A Bit o' Bragging

I just wanted to write today to brag a bit on my hunny........Mike. When we met 4 and a half years ago, he was not a Christian, and had recently and in times past been through some really rough times. With the things that he has been through, you'd think that he would be in a totally opposite place in his life than where he is right now. But...when I met him, he was primed and ready to meet Jesus, and I took hold of the opportunity, and introduced them. From the first day I met Mike, he started coming to church with me, and two months later, he gave his life to Christ. Since that time, I have seen him grow tremendously! It has not always been easy, just as it is not easy in anyone's life who is a Christian. Satan always attacks...especially attacking those who he knows are on fire for God, and who are going to make a difference in this world, and win more for Christ.

Now, I see Mike doing things that I know he would have never dreamed he'd be doing. He is counseling and teaching our teenagers at church. I remember how much he wavered on choosing to teach, and now, I have seen him teach several lessons, and he improves on each one! He even got up in front for Thrive and did a lesson there, which in my opinion is much more difficult to do. Even I have not managed to gather up the courage to do that!

Last night, I got to see Mike realize a dream.........he was on stage, playing in the worship band for Thrive. I know that he has been working very hard learning the bass, and he wanted so much to be involved in the aspect of praise and worship, and now he was.........and he did a great job, and I think that we will be seeing him up there more in the future.

OK.......enough bragging. I just wanted to say this, to him and everyone to show how proud of Mike I am in his walk with the Lord. I thank God daily for making our paths cross, and I could not be happier with where I am in life today.

In the Beginning....

My best friend finally got in to see her doctor and get the confirmation of what she already knew...that she is pregnant. They took a picture and they also hooked her up to the heart monitor and she got to hear the little flittery heart beat. I saw the pic...of course it was just a tiny white blob, but at the same time it was beautiful! The doctor told her that her baby is about the size of a grain of rice right now. She is due in mid-March, and I cannot wait to start spoiling this baby rotten!!

Now, I just want to think about something for a moment. Some folks say that life starts at conception and others say that life starts when the baby is born, and still others say that there has to be some time inbetween there that life starts. Of course this huge question, "When does life begin?" is the question in a ton of debates regarding abortion. That is why some folks have no problem aborting newly conceived babies, and others have no problem doing it up until the baby is born. This really hurts my heart so badly!! I mean, how can ANYONE listen to that little heartbeat in a newly conceived baby, only a couple of weeks old, and say that it is not a BABY in there??!! And even still, later on about month 5 or so when you get that ultra sound done, and even better, these days some get a 3D ultra sound done, and you see that little baby in there! It has all the right parts!! Arms, legs, head, hands, feet, fingers, toes.....and a few more parts... LOL....depending on the sex of the baby. It is a BABY!! How can anyone say it is not??


I sure hope that someday more people will realize how much of a precious, miraculous gift from God those babies are, and ban abortion all together! There are too many people in the world that want them if the birth mother cannot parent the baby, and as much as it hurts my heart, I am sure that it hurts God's heart even more to see so many of His babies be killed.

the Gap

Does anyone like to go to the doctor? I mean, really like to go to the doctor? Me neither! I was sick this past week.......well for about a week, before I finally decided that the sickness won, and I went to the doctor. I found out that I had a sinus infection, and my ear drum was retracted........fancy talk just to say that my ear drum had so much pressure on it that it was pushing in, and that was why it was hurting so much. Now, after some meds, I am recovering from my illness however it might take a bit longer to recover from the bill!! I could not believe that a (very short) doctor's visit, and two prescriptions.......with insurance........cost me $83! I was amazed..........most of the amount being the meds. I got a total of 40 pills (two different kinds) and they each cost over a dollar per pill! Is that crazy or what??!!

Now, I do have insurance, and on my bill it said that my insurance saved me $80! I really feel for those who don't have insurance because they cannot afford it.

I was talking to my dad the other night, and he said that he heard about a lady who worked for an insurance company, and she actually admitted that the more claims she turns down..........the more money she makes! What is up with that??

This country is such a great country, a country of excess.........and it is so sad to see the rich get richer by the day, and the rest struggle.......and I am talking about me and most of the folks who probably read this blog. I mean, we are not wanting for necessities, but it is really crazy the costs that we have to pay for something like health care. I wish our country could get into some kind of program like other countries where health care is free........but then all those doctors out there might not be able to afford their castles and fancy cars...........

OK.......I just had to get that out. It is getting frustrating these days seeing that gap between the "normal" person and those with wealth grow and grow.......

Can I get any kudos??!!

ability vs availability

Yesterday was another day of great things happening. Mike and I went to the church where I grew up, to hear my brother preach. He is an elder at that church, and was asked to preach this Sunday while the minister was on vacation. He had never preached before, but accepted the offer, and he did an outstanding job. I am very proud of my big brother! It was awesome to see him up there, and he delivered a great message about how you don't have to have a bunch of special qualifications for God to use you....the biggest thing is that you have to make yourself available...and God will do the rest.

Now, speaking of making yourself available...that is what Mike did, and I feel that God used him in a very special way yesterday also. He decided to take on a night of being the speaker at Thrive. He was unsure about it, but he decided to do it, and it turned out awesome. Again, it was great to see someone who I love up there on the stage, presenting God's word to a group of people. For those of you who were there....you know that I ended up on stage with him, in a sort of drama lesson. That was not actually planned, but decided upon at the last minute, but I think that it was what God wanted us to do, considering that it really turned out to go great. I was so very proud of Mike. He has come such a long way in his walk with Christ.....

I guess the lesson that I can share from these things is exactly the lesson that my brother preached. It is not your ability that God is looking for, it is your availablity. If you can just make yourself available to God to do His work, He will do great things through you to spread the Good News!

On a side note.......I just found out that my best friend and her hubby are going to have a baby!!!! I am very excited for them! We have always said that she is supposed to have a girl, and I am supposed to adopt a boy, so that they can grow up best friends and get married......so now I have to figure out a way to get our adoption plans back on track!! LOL!!

Quality Time

If you are following Mike's blog, you will see that at times we tend to write about the same things...........hmm.........I guess we have the same experiences, huh?

He did mention about our quality time with the teens here recently, but I want to touch on the same subject. In my last blog, I mentioned that we had Carly with us Sunday, and how that added to make that day special. She is a cool teen, and hopefully she sees us as being special in her life as we see her in ours.

Then, on Tuesday we took two brothers from our youth group out for lunch and a movie. Transformers was a great movie, but it was made even more special by the fact that we were sharing it with some of our teens from church. Then the hanging out at our house afterwards and playing guitar hero was great as well.

A lot of adults are "scared" of teenagers, becasue they feel that they talk a different language, or dress weird, or watch crazy tv and listen to strange music. The fact is, they are just like you when you were a teenager! They are doing the things that teenagers do.......and when you were a teenager, you did things that seemed weird to the adults around you. But...you weren't "scarey" were you? (Well maybe some of you.....) If you have not done so, get to know some of the teenagers at church....just walk up and talk to them. They will not bite your head off. As a matter of fact, if you talk to them, they just might talk back..........and in a language you will understand!

Teenagers are great..........and OUR teenagers are the best! They can really teach us adults some lessons if you just let them!

Exhausted, Yet Fulfilled

Wow, what an exhausting, yet fulfilling day today was. Church this morning was special, due to a group of men who came in and filled the church with the praises of rockin, acapella, gospel music. Then our youth group time was extra special as well, because we had asked one of the teens to teach the lesson today, and he did an exceptional job! He put a lot of effort into putting his lesson together, and he presented it very well. I am so very proud of him for a job well done.

Typically after church, we eat, and come home and get a bit of a nap in.......not today. First we spent time setting up for tonight's Thrive, and then we went out to lunch but again, today was special because we had one of the teenagers with us for the day. We enjoyed our time with her. It is always great to get some more special, personalized time with the teens.

Then, after a short time at home, it was time to go back to church for Thrive. The lesson was about forgiving those who have done you wrong, because if you continue to carry that "luggage" around with you too long, the day may come where you no longer get to forgive the person who did you wrong, and it would be such a shame to carry that with you throughout your life. Think of how nice it would be to be able to quit carrying that heavy luggage!! Anyway....the lesson was great and the music was rockin....it is ALWAYS a special time

Now, I am at home, relaxing, finally, and reflecting on the day. It was such a tiring day...since I did not get my nap in....LOL.......but yet, the day was so fulfilling. There were so many special things that happened today.....I feel tired...but I feel blessed!

Family

Yesterday was the first time in as long as I can remember that I actually went to a 4th of July gathering. Last Friday, some of us "kids" just sort of invited ourselves to our parents house for the 4th, and of course we were completely welcome to do so, and our parents even invited the other "kids", some of which joined us.

To make this more clear, this was my mom and pop's house. Mom's "kids" and grandkids and some of pop's "kids" and grandkids were there. We swam, talked, ate, and just enjoyed spending time together, and had a good time.

I have a lot of family. My parents split up when I was young, but I have continued to enjoy having a great family, on both sides. Bot parents are remarried to wonderful people, and to me, they are all family......just like any other completely biological family. I love my family, and I know that I am blesses to be in a family that loves each other and would always do anything for each other. You know you are loved when you cannot even leave someone's house without first getting your hugs and kisses! It is wonderful!

I also have other "family". This is my church family. It is obvious to me that God ordained family, because I have learned that you do not have to be biologically related to someone to be family. We have met and become close to some wonderful people in the less than two years we have been at Greenville Christian. We have even been "adopted" into one of the families, and we love that as well!

During this time of remembering our freedoms and blessings, one of the things that I thank God for the most is family.......ALL of my family! I am so blessed!

Renewed desire? Renewed hope?

Praise be to God, another young couple has been blessed with an infant and another unwed young birth mother has been blessed with a Christian couple to raise her child, since she was unable to take on the responsibilities. Adoption... Such a blessing.

For those who know me, even a little, you probably know that I have wanted for years to adopt a baby. My new husband of less than two years shares that desire, and we finally got to set out on our journey to adopt. However when we got to the end of the home study phase, about three months into it, the agency we were working with could not accept us due to some financial issues. That pretty much stopped us dead in our tracks. I was very upset and wanted so badly to figure out a way to make it work, until I finally realized that this was too big for me to fix. Well, everyone lovingly kept saying that if it is meant to be, God will make a way. As a Christian, I know that, however it does not always make it easy. Through prayer, friends, family, and time, the initial hurt went away, and I started to give it all up to God, and then finally.....I gave it ALL to Him. The only thing is, sometimes I want to take it back. The reason? Not that I don't think He is not powerful enough to make it happen, but because of this. What if it is not in His master plan for me to adopt a baby? That is the part that still gets me.

These days, we have been working on our financial situation, but there is only so much you can do. In my mind, unless God blesses us with a financial windfall, I don't see the situation changing, and therefore I don't see us getting to adopt anytime soon if at all. However, my vision is limited, and God might have a totally different plan for us altogether. I am anxously awaiting to see what he has in store, and I am MOSTLY being patient about it....I won't say that I have lost hope, however, I do try to keep it more to the back of my mind most of the time.

Well, that is until certain things happen, such as last Thursday when I got to hold a 2 week old, precious baby girl with tons of black hair. Or until July 29th when another young couple at work got the call that they have been waiting on for over two years! They have been with the same agency that we started out with, and have been waiting on that call, and they finally got it. They were told that if they choose to accept it, that there was a tiny baby girl waiting for them who had just been born! Wow! I am so excited for them.......I cannot wait to see little Hannah Leanne!

Renewed desire? you bet!! Renewed hope? Well, the hope is still there......but it is so hard to hold onto some days.........I just keep praying......petitioning.........sometimes begging......and definately hoping that someday God will bless us with that call.

Amy's Beat Intro

Well I guess I should get into the blogging action. I did not know what to call it, so since I tend to march to the beat of my own drums......I thought I'd call it Amy's Beat.

I can't say that what I have to say will appeal to most, or to anyone for that matter, but hey, it is a way of saying what is on my mind, and seeing if anyone has any comments about it.

Yesterday, I taught a lesson in the High School youth group about the Holy Spirit. I must say that this was one of the toughes lessons that I have ever worked on. It was on my mind for two weeks time, before I finally sat down to start writing. And..that is exactly what I did. I lit some candles, sat up comfortably in my bed with my laptop, prayed and then started writing. Sometimes I felt like my thoughts were getting very random and not making sense at all, but when I stopped after a while and read what I was writing, I was amazed at how much sense it did make! So, I kept going. I have an awesome website where I go to get my Bible verses. It is cool because you can either pull up verses by book, chapter and verse, or you can put in keywords or topics. And, the best thing is, once you find the verses you want for your lessons, you can just copy and past them, and there they are....in your lesson notes!

Anyway, I sat there for several hours one night and then a few more hours the next day and came up with what I thought was a fairly good lesson. You will have to ask the teens for their opinion though...since I might be partial.

Through this process, I was reminded of, and also learned some things about the Holy Spirit. It is just so cool to think about how we have the Spirit of our most high God, in us! The only way to really know a man (or woman) is to know their spirit, and God made His Spirit available for us, so that we can truly know him! How awesome is that! It is so amazing to see the things that the early church did, after tapping into the powers of the Holy Spirit. It is even more amazing to realize that I have the potential for that same power. I know working on and presenting this lesson for the teens really made me take some time to think about that, and I hope that it made them think about it as well. If all of us true followers of Christ really were to tap into the fullness of the power that the Holy Spirit gives us, just imagine the impact that would have on our fallen world!