Joy

Good morning to all who are reading this! I just wanted to share with you a feeling I had the other day--something absolutely wonderful. Late Thursday afternoon, I got an IM from a friend I work with by the name of David. David is a gentle, funny and kind soul, whose love for His creator is evident in the way he interacts with people. He's in a different area of the company, but directly works in the Design area, so it wasn't out of the ordinary to hear from him, although it's normally me IM'ing him for something, not the other way around. I assumed that he had a question or something about a design I was working on, but before he could ask his question, I preempted him with one of my own--asking him how his recent trip to Aruba with his wife (kids were at home with the grandparents)..we chatted about that and then I asked him what he needed (after apologizing for preempting him). He said he didn't need anything & just wanted to know how I was. Told him I was fine...work was getting better (and it is)...thanks for asking and all..He then told me that the other day, God put it on his heart to pray for me and that he didn't know whys, so was something going on? Now, mind you, I'd had my normal ups and downs, a big "discussion" with Don over something that in hindsight I realize that I overreacted about, but not a specific thing came to mind. I told him that there wasn't anything major that I knew I needed, other than what I'd been praying for daily: a continual awareness of God's presence in my life, not just in the morning when I pray to him in the parking lot at work, or at night when I have a sleepy, half-prayed prayer but a pervasive, conscious awareness. He admitted that he needed the same thing, and we agreed to pray for each other to achieve that very thing.

After our conversation ended (during which I thanked him what must have been a thousand times), I sat back, a little stunned and a lot overwhelmed with a feeling of joy I hadn't felt in a while. Ever since I was told by a wonderful lady by the name of Sue Youngs on my pilgrim Walk on the Walk to Emmaus, that she had been praying specifically for me, a total stranger, in the days and weeks leading up to the Walk, any time someone has mentioned that they have prayed for me, I am blown away. It is one of the most indescribable, blanketing, comforting feelings I have ever felt, and I make it a point to tell others when I pray for them. I am sometimes concerned that others will question my motives as to why I'm telling them--I'm not telling them so that they'll be impressed with me, or thankful, or beholden, or anything--I assume that they'll have the same reaction that I did when being told. (if I am wrong on this assumptions, please let me know).

I am thankful for everything that God has given me, and I praise Him for bringing wonderful people into my life. Perhaps it's through interactions with these blessings that He's reminding me of His presence (Eureka moment!) and I've just missed the message! Talk about walking around with blinders on or seeing only what my feeble human eyes can see! I vow that I will strive to see every person as His representatives (for lack of a better word) which will enable me to focus on glorifying Him and not just get caught up in the immediate demands of this temporary life.

Praise You, Father God, for loving me. Thank You for loving me enough to open my eyes to You, and I rest in the thought that You are always with me, even when I fail to realize it. May Your blessings rain down on those reading this, and I lift each of them up to You so that they too may know just how much You love them. May they feel joy, too, at the knowledge that they have been lifted up in prayer.

With much joy and love in her heart,
Laura

Catch up

Forgive the lapse in posts, please. I pray that your Christmas was full of many of God's blessings, and that you have found what He knows you need with the coming of the new year.

We had a wonderful Christmas, as my mother-in-law and her husband came in from Kentucky on Christmas Eve, and stayed through the early morning hours of January 4th. Don & I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on the 4th. 12 years. Whoa!

Don got me several books for Christmas, one of which is the The Christmas Sweater. What a wonderful blessing...what a wonderful lesson for me to start wearing waterproof mascara. I cried like I hadn't cried in a while (and for me, that's a lot). Although sad, it has a wonderful message. I highly recommend it.

A good friend of mine, Patty, lent me a book called The Shack. I finished the book earlier this afternoon, and cried like I hadn't in a while. :) It was a different kind of cry, however. This book is so wonderful, full of sorrow but so full of wonderment and amazement at God's overflowing love that my heart has been touched in a way that it may never be the same. It's an amazing book, one that I'm tempted to go buy for myself so I can refer to it again and again.

2009 has started off with much promise for me. Our new pastor, Kevin, started on 1/11. He is an amazing preacher, full of Christ and enthusiasm. What a breath of life for our church! His first sermon was entitled "The Centrality of Christ" in which he explained that Jesus is the boss of our church, regardless of who thinks is or should be.

I've been asked to be a Lay Director for the Walk to Emmaus in April, 2010. What an honor and blessing and scary thing this will be! It will be a major test of my ability to relinquish control and rely solely on God. I welcome any prayers and advice you can give me!

I will try to keep my blog up better than I did in the latter part of the year. Thank you for your patience with me, as well as your thoughts and prayers.

May you always feel His presence.
Laura

New fangled technology and social networking

Oh, my goodness. I've spent the last couple of hours going on Facebook. To bring y'all up to to date: about a month ago, my beloved employer dropped the bomb on about 15 people in my area and they were RIFd (RIF: reduction in force. Not a layoff...just a RIF). After reeling and trying so desperately to process this information, and wondering why others were RIFd but I was still remaining, even though they had more experience...I came to realize that I would never fully understand why all of this happened, and that I had to be okay with it, because everything is a part of God's plan, and "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28).....

So...there were a lot of these folks who sent out good-bye emails (*sniff*) and listed their Facebook info. I figured I'd go check it out, you know...dip my toe into the water of social networking on the internet...and I'm hooked. I vow to keep it up on a more frequent basis (and this blog as well), because it's really cool, and a great way to keep up with people. God brings people into your life, touchpoints, and whether you realize it or not, you are connected, even if it's in the briefest or smallest of ways. I don't want to lose those connections.

I went up to Fort Worth last Thursday to see Benjamin--What. A. Cutie. He smiles--not the gas smiles that babies can do but real smiles. He's a very easy going baby, which is good for my sister and her husband--their first one was not as laid back, and he's still a bit intense at 2 1/2. They are both cuties, and it was wonderful to visit. The company my brother-in-law worked for closed a couple of weeks ago, so he gets to experience unemployment and job hunting. He's optimistic, and I am as well, for him. Prayers for them will help, so I'm appealing to those who read this.

So, with work still being crazy, and folks leaving, and the drive home from Fort Worth & the scrambling to make up for the time I was off last week, it's been a long frickin' week. Troy and I are going kayaking tomorrow with his 5th grade class, and I can't wait. The weather will be warm, but the humidity low, so we'll be able to enjoy the beautiful nature that God has made.

I lift you, dear reader, up in prayer, and pray that you feel God's presence in your life.

Yeah, um, it's been a while...

I am really, really sorry that I've been away for so long. So...Cracker's settled in quite nicely. His right eye has developed a film over it, but he wasn't using it anyway. Here are some of the latest pictures: All three kittens.
Olivia
Hobbes
Cracker

So...not much has changed, except for the fact that I'm a new aunt again (my sister's new baby Benjamin Leo Hunt, born on 7/31), and we went on a cruise just a couple of weeks ago. We tried Carnival and left out of Miami. We went to the Bahamas and did snorkeling:



We were there for only a couple of hours, but had a lot of fun. We went by the island where the movie Blue Lagoon was filmed. We then went to St Thomas, where we did SNUBA--you have an oxygen line instead of a tank like SCUBA, and it allows you to go about 30 feet down. We had a blast! We were in an ocean park where there were these really big iguanas everywhere. I'll post some pictures of them shortly. We then went to St. Martin and rode Rhino Riders (they're inflatable boats with engines and can go about 30 mph) and did a bit of snorkeling. We also caught the tail end of TS Fay, but were drinking Guavaberry Coladas, so we weren't feeling any pain. It was just rain--we weren't gonna melt!

We had a really good time. The boys were in an inside cabin and we were in a balcony. Carnival was all right, but it didn't compare to Royal Caribbean. We booked our next cruise for next July, and we're jazzed because it looks like Don's mom and stepdad will be coming with us!

I'm going to figure out why I can't add more pictures on this post. May God's unending peace be with you.

And Cracker makes 4

I honestly can't believe that we've done this, but Don has had his heart set on the brother of our two cats, the one who had an eye infection when we went to see them. It actually isn't an infection; apparently he had problems with this third eyelid --it doesn't open all the way, and he's had a couple of surgeries on it. He's a beautiful white cat with orange tips and orange in his tail and he's got blue eyes (he really doesn't use his right eye at all--his eyelid comes down about half way). And if you can't already tell, he's ours. When we brought him home last week, it took Hobbes maybe a couple of hours to accept him while Olivia, our little princess, took a day or two to warm up to him (I'm hoping that they somehow know in their DNA that they're siblings). Now they all play very well together. We have to put a cream in his eye, but it'll never be 100%. Here are a couple of pictures:


So...Don and Greg had decided from the very beginning that his name would be Cracker, but not pronounced like the food; it would be "Cracka", since he's white. So as not to offend, I added "Jack" since, one could argue, just give him an eye patch and he'd be a pirate kitty, like Cap'n Jack Sparrow...now he's Cracker Jack, aka "Cracka". He's the sweetest thing!

Here's a picture of Olivia watching "So You Think You Can Dance", one of our favorite t.v. shows:
(She, too, feels that Comfort should have been sent home last night...)


Todd is surprisingly tolerant of Cracker; he didn't really hiss at him or anything. I guess he figures "what's one more?" or, I'd rather believe, he feels sorry for him because of his eye. Who knows; it's all good. I never, ever thought we'd have 4 cats in the house! Woo hoo! On my way to being a crazy cat lady....although I've got years to go age-wise!

Speaking of age...one of the guys that I work with went to the same high school I did, but graduated 3 years after me. He thought it particularly funny to set up something for a group of us on our project team to go to lunch, in honor of my 50th birthday! What's actually funny about it is, is that I'm only 41! I had a couple of our developers ask me if I was really 50, because I certainly didn't look it! Oh, the pranks and hijinks that go on at work! Well done, DJ, well done!

To continue on the age thing..so the same day in which folks asked me about being 50, and I'm self conscious about my grey roots showing until I can get to my hair appointment on Thursday, I start to develop this big cyst on my chin--you know, the kind that will develop into a big ol' zit if you don't do anything!? So I'm pondering the dichotomy of having grey hair, crows feet, laugh lines and being in the next demographic bubble on surveys (age 41-50) as well as still getting acne and marveling at the sense of humor that God must have, and the fact that we'll never have things figured out! Nothing ever seems to stay in neat little prescribed boxes or outlines (first this, then this, and then that), and the cool thing is: that's okay. In fact, it's not just okay, it's great! (cue Thurl Ravenscroft). God's thoughts are not our thoughts and that's what makes things wonderful. He's got things figured out; all we need to do is just believe and have faith. He is so good!

May you feel His presence forever in your lives, and if you don't now, I'll pray for you until you do.

Meditation tips

Not to get too "New-Agey" (sp?) on you, but I am becoming increasingly interested on meditation. I tried it this morning (everyone, including the cats, is still asleep) so the house was incredibly quiet, but I couldn't get to the point where I could "envision a beam of light coming down onto my head, radiating throughout my body, and going out into the world" with any sense of realism, like the books say to do. Now, I realize that this is my second time really trying it, so it probably takes a while to "get it", right?

So I make my plea: if any of you meditate, please send me any tips or suggestions on how to do this. What I aspire to do is to be able to read a passage of Scripture and then literally and figuratively meditate on it.

Hope you are all doing well. I had a meeting with the project sponsor yesterday morning, after putting some options for a particular screen design together, and he liked them. Praise God! In hindsight, in the middle of all the crap, I realize that I probably could have handled the emotional aspect of what I was going through a little bit better (I really hate to cry at work--your eyes get all puffy and all of your mascara is gone), but...it is what it is, and it is part of the person God made me to be.

Father God, I lift up to you all who are hurting, who are separated from You, those who are faced with difficult decisions, those who are victims of unspeakable things. Be their Protector and comforter. I thank You for the sacrifice of Your son, so that we could live with you forever.

His unending peace and joy...Laura

Hooray!

Well...went in today for the follow-up mammogram. I first sat in the waiting room for about 15 minutes, and there were a lot of people there. Then I went back, changed into that wonderful gown (although I am loving the trend in which there are 3 arm holes--you put it on like a bathrobe and then it continues from your left and you stick your right arm into the 3rd arm hole, so that the end of the gown is on your right side), and sat in another waiting room for them to get me. There were so many women in there! All shapes, ages, sizes--all of us sitting in these sky blue gowns, watching a soap opera (except for me--I'm reading Quantum Wellness, a book my darling husband got for me. The book is good so far, and I've actually been thinking about meditation and all of its benefits....but I digress).

I have about 3 pictures taken with that torture-but-you-know-it's-worth-it machine, and the cool thing is that I can see the small area on the my left breast where it looks like a highly concentrated area of nerve endings. Each time the machine squeezes and I'm holding my breath, I repeat "Jesus is with me" until I can breathe again and the machine has released its stronghold on my breast. Back to the waiting room went I. The nurse mentioned that we could be in the waiting room for up to a couple of hours, since their doctors were very thorough. "Eek!" I thought--I didn't plan on that.

The nurse called my name and took me to a little room and told me that the doctor said that everything was fine! They want to see if me in six months, given that my mom had breast cancer. All is good--He is good! I was prepared for any type of news--praise His name!

Many, many thanks to all of those who lifted me up in prayer--I truly felt your warmth and your strength. God's deepest blessings on each of you.