Yeah...I'm still alive!

Wow...it has been a LONG time since I posted anything! It has been pretty hectic around here and my computer wasn't cooperating with me! Everytime I tried to post, it wouldn't allow me to! The new house is almost done and ready to move in! I really love it and we had some of our big kids over yesterday for an early Easter. Some of the kids had to work so we didn't have everyone BUT we had all the grandkids for an Easter Egg hunt. It was wonderful to see all of them together. Last night at church we had a special family come and be "interviewed" by our pastor. It was very unusual for him to do something like that but this family was very near and dear to our pastor. They have gone through some really sad and difficult times and our pastor wanted them to give their testimony. A few years ago they lost one of their sons due to an attack on him that gave him a severe brain injury that claimed his life. The husband/father of the family has an incredibly rare disease that is taking over his body and it will be terminal. It is impossible for him to walk without assistance and his face, hands, eyes, and even emotions are all affected by this disease. It is very hard to understand him but at the very last part of the evening, he wanted to say something...he hadn't talked prior to then. He said something like this... "You will have lots of trials in your lives and you can choose to go through them in FAITH or in FLESH. If you go through them in FAITH, you will succeed but if you go through them in FLESH, you will go through them alone. It is much better to go through them in FAITH." What a sweet testimony...I cried through the whole evening as I'm sure a LOT of the congregation did. I'm so glad that we have the faith that we have. I just can't imagine not having the Lord to call on in our times of trouble. Something else that was said yesterday morning at church by the guest speaker (the ill man's son in law) has really stuck with me today. He said that we are to praise the NAME of the Lord. We should praise the very "person" that He is...not just be grateful that He does wonderful things for us...but just that HE IS WONDERFUL in HIMSELF! How many times do I say, "God is so wonderful to us!"....when He provided something we wanted or needed or answered our prayers or relieved our pains. He is, of course, wonderful to do those things for us but very very often I neglect to PRAISE WHO HE IS!! How about LOVING HIM FOR HIM...not as a "santa claus" for the spiritual! (Someone who answers prayers and gives us good things....) Even if HE never gave us all these good things that HE gives, HE is still worthy to be praised! Well, I'm done preaching for now...haha....I've just been thinking about these things. By the way, Roger is doing better, his medication is up today so I hope he doesn't have any reoccurring illness in his leg. He has been working regularly. I'm almost ready to finish up with our homestudy. They need to come and check out our new house and it is almost ready! With Roger being so sick we really fell behind. But you know what? God knows all that and there must be a purpose in this delay. I've been writing a diary for our little future adopted child. It seems strange to be writing to someone who may not even be born yet but has lived in my heart for years! Have a lovely day, Blessings, Beth