we need to touch and see things to believe in their existance. But it is not impossible. All we have to do is to have the desire to see things in a different way and I believe God will help us do the rest. Do I have the definite answer? No, but I do have many thoughts and strong beliefs on this subject that made me "look beyond" the obvious.

Does She Count

Iwrote this in 1995 in honor of my beautiful aunt, I called Toots.


A frail older woman, sitting in her wheelchair, the colors and shapes of this world stolen from her sight. The sounds of life robbed from her ears. All she has is her thoughts, but what are they? She keeps them bundled up in a neat small package inside of her mind. So thightly secured that she can't open it to let them out.


Pain...suffering... lonliness, she knows them all too well. But she never complains.


As I go about my life I can find no one to compare to this simple, humble woman.


Does she count?...She has touched my heart and a piece of it will always belong to her.







What made me think of this was when I went to church tonight.


I was walking up to go to communion. In front of me was a woman about my age. She looked very tired and disheveled. In front of her was an older man...about 90 or so, walking hunched over a cane. Each step was a struggle. The woman in front of me, I assumed to be his daughter was guiding him with her hands on each side of his waist. As I looked at him I saw an old man, on the outside, but I looked at him from within and saw a young soul inside of this old shell. The shell was breaking down, but the inside was just as it began but much much wiser. After he took communion, his daughter took it, then grabbed his hand and walked down the aisle hand and hand with her dad. This just gripped my heart.


Back at my seat, I knelt and wept, from the beauty and pain of this scene, the determination this man had, to take that long hike up to the alter to receive communion, the committment this woman had to her dad.

I have fallen and I can't get up

(Not a picture of me)

Here I am sitting in church on a warm sunday morning with my husband sitting next to me. Dressed in white capris, a summer top and new black sandals. Time to go up to communion...no problem going up the aisle. On the way back, my new sandal twists on my foot. I fall like a ton a bricks. Picture this...there is a traffic jam in the aisle because I am on my butt in the asle trying to fix my sandal. Hopefully I can get up without bringing too much more attention to me. I feel someone pulling on my right and left arms, but I am not ready to get up yet because my sandal is still twisted around my foot. I finally fix it and allow my husband and this woman I have never met pick me up off the floor. Boy was my pride bruised. Sitting back in the pew, I feel the seat vibrating...what the heck? Oh, it's my husband laughing his you know what off...his shoulders are bouncing up and down. If I wasn't in church I think that I would have smacked him. As I sit there I feel a breath on the back of my neck...it was the young man behind me asking me if I am ok. I told him that I was, just my pride bruised abit. He told me not to worry about what others thought. I think he may have been referring to my husband. I thanked him and sneered at my husband.

On the way out of church, I stopped to thank the woman who helped picked me up off the floor. She told me that the same thing has happened to her before (I think she was just trying to make me feel better).

On the way to the car I was thinking that the next time I buy sandals, I am going to buy the right width regardless if they are on sale or not. I thought that it really wouldn't make a difference getting the wide width. Oh well, you live and learn.

Haste makes Humor

I watch my granddaughter, Loula, everynight. My daughter (her mother) works during the day and goes to school at night. So, needless to say, I am very busy helping Loula with her homework and driving her to and from her after school activities. So at times, I can be somewhat stressed. Monday nights she goes to religion class. Our schedule goes as follows: I get home from work, Loula gets off the bus at 4:00, she does her homework, we eat a quick dinner and off we go the religion. While she is at class I usually do some needed shopping then head back to the parking lot early enough so I can get a decent spot to park. The Church is in a bad section in the city so there are always security and crossing guards.

As we rush out the door one monday (running alittle late as usual), I yell back to Bob to feed the cat and the dog (which in my haste, I forgot). During the drive Loula fills me in on her day (I'm ashamed to admit it... I only half listen to what she is saying, as I nod my head and keep saying uh huh, oh really, oh my gosh, I am really thinking about what I need to pick up at the store, where I am working tomorrow and my list of things to do the next day. I hate when I do this, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I cannot stay in the present.)

Oh shoot another red light...so I don't waste anytime, I pull the mirror down, fix my hair, rummage through my pocketbook for chap stick...oh crap, green light, they never stay red when you're trying to get things done. I flip the mirror back up and continue groping through my bag for my chap stick. My pocketbook is about the size of an overnight bag, so this could take a awhile. I finally find it, slap it on my cracked lips and continue on my way.



I pull up the street and as usual the lot is full, so I drive to the church lot, finally find a spot and run into the hall with Loula holding my hand and keeping up with me. We walk into the hall, I see Father John and say hello. I also see the woman in charge of the religion program and tell her what a wonderful job she is doing with the children. We all say the "Our Father", I kiss Loula goodbye and run out the door to my car.



Well, that wasn't so bad, got there on time, now I have to rush to Target's to get my nephew a Christmas present which is on sale. I search the store and can't find the toy that was advertized in the sale paper ,so I ask a sales lady to help me. She was so nice and patient and not to mention very helpful. We found it, thank God, it's the last one in the store. She helped me put it into the cart and I raced to the front to get on line. As I was passing a mirror I saw something that horrified me...I didn't put chap stick on, I put bright pink lipstick on.!!!Thinking that it was chap stick I didn't bother to stay within the lines of lips...Oh brother, leave it to me. So needless to say, I looked like a sight. As I continued towards the checkout I wiped my lips, (as best as I could) with the back of my hand. I just wanted to burst out laughing but I tried to stifle it, a giggle here and a giggle there escaped me. Not only did I have the lipstick smeared on me, but now I am laughing to myself. The thoughts were running through my head 'what must they think of me at religion...I must have looked like I had a little too much to drink... No wonder why the salesgirl was so nice and patient with me, she must have thought I was a little off!'

Thank God I can laugh at myself...I had the best laugh in the car in the parking lot of Target's...all by myself!

I am who I am

Hi, this is my first attempt at blogging. Well, actually, my second. The first one I started last year, can't remember the web site, email address or the password that I used. I think life just took over and ran with me. So now I plan on taking life and and running with it. I am not a writer nor am I good with grammar, punctuation etc. But at this stage in my life, I am who I am and I can honestly say I like it. Wish me luck!!!!

My sil (for those of you who don't know what this stands for, it is sister-in-law. I didn't know until just last night when my niece Liz told me. She educates me on many things in life and this is just one of them...thanks Liz), will be sharing this blog.

My name is Jo-Ann. My sil and I have known one another for let me think...ten, twenty, ...OH MY GOSH... thirty-four years. We married brothers. I always told her that God didn't make us sisters at birth so He allowed life to. Thank you Lord! We don't have the same blood but we do have the same thoughts running through our heads and the same fears running through our veins. My hope is to bring you some smiles, hopes, and yes... tears (sorry).

My story will start with a little synopsis of my years growing up...
I was shy, scared, lonely and in my eyes the dumbest person I knew. If I made a mistake...OH MY GOSH...how could I be so dumb. I could never laugh at myself because I was so busy tearing myself up inside...to shreds and then some. I felt this way in grade school, middle school and high school. Didn't go to college because I was too stupid, too sensitive (or so I thought). So I graduated high school got a job that I was too stupid to do (but in reality I did a decent job). Just to sum it up so that I don't bore you with the gory details...I had a low self-esteem. Thought that the only thing that I could do and do fairly well was to get married and raise a family. And that is exactly what I did. Well to my surprise, that was the hardest, least paid, most unappreciated job that I would ever do in my lifetime. But I loved every moment of being a mother. That role fulfilled a part of my soul that nothing in this life could ever touch. And as we all know hind sight is 20/20. Are you ready for this...I DID A DARN GOOD JOB!! And the reason I know this to be true is because my daughters told me. WHEW... Today, I believe that I am who I am because the Good Lord made me that way.