Feb 06, 2002 Hi all....Just thought I would share some news... Wow! God does work in so many ways! And I know that he is working on me so hard right now. My husband laughs when I say that...but I honestly think it's true. Check out the hand of God in these examples that have happened to me in the last month... 1. I had been spending too much money on things that I really didn't need....I lost my purse... money, credit cards, check book (which it happened to be my last one anyway), everything. It took me 2 full weeks to be back and running again. However during that 2 weeks I had to control every single pennie I spent and sure enough I started taking pride in that and I'm much better. Never did find my purse though!! 2. I had been losing my temper with my kids...I lost my voice. I never really felt sick, just couldn't raise my voice over a whisper for like a full week. During that time I learned alternative ways to deal with my kids and they worked better. 3. I have a tendency to feel like I deserve to "keep up with the Jones's" or actually my sister and brother in law to be exact. They have this nicely decorated house and a lake house, both drive nice new cars, etc. Well we just moved into a "fixer upper" which we can't fix up until our other house sells. Which is taking extremely long. We are also driving 2 cars with a combined mileage of over 600,000...LOL. I have really been starting to come to grips with this and the realization that God will provide all my needs as long as I trust in him. I'm learning to be thankful for what I have and stop wishing for more. And sure enough we may have a buyer for the house. Anyway, I just know that God is working on me and I'm so thankful for it!!! Otherwise things are going pretty well. Mallorey (3) had strep last week. Lyndsey (6) has had the viral thing since Sunday. This is her 3rd day home from school but I do think she is finally starting to feel better. It's puzzled me though because she keeps asking if it's God or Satan making her sick. It's so sad to hear her say this. OH OH OH!... Praises!! I taught a student Jesse for 3 years when I was teaching. I had him for 6th, 7th and 8th grade. He was definitely what you would call a trouble maker. In and out of the office daily. However we clicked and he considered me a best friend, big sister, second mother. In fact during parents night for basketball he asked me to walk him out on the floor because of course his parents wouldn't be there. I loved this kid like he was my own. And for 3 years I have prayed for him. About 2 months ago he was suspended for selling drugs at school. I hadn't seen him in 9 months and had only heard from him through email like once a month during that time. I kept praying but did have a bad feeling about it. Well, when I heard that I called and talked to him for a while. He said he wanted to change his life. He hated himself and what he'd become. But he didn't think anyone would ever forgive him. Well since I'm no longer officially his teacher in a public school I was able to talk to him about the love of the Lord and how he would be forgiven if he seeked out Jesus in his life. Well 2 months went by and I didn't push the subject anymore. But I talked to him 3 nights ago and he is being baptized this weekend and he asked me to help him to be a better Christian. I lost it! I just cried my eyes out. I want to go to see it and be there for him but we are going to be out of town. PTL for softening his heart and allowing him to see the love of Christ!!! I'm so sorry this is so long. If you did actually make it all the way down here to the end then Thank you for listening! Love to all! Cyndi Feb 28,2002 Answered Prayers! Just wanted to update you all on dh's homecoming yesterday Well after numerous flight delays yesterday I was finally able to pick Mark up from the airport about 6 last night. I was completely expecting to drop him off at work, where his car was left, and for him to not come home until late after "catching up" on missing work. However that was not the case at all. I did drop him off; but he went inside and grabbed his keys and immediately came home. :) We had a wonderful dinner together as a family (this doesn't happen much) and dd said the prayer which I just had to smile at. She said "thank you for bringing daddy home safely and please let him spend some time with us in the next few days"..awww :( After dinner he helped clean up the kitchen (again, this never happens) and then took the girls upstairs, gave them their new jammies which he'd gotten them at Disney (that's where his conference was), and read them their stories and put them to bed. He was very loving and had nothing but kind words the whole night. i asked him at dinner whether he'd eaten at some nice places while there. And his response was "Well, yeah, I guess so...but none of them even come close to comparing to one of your meals." awww. unfortunately my love language isn't encouraging words...but I still soaked it in..LOL We never really talked about our problems last night. We just enjoyed being together again. Plus, I'd written him a 5 page letter and he hadn't read it yet. I think he wanted to wait until today and instead of immediately getting into it when he got home. I actually appreciated that. I'm curious to see what he says about it when he gets home today. Either way, I know that all the prayers are working. The Lord is with us and with our marriage right now. He's pushing us along to make such an effort into things right now that it just really is amazing how smooth things went last night and this morning. I still think there is a lot of work ahead of us, probably some more tears, and a lot of changes...but I'm very encouraged right now on the whole situation. I know that through Him all things are possible... and that goes for saving my marriage as well. Thank you again for all your prayers and support. You will never understand the extent to which I appreciate all your thoughts and sentiments. Mar 04,2002 What do I have to NOT be thankful for????... For the first time in a long time I can actually say "I am happy!!". God is working miracles in my life right now and I don't know why I am in such shock...what did I honestly expect?? We did get an offer on our house...we are still 15,000 apart from each other...but I do see it coming to a resolution within the next couple of days. My husband and I have been getting along great. We had one ~disagreement~ yesterday and get this....HE ACTUALLY APOLOGIZED!!!! Again I was in shock. We were able to resolve the situation without any raising of voices, tears or hurt feelings. WOW God led me to a great book at the library the other day... "A Christian Mom's Answer Book". It covers absolutely everything...home, kids, hubby, work, everything. I sat down and read about 70 pages in no time. And it's hitting on every question I could possibly have. There is a warming trend this week in the weather and so it should be a beautiful weekend when we are heading to the lake. I am going out to dinner tomorrow with my bible study group to Macaroni Grill (yumm!!). Anyway, my point is...I am just terribly thankful this morning for all the areas God's hand has touched in my life lately. I'm so thankful for all the women on this board who's prayers I know have made the difference in my life. Here I am just this little baby Christian who feels like I've been adopted by all these wonderful wonderful people on this board. You all have taken me in, knowing little about me, and helped to build me up and put me back together again. I've been on lots of different boards before but have never felt as comfortable as I do on here. Thank each and every one of you so terribly much!! In Christ! Cyndi Mar 05,2002 DOING BACK FLIPS AND DANCING FOR JOY!!!!.... Can you guess why??? WE HAVE AN ACCEPTED CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE....FINALLY!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I'm so excited right now I could scream! Thank each of you so much for all your prayers. I know they made the difference! (((((((((((((((((((((((Lots of Hugs for Each of You))))))))))))))))))))))))) Mar 08,2002 Praising the Lord...answered prayers...my last 24 hours... About 8 last night while talking to my mom on the phone she got another call. She clicked over only to have my sister, who was driving to the lake with her husband and her two dd (7 and 5), yelling and screaming in the phone. Here's what happened. While driving on a small country road, they were completely broadsided. The car began flipping and went into the ditch. They flipped at least 3 if not 5 times before finally stopping. At this point the car was on fire. My sister climbed out her window, pulled the girls from the car and told them to run in the field as far as they could. Yelling, and crying they obeyed. My sister then noticed that my bil was completely unconsious and covered in blood. His side of the car was completely smashed in. She ended up pulling him out of the car through her window, after undoing the seatbelt, and raising the steering wheel by jumping through the window. She believed my bil was dead. She was histarical....the girls were histarical...and my bil was still unconcious and was gagging for air. Immediately about 20 people showed up to offer help. The brought blankets and flashlights. They went back to the car (about to explode) and kept trying to retrieve as much as possible from it. Anyway...fast forward.... As of 2 am all 4 walked out of the hospital and were released to go home. Praise the Lord. I will explain more later...and in more detail all the miracles that took place during this time. It truly is amazing. I just wanted to ask you all to keep my sister's family in your prayers. I am now at the lake with them and everyone is really bruised and banged up pretty badly. In addition to the emotional scars that continue to surface....lots of tears. Like I said I will give more details later on the whole thing....it truly is amazing!!! Loving Life!!! Cyndi As of August 3, 2002: Font colors compliments of "Lisa Explains it All: HTML"