We spent Thanksgiving with my dad and Carolyn last week. I got to meet my step sister and two step brothers. They were all very nice, and we enjoyed a nice time of visiting with my dad, and EATING! As usual, Michael drank too much soda(this is what happens when you don't let them drink it reguarly) and so he was a little sick on the way home, but he is recovered and soda free again. The hard thing about driving home from Dad's isn't the two hour car ride, it's the fact that there is two hours to think about the visit, and it always hits me hard. He looked really sick this time. He had changed so much in the few weeks that we had seen him before Thanksgiving. It broke my heart, and my families. So much to relive again. The questions from the kids are so hard to answer and bring back so much. I am trying to have hope, and be an encouragement for my dad, but watching two parents so physically pained has definitely shaped me in ways that I can't explain. Please pray for him, and for his pain, it is excruciating. please pray too for strength for my kids and for their broken hearts.....One thing for sure, this family definitely longs for heaven and for the relief and everlasting joy it will bring. Alex said the other night," If heaven is so good, why do people try so hard to stay here?" I love that my 8 year old is learning what Paul knew, when he said," To live is Christ, and to die is gain!" We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and were able to focus on the many blessings that God has given all of us.

Up for Hoops?

Michael and Allie tried out for basketball last week, and they both made their school teams,,,,YEAH! Alex has named himself the official trainer, helping them practice, and giving them critiques afterwards,,,,,yeah, they love that. Does anyone remember the smell of hot, sweaty gyms, and kids that don't where deoderent yet? Well, this house is definitely going to be "sure"

the fall is flying!

I have had a wonderful October and November. Getting to be with friends for my 30th birthday, a fun and relaxing shopping trip to Sacramento with my sis, Jenny,a wonderful biblestudy came to a close, Michael and Allie made the basketball teams(after an entire week of tryouts). But mostly this fall, God has been moving in my heart!!!

I don't know why it still suprises me when the Lord answers my prayers specifically, considering all the times He has, but I guess sometimes I think of my prayers as arrows going out into space, and it is so humbling when the Lord specifically answers you in a way that makes you very aware that He is involved in the details of your heart. This week, I began to pray that God would re-focus my desires, and thoughts. It is so easy to look like I belong in this world, and to begin to fit in, but I don't want to, I want to stand out as a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. My attitudes were beginning to take on the appearance of the world. Colossians says to "fix our eyes on heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not on earthly things." but how much of my day is spent on thoughts that are temporary and of this world...... Yesterday was when I SAW God answering my prayer. Everywhere I went, I saw hurting people. It was like they were in " bold" and holding signs. An elderly couple in the grocery store, struggling to get their bags into the cart, too sick to be able to help eachother, a boy at the kids school, from a very HARD home, being teased and rejected. A lady I know well, prominent and lacking nothing on this earth, wasting away from designer drug abuse, and a little boy in a grocery cart, being yelled at and pulled on by his very angry, incompetent parent. They were everywhere! Seeing so many lost or hurting people grounded me, and made me accutely aware of where my focus has been wrong. God showed me all day, how much I have, not just earthly blessings,but the love of my family and friends, and mostly, the Love of my Father, and the hope of my salvation and future! Praise the Lord that "here" is not my home, and that I can know that. As fall has flown by, and we are gearing up for the holiday season, I pray you too, will be encouraged to "fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" ......Let's not fit in! May we not look like the world, but like Jesus.