LIS GRADUATES WITH HONORS

This was such an exciting day for us. Lis has been working on her BS degree for several years and graduated with honors yesterday, June 18th from Wilmington University, Wilmington DE.

I Am Desperate For God

Life is too busy. This past month has been crazy and I am sometimes overwhelmed with all that seems to crowd into a day that I thought would be free and just for me. I am, however, going to try to update this blog today, so here goes.Even though I am busy the love of my life is my family and the highlight of each week are my grandchildren. I take care of Emma and Sierra on Mondays and Layton comes home with me from school on Wednesdays. This past week his grandfather took him fishing and even though the fishing looked pretty bleak, Layton managed to catch 12 fish and his grandfather 8. His grandfather did get a picture on his cell phone but I have not retrieved it yet. Layton has always loved to walk in the wooded area of our property while we talk and he pretends he is protecting me from all the dangers that surround us, like rabbits and squarrels.:). Recently I went on a school trip with Layton to a small rescue zoo and his favorite thing was a rooster, a beautiful one but still a rooster. We had a great time together until, that is, he walked away from me. If you have never seen me in action when I can`t find one of my kids, you have missed out. I was beside myself and of course all the men who worked at the zoo immediatly became perverts. I actually started out pretty good though, calling his name in a normal tone, but in a few seconds everyone at the zoo probably thought I was yelling into a microphone. I was at least 10 minutes finding him and I`m sure within that 10 minutes those around me, who I go to church with, have formed a much different picture of me, but you see, they don`t know that my daughter was lost for 35 minutes on the beach in Ocean City when she was 4 yrs. old. That does give me reason to act like a crazy women, right???The 21st of April we celebrated the girls 3rd BD. The highlight of the night was Sierra telling me that mommy had a secret. She whispered in my ear that mommy was having a baby and it was in Aunt Jessica`s tummy. The girls have been so excited that Jess and Matt are having a baby, I just hope they don`t think they are going to bring Eli home with them when he is born in July. I`m afraid they will have to wait until November to see their baby brother or sister.Our Bible study group started a new study by Beth Moore and as usual it is amazing. It is called "Stepping Up" and is the study of the Psalms of ascent and is about the pilgrimage of the Israelites on their way to the Temple. It took them days maybe weeks to get to their destination. They traveled together with their families, spent the nights on the ground in the widerness and the mountains, all headed toward the steps of the Temple. This is a journey through 15 Psalms, Ps. 120-134. I have been on several journeys with God the last one was February 2007 when we went to Florida for a month. The first week I took the mornings to go on a journey alone with God. There are times in my life when I need more then an hour/day with God. I needed it then and I need it now as I journey through the Psalms of ascent.

Several weeks before we went to Florida, God presented me with a new ministry that He wanted me to start and I knew I needed time to be alone with Him. I needed to talk with Him about some situations in my life that still haunted me at times. I had to be totally free of the past in order to be obedient to Him. I did a lot of thinking that week as I prayed for forgiveness, mercy, wisdom and freedom. I ended that precious time with God by making a vow to Him, one that He sometimes has to nudge me about and say, "Don`t go there come and sit with me for a moment". He is so faithful and I give Him the glory for bringing me this far.

This study is taking me on another journey with God. He desire to change my outlook on daily life. He wants to raise me up to a higher plain of worship and service and He wants me to "step up" on my personal journey with Him. One of the things that Beth points out in the very beginning is that "We`re desperate for God."

Wow, do I have a lot of catching up to do. Since I have a ministry blog, I haven`t been very faithful to this one. Hopefully that will change, anyway, I have continued to be very busy with the women`s ministry, especially the bible study and the upcoming retreat. I am so excited about the retreat, we have 30 ladies signed up and will soon have a meeting with all of them to hand out some responsibilities for them to take care of before and during the retreat and to go over the schedule. I am praying for God to give me the ability to choose the right people for these jobs and for all to go smoothly.

My favorite ministry is my Tuesday morning bible study. We are studying from "Living Free" by Beth Moore which is a follow-up of "Breaking Free". What a great study this has been. First we grab coffee and a breakfast snack and fellowship for a few minutes and because we don`t have a video of Beth like we usually do, we have been singing worship and praise songs that just seem to usher us into his presence. I have several young moms in the group and it is so refreshing to hear them share how God has touched their lives and the insight that they have as they discuss the lesson is amazing.

Of course, as always, my most favorite thing is being with my grand-kids. Today is Wednesday and the day I pick up Layton from school We go to get a toy and then home for some games or whatever and then to McDonalds. He is such a cute kid and says some of the funniest things.

I also love to spend time with Em and Si, they are really a delight to be around and love to see me walk in the door which of course, I love. They are so much fun to watch and talk too. I often ask them questions that they really don`t understand just to hear what they will say and believe me, Sierra will come up with some wild story. Sierra will woo you with her charm and Emma with her smile.