Pop

My daddy hasn't felt well lately. He is battling with congestive heart failure, a horrible pain on his right chest wall, not to mention, he is being treated for some lesions on the opening of his espohagus, which makes eating not a pleasant experience. He has lost so much weight since fall so he has been seeing a gastrointerologist, a pulmonary dr., a nephralogist, and a coronary dr. He is in borderline renal failure. All this to say, that even though he is battling with all of these illnesses, he is still wanting to be the soul provider for our mama. I know it has to be hard to surrender everything you have always done to allow someone else to take your place and I can understand how he must feel. I think this morning he finally came to grips with this and is allowing Joel to take him to the er so we can have rest in knowing what is causing all of the pain he is experiencing. He even allowed Joel to crank up the oxygen tank so he wasn't so labored in his breathing. AND, he allowed me to wheel him in a wheelchair on Thursday at Clark Holder Clinic when we went to see the dr!!! That was the straw that broke the camel's back!!! I knew then and there that he was a sick little man!! All of this to say and ask for anyone who reads this to please pray for my daddy. That the drs. will be able to find the source of the pain in his chest, and that they will not just run tests and send him home, like they did two weeks ago when we took him. We are going to request that he be referred to Crawford Long, where his defibrilator was put in, so they can rule out any problems there. Also, please ask God to give daddy rest and peace in knowing that his children will take care of his "sweetie" while he is away from her. He loves that little woman so much!! Thank you so much for your prayers.

Sharon

I attended the funeral a true saint today. She planned the service and, as I sat in the church, it was almost as if she were preaching it herself. Every scripture that was read and every song that was sung, I could picture Sharon, herself, delivering the Word of God with such confidence and expression and singing with that sweet, sweet smile she always had on her face and her eyes closed as if singing only to her Savior, Jesus Christ. And then I realized she was singing, but not in that church, she was singing in the PRESENCE of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!! Oh, how we will miss her, but she left a legacy that will live on forever in her husband, her children, her family, and the women whose lives she so sweetly touched in Explorer's Bible Study. I will be forever grateful to her for all she has taught me and I pray that I can have the same kind of hunger she had for knowing the Lord and growing in the knowledge and wisdom of our Savior. I will miss you, sweet, Sharon, and I will pray daily for your sweet family that the Lord will give them exactly what they need for each day as they begin the grieving process at the loss of such a gracious and loving wife, mother, daughter, and friend.

Cold!!

There is definitely one thing in this world that I loathe at my age. I was just wondering if I am the only one who can't stand the cold??? Not only are my hands, feet, nose, and every other body part exposed to the elements, freezing, but my old bones are shaking, as well!! Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and could not, for the love of chocolate, go back to sleep, because I was shivering so bad. No matter how much I tried to scoot up close to hubby, and even with the covers wrapped tight up around my head so that only a tiny air pocket kept me from suffocating, I still could not get warm. So of course, there I lay, thinking, you idiot, get up and turn up the heat, (hubby likes to keep it at a cool 66 degrees at night!!!), but I was dreading getting out of bed to walk across the house to turn up the thermostat!!! Needless to say, I spent several hours in my bed shivering and wrapping up further and further in the covers, when all I had to do was to get up and walk a few feet to fix the problem!! Of course, as I was awake, those nighttime thoughts, begin to take over and, boom, I 'm going down a slippery slide of worries and anxious thoughts that I can do nothing about!!! I guess that makes two things I can't stand in my old age!!! One is the cold, and the other is waking up being so cold that you can't go back to sleep because those worrisome thoughts are waging war in your mind!!!