“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths….how precious is your unfailing love, O God!”
Psalm 36:5-7
So hard to believe that we started and finished our first week of school. It seems like I finished treatment and then school started right away! I guess it was close to that anyway! Not how I would’ve planned it out. I had planned to have the whole year all ready to go and tweaking what I wanted to tweak, and then having school start. Meanwhile….I’m tweaking as I go! That’s harder for me…not really how I normally like to operate.
I am thankful I’ve had some pretty good classes and I am starting to get to know some new students. I can tell I am more tired than I normally have been and that the amount of thinking that I’ve been doing is more than what I did all summer…. course isn’t it like that for everyone? I am thankful for the students and teachers who have been so kind to bless me with so much. I am also just beyond blessed by all the people who are bringing meals. It has been so wonderful to visit with people and hug people. We have just loved each visit.
So right before school started, I was able to get a (wig) hair piece. This piece is real hair and needs to be taken care of like all hair. I was blessed to go to the salon and have it put on the Saturday before school started. I was very thankful that we styled it and spent a couple hours there. Tonight I took it off to wash it, oh my. It’s a little more work than I was expecting. It’s going to take a while for me to get used to working with it.
Abbey and Ashton have had to drive us to school. Garrett is driving his own car since he has different things going on than we do. The traffic at our school has been pretty heavy before and after as people are getting used to the construction and the craziness at school. The funny part of our lives right now: my mind is a bit crazy, my school is a bit crazy because of the construction and my house is crazy right now. I’m thankful for the help I’m getting from so many people. The girls have done a great job driving me around and it’s so weird to not be able to drive. I feel like I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who is going to drive me one place or another. The hard part, my car is parked up by my classroom and during 7th period I go to soccer which isn’t close to my class. The school has been really great to make sure someone can drive me down to my car. The hard part is after practice…. walking to our car that is far away makes tired players….more tired!
A few weeks ago we finished thinking about the things around our house that needed to get done around here. We have waited a while to get things done and one of our plans this summer had been to get the house past the 12 years we’ve owned it. Since we started the summer with a different plan, we hadn’t done anything to plan for the stuff that needed to get done. We decided to meet with our neighbor to get some stuff done and here we are now, trying to get some stuff repaired and ready for the year and make some updates…only problem is that you are living in chaos. But, I am trying to be thankful as different things get done… because it’s been needed for a long time.
I’ve enjoyed my new club team and my high school girls. During 7th period right now, I get the softball girls and my girls. They also added some PE girls who lost their teacher. So, I have a huge group 7th period. It’s keeping me creative…. I guess. Now that it’s my second year, it’s been so much more fun to hangout with the coaches up there. I have many of them who are praying for me, and I am very blessed by that. It’s so hard to believe as I look at the soccer girls that it’s been a year since we started getting ready for the state tourney. But, here we are. I’m super proud of the girls and ready for them to improve more and to nail it this year. My club girls have been so kind and have just loved being together. I’m blessed to know all these ladies and train them all. They are all so full of love and desire to improve so much. I love that.
We were supposed to have high school tryouts this past Friday, but it rained too much. So now, we will have it this Tuesday. I’m ready to get these tryouts over and get the year started!
I know many of you are following this wondering about my health. I have been really blessed to feel as good as I have felt. However, I think all of the treatment is catching up on me and making me a bit tired and less able to focus. It’s hard to believe that I finished my treatment and then pretty much started school stuff. It’s been a crazy week this week. I had great plans to get everything ready for my classes and have less to plan, but my adventures this summer kept me from being focused on this.
We have been trying to figure out when our MRI would be and what we would do next. Well, we got a call saying my MRI is going to be this Wednesday night at 4:45pm. Please be in prayer for this. I am asking for the internal swelling is down enough for them to see what’s going on and it’s accurate. I am also asking for prayers for wisdom for the doctors and peace for us. We are trusting the Lord that He has healed me already. We have also gotten a call back from Duke about going there the end of the month. Obviously this is a good thing and the people we are set to see there are some of the best. It’s hard for me to think about missing some school and what all I will need to do before I can leave. Please be praying about all of this for me. Safe travels and great wisdom from the doctors. Thank you
Also, please be in prayer for me to be able to manage my time better. This summer was such a blessing to slow down and have time. Now that school has started, we are busy going so many places. The girls are playing less sports, but they are loving the extra time they get to spend and want to spend with their friends. Garrett is busy preparing for college next year, ugh and Nathan is trying to find himself something he really enjoys. Prayers for these kiddos and Scott as we go in for appts and start doing more things again.
ESTHER
One of my favorite people in the Bible is Esther. I love her courageous spirit and her desire to follow the Lord even if it means she would die. She was brought in after King Xerxes had issues with his queen. Women were brought in and were prepared to meet the king with oils and treatments.
Esther was Jewish and the Xerxes decided that Esther was his favorite and announced she was queen over the other previous queen. Things were looking good for Esther. Until, Haman was brought in to work under the king. Haman hated the Jews and did many things to show himself as important and powerful and to get rid of the Jewish people. Esther, got worried about what was happening and she knew that she would need to go see the king and get him to change the laws Haman was introducing. In Esther 4:15-17
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
17 So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.
Esther trusted the Lord and knew that death may be what comes next for her. When You approach the king, the king has all the power and he can decide to have you killed. This wouldn’t be odd. Esther asked his uncle to fast and pray for her and she was at peace with the results. It’s hard to believe that this young lady chose to go against the rules of the kingdom and approach the king without being invited.
As we read on in Chapter 5 ….
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.2 When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
3 Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”
The King had grown to love Esther that he allowed her to live. She was brave enough and trusted God enough that no matter what happened going forward, the Lord had Esther right where she was supposed to be.
I love Esther. I love how bold she was and how she was willing to stand against those that wanted to kill her and others. She had everything going for her… but the Jewish people meant a lot to her…she didn’t let the fact that she was good to stop her from standing up for what was going on. I am thankful for that. Thankful that she was willing to be strong when she didn’t know the results. She trusted that God would do what was best. She just knew what needed to happen and went for it.
I hope and pray that we are like that. We don’t read in here about her concerns or fears…only that she asked people to pray and she walked into a tough situation and she trusted the Lord to do what needed to be done. She never wondered or questioned, she just did what needed to be done for the people. I so want to learn to live with my eyes focused on the Lord and others and to not focus on myself every day. Please pray for this for me. As I am feeling more tired and more physically drained, I don’t want that to be my focus. I want others to be my focus. Lord help me do that!
They have been so wonderful and just love me so well. When I got off the exit, it was so crazy to think for the rest of the summer I turned right at this light for treatment and as I sat here waiting for the light to turn green, I was turning the opposite way again and heading to soccer practice. It was such a great feeling knowing that now I wouldn’t turn right every day, I would get to turn left and train my girls. Love them!
