Waiting to Be an Aunt!

I hate waiting! But it isnt' near as hard on me as it is on my sister & her husband.

The picture is a little rough, but this came from my mom's phone.  This picture was taken on my sisters' due date which was April 12th.  We are still waiting for "Peanut" to make his grand appearance.

Hoping it is soon!

Blessings from a Broken Phone

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

I don't blog much about our personal trials.  Usually those closest to me can read between the lines in my posts.  But I just had to share this with you, because it is just so cool!

The story starts a few weeks ago when my son was playing in a friends garage with some other kids.  They were running around.  One of the kids laid his new phone on the ground & while the kids were running around, my son accidentally stepped on it.  He didn't even realize he had done it, but just the same, the phone was broken.
A few hours later, the mom of the boy showed up on my door step demanding that we buy her son a new phone NOW.  She was hopping mad!  I tried to be as nice as I could, but when she got in my face I popped off, "Well, I"m sorry this happened, but my husband is without a job and there is no way we can buy your son a $250 phone.  We don't even have phones that cost that much!" 
She backed off a little & then told us to contact her ex-husband because he bought the phone.
No problem, my husband said.
That night the dad called & he & Scott talked.  They got everything squared away as well as most men can...completely non-emotional.  :o)  The dad could fix the phone & we wouldn't have to pay a thing.
In the mean time, the dad found out that Scott was without a job & decided that he wanted to do something to help us out.  He happens to be a manager at Sonic & emailed 16 other managers about us.  They decided to do a food drive for us.

That is 600 employees collecting food for us.

The response was so overwhelming the managers were completely shocked!
Scott got a phone call Friday by the dad (of the kid with the broken phone because of my son) explaining what they had done.  WooHoo!  God is so good!
Today, they brought over the donations.  It literally took 2 pick-up trucks to get it all here!
They filled up my living room with boxes of food & other things. 

Then they told us the best news of all!  

Oh, I'm just so excited about this part.
They had such an overwhelming response that they didn't even bring us all the food.  They took a lot of it to 2 other families who also needed it.  Is that not cool?

It get's better!

They decided that their Sonic Restaurants would hold a food drive twice a year every year to help families who are in need.  How fantastic is that!?! 

All because my son stepped on a cell phone!

I took pics of my living room, but really it doesn't do justice.  I can't fit it all in my pantry, so we have canned items sorted into boxes under my kitchen table.  Crazy huh!

"And we know that for those 

who love God all things work together for good, 

for those who are called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:28

LIttle Man Play

It was just me and Sam, my 4 year old.  Ben was home, but he was busy watching a movie. Everyone else had somewhere to be tonight.   Sam asked me if I would play army guys with him upstairs in the playroom.

I'm not an "army guy" kind of person.

"Please Mom?" Sam asked  "We will have so much fun!"  And he was right.

I closed down my computer & followed my little boy upstairs.  He lead me to a table that had strategically placed army guys on it.
"This is where you are" he said as he lead me to sit down on one side of the table.

And the battle begun!

We fought the Transformers.
We fought the Rescue Heroes.
And then to top it off we fought & defeated the "Rides", which I quickly found out were all of his cars.
I tried really hard to be the best soldier I could be, but it was very obvious that I didn't have near the experience as Sam.

"Mom, that isn't how you make gun sounds!  Do this...spfh!  spfh!"

I tried, but my mouth just would do what his was doing.  He was gracious though.

"It's ok Mom, it is because you are a girl."

Oh well, I tried!  We had fun.

Why I am on Facebook

Several years ago our teenagers asked to get on Facebook.  I didn't want to let them because I knew it would increase their computer time & mine too.  If I let my kids on there then I would get on Facebook as well to keep an eye on their activity.  I had no idea what it would become for me.

2 years later, here I am...still on Facebook, but not just to keep up with my kids.  It isn't about letting people know what I'm preparing for dinner (even though I get some real good idea's from my friends).  It isn't about having the most friends.  It isn't even about keeping up with my friends (even though I love that part).  It has become more than that for me.  I post scripture that is encouraging me and keeping my heart above my circumstances.  I post links that help me to better understand difficult spiritual concepts or that encourage me.  Through my little updates, I share a little bit of myself.
But there are days when I really wonder why I am even messing with Facebook.  I occasionally will get in a discussion with someone who believes differently than I do.  I don't know why I do this.  It often brings me down.
I was contemplating getting off of Facebook.

Lord, I can think of many other ways to encourage others than through Facebook. It is just a social networking waste of time.

And then I got this note...

I just wanted to thank you for all of your brilliant posts throughout the day. I have been having a crazy time and I have found solace and comfort through many of your posts. I am not sure if you get a lot of thanks so I just wanted to let you know that you are definitely ministering to me and I really appreciate it! Have a great day! Thanks again!

It touched my heart. It touched my heart because this note came from a  school mate of whom I even forgot I was friends with on Facebook.  I never see her on & never hear from her.  I know nothing of what is going on in her life.
The next day at church, someone caught me in passing and thanked me for being such a big encouragement in her life through Facebook.

I'm not writing this to toot my own horn.  I definitely am not doing that!  I am writing this to encourage you to be aware of how the Lord can use you in ways you don't even realize to minister to the heart of others.

I post things on Facebook for myself, because it encourages me not knowing how it could encourage others.  Yes, you can comment on someone's post, but those who thanked me for encouraging them NEVER comment on my page.  I had no idea they ever read anything I wrote.  Knowing this, also makes me more aware of how my posts affect others.

So, now I remain on Facebook praying that my words will encourage others to seek a deeper relationship with Christ.  I hope that when I share a scripture that it will touch the heart of someone needing it at that moment.  I love how God can use something even like Facebook to reach the heart of others.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4