Silver and Gold

"Make new friends, but keep the old: 
                                                one is silver and the other gold."

I have a story to share.  Twenty-six years ago, we lived in New Mexico and were good friends with another young couple from our church.  The husband was in the Air Force stationed in NM for a couple of years.  Besides numerous church activities, we went wilderness camping and hiking together several times.  We both had our first babies the same year, and we camped and hiked in the mountains with them too:)

After leaving New Mexico, they lived numerous places, and we moved overseas.  We corresponded for several years until the time they were stationed in Saudia Arabia.  We could no longer contact them, and we did not hear from them from that point on.  We were not sure if they were even alive.  For years we tried to find them, but to no avail.

Our daughter has a Facebook account for her business, and she got a message from our "long lost friend".  He explained who he was, and that he was trying to contact us - wondering if we were her parents (her unusual name gave him hope).  She showed us his request and we soon connected via e-mail.

These friends are from Mississippi and New Mexico and are true Southerners at heart.  How surprised we were to hear that they are living just north of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota area - about 3 hours from us!  Because of my health and surgery, we were not able to get together right away, but I am happy to say, they made the trip over here to visit us recently:)  It was amazing.  We never expected to see them again.  Their children are all grown and moved away so we didn't get to meet them yet, but we shared pictures, stories, life events etc. (Yes, I did have to lie down to rest a couple of times during the visit, but they were gracious and wore no perfumed or chemical products -even their laundry had no fumes and no dryer sheets were used -which helped tremendously)  The last time we had seen each other, we were our oldest children's age.  What a tremendous blessing it was to reconnect with them. God is amazing!

OneYear Ago

I am so thankful to be here today instead of where I was (Monday, July 25, 2011) one year ago...hospital, mass, tests, anesthesia, surgery, pain, difficulty breathing, drug side effects...fighting for life.
I thank God for answered prayers both then and now.

God's Priorities Are Perfect

Security is not found in safety.  Safety is an illusion.  Security is doing things God's way...in God's order...and in accepting God's timing.  Just some food for thought.

I have had a little more strength the past week - thanks be to God.  My pain levels, however, have been HIGH.  Headaches continue, mid back and rib pain on the right side are horrible and low back and hip pain are awful.  All the muscles in my body feel like I must have climbed Mount Everest this week.  The muscle fibers seems to seize up and not let go.  I do take extra minerals, but they don't seem to be helping much.   I broke my coccyx years ago while delivering one of our babies, and that pain flares up periodically.  It has been difficult to deal with lately because it hurts to sit, to walk, to lie down in certain positions etc.  It is especially painful to release pressure while getting up from a sitting position.

I will not bore you with the rest of my complaints:)

This is a busy time of year on a homestead.  God has also brought some interesting ministry opportunities to our children.  He has been changing our plans, often surprising us by what He has planned (that is the way we want it to be - his plans are what we want all of our plans to be).  It requires us to be flexible and to allow God's priorities to take presidence. He is wonderful!

Ellen