Fall Happenings. . .

What is up blogger world!?  

Life has been so great this past week or so.  Things are moving along wonderful for our family, the weather has been just beautiful & lately we haven't gotten some rain with cloudy skies & even a few sprinkles.

Although we haven't been going to several of the games this season I have still be sporting my HOG colors on game days.  This past Saturday Chad took me to the lake on a blanket & we enjoyed the cool breeze alone just catching up on life.  We watched the game at a restaurant after & it was so relaxing!  I love my sweet hubby...

Must add, my adorable fun comfy shirt was given to me in the mail from the fabulous Bekah at Kiki La'Rue! Go visit their FB page here & like them!  She is beyond a sweet friend to me in Dallas & mailed me 4 shirts & several pieces of jewelery from their shop... why?  Just because!!!  I was so grateful to receive these goodies & literally cried going through everything.  It brightened by day during the storm I was going through with my Daddy...
 

One Saturday before visiting Daddy at the hospital!

A few weeks ago, Avery had her first field trip.  I volunteered to go & I was so glad I did!  She had a blast visiting the fire station & then we had a picnic in the park.  I am so pumped that my camera is finally fixed but have to pick it up, but for now more Instagram pictures via this blog post!

Can you tell priss didn't want to go to school?

Her look changed after she saw her sweet friends Brenleigh & Eden!

We are so ready for FALL!  My house is completely decorated for the Fall & I love darker cooler nights & lighting my candles!  

 I made Mom a beautiful Fall wreath as  a welcome home present to her & my Dad!

We have been starting to dress in our fun fall clothes! So ready for October so we can dress in Halloween!

We have finally started buying pumpkins & one day this past week we sat in the backyard on a blanket with snacks & painted our hearts away!

Speaking of the pumpkin world, this past weekend we also went to the local pumpkin patch by our house.  I just adore it.  The sweet couple that own it live in the house next to it & it's just precious & so sweet!

We have also been enjoying this fall weather this weekend riding our bikes on local trails!

Last week my Aunt & Uncle dropped into town for a few hours on their way back from Dallas & saw my Dad.  My sister in law came over with my nephew too & we enjoyed a nice lunch!  My Dad is looking SO much better! He is doing AMAZING!

And I have been visiting my parents quite often lately & we have enjoyed doing one of his favorite things; sitting on their porch watching the lake.  It has been overcast days lately & just so peaceful.  We walked today too, 8 laps down their driveway & 1/2 way down the street & back.

  I am so glad he is healing- each day is so much better than the day before.

Things have been progressing so much with my Dad.  Of course he is still gaining so much strength & gaining weight better through eating; which he has needed.  Life hasn't been the easiest road lately emotionally, but I am still gaining strength each day & thanking my Lord for it!  We know through Him, all things are possible!

My Healing Father- update!

Can you guess who came home on Thursday?  OH PRAISE JESUS!

I can hardly believe it that finally, Thursday evening almost 15 days of being in the hospital,  they let my Daddy go home.  He was so stinkin' restless not getting any sleep, it was just time they let him go & build his strength up at home.

Boy were the last 2 weeks a ride!  

I have never had my faith tested, my heart ache nor my body just tremble like this in my entire life.  When we at times think of others trials or what they may be going through it's not often that dear to our hearts because it's not "our family" enduring the pain.  I have always had sympathy, prayed over others & even hurt for them; but never realized the difficult pain that they were actually going through... until I myself lived it.  There were several days that I felt helpless hanging my head while trying to drive myself back & forth to the hospital wondering if too ANYONE in this world could possibly understand the ache my heart had.  I truly at times thought, "will my Dad make it"?  Of course I trust my Lord, but you just simply never know.  I felt as if my heart chains were literally being yanked & like I have stated in several of my previous posts, I begged for God's mercy.  There are several days I barely remember because I just starred quietly at him for hours in ICU with my Mom.

I remember many days & nights sitting in ICU for 6 days just holding his hand knowing that God was there.  I felt warm even though it was freezing in there.  I rested several days watching my parents as they would both sleep.  My Mom never left my Dad's side.  NEVER, not once.  I had to beg her to walk out & take afternoon strolls around the hospital.  

I have never in my life had my faith tested; in this depth anyway.  This heart surgery that was suppose to be a simple "fix his heart & we leave & recover"- turned out to be 2 weeks of my life where I learned to trust God.  I learned that it was okay to be upset at the process, emotionally exhausted, & that God WANTED me to beg for him, but also trust that He had his will on the situation, no matter the outcome.

I will never forget one day I was eating in the Cafeteria alone during lunch, which I often did for the past 2 weeks & the cook said, "you are back, are ya ever going to leave"?  I first wanted to smack him, but then knew it was the opportunity to be positive & reach out & just said, "God is working on repairing my Dad's heart, & mine too because I am learning faith & trust in God".  He smiled really big.  I was glad anyway that I was able to just plant a seed.

Where are we now?

I sat at church this morning & just cried.  The first song that came on broke me.  We sit with my parents, Dad is the usher.  The fact that he wasn't next to us today was hard, but I knew he was at home resting.  I enjoyed praising God so much this was the first time back since his surgery.  I wept with tears as I sang the songs praising God for his mercy & glory & for giving me a new found faith in Him.  I have said this many of times does this mean I'm perfect?  No.  But changed.

This is our church singing the song that they sang this morning, but this was from a few years ago during the winter:



Dad has now been home for 3 days & has been healing.  He lost tons of weight while he was in the hospital because he wasn't able to eat normal food for 2 weeks!  But we are trying to fix that now & help him to gain his strength back.   We take several small walks around the house a day, today he walked outside with me & Avery & Chad to the mailbox & back 4 times.  After dinner we made a circle around the house 6 times.  He has improved so much & to GOD BE THE GLORY!

{Avery sang, "I'm in the Lord's army" while we walked} 

I want my Daddy to know that his heart surgery not only repaired his heart but mine.  I feel this is that time in my life that I will ALWAYS remember when I am 80 years old that I learned to trust God, no matter what.  I feel this is that moment, this was it, that changed my heart & outlook on life.  I take so many things for granted & while I have always been close to my parents, this made me love them a billion times more & respect them & appreciate their love for each other.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, support, cards, gifts, e-mails, notes, texts, phone calls... I have had so many people reach out to my family & oh my goodness I am forever thankful.  Dad wants to right a blog post to everyone soon so be watching for it.  He has a great testimony of how the Lord has too changed his heart & softened/molded him into even a stronger man than he was.  We get emotional when we both talk about it; when he is better I can't wait for us to sit on their porch & re-live God's wonderful grace on our family.

My sweet Family

I had to share some of our new fall picture!  ENJOY!

{Praying Daddy goes home in a few days, day 14, we got this}

Forever grateful during a time that I needed to smile the most!  #KatieColeRocks

Fall Family Pictures & Dad updates!

Oh this video.  

I don't even have words to explain it, just watch it.  LISTEN to the words.  It's my life right now.  

On the way home from my Dad's 12th day at the hospital tonight I was feeling so defeated.  I'm emotionally exhausted trying to hold it together.  I find myself mad & frustrated & shouldn't be.  I am just ready for my Dad to leave the hospital & go home so our lives can go back to normal with him. I am ready for him to have complete healing; I am ready for him to feel whole again.

CRAZY how God works, but this song came on & I caught it from the beginning in my car & just balled down the interstate thanking God for reassuring me of where I need to keep my focus, on Him.

{I love how it says, "What if the trials of this life are His mercies in disguise"}

Dad update:

It's been another hard few days. Dad's tube finally came out but they haven't started giving him normal foods again.  They are slowly going to be starting him on liquids again tomorrow to see if he can hold them down.  We PRAY that whatever was making him so sick will go away.  It's his HEART that is needing healed.  Early morning his heart went back into a-fib & some a-flutter as well.  As of now they are just monitoring trying to figure out the right steps to take to get control of that.  He can't leave until those 2 things are under control, so I have no clue when this hospital journey will end.  But, we are hopeful by the end of this week.

In the midst of this journey with my Dad I have just felt completely defeated some days. I was completely surprised & on cloud 9 when my friend from church asked to take our family fall pictures as a gift.   Crazy story but her Dad too had heart surgery the WEEK before my Dad.  She has been going through the same hard trials I have & has been keeping in touch with me.  It's is neat how God can use a situation & bring people together.  So this weekend she took a few pictures of my family & I could not be more impressed, & thankful.

Visit Katie's Facebook page HERE & like it, she is so great!  I love her stuff, SO talented!

I LOVE all the prayers & notes/e-mails I am getting from all of the world about my Dad! It is so refreshing to hear that I am not the only girl here in Arkansas battling some life changing things.  I love hearing from you.  My Dad reads these too & every single note so don't be shy! Tell him where you are from & that you are thinking/praying for him; it touches his heart so much!

We love you all!

Let Him have all your worries & cares, for He is always thinking about you & watching everything that concerns you.  1 Peter 5:7

Making it.

Exhausted.  Doesn't even begin to describe how I feel, but then I think of my Mom who hasn't left my Dad's side through this entire process & think I have nothing on her.  At least I have my bed at night; although I am texting her throughout the night checking on Dad.  My Mother is a rock, seriously.  My Dad's rock.  She adores him more than anything & for that I am so grateful because she has always been that as a Mother to both my brother & I as well.

Dad has been in the hospital for a week now.  He left ICU on Tuesday.  Thank the good Lord!   We praise Him for that!  With that, I wish I could say he was on the mends, leaving the hospital, but not yet.

He has been battling some hard core nausea which includes vomiting pretty often every few hours.  He hasn't been able to hold food down for a few days & they haven't been able to figure out what is going on.  He has been on a liquid diet for the most part.  It's been a rough road, & way more than we bargained for with the recovery.  It seems like it's been one thing after the other.  Words cannot describe my sheer desire to take this away from him.  I walk away from being with him each day in tears because I just think of how it's just not fair.  It's not fair!  But then I just have to praise God his heart is healing, & all will soon be okay.

This morning early his heart went back into a-fip state which made me personally un-easy again. I just have to trust God that he will handle that.  For now, we just want him to to physically & emotionally get better so that his heart can do the healing that it needs.  The doctor said that his heart is looking great, but his stomach is now the concern.

This evening they put a tube into his stomach, through his nose, that will drain his stomach of the junk that is making him so sick.  They cleared a little over 2 liters in no time.  They are hoping that will clear up the excess nausea & vomiting  & again will help him on the recovery process.  We are praying that the vomiting stops & that it's just a small bacterial infection due to the many medications/lack of eating/as well as the toll the surgery has taken on his body.

I ask for continued prayers.  This journey has been hard on our family, but with our God who we serve & know is bigger than what we are going through, we know that Dad will get through this.  I cry most days but also have to trust God & try to remain positive.  It's just hard seeing my amazing Daddy suffer through this pain.  He still cannot have visitors at this time & when he can, I know it will brighten his day more than words can express.  All he has seen is my Mom, brother, myself & our spouses.  He is just craving his grand kid's & some laughs from friends.

Better days ahead, we hope he goes home in a few days  & can begin his recovery process.  You bet your booty I will be having something pretty set up for his arrival home! =)

Love you all!

Another Dad update...

Here I am again doing another update wishing that I truly wasn't.  When my life is somewhat normal & going smoothly I tend to just "blog tomorrow or another day".  But, I can't sleep.  I don't have my normal appetite, & don't really have much I want to do or even think about; accept my Dad.

Since my last blog post a lot has happened.  I am going to keep this one as brief as possible.  

I last left off that Dad wasn't doing the best after surgery & that he had to go back into surgery to have some unexplained blood drained/fixed post bypass surgery.  This all took place on Thursday.  Friday he was very ill all day.  Feeling somewhat better but began at some point during the afternoon being very nauseated & not himself.  We thought it may be his medications or even blood sugar because he is so out of whack right now.   Eventually after he was monitored closely they saw his heart beat was really abnormal & not steady.  His heart rate was beating super fast jumping from the 110's to the 150's/160's back down to the low 105's every second.  The monitored him all day Friday & throughout that evening.  Hist blood pressure was very low.

Early morning they decided that his heart had gone into what they call "a-fip" which is atrial fibrillation.  This is where his heart was just beating at crazy back & forth rates while his blood pressure was super low.  Way to low.  This was when I got a call from my Mom & soon made my way to the hospital at 3am. They were very concerned.  I could tell she was uneasy & couldn't rest soundly so my brother & I both made our way to calm her spirit.  

This continued through the early morning into Saturday.  He was VERY sick on Saturday.  Uncomfortable, wouldn't eat, thought he was going to be sick all day.  His heart would jump the same this day as well.  It was very concerning to the staff in ICU but they gave him the proper medications & watched it to ensure nothing would go wrong.  They tried to give him medications to control his blood pressure as well as his heart rate.  

By Sunday they realized he was now in what they call "a-flutter" which is worse than the "a-fip".  At this point he was so uncomfortable & they were so concerned that they contacted the heart doctor to come take a look.  They decided to move forward with shocking his heart to try to get it back into normal rhythmic patterns.  

I arrive at the hospital distraught, to be honest how I have been since Wednesday evening before he even entered the hospital.  I feel like since he has been there he has had so many roller coaster things go on.  Why has this been happening I have often asked myself daily?  In my mind he was going to have his heart surgery, heal & go home.  Not the case for my poor Daddy.  He has had one thing after the other & has had to fight with everything he has to keep his eyes on God & solely Him.  And that he has done. 

When I arrived at the hospital today, Sunday morning I had a moment with Dad alone.  We hadn't yet told him he was going to be shocked because didn't want to upset him or make him nervous & cause his heart to go up even more.  He just looked at me with tears in his eyes & said, "Ashley I am so balmy feeling, I just can't seem to shake this, I'm so tired."  I immediately leaned over him & quoted Isaiah 26:3 that my cousin gave to me that morning & prayed out loud over him with my hand over his heart.  I held tears back because I couldn't tell him that he was about to have his heart shocked, but I tried to remain strong & a rock for him. He just held my hand & listened as I prayed.

The doctor came in to shock him this morning & again, we lost it.  My brother, Mom & I stood outside of the ICU doors balling again clinching on to our God that we new would AGAIN prevail.  We just prayed out loud to him as we have been for days asking him to make this moment happen for Dad to get his heart back on track & take this final moment of pain from him so he could be on the road to full recovery.  My Mom left for a second & my brother went to the bathroom & I lost it.  I realized no one was in the waiting room so I started praying out loud.  I literally prayed for his grace as loud as I could asking Him to just do this!  I trusted He would, took a big huge fresh breath of air & just sat still.  I didn't know what else to do but trust... which is what we are supposed to do. But how can you NOT be having all of these thoughts in your head?  I started thinking what if, what is going on, when will the doctor come out.  My brother came back & so did Mom & not even 5 minutes later the doctor walked in & said, "He is fine, we did it"... Literally that one shock knocked his heart back into normal rhythmic pattern.  

In that moment my brother took my breath away.  We often times pray for those big mountains to just be over & pray when we need something. But he reminded us that we need to praise God now in that moment for helping Dad's heart be back on track.  We all grabbed each other again & immediately started praying together out loud praising Him for allowing Dad to be healed.  We praised Him for his healing & thanked Him for giving us strength & for getting Dad through this moment of terror, in our minds.  

We went back into the room to see Dad moments later & while he was still heavily sedated he was alert & said, "I think I'm going to feel better now".  We just giggled because he was so optimistic & truly felt better in that second after getting his heart rate back to normal; he could finally relax.  TODAY was progress.  This afternoon he was in good spirits, laughed, cracked several smiles, actually talked to us, & sat up & ate again.  They took 3 of the billion tubes out & he is now starting to move along with healing.  

We continue to ask for your prayers & ask God to heal him.  He will remain in ICU for a few more days until his heart rate is steady until they move him to another floor.  This is way more than I ever thought was going to happen to my Dad.  I wasn't prepared for this whole process nor was I prepared that my faith was going to be challenged.  I am telling you, if there was ever a time in my life that God was saying, "HELLO"... it's now.  And not only have I learned that we need to pray for his almighty powers to be present in the storms, but in the good!  We can't just let life pass us by asking for help.  We have to THANK HIM for our homes, cars, food, friends, smiles, bodies, health, relationships... I have not taken this ordeal with Dad lightly & forever have been changed by it.  I have never been on the floor begging for God's mercy until now, and what a shame.  I should be begging Him for mercy & grace daily & praising Him 24/7 for his love & devotion to me... each morning when I wake up.  For my life, my breath, my heart... 

I am forever changed.  Perfect?  No. Changed?  Yes.  God has healed not only the sick,  but the hurt.  

BLESSED! 

My Dad's Heart Surgery Story

I knew this post would be here before I knew it & I would be forced to re-think my Dad's heart surgery & truthfully, would need to talk about it.  And I do.

Keeping it real:

Truly my blog is therapy & I love that I make it that.  I hope that you see me as nothing but real, keeping things honest & true, & above all about life's struggles whether it be good, bad, fun or sad.  Life to me isn't just about what we have, what we do, who we see, what we wear... it's about getting it & growing as a human on earth closer to Christ.  There will be tons of falls along the way, no one is perfect.  No one.  But the truth is at times, even myself, people tend to focus WAY to much on what is of material, not of God.  Truly through my Dad's life changing  experience over the past 7 weeks, I have been planted a seed of what life is really about & my eyes are opened now more than ever.

The past few weeks:

The past 7 weeks of my life have been sad.  I can't lie.  As much as you love the Lord & trust Him, you just grow sad thinking about how your Dad's world has just been turned up side down.  I have NEVER had to deal with tragedy in my life besides when my Uncle passed a few years ago.  But never with a parent so this whole "life change" with his health has shocked all of us, yet opened our eyes.  I haven't been myself waking up worrying about if my Dad would have another heart attack before his heart surgery, worrying about his sadness, pain, change of lifestyle, weight... he lost 25 lbs in 6 weeks.  {Now how is that fair when us woman diet for AGES and lose 5?!}  HA!  No really, his eating habits have really changed his body since he was put on a very strict diet.

Okay so surgery day:

9/6/2012

I felt somewhat relieved because it was finally the day they were going to repair his heart.  It was the day they were going to fix everything.  We woke up early & were all at the hospital by 5am on Thursday morning. The nurses, staff, team, EVERYONE was just amazing while prepping him for surgery.  We had pastors from our church present & my Uncle who is a pastor that married me & Chad who stood by our sides alongside my Aunt through the entire process.  Truly our angels.

...  It was time for him to go back, they gave him the sleepy med's & after they opened the surgery doors my Mom & I had a minor break down.  The thought that they are putting your Dad to sleep, stopping their heart, stopping everything to perform a HUGE surgery is just uncomfortable.  You can imagine.  We sat for 3 hours through the surgery while we were given updates every hour of what was going on, which was so nice & at all times everything was just so smooth.

After surgery:

Finally around 11 he was in ICU & we were able to see him.  NOTHING,  I mean NOTHING will ever prepare you for what you see.  For someone that has grown up with a father that is literally superman, healthy, young, young looking, full of life, amazing... this moment just wasn't happening.  When we walked into the ICU room obviously he was still on anesthesia but the sight of his helplessness just ate me alive.  He had a breathing tube helping him breath coming out of his mouth, moving his stomach up & down as well as 15 billion other tubes, IV's coming out of every which direction.  His poor eyes had tears coming out of the corners & he tried to mouth to us while he was completely sedated.  I break down thinking about that moment all over again.  While I was praising God for him being alive & the problem being fixed, the helplessness you are seeing the Dad, that made everything okay in your life, go through in that moment just isn't even imaginable.  

Me & my brother:

I found myself walking out of the ICU doors into the hall just falling into pieces.  I will never forget the moment I walked out, fell on the floor praising God for keeping my Dad alive & giving him a new healthy heart that was fixed, yet being like, "WHY" is this happening & why do my perfect Daddy.  My heart just literally hurt & I wanted to throw up.  My brother said in that moment that he had NEVER cried that hard in his life.  I had always heard of how horrible things were going to be after the surgery & was prepared somewhat, but NOT like this.  It was pitiful.  Simply pitiful & a sight I will never forget.  It made me appreciate life a billion times more.

Mom:

My mother tried to hold it together like glue, but the pain was evident in her eyes.  She was miserable for him & us kids that we all had to see him like this.  During his recovery he was so drugged but they had signs that he was okay & that he loved her.  They draw a circle with 3 dots in the middle on it on each others hands & have since the day they met.  It's their "special" I love you secret! =)  Anyway he barely got his poor little helpless hand in hers & we saw him do it.  Breakdown of tears,  love & complete healing begin.  We just smiled with tears that in that moment of pain he was showing us he was still there.

After a few hours...

{Sorry this is graphic}

Dad started bleeding pretty bad.  They had several tubes coming out of his chest that were draining blood into something.  Out of the middle of nowhere a huge gush of blood started coming & my sister in law & I were told to go away.  We got a call back into ICU again from our Mom & my brother & I went back where we were told that they were going to rush him back again to emergency surgery to scope our everything & explore to ensure that there wasn't anything major going on because he was losing blood fast.  Not good.  The break down begins again here.  The immediately begin preparing him again for surgery & my Mom told him what was about to happen again although he was still heavily medicated from the precious heart surgery. I will never forget that moment.  All my dad did was point up to GOD with his little helpless finger & they rushed him off.  

Can you imagine our devastation as he was literally just brought from heart surgery & we thought he was okay to then again be rushed back in for them to AGAIN open his poor chest up again?  I couldn't fathom it. I felt sick.  When we all 3 made it to the hall my Mom, brother & I just lost it falling into each others arms we literally were begging for God's mercy.  We had no clue the severity of the bleeding but we knew it wasn't super common & something that had to be fixed, right away.  I just couldn't handle that he was going to have his poor little scared chest that I just saw, opened again.

ME:

My heart couldn't handle the fact that he JUST came from surgery & was going to be in the operating room AGAIN after looking so pitiful, to be open up again & worked on all over again.  I left & went outside & needed some time alone.  I prayed alot, questioned my life, was confused on why this was happening, & just started getting upset.  I felt alone but wanted to be alone.  I knew God was present but I started to be like "why God".  Why is someone so perfect going through something so life altering?  I begged for his mercy & remember laying my hands in front of me in front of the hospital BEGGING for his mercy & BEGGING for him to just take this pain away.

Praying for others & understanding:

I know that when others hear of family members or friends going through something hard we often say we will pray but do we truly get it?  I have to admit that until I went through this my compassion for others was just not as intimate.  My Aunt & I were talking in the waiting room later & she helped me to realize that this whole life altering thing that has happened to me with Dad has truly helped me to not only gain compassion for others in life, but also faith & trust in God.  I have truly had to learn the power of prayer & to believe it without seeing that God is in control & that his might power is unreal.  Through him all things are possible!  So not only through Dad's life change has HE changed, but he has worked through myself & my family as well on growing to have a more intimate trusting relationship with him.

Day after surgery:

Today was hard.  He was in so much pain.  Of course, he had to back to back open chest surgeries- his pain was out of this world.  Due to his blood pressure being so low they couldn't give him a certain about of medications to subside the pain.  It broke my heart seeing him in pain.  I was able to feed him today & we made him do breathing treatments along with sitting up in a chair.  Major progress.  We aren't sure how long he will be in the hospital but that doesn't matter right now he has plenty of weeks to recover from this.

  

To my Dad:

You ARE my rock star.  I wrote that on your heart pillow today.  Seeing you go through this has made me love you a billion times more & I don't know if that is even physically possible.  Mom has stood by your side she is your best friend.  That woman is so in love with you.  She loves you so much & has slept by your side & will for the next several weeks as you recover.  I am so thankful for her strong heart, she is just so awesome & has been so amazing through this hard process.  Nothing has prepared us for it but God & through Him we have successfully jumped another hard hurdle in our lives.  Seeing the pain you are going through reminds me much of what Jesus went through when he died on the cross for our sins.  Seeing your scar from your neck to your belly button will forever remind me of the pain Jesus endured on the cross for our sins so that we are able to be here & be with each other during your pains.  That scar will resemble your faith, your strength in Christ, & you getting through a hard moment that without him, wouldn't be possible.  I have no doubts you will move forward & heal so fast because you are a strong man.  I hope you know I am one of your biggest fans & without you in my life it's just not complete.  I love how we talk several times a day, talk about life, everything going on & even laugh about silly things together.  I can't imagine it any other way & I am just waiting for the day you are healed able to live your life comfortably again without any worries of your heart.  I'm ready for us to travel, have more grand babies for you, have family dinners, Christmas... I can't wait for the upcoming fun things going on with our family this winter for the Holidays.  This will be the best year yet for our family.... you just wait! There will be many surprises in store!  I love you to the moon, you be strong.  God has prevailed, served, honored our prayers, & healed.  Your heart is whole again.  I love you!

To my friends, blog readers:

THANK YOU for all of the notes, comments, calls, e-mails, texts, visitors... I am overwhelmed & undeserving of the love you each give me.  Thank you for finding my life interesting & taking me in as a friend.  I am beyond blessed.

Lord: 

You are Wonderful, Glorious, Holy and Righteous, Victorious, Conqueror, Triumphant and Mighty, Healer, Deliver, Shield and Defense, Strong Tower and My Best Friend, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Soon Coming King, Alpha, Omega, Lord of Everything.. thank you!

Prayers Please

This song has gotten me through today & is preparing me for tomorrow.

My Daddy's surgery is tomorrow.  All I ask is for you to each say a prayer tonight & all day tomorrow.  We know God will prevail & hold his hand through the entire process.  I NEED your prayers in the morning.  For comfort, peace & no pain.

Philippians 4:6-7 
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Daddy,

I love you.  I know that you will get through this & we will have many years, more grandbabies for you & lots of love for the rest of your life.  This too shall pass.  I will be by your side through the entire process or healing & will help Mom take care of you.  We love you to the moon & would not be who we are without you.  Thank you...  You are my best friend, my leader, my confidence.  I have no doubt that you will get through this!  I love you Daddy!