It Began As Any Other Day.....Part II on the Battle of Cancer!

……..There is no way that I can begin to express the multitude of emotions that went through my heart and my mind as the doctor continued to say that Robert’s cancer would take far less chemotherapy than most cancer patients had to have. The doctor began to rattle off numerous names of the drugs that would be a part of his chemo and all I could do was sit there and think how much that seemed for such a tiny body. He then setup our first day of chemo, December 23rd. Two days before Christmas my child would undergo surgery to put in his port and then have his first round of chemo.

Up to this point we still had not told Robert or the rest of our children about the diagnosis. We decided we would sit them all down (once we knew what the oncologist had to say) and share with them everything at that time. When I got home, we called a family meeting. Everyone was present and we began to tell them what lie ahead for Robert but also for them. I will never forget the sound of the tears as long as I live. When I close my eyes I can still hear the brokenhearted crying for their brother. The biggest fear for them, of course, was the big question; “Would Robert die?” They had recently lost a special friend to cancer and this possibility was very real to all of them.

After reassuring them that the doctors were very certain that Robert would be just fine, we all sat down and had prayer over Robert, the cancer and our family. If you have never heard a child pray, then you have really missed out on one of God’s most wonderful creations. Even to this day when I hear them pray I still sit and cry at the faith in their words. When my children pray they pray believing that God hears them and that He WILL answer their prayers. After our prayers we all got up and spent the rest of the day together in the living room, talking and laughing trying to find a way to forget for a just a few hours that cancer had crept into our lives.

After a while we began to feel the financial stress of fighting cancer and buying gas was on the top of the list. The oncologist was on the other side of Atlanta and we had to travel 170 miles twice a week for six months. Gas was outrageous at the time and even though the Children’s Cancer Society helped us some, it was not enough. We thanked the Lord every day that we had insurance that paid for most of his medical needs. There were also a few medicines we had to pay out of pocket for, and with that added expense we barely kept out heads above water. At one point we had a yard sale and sold most of our precious things to bring in extra money for gas to get back and forth to the hospital. But God never let us down, no not for one moment.

When we were low on funds and needed groceries God supplied them through a most wonderful church family that just adopted our family to care for during Robert’s illness. If we needed clothes or anything God supplied it all! When Christmas rolled around we had nothing extra for Christmas presents for the kids. We sat our children down and explained the situation and that we were very sorry. Every child said, “That’s okay, we have to get Robert well first.” I was so proud of them yet so heartbroken that at such an early age they had to learn this hard lesson about money. But God was not done yet.

The following week, I received a call from a friend, her church wanted to help us out for Christmas. The very next day another friend called saying her church also wanted to buy gifts for the kids. And then the biggest blessing of all, the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation called, they wanted to help us on a bigger scale they wanted to know what the children wanted and they wanted to fulfill their wishes if at all possible. God in his goodness, never let us need for anything.

Finally the day came when the doctors were ready to redo the PET scan and see how the chemo treatments had affected the cancer. The oncologist was a bit concerned as he had begun to feel a lump in the area of Robert’s spleen. He informed us that if what he was feeling was a cancerous tumor, they would have to remove the spleen and Robert would then be put on radiation. He told me that Robert’s poor little body was so fragile at that time that radiation could in fact, kill him. But they had to try to get him well. Of course I then had a question… “How do you get cancer in a different place when you are already going through chemo?” I then found out that the chemo is specific to the cancer and does not stop other cancers from forming.

We chose not to tell our children about this newest development but to increase our prayers for our child. My friend Michelle suggested we bring Robert to her church and let them anoint him with oil and pray over him. We decided to orchestrate a major prayer for Robert on Mother’s day. We asked that everyone we knew pray at 11am that Sunday. Our family all went to Michelle’s church that morning, everyone wearing masks to keep out any germs. The Pastor called us up front and the church prayed over my son, they poured their hearts out over him, and many tears were shed that day, asking that God would touch his broken body and heal him. Two days later we went for the PET scan. To the doctor’s surprise (not ours of course) the cancer was gone! The spleen was empty of any tumors and the Hodgkin’s was gone!

In August of that same year, Robert was pronounced cancer free and in full remission. His little body began to heal and his hair came back in thicker and prettier than ever. This August will be our third year cancer free, two more to go and he will be considered cured of his cancer completely. He is one of the many wonderful miracles that God has showered upon us.

When I hear people say that God no longer cares about us or how can anyone know that God is even there? I share with them the many miracles our family has experienced and how I know God exists. I also share how I know that God cares about us, and how He not only cares about us to provide all that we need, He also cared that eleven children would a wonderful Christmas. How do I know that God has not forsaken us? I look in the eyes of my now fourteen year old son, who used to weigh 61 pounds all through chemo and today weighs 134 pounds and is stronger than ever. I look in the eyes of my children and as I listen to their prayers and yes, I know at that very moment that God is alive, and He’s still in control and answers prayer. It may not always be the answer we want but He always answers.

If there is one thing I hope you have gotten from this story, and it is… NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD…He Never Gives Up On Us!!



God bless you all!
Rise'

Hope to see you in two weeks. Tuesday, May 4th to be exact!


Wednesday's Blog: Ponnie's filling in for: "Single Working Mom"

CARS, CARS, and more CARS

Do you remember your first car? The experience of saving up for it, of picking it out, of driving it home for the first time, of showing it to all of your friends? I remember my first car. It was a 1994 Saturn SL2. It was a cute car. I made one mistake; I purchased it on payments, 48 months worth. Now I know this seems fairly normal, but over the years I have come to realize that normal is broke. So I have been on a journey to be weird. And my journey has led me to subscribe to the notion that you can have a car without a car payment.

How is this possible, you might ask? Saving up and paying cash. The problem that we have is a severe allergy to delayed gratification. OKAY, so maybe not everyone, but most do. Think for a moment how much you pay per month on your car. Now think about how much money you could save if you did not have a car payment. Why you could be a millionaire!

Here’s the 411 on car payments, per Dave Ramsey:
Recent statistics show that one-third of car buyers sign up for a six-year loan at an average interest rate of 9.6%. Among these buyers, the average price of the car is just over $26,000. This means that one-third of the cars you see on the road are dragging a $475 payment behind them.

The car dealer won’t tell you that your awesome new car loses about 25% of its value the instant you drive it off the lot. After four years, your car has lost about 70% of its value! What does that mean? After six years, you’ve paid almost $33,000 for a $26,000 car, which is now worth maybe $6,000. Not a good deal.

Here’s a new plan. What if you bought a cheap $2,000 car just to get around for 10 months? Then you take that $475—the average car payment—save it every month, and pay for a new car (with cash!), instead of giving it to the bank.

After 10 months of doing that, you’ll have $4,750 to use for that newer ride. Add that to the $1,500–2,000 you can get for your old beater, and you have well over $6,000. That’s a major upgrade in car in just 10 months—without owing the bank a dime!

But the fun doesn’t end there. If you keep consistently putting the same amount of money away, 10 months later you would have another $4,750 to put toward a car. You could probably sell that $6,000 vehicle for about the same price you paid 10 months before—meaning you now have $11,000 to pay for a car, just 20 months after this whole process started.

The bottom line with this exercise is simply this—what could you do with that $475 if you weren’t paying for the car every month? Anything you wanted!

Think about it this way: If you were to invest that $475 (remember, this is the average car payment in the U.S.) into a good mutual fund with a 12% rate of return, you would have over $100,000 in 10 years! At 20 years, you would have made $470,000. And at 30 years? That mutual fund would be worth $1.6 million!

The numbers will make your head spin, but it really just comes down to simple math. The less money you are spending on your car every month, the more money you have to put into other more important things: your kids’ college fund, your retirement, and paying off any other debt you might have.

If you’ll just follow this simple plan, your life could be dramatically different 10 years from now.

You can live without a car payment!



Peace & Blessings
Sharon

I will have more for you on Monday, May 3rd! 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 III

Often when people come into the kingdom of God, there are changes in their lives that He makes immediately so to speak. For Princess, it was her drinking. As much as she loved to drink every day, her taste for liquor and beer was gone. She tried to continue out of habit, but she couldn’t get past the first sip. The good thing is she didn’t fight it; in fact she was grateful because the Lord replaced her love for drinking each day after work, with a love of reading her Bible instead.

Princess also had night blindness and didn’t drive after dark, but one night there was a family emergency and she remembers praying all the way there for God to help her see, and as she was parking she realized her vision had been corrected and she could see as clearly as she did during the day. That Wednesday, she started going to evening Bible study.

At the time Princess didn’t realize that these were great things that had happened in her life because she was lonely. She had to cut all her drinking buddies loose, and didn’t seem to find much pleasure in gossiping on the phone about others anymore. She wanted to talk to someone about what she was reading in the Bible and really didn’t understand. Her friends didn’t want to hear about Jesus, and they didn’t like the change that they saw in her. She felt isolated and more unloved then ever at this time, but in her heart of hearts she didn’t want to go back to the life that she had been living, she wanted to stick with Jesus and her new church family.

Like so many others who come to church looking for Christians to offer something different, she too was very disappointed in what she found. She found mean spirited and unkind people who said they loved the Lord. She found gossipers and could smell the liquor and breath mint mixture on people every Sunday morning, but she also had found a Pastor who loved the Lord and was bold in this love. He was fairly new to the congregation and Princess came at a time when there was going to be big change. So each Sunday she heard the Word of God in its purest form. Her Pastor was not there to please anyone other than God, and he preached for people to learn and change. He inspired her to read her Bible every day and even check behind him on what he was teaching. He was a most excellent teacher who taught with a fire and passion she had never seen before. Princess was blessed in the fact that she was a reader, because over the years God used that to fill her with so many good things about Him.

When did Princess become a person who loved to read? It was at a young age. She spent a lot of time in her room reading when growing up. It was a form of escape. She frequented the library, spent money on comic books, and had an aunt who supplied her with books. Her mother often punished her for the least little infraction and being sent to her room without supper and no TV was her number one punishment and being beaten. Being banished to her room for weeks on end was number two. I share this because in the midst of the chaos of her childhood, things were being instilled that would one day benefit her. Also because of some of the abuse in her life, Princess grew up to be a woman who would not allow men to physically abuse her. It was set, if a man ever tried to harm her, he was going down. When we get to the end of this series in 2 weeks, I will talk more about how there is good to be found in the midst of the rubble.

When the Wednesday night Bible study started to turn more into a mid week service, Princess started attending my Tuesday evening Women’s Bible study. That was almost 20 years ago. At the time she joined we were studying certain women of the Bible, and the greatest thing she learned in that session was that she no longer had to do it all. Like many women she had bought into the world’s system of “I can do it all, because I am Woman!” She didn’t have a clue that God had an order and that in His order of things, it was the man’s responsibility to be the head and not the woman. She didn’t know that she didn’t have to carry the weight of her world on her shoulders and smile while doing it. She saw that there was hope to put some of this stuff on God.

Princess never really got to make amends with her mother the way she had hoped. Her mother never told her she loved her even after Princess reached out to her mother in obedience to God’s command of honoring her. When her mother passed, Princess in a sense was very relieved that she would never be able to hurt her again. But at the time she didn’t know that this was just the beginning of picking through the rubble of their relationship. She thought it was done and she could now move on. But in trying to move on, she still dragged old hurts and wounds that had never healed with her. If you have ever worked in a hospital or been around someone with a wound full of puss that was draining, then you know there is an odor that is not pleasant at all. And if it is infected it can be almost unbearable. That is the way our infected unhealed wounds smell to the Lord. They stink! And when we hold on to this stuff, it just stinks up our lives and causes us to be offensive to those around us.

Life was still very difficult for Princess, because of the deep root of rejection instilled in her. She still felt very unlovable and didn’t trust God. Life had taught her that people were not trustworthy at all! It had taught her that she had to protect herself because no one else cared enough to do that for her. So over the years she had built a wall around her heart and lived in a house built out of pride. She will be the first to tell you how very proud she was and the things that God allowed in her life to humble her. Did it come over night? No, but the good news is that it did come.

Like many new Christians, Princess became a Jesus person. She read, and reread the New Testament I don’t know how many times, but she didn’t read or see the need for the Old Testament in the beginning. But after attending Women’s Bible Study, she began to enjoy the Old Testament and realized why she could never really understand Romans. She would often say how it seemed like Greek to her. Reading the Old Testament forced her to look at a God she was very distrustful of. A God who gave her such a mean and hateful mother. A God who allowed people to do such horrible things to her as a child. A God who created her so unlovable that no one wanted her. She had to acknowledge that she could no longer hide from Him.

Princess began the long road of learning to trust God. She never knew her father and since men abused her as a child, she found it almost impossible to understand God as a father. But since the Lord knows the most intricate parts of our makeup this was not news to Him, and she began a study of God has Husband. She had never been married, so this area was a blank slate. If you ask her today when it was she went from relying on God as her Husband to seeing God has her Father? She really doesn’t remember exactly, but in learning to trust God she was able to make the coalition between the two. And as her trust for God grew and she watched Him be true to His Word that He would take the ashes of her life and make them a thing of beauty, she begin to let go of her grudge against Him, her mother and anyone else who had ever hurt her. Princess found herself in the valley of compassion as she realized all that God had done for her in the midst of the chaos of her broken life. And in the valley of compassion, she found herself shedding tears for a mother who clearly was never happy or had peace in her own life. In the valley of compassion, Princess found the freedom to begin to let go….

In 2 weeks we will look at the valley of compassion and all that it has to offer in the way of letting go and being able to live the good life that Yeshua died to give us here on this earth.

My prayer is that the past few weeks have helped you to see that there might be areas in your life that need to be sorted through, and purged. And with that you now have a desire to let go of those things which have kept you in bondage and allow beauty to replace the ashes of your life.



Be blessed,
Pat

I will return on Saturday, May 1st.


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

20 MINTUES A DAY…..Just For You!

Sunday after church, my girlfriend took me out to eat. We had a nice leisurely meal and plenty of good conversation. We covered God’s faithfulness, eating healthy, clothes, a new hairdresser and our nails. There was a lot more in there somewhere, it had to be. We were seated at 1:30pm and left at 4:00pm. LOL!!! But apart from God’s faithfulness there was something else that stuck out to me, and that was the conversation we had about our nails.

We started talking about our nails and I shared with her this new system I had purchased about a month ago on a shopping trip with my youngest daughter at the mall. The brand name is Déjà Vu and it’s manufactured in Israel with minerals from the Dead Sea. The system consists of a nail file, bottle of cuticle oil, body lotion and a buffer. What I love about this system is that it has made my rough, ridged nails very smooth. And they shine like glass. The lotion is fantastic, and I’ve been using it on the heels of my feet more than my hands. I take about 5 minutes each evening to rub the oil on my cuticles and do the buffing once a week. She shared that she had a similar system but was too tired at night to use it. That’s what stuck out. I hear this way too often from women. Because what you are saying is that you are too busy for you. Now granted my friend’s schedule is very full with working full time and all the other things she has on her plate, but she is single and does not have children, and if she is too busy then what about the women who are caregivers, married and have kids? Women who are responsible for others often put themselves last. And there needs to be a change in that mindset.

I could write a few more paragraphs talking about all the things that women do and why we so often put ourselves last, but I think focusing on inspiring us to make change is a better use of time. You already know if you are not making time for you and why.

On Wednesday I posed the question on our Facebook fan page “Share something you can do for yourself in 20 minutes” I did not get the response I had hoped for. I really wanted to see women write something they do that is for them, that doesn’t involve anyone but them. I wasn’t surprised though because once I offered a free subscription to a fashion magazine and women wrote me and told me they didn’t have time to read magazines. I think that is pretty sad. Why? We are inspired by reading and even a magazine that might take us all month to read can inspire us to try something new or make a change. Take a mirror test…..If you are frumpy or look neglected and un-kept, ask yourself “Why would someone else want your God?” How faithful a God is He if you look like you are in need would be their question? Some of us have let ourselves go to that point. And that should not be, so my prayer is that you will take a look at how you got there and begin to make change.

There is a great buzz in the air because it is spring. Women are talking about their gardens, spring cleaning, freshening up their houses, working on their curb appeal and so on. Well, what about you? It really won’t take much to make a change if you have been neglecting yourself. Even if financially you are not able to budget in a “professional” anything for yourself. That still does not leave you out or make it okay for you to be last or neglectful of yourself.

Maybe clothes are not your issue as much as your hair, skin, nails or feet. I would love to get a professional pedicure, but my budget says, “No.” But that doesn’t stop me from soaking my feet and, pumicing the dead skin off and painting my toenails. Most plastic dish pans will accommodate both your feet. They cost what two or three dollars at the most? If you don’t have foot soak, a little bit of bubble bath or shower gel will do. Treat yourself to a new color of polish, and go for it. There is so much that we can accomplish for ourselves if we just spend 20 minutes a day on us. Six times 20 equals 120. One hundred and twenty minutes translates into 2 hours. Wow, that is impressive if you are one who doesn’t spend any extra time on you. One night you could give yourself a facial. You can spend twice a week doing exercises to tighten up your stomach muscles or lift hand weights to firm up the under arm ding-a-ling. Soak in a luscious bath for 20 minutes and pumice your feet at the end. Twenty minutes is enough time to file and buff your nails or even pluck your eyebrows. It really doesn’t have to be about if you have money or not, it should be about you no matter what. You can read a magazine article in 20 minute that will inspire you to try something new. If you spent just 20 minutes each evening sewing an outfit for yourself, by the end of the week it would be completed. How often have we purchased material and never found the time to do the project? I’m guilty!

Maybe you are a person who has kind of lost your sense of style, if so, may I suggest you go to the bookstore and peruse the fashion magazines until you find one that speaks to you, and then buy it. Also if you have The Learning Channel please checkout the show “What Not to Wear!” It is fantastic, mainly because they teach you to dress and love the body you have. Here’s the website: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/whatnottowear/whatnottowear.html.

Thrift shops in upscale shopping areas are another place to find good pieces. A new trend that seems to be really catching on is women are having clothing swap parties in their home. That will help you to get rid of those items that still have the price tags on them but you will never wear. You know the things that are 2 sizes to small but you bought for when you lose the weight you have gained. ~Smile~ There are consignment shops that buy clothing by the bag or trade off for items in the store. Spend 20 minutes in a thrift shop and put one outfit together for yourself. Then on another day spend 20 minutes picking out a new shade of lipstick or eye shadow. The sky is the limit, be creative. After all it’s for you.

As women, if we can’t take 20 minutes a day to love on ourselves then something is amiss, I do believe. No more excuses please. If you have eggs in the house then take one and use the egg white as a facial mask. Did you know you could do that? Well, you can. Here are a couple of links and a search for “Homemade Facials” http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980423b.cfm,
http://hmbeautyrecipes.homestead.com/SKINcleansers.html,
http://www.bing.com/search?q=recipies+for+natural+facials&src=IE-SearchBox&Form=IE8SRC. You probably have most of the ingredients right in your cupboard and fridge.

So again…..No More Excuses!

My dear sisters you are worth 20 minutes a day no matter what you do for others or how full your day is. I pray I have encouraged at least one person to start making room for themselves each day, even if only for 20 minutes.



Blessings & Love
Ponnie


Saturday's Blog: Pat our lady of wisdom returns with Part III of "Just Let It Go"

PAY ATTENTION

Hello Folks,

How’s it going? I told you I would let you if we made it to church on time. Drum rolls please, dddddddddd, NO! We did not make it to church on time but it was not because we were not ready to go. Brian was stuck in traffic and returned home later than expected. Okay now that we took care of that let’s get started.

So I woke up this morning to a beautiful day. The birds were chirping, and the sun was shining through the windows. Spring is in the air. If you live in the eastern part of the USA it feels more like summer is in the air. The weather changed abruptly and gave me “Spring Fever”. For the past couple of days I have not wanted to do anything that resembles work or rather schoolwork. Distractions have slowed our school day down not because of the kids but because of me. You see there is something about this time that makes me want to relax, chill, take it easy, cool out, fall back, you get the point. Oh check out my new slang phrase, fall back. I just learned this from my little brother. Just trying to stay up on what’s happening, LOL! As I was saying school is the last thing on my mind to do.

To give you an idea of how distracted I am, I started to daydream about cleaning out the pantry in the kitchen. Yes I was rearranging the Corning Ware dishes and the glass bowls in my mind. Trying to figure out where to put this new bread maker we just acquired. I even considered nixing school for the sake of cleaning Brandon’s room. Yesterday (which would be Wednesday) I had the great idea to do school outside, thinking that it would satisfy my need and the kids need to be outdoors. So I pushed my traveling desk and chairs out on the back deck, gathered all our necessary materials and sat down to work. It did not work out as I planned. The kids complained about the sun (we do not have an awning or any kind of covering on our deck). They were paranoid about the bugs; yes my two boys are afraid of bugs, go figure. The wind that was presently cooling things off kept blowing the pages causing Brandon to have to keep finding the correct page thereby causing him to be more distracted and me annoyed. UGGGGGH! After our spelling lesson we packed it up and came in the house.

It is easy to stay focused when it is cold and snowy out. I mean who wants to go out in the cold, not me. But now the weather is nice and there is about a month and half of school left and I am determined to be done on time. You may say, “On time? You’re home schooling, on time is when you choose.” I know, but if I do not set a date for the end of school we will be in school all year long. That would make for a very unhappy household. So our projected last day is May 21st. So I need a plan to stay on target.
Years ago my pastor gave us ABCs to developing a disciplined life. I am about to put these in to practice. As I share them with you maybe you are having the same issue I am or another issue with discipline so hopefully they will help you as well.

A – Admit you have a problem. My problem is I would rather go play than home school right now.

B – Believe God can help you. I believe what it says in Psalm 121, “I will look to the hills, from where does my help come from. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

C – Confess your faults. I have not been wise with my time. I have been staying up much later than I ought and it has affected my desire to press through and get work done.

D - Decide in advance. I am going to bed at a reasonable time so I will be better prepared for my day. As I am ready to meet the demands of the day we can finish school at a good time and then spend some of the day “playing”. Also I will put things in place like field trips and the like for next year.

E – Enlist some support. Okay calling all you home school parents to pray for me that I say focused. Also if you happen to be my friend on Facebook and it is pass 11:00pm, shoot me a message to go to bed. On a more practical level I will ask Brian to hold me accountable.

Now that I have these in place the remainder of my year should go as planned. Okay when does doing anything with kids go as planned? Well maybe I will stay the course will little to no distractions. I cannot believe that my first year of home schooling is almost over. We will see if I survived by May 21st.

It is after 9:00pm and I need to start getting ready for bed, gotta put the plan in motion. Like usual I never want to close without praying….Father, thank You for getting us this far in our school year. Please help us to stay the course and to continue to press ahead. Give us strategies to make the remainder of our year an exciting and productive. We praise You because You are worthy of all praise, in Jesus’ name Am

Until next time happy home schooling.



Hugs and Kisses,
Cheryl

April has 3 Thurdays in it so I will be back on Thursday, April 29th! Hope to see you then!!

Friday's Blog: Ponnie has a special blog for the ladies...please stop in!