Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope the Lord blesses your family this holiday season. Try not to gobble till you wobble!!!

What I am Thankful For

This is what I am thankful for. Some are serious, some are silly, but all the same they are important to remember because even the poorest in America have so much more than a lot of people in the world

I am thankful for:

• My Salvation


• God's Grace


• God's Mercy


• God's Love


• God's Word


• Prayer


• The Power of Prayer


• Being born in a country that has religious freedom


• Running Water


• Hot Water


• Clean Water


• Electricity


• Our Truck


• Our House


• My Family


• My Husband


• My Husbands great job


• Our Church Family


• Our Church Choir


• Our Pastor


• Our Worship Leader


• Our Youth Pastor


• Our Dogs


• Moms Surgeon


• Moms Successful Surgery


• Moms Healing


• Dads Health


• Barry and Nina


• That we have plenty of food


• A bed to sleep in


• A shower to bathe in


• Central Heat and Air


• My Chi ( its a flat iron and it does miracles on my hair)


• Our Woman's Bible Study


• My New Bible


• My Computer


• The Internet


• Dr. Peppers


• Sweet Tea


• To Live In Texas


• The Earth


• Moon


• Stars


• The Ability to Love


• The Ability to Forgive


• The Ability to be Forgiven


• The Every Day Blessings


• My Marriage and that it is growing stronger with the Lords help

Fight FOCA

I do not usually get into political discussions but we were talking about The Freedom of Choice Act in our Bible Study on Monday. This Act really scares me.  The President Elect wants to push this bill through. It would over ride state and federal laws about abortion.

• It would allow underage girls to get an abortion without their parents knowledge. If a teenager wants a tattoo or a piercing they have to get their parents permission but if they want an abortion they can waltz into a clinic and get one without their approval or even their knowledge.

• I do not understand this world. People are more concerned about saving trees than saving a child's life. Is a tree more valuable than a baby, a person? How twisted is that? This act will force faith based hospitals to do abortions. That is infringing  on our rights to practice our religion.

• Taxpayers money will go toward paying for abortions not only in this country but in other countries as well. That money will also be used to ENCOURAGE women to have abortions.

• It would eradicate the ban on Partial Birth Abortion.

• The requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion would be eliminated.

Please visit the FOCA website to learn more about it and sign the petition. Take a stand to protect a child's life.

Click on the paragraph to read more....

When Does Life Begin?

Just 18 days after conception, the baby's heart begins to beat. At six weeks, brain waves can be measured. At eight weeks the vital organs are functioning and fingerprints have formed. At nine weeks, the unborn baby is able to feel pain. Over 700,000 abortions each year are performed after this point in the pregnancy. By the beginning of the second month, the unborn child, small as it is, has begun to look distinctly human, though the mother may not even be aware that she is pregnant! By the time the baby is eleven weeks old, he or she breaths (fluid), swallows, digests, sleeps, dreams, wakes, tastes, hears, and feels pain. Babies born prematurely can survive outside the womb as young as 20-25 weeks old. Yet, all that is necessary to make the baby a grown human being is already there from the moment of conception. All it needs is time to mature.

Former Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop stated "We now know when life begins because the test-tube baby proves that life begins with conception. What do you have in the dish? An egg and a sperm. What do you add to it to get a baby? Nothing." Though it is wee, it is still a real person, just as a crumb of bread is still real bread. No one who has been given the gift of life should dare despise the day of small beginnings. Have we forgotten so quickly that we were once as small?

A Spiritual View on when Life begins

God said to the prophet Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5 God knew this man before he was born. As he was forming in his mother's womb God gave him his personality, talents, and temperament. If his mother had gotten an abortion, the "fetal tissue" she aborted would have been a real person named Jeremiah; a mighty prophet of God and the gift of God's voice to the nations, though she would never have known.

The Lord hath called me from the womb: from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Isaiah 49:1 KJV

Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us within our mothers? Job 31:15

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13-14

The above verses are only a sampling of the many Biblical references we find to life inside the mother's womb. From them, it is clear that life begins when God creates it, not at some later point in time when it has grown to look like a newborn. God does not judge things according to their stage of development the way humans tend to. According to the above passages, even the tiniest embryo is the subject of His love and care. God sees each of our lives in the realm of our total existence, whether we are yet unborn, a young woman in the prime of her life, or an old man on his deathbed. He is patient with all of us, longing to bring each one of us into His maturity.

Thanksgiving Dinner at Church,CHF, Thanksgiving Baskets & Bible Study

Our Thanksgiving dinner at the church went great. We had some awesome food and then we went to the sanctuary to give thanks to God. We went around and told our stories and what we were Thankful for. Some of those stories were just so touching. I used a couple of tissues.

Mom was not feeling very good she decided to stay home cause she was coughing a lot and she did not want to be coughing that much while people were trying to eat. When we got home she was worse. She kept saying that she felt like she was drowning. She could hardly breathe. We took her to the E.R. and they kept her again. Her CHF is acting up again. They did a cat scan on her today and hopefully she will be home tomorrow. If you guys could pray that she will be home before Thanksgiving that would be awesome. Our Pastor went to see her twice today and he gave Dad money for lunch. This man blows me away.

After church yesterday the Pastor told Dad we would be getting a Thanksgiving basket. I was shocked. I am amazed that they want to help with our Thanksgiving dinner. It is a blessing but we had already bought what we needed for Thanksgiving I worry that we took a basket away from a family that really needed it. Yes do not get me wrong money is tight. We are behind on some bills, but we always have money to get food. My sister and I are splitting the cost of Thanksgiving so we helped each other out.  The Lord put our name on his heart so I guess I should just shut my mouth and be grateful that we received this blessing!

Tonight was the last night of our ladies Bible study. I was really sad for two reasons; Mom was not there and we do this study together, and this study has increased my self worth in my eyes. I am sad that we will not be getting together once a week any more. Well at least not until February. We start a new study  February 2. Our Bible studies are by Beth Moore. She is an awesome teacher.

200+ Cookies

Wow I am tired. I have spent at least 8 hours in the kitchen today. I baked 200+ cookies, cleaned up the huge mess I made, cooked dinner for the family, cleaned up some more, then made two dishes for our church Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and now I need  to clean up the kitchen again. Only, I am going to leave it till tomorrow, I am going to take a shower to get all the flour out my hair and go to bed. God Bless!!!! I will put up cookie pics tomorrow.

The Joshua Community Thanksgiving Service

We went to the Joshua Community Thanksgiving Service tonight. This is the 20th year of the event. Each year a different church in Joshua hosts the service, this year was it was at our church. All the different churches attend. It is neat when all different denominations can worship together and get along. It was a very moving service.  Our offering of the evening went to the Cleburne Pregnancy Center.  We talked about as Christians thanksgiving should be something we do daily not just celebrate it once a year. We have so much to be thankful all year long. Our biggest thing we should be grateful for is our salvation. It is a gift and nothing we do can earn. It is only through Jesus Christ that we have salvation. Our Preacher gave us a challenge to make a list of all and he means all of God's blessing.  I am going to work on mine and when I finish it I will post it for all to see.

I just talked to my Sister, Brother, and Mother in law I guess we are having our Thanksgiving dinner here at the house. Mom does not feel like she will be ready to travel so far after surgery. My Brothers family will not make it becasue they lost his Mother in law recently and want to be with his Father in law. This will be the first Thanksgiving where I will do most of the cooking. It is scary stuff people!!!!!! God Bless you all

The Mess of Life

Sorry about not posting in the last couple of weeks, but our Internet got turned off at the very end of October. That tends to happen when you do not have the money to pay the bill. Now it is back on, I have a way to vent again! Yahoo!!!

What a month November has been so far, I can not wait to see what is coming next. Let me see, where do I start? Mom and Dad's truck died at my Mother in Laws house. They just got it back two days ago. The fuel pump went out (really it just died). It was $607.00 to fix the truck. OUCH!!!! The guy who works on our vehicles is really nice and worked out a payment plan with Dad which was pretty cool. Then a true blessing from God above came, our Pastor paid half of the bill for us. I am so amazed at this church. The people just blow my mind with how kind and compassionate they are.

Last Tuesday night Dad took Mom to the E.R. Her side was hurting and it got so bad it was hard for her to move and anytime she ate her stomach would goes nuts shooting pains everywhere. Well they kept her. Turned out she had a bowel obstruction. They waited for a bit to see if it would clear up on its own, but on Wednesday they did another set of x rays and noticed that the obstruction had grown much bigger since the night before.  She had surgery Wednesday afternoon. Our Pastor stayed with us until her surgery was over. Again, this church blows my mind! She is still in the hospital a week later. We think the doctor is going to let her come home tomorrow hopefully. It is really weird her not being around the house.

The choir for church is putting together a Christmas show called Heaven Touches Earth. It is about the Jesus being born and the events leading up to his birth and afterward. It is really neat and the songs are just beautiful, but our drama people are having a hard time showing up and keeping their commitments to the show. Steve has just taken over a part in the show. He is nervous but he will be great.

Steve has renewed his commitment to serving the Lord. I have a new husband. I have a head, and I am learning to be submissive. It really is hard to just let go of control. I am so very proud of him. He is going to drive the church van to pick up kids and families that do not have a way to get to church. He leads me in prayer and in studying.  We have both cleaned out what cds we have, we have cleaned up our mouths, we started going to Sunday School, and on Wednesday nights we are both involved in Awanas. I have a group of 5 girls that report to me. They work on memorizing God's Word during the week then they have to recite it to me. They get rewards as they go through their sections. Steve helps out with the boys, but they are not broken down into groups like the girls are.

I got baptized on Nov 2. It was a neat day.

Oh Well I am tired so I am going to bed. Good Night and God Bless You all