It Began As Any Other Day.....

October 31, 2006 is a day that will stand out in my mind forever. It began as any other day; we got up, had breakfast, did our chores, and began school. As the day progressed I noticed that Robert, my oldest son, had a swollen neck; not a small place but the entire right side of his neck was swollen like a baseball. I called our doctor and took him into the office. The doctor began to question both Robert and me as to what had happened that might have caused the swelling.

“Well, me and my friends were playing freeze tag, and well when I got tagged, he hit me in the neck. It didn’t hurt mommy, I promise you! And I didn’t tell you because it didn’t hurt and we kept on playing. I didn’t see any swelling at all until you said something this morning, I promise I didn’t.” The doctor and I both laughed and he suggested that we go to the children’s hospital for a CT scan to be on the safe side.

We were taken in almost immediately and the scan was done within the hour, and it wasn’t long after that the doctor came to talk to me. “Mrs. Wampler, first of all let me tell you that there is nothing broken in your son’s neck and this looks to be nothing more than blood that has gathered from the hit, kind of an internal bruise if you will. HOWEVER, (my heart began to feel sick) we have noticed what looks to be a growth in one of his glands and we would like your permission to do a biopsy on it to make sure that it is nothing.” I agreed and called my husband to inform him Robert was being admitted to the hospital and we would not be home that evening.

The next morning the tests began, and we immediately received some initial results. The doctor came into the room and quietly said, “Mrs. Wampler, it will be three days before we will know for sure but from my experience, I can tell with the upmost certainty that your son has cancer.” HE said it; he said the “C” word. How could he say that to me? How could he use that word in the same sentence with my name? Had he no idea that Cancer was not in the agreement that I had with God? Finally I came to my senses and asked, “What type of cancer are we talking about?” “Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; and before your get too upset remember in this day and age we have made numerous advances in medicine and most cancers are curable and fewer people die of cancer the ever before. I will call you in three days when we have all the results from the biopsy.”

My heart began to cry the tears that my eyes were holding back. The next few hours were a blur of prayer. I called my husband, and told him everything that the doctor had said and in that moment I went to pieces. When I heard his voice it hit me, my child had cancer, a disease that is an equal opportunity disease; it cares not the age, creed, race, or national origin of the person.

I will never forget the day that we got the results, it was November 5th, the doctor called from his car phone and when I answered the phone he said, “Mrs. Wampler, We have the results and I was right, we are looking at Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It is in the beginning stages and I have taken the liberty of making an appointment for Robert with the best pediatric oncologist in the state of Georgia.” When I hung up I went to pieces, sliding down the wall to the floor where I cried for nearly half an hour before anyone found me.

I realize now that the tears were not just for my son, but for my other children too. How would they survive this time? I would have to be with Robert every moment and my children would not have me in their lives for God only knows how long. Who could I trust to love them and care for them, who could give them what I could? I was not willing to allow anyone else to love or raise my children; I wanted to be there for every second of their lives. I also realized that I was not willing to give my children to the Lord no matter what; I wanted to be in control. You see, I was not only a very controlling person, I was also one of those Christians that said I loved the Lord and I had faith, but my faith was small. It only seemed to exist when I knew what the outcome was going to be, not when the Lord wanted me to trust Him for the outcome. November 5th, is etched in my mind forever not because it was the day we were told our son had cancer but it was the day when I began a new walk of faith that would move me closer to my Father in Heaven than I had ever been. This would be when I learned what true faith and complete trust in God really is all about.

Our first appointment was the following week; the oncologist was the most comforting and caring doctor I had ever spoken to. He took my hand and laid his over mine, and said, in the most calming and reassuring voice, “Mrs. Wampler, this is totally amazing. This cancer was discovered remarkably early. Usually this type of cancer is often not found until it in a far more advanced stage yet by some freak accident here you are. I believe that this was discovered at least a year and half or more before you would have noticed the first symptoms. I am pretty sure that Robert will not need the same amount of chemotherapy as most children who have Hodgkin’s. We will start off with 6 months of treatments and then retest him to see where we are. BUT, I am fairly certain that will be all he will need to put him into remission”.

Freak accident he had said, but “MIRACLE” is what I heard. Yes, my son had cancer, and yes we could be in for a very long, very hard road, but not as long or as hard as it would have been had God not used the arm of a child to clip my son’s neck.

As always, God is ever in control even when we think he is not, or when we think he has left us hanging. One thing I have learned over the years is that it is never in our time or our way, it is always in God’s time and God’s way, AND God never makes a mistake.

TO BE CONTINUED…….
I will share more of this story and God’s miracles in our lives in my next blog. Have a great week!



God bless you all!
Rise'

Hope to see you in two weeks. Tuesday, April 20th to be exact!


Wednesday's Blog: Michele, "Single Working Mom"

GET YOUR FREE CREDIT REPORTS

Have you checked your credit report lately? You are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The website you can use is https://www.annualcreditreport.com/.

Now I will warn you: do not, I repeat, do not order from freecreditreport.com. It is not FREE. I don’t have all of the details, but at some point, they offer you something else free and ask you to enter a card number. Then they start debiting your account once a month for like $9.95.

One of the main reasons to order your credit reports is to get an accurate list of all outstanding debts you may have. This is important on your journey to becoming Debt Free. So once you have your list of outstanding debts, you want to work on getting them paid off through your Debt Snowball.

Following is the process of working through your debt:

1. Separate your debts into two categories: Current Debt, and Delinquent Debt. Current debt would be debt that you are making minimum monthly payments on and none of your payments are past-due. Delinquent debt is debt that you have not paid on in a while.

2. List your current debts from smallest to largest. Then attack the smallest one with every additional dollar you can find in your budget. Once that first debt is paid off, then take everything that you were paying on that one and add it to the minimum payment of the second one. Continue like this until you are done paying all of your current debt.

3. Once you are done paying off all of your Current debts, you are now ready to tackle any delinquent debts you may have. Do not call all of them at once, since you do not want them all calling you asking for money that you don’t have for them. Save up some money first, then call your first creditor and offer them about 30% of the amount of the debt. This negotiation process may take some time. But I would not offer them more than 40% of the total debt, unless it is a very small debt (like $50) and not worth the negotiation hassle. It will also help to know what your original amount owed was before all of the fees and charges were added.

4. Most collection agencies purchase batches of debts for around 10 cents on the dollar, so don’t feel like you are being unfair with the amounts that you are attempting to negotiate. They are still making money on the transaction.

5. Make sure that you get any negotiated amount in writing. Remember, if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen. Do not under any circumstance allow these creditors electronic access to your checking account.

6. Do not wait until you need your credit report cleaned up, say to purchase a home, because then your time constraints will put you at a disadvantage when attempting to negotiate the payoff amounts of delinquent debts.

And after you have done all of this, vow to never ever go into debt again!




Peace & Blessings
Sharon

I will have more for you on Monday, April 19th! Until then keep working your plan for financial peace and freedom.


Tuesday's Blog: Rise'& her 11 kids.... "The Wampler Zoo"

Just Let It Go….Part II

For the past five years of her life, all Princess could think about was turning 18 and leaving her mother’s house. That day had finally come and Princess really didn’t have a plan. She had been working for a few months and purchased a couple of items such as Tupperware, pots and pans, a color TV and lots and lots of clothes. Her savings was in name only; it offered nothing that would get her past dinner at a so, so restaurant. She needed money for an apartment and she didn’t want to spend another night at her mother’s house. They had done nothing but argue and fight over money from the time she started working. So like most people who do not have a plan, she came up with one without really looking at the big picture or the long term. She moved in with the guy she had been seeing. This was the beginning of many poor decisions to come.

At first Princess liked being “A Little Bit Married” but her boyfriend didn’t. It seems he agreed to let her move in not because he loved her, but because he felt sorry for her and all the problems she was having with her mother. And the agreement was that it was temporary until she saved enough to get her own apartment. The only financial responsibility she had was to buy food; he paid all the other bills. So what was she doing with her money? Buying more clothes, and fixing up his apartment. You know adding a woman’s touch. Needless to say this ended badly for Princess and he all but put her out!

This was all her mother’s fault. How? Because if she had been a better mother and not trying to take all her money and still expecting her to be a maid then she could have stayed home (like most of her friends who didn’t go to college) and prepared properly to leave and have her own place. But also there was a great sadness in her heart from his rejection of her; it just added fuel to the fire of “You are worthless!”

Thus began the spiral of one poor decision after another. Princess borrowed money from her credit union to get an apartment and furnish it. As you are beginning to see she did not know how to handle money. Once she secured her own place and felt truly free to do what she wanted, when she wanted, she became a party girl. Hanging out all hours of the night at clubs, dibbing and dabbing in drugs and lots of drinking became her lifestyle. On the outside many envied her, because she had learned to fake it. She dressed well, had a nice apartment, went out with some really wealthy men, and this led her peers to think she had it going on. But little did they know that with each passing “poor decision” she died a little more inside.

Psychologists have a theory that girls who are sexually abused become promiscuous. Princess seems to think in her case there was some truth to that, in which seeds had been planted that using your body was a way to gain intimacy. And intimacy is something that we are all looking for. In fact it is a need that God put in us, but the key to this is that only Jesus can fill that need. And until Princess came to the conclusion that there had to be something better than what she was doing, she continued looking for love in all the wrong places and too many faces.

One day Princess felt she just could not go on any longer and tried to take her own life. She shares that she remembered praying to God and asking Him to forgive her. As a child she had been introduced to Jesus. She came up in a time where your parents sent you to the neighborhood church for Sunday school, even if they didn’t go. She attended Vacation Bible School each summer and during elementary school her classes were started each day with prayer. So, a God who created heaven, earth and her was not totally foreign to her. When her suicide attempt failed she took the world’s route for help, which consisted of weekly visits to a psychologist and meds for depression. But this really did not help her in the way that she thought it would and so she once again began the facade of “I’m okay!”

During these hard years, Princess was not able to get the type of support she needed from her family, because as with most families who are not serving the Lord, they all had their own messes they were trying to deal with. Her mother was still the same hateful, demanding, belittling, compassionless person she had always been. So what else is a girl to do, but learn how to “not to cry out loud and hide your feelings” and that is exactly what Princess did. But by now, she had so much baggage she carried with her, she didn’t stand a chance at true happiness because she was so wounded and riddled with unforgiveness and the “woe is me” syndrome. As far as she was concerned, life really sucked! Why hadn’t her suicide attempt years before been successful? Why had she ever been born? Why was she chosen to live such a hellish and unloving life? Why did God hate her? He must hate her or why else would He create such a person that no one else wanted. Why God why?!!!

Princess changed jobs and started working with a man who loved the Lord. He and his wife befriended her. Their relationship grew to the point that he was the brother she never had. She started visiting their church and even joined, but the pastor of the church had a spirit of lust about him and though married and supposedly a man of God he propositioned her. That was the end for Princess, she had had enough! So, back she went to drinking every day to numb the pain of her sad life. But this short stint in church had brought her to a point of praying and often she would cry out to Jesus, “Please help me!”

One Sunday she was invited to attend a service with someone she knew. She fell in love with the music the first time she went and feel in love with the preaching the next time she went. But she didn’t stay, because she was very leery of the Pastor. Not because of anything he had done, but she was tired of men who lied and automatically put him in that category. There was no way he was for real. But as God would have it….he was for real! Weeks later after spending her usual Saturday of drinking all day into the wee hours of the night, Princess was awaken (she knows now it was the Holy Spirit) bright and early with a clear head. No hangover, but a clear head. And felt she needed to get up and go back to that church.

Princess was 36 years old when she joined this church and began the process of falling in love with the one who loved her (Jesus), which means she had been on her own for 18 years. It had been 18 years of more hell from the day she left her mother’s house, and in those 18 years every poor decision or bad thing that happened to her, she blamed her childhood, her mother and God. And though she was at the point that Jesus had to be better than what she had had all these years, she wasn’t so sure about God.

The “blame game” has been with us since the beginning of sin. Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed God for giving him Eve. And like Adam and Eve, it is much easier to blame someone else versus look at the role we’ve played in life gone wrong. Princess was no exception to this rule and blamed her failed relationships, unhappy miserable life on her mother and God. She took no responsibility for her poor choices. That is up until now……

Yes, you will have to stay tuned for more on letting go. I can’t say that the next blog will be the end because I really don’t know. I will continue to write as the Holy Spirit leads me. But my prayer is that Princess’ life is helping some of you to look at the possibility that maybe some of the hardships in your life just might be because of a poor decision or two that you’ve made. Which will help you to begin the process of letting go.



Be blessed,
Pat

I will return on Saturday, April 17th.


Monday's Blog: Sharon will be back with her pearls on "Financial Wisdom" for us"

A New Chapter

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots, the other is wings.” – Hodding Carter (1907 – 1972), Southern US progressive journalist and author.

As I travel around the world, I often meet people who have never left their own little corner of it – whether that is a village somewhere, or one of the metropolises of the world. My oldest, dearest friend’s mother was just one such person: she never, in her entire life, left the shores of that tiny island called Great Britain. For one thing, she had a pathological fear of flying. For another, she was scared of boats and being on the water – ironic, considering she grew up in a seaside town and loved playing on the beach & the boardwalk as a child. Yet her son, my friend, travels as often and as much as his budget and his vacation allowance let him do – in the last several months, he and his friend have traveled to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, to Spain to visit friends to check in on the property they own there, and to the moors of Cornwall, in southwestern England – not to mention FINALLY making use of their 2008 Christmas present from me: a coupon good for one night’s stay in a converted barn.

Then you come to me, and I’ve traveled almost more than I’ve stayed put in any one place. My younger brother and I were talking recently; when our father passed away 10 years ago, I inherited the tallboy cabinet that had stood in our kitchen for many years, and that Dad had claimed when he & my mother split up. At the time, Henry had more money than I did, and so he paid to ship the tallboy back to his home in Pennsylvania – where, promptly, it took up residence in his home and his (now ex-) wife filled it with their wedding china etc. Now that they are divorced, Henry has packed all his things into a transportable pod – including the tallboy – and sent them to storage. When I asked him about it, his response was that I could have the tallboy when I stayed in one place for more than 5 years at a time!

Looking back, the most uninterrupted time I’ve ever lived in one place was the home I spent the majority of my growing-up years in. It was a mid-terrace, 4-bedroom, 1 ½ bathroom house with a postage stamp front yard. We moved there the year I was 8 – 1977 – and I left for the first extended period of time when I was 16 – that was my year in Italy as a foreign exchange student. (Watch for a blog on that experience in the future – it’s one I firmly believe every teenager should have!) My brother and I finally agreed that “one place” could mean one country – the likelihood of my spending 5 years in one town or city anytime in the foreseeable future is remote indeed!

Which brings me to my latest – and, who knows? – greatest adventure. As Ponnie has already made you aware, I will shortly be relocating back to Europe – shortly, as in three weeks from now. Home is once again going to be England, this time in a town just outside of London called Reading (pronounced Redding), where two dear friends of mine bought a house last year, the third bedroom in which they have kindly agreed to rent me – and are currently generously decorating for me! My work, however, will take me all over Europe, the Middle East & Africa, as I will be traveling around conducting mystery shops and quality evaluations of hotel properties all across that region. I will be spending approximately 250 days a year on the road, starting on April 19th, with between 6 - 10 days a month at home in Reading. Hopefully I will get to go to many places I’ve never been before as well as some that I have (I know my friends in Spain, Italy and Egypt are eagerly awaiting my visits!), and will be able to make use of my languages – who knows, I may even get to learn a new one or three!

My roots will always be here in America – in my heart of hearts, I am an American girl both by birth and by identity – but it seems that my wings always take me overseas!



Blessings & Hugs
Esther-Marie

I hope to be back to share with you on Thursday, April 22nd...hope to see you then!


Saturday's Blog: Pat, "Words of Wisdom"

Beat the Clock!

Hi,

OH MY GOODNESS! I woke up today at 8 o’clock, an hour later than usual. Of all the days I wake up late it would be today. Today is Wednesday and Wednesdays are my busiest days and this one is especially busy. Wednesday is the day of the week we go to prayer and Bible study and it is always my goal to be ready when Brian gets home so we can leave and be on time. Let me say that as much as I try we are late every week and I really, really, really do not like being late for anything. Well what time do you need to leave you may ask. We need to leave at 6:40 to be on time. Well don’t you have enough time you’re asking? NO because whenever kids are added to any equation it becomes an all day event to get out of the house. Now add home schooling, cooking dinner, needing to exercise and to boot finishing this blog by this evening. To top it off the reason for waking up late was due to Christian waking up several times last night breaking my sleep. He’s fine, just had a couple of bad dreams and needed mommy, but now he is tired and whiny and I do mean WHINY! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Let me back up a minute and explain. I try to get up at 6:30 no later than 7. I get my devotions in and dressed before the kids get up at 8. We do breakfast and try to start school between 9 and 9:30. In regards to the other things I need to do I make sure there are leftovers from Tuesday so I will not need to cook on Wednesday and when I do not need to cook it gives me an opportunity to exercise when school is over. There are no leftovers which means I need to cook and probably will not work out. And as you can imagine school has started late. I feel like I am in one of those games from The Price is Right where the contestant has to rush and match the prices to the food before the clock runs out. I feel like I am in a race to beat the clock. I am determined to win; the clock will not come out the victor today!

So today’s blog will be in real time, like the show "24". By the way have you been watching? Can you believe Dana? I mean the plot surrounding her was annoying but OH MAN! Okay, okay Cheryl stay focused! All right I’m back on track. Right now its 10:00am and we are getting ready to do Bible study, Math and Reading before lunch so I need to go and I will be back during lunch to let you know how we are progressing. Enjoy this lovely music while you wait. Oh yeah we are not on the phone. Okay be right back…

I’m back. Its 1:15pm and we have finished lunch and Christian is lying down for a nap, Halleluiah! The cool thing is we are done with school for the day. Can you believe it? We were done with everything by lunch at 12:30!! This makes my day a little easier because now I can exercise by 2:00 and start making dinner by 4:30. This day is turning out better than I expected. I beat the clock, I win you lose! Mole, mole cheek, cheek (some of you reading this are saying “What?” but if you are 35 and older, and from Philly you get it, LOL!).

As you may have already gathered, I am goal oriented and not the most flexible person out there so you can imagine how frazzled I felt when I woke up this morning an hour later than usual. As I sit writing this I must give honor where honor is due. First I must praise my God for His help. I sat in my room this morning with my head in my hands feeling frustrated and I asked the Holy Spirit to help me today. I asked Him to help me accomplish all that I needed to, help me to take my day in stride, to use wisdom on what to do and even when to do it. I asked Him to help me not to take my feelings out on the kids by being irritated with the things they do and respond with unholy anger. Finally I asked the Holy Spirit to just be with me. My prayers were answered and one of the ways God showed up was through Brandon. Today Brandon brought his “A” game. He got ready for school with little to no prompting from me. He made breakfast for him and Chris (only whole wheat English muffins and fruit, don’t call child welfare). In regards to his schoolwork he was focused, on task and compliant. WOOHOOO, that’s my boy!!

It’s 1:45pm now and do you hear that? All quiet in the Mackey home. Brandon is in his room reading, Christian, well Christian is not sleep yet but he is quiet and in ten minutes I will be putting my sneakers (tennis shoes depending on where you live) on and getting ready to “get it on.” So that’s it! No world changing life lessons today I just wanted to share a day in the life of a homeschool mom with you.

Father, please bless these wonderful people in Jesus’ name Amen!

Until next time happy homeschooling!



Hugs and Kisses,
Cheryl

PS. Meet me Thursday, April 15th to find out if we made it to church on time, LOL.



Friday's Blog: Esther-Marie our "World Travler"