All Things are Possible with God....

Fourteen years ago today(September 7th), I married my best friend....the most amazing husband and father that a girl could ever hope for!  I never would have imagined that I would feel this way three years ago.  I never would have imagined that I would be even more in love with my husband today, than I ever was before. 

My Best Friend

Nearly fifteen years ago, I met my husband in a bar.  Of all places to meet someone, I would have never dreamed this would be the meeting place of my future husband.  The evening that we met, was not unlike many other evenings that I had spent at The Jukebox.  It was a place that I loved to go line dancing.  I generally went by myself, because all of my friends had to work early in the morning.  At that time in my life, I was a medical assistant and my shift was 10AM-7PM.  I really loved this shift, because I was able to sleep in.  On October 22nd, I was persuaded by my roommate to go line dancing.  I was feeling rather down in the dumps that day, and she knew that it would cheer me up.  After being there for a little while, I looked over and noticed a gentleman standing next to me.  Soon after that, we began talking.  After talking for a little bit, we danced to the song, "One Boy, One Girl"  by Colin Raye.  As the evening came to a close, we went our separate ways, but the night would forever be imprinted in our hearts.  Within a week, we had both told people that we loved that we had met the person we would marry.  Within 11 months, we were married.  

It wasn't until years later, that I discovered that Chance only went out that evening to be the designated driver.  He really didn't want to go out either, but was also persuaded by a friend.  It was this persuasion by our close friends that brought us together that special night.     

Our journey over the last fifteen years has been amazing.  We have had some really great times and some times that have left a lot to be desired.  We have made it through these last fifteen years, because of the faith that we had in Jesus.   

In 1995, when we first me we lived in California near my family.  At that time, Chance was still active duty in the Air Force at Beale AFB.  In 1997, while we were still living on base,Taylor was born.  When Taylor was just a little over 2 months old, Chance finished his enlisted time and we moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to be near Chance's father.  While in Tennessee, we ended up with our own Construction business.  We did this for a few years.  In the summer of 1999, Audrianna was born in Knoxville.  After a few years in construction, we decided to leave TN.  In 2000, we moved here to Illinois to settle near some of Chance's family.  He became part of the Air National Guard.  After being in Illinois for only a year or so, we received news about Chance having a daughter named, Sydney.  This was at the end of 2001.  At that time, Sydney was 6 years old.  Shortly after we met her in 2002, Sydney came and lived with us and has been with us ever since.  In 2003, Chance got orders to leave for a year and only ended up being gone for 3 months.  Shortly after he returned, I became pregnant with Jaden, who was born in 2004 in Effingham, IL.  In the month of September 2006, I was able to adopt Sydney and she became my daughter.  In May of 2007, we took Jaden to Los Angeles to have a new ear made.  When Jaden was born, he was born with only an earlobe on one side.  He has a condition called hemifacial-microsomia, which caused this.  He has no canal, but after his surgery he has a beautiful ear.  It is a prosthetic ear, but it has been a blessing.  In May of 2008, we went back for one more surgery to finish up the cosmetic part of his ear.     

God has blessed us so richly with all of our children.  Taylor was our first child and what a blessing that he has been in our lives.  Taylor has such a great sense of humor and works so hard at always trying to make others laugh and to please them.  He has the desire and ability to learn that are simply amazing.  Audrianna was our first daughter and a joy to be blessed with.  Audrianna has a love for life that is simply contagious.  She is a very creative young lady that could make something out of nothing.  Her imagination is so endless that you don't ever have to worry about her being bored, because she is able to always find something to do.  Sydney is our oldest daughter, but our third child.  She has been such an endless gift, since the day that she walked into our lives.  Her love for the Lord and her care and compassion for other people's feelings is truly uplifting.  She is always thinking of others and putting them first.  She is truly wise for such a young lady and has a servant's heart.  Jaden is our youngest son and the last born.  Jaden has only normal hearing out of one ear.  I would have assumed this would keep him from learning as a normal 6-year old.  This has been completely untrue.  Not only has continued to learn at a normal rate, but he has exceeded standards for his age.  His capacity and ability to learn is beyond anything I could have hoped for.  His ability to understand the Bible has totally amazed all of us.  God is so good! 

This evening, my beautiful children decided that Chance and I were going to have a candlelight dinner.  They set up a table downstairs and had the regular table set for the two of us upstairs.  Chance and I were told to get all dressed up.  The kids dressed up as waiters and had a CD player set up with the first song that we ever danced to playing quietly over and over again.  We all had steak, baked potatoes and broccoli.  We had a very nice evening!  

Table set for 2--Kids in waiter outfits

Fifteen years have gone by in the blink of an eye, but they have been filled with memories that I will never forget.  Some of these memories were good and some were less desirable.  The one thing that has been constant throughout these 15 years, was Jesus!  He is the one thing that hasn't ever changed.  Even when things were really bad between us a few years ago, He was there helping us work through things.  We made it through and our relationship is stronger for all of the struggles that we have had.  I am looking forward to the next 15 years.  I hope that we make it at least to 68 years, like my amazing Grandparents!

Grandmother & Grandpappy---68 Years Together (June 2010)

 

May God bless all of your relationships!  And remember ANYTHING is possible with God!             

My Dream (continued from previous post)

My dream ever since I was a very little girl has always been to sing.  To me this dream never really seemed like a reality, but a little girl dream.  I didn't really want to be a rock star or anything, I just wanted to sing.  Singing & music have always brought me such joy.  I have always loved country music.  A few years ago a friend introduced me to Contemporary Christian Music.  I immediately loved it!  This was at the same time that I had gone back to college.   

After I graduated high school, I took a few classes at college and then went to a technical school to become a medical assistant.  It wasn't really what was in my heart, but something practical to support me living on my own...a quick way to have a trade.  Although, I did love helping people!  Music didn't really seem like a field that would be supportive for any kind of career, especially one that involved singing.  So, going down a different path made sense to me at the time.  

Unfortunately, my love of music and singing didn't just fade away.  It just continued to grow in my heart.  It wasn't until I was back in college and my name appeared on a list of people that were supposed to take a music theory test.  This made absolutely no sense, because I wasn't even in a music major and only people that were in music fields had to take this test.  This couldn't have happened by mistake....that out of a class of 35-40 people, I was the only one that wasn't supposed to be on this list and was.  After some thinking and praying, I decided to talk to a counselor and changed my major.  This small mistake from God was my first invitation, that I felt I had no choice but to accept.  I would have never even considered it, if it hadn't happened the way it did.  I ignored what was in my heart, because it didn't seem like my dream was something realistic.   

I spent two semesters pursuing Digital Media w/ Recording as my focus.  Then I spent two semesters pursuing Contemporary Christian Music w/ Recording as my focus.  Then they made a new major called Recording Industry which I had changed to and was going to start last Fall with a minor in Digital Media.  I had decided to do both majors, because I loved both fields and I only need a handful of classes for the minor.  Then God called me home to be with my children and homeschool them, which I also love.  Someday, God willing I will return to get my degree(s).  For now, God has me where he wants me.

Recently, God has placed me as the worship leader for our Worship Band for our new Saturday night service.  It is something that would normally be totally out of my comfort zone, but God has been working so hard on me lately, that I actually have complete peace with my decision.  I keep thinking about how it wouldn't even have been possible, if I hadn't taken the music classes at Greenville College.  God had this all planned out!  I was so upset when I had to quit school, because I had waited so long to pursue my dream.  I look now at where God has placed me and I am in total awe!  God is so amazing!          

Dreams that are bigger than us....

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."  Proverbs 13:12

What dreams has God placed in your heart?  Are there things that you have thought about since you were a child?  Do you long to see these dreams come true?  Or maybe like many, you believe that they are only dreams?

Are there things that you enjoy and love to do?  Is there something that every time you hear about it, it makes your heart flutter?  Are there things that you have told yourself....oh, I can only hope for that?  I truly believe that God places dreams in our hearts for a special purpose.  Not only are we to try to follow our dreams, but the purpose that God has intended each of the dreams for.  Sometimes, we may believe that we know the intended purpose of each dream, but until God truly reveals what the plan is....it is difficult to discern what the real reason may be.   

God placed dreams in my heart as a child, which I spent nearly 20 years ignoring.  Why, would I ignore these dreams?  The reasons that I came up with for my dreams, seemed so childish and incompatible with what God could have planned.  I even went back to college after all of the years, I spent running from the dream.  I didn't start back to college to follow my dream, but to try and figure out what else I could do that I would enjoy.  God placed obstacles in my way, to show me what I was missing or ignoring.  He also placed things that encouraged me to follow this dream, no matter how scary it was.  Even though I had talked myself out of the dream in my head, my heart wouldn't let go.  After changing majors two times, God put me smack dab in the middle of where he wanted me.  Then, he did at the time what seemed like the strangest thing, he told me to quit college.  So, I did.  I didn't like it, but it was very clear that it was God's plan.

I believe that God needed me to embrace the dream, that I was ignoring.  In order for me to do that, he had to put me in the middle of it.  He knew I would run from it when he presented it again, if it wasn't deeply embedded in my heart.

Nearly a year ago, I began to feel that God was leading me to be in some type of ministry.  I didn't really understand and the word and idea truly scared me to death.  How can I be in ministry?  What do you mean you want me in ministry?  Then someone even told me that there was something coming, which they thought that I would like.  

A month or so ago, a friend unknowingly told me they were looking for someone, to do something that was really close to my heart.  I immediately jumped at the opportunity, but then I realized that I didn't really even ask for God's blessing.  So, I decided that I should decline, which I did.  I tried desperately to find others to fill this position, but to no avail.  One of the friends that I asked to fill the position, even told me that she believed that, "God had someone else in mind".  For two weeks,  I prayed God would close the door, but it didn't seem to be happening.  This made me even more confused.  One day, another friend called out of the blue and could tell I was upset.  When she asked why, I told her that I was confused.  I proceeded to tell her the story and after some discussion, she told me that it appeared to her that God was blessing me.  I was stunned.  I told her that I wasn't used to God not shutting the door in my face, which has always been my prayer. 

Now, as I sit here and type this....I am still in awe as God unfolds the next part of his plan.  God has placed me smack dab in the middle of my dream and the purpose that he intended for the dream, which he placed in my heart as a little girl.  I am so touched to be a part of God's plan, which is so much bigger and better, than any dream I could have ever come up with.  

God has a plan for each one of us.  We were all created differently, even though some of us may have similar characteristics, talents and abilities.  God made each of us for a specific purpose that only we can fill.  

Are you living the abundant life that God has planned for you?  Matthew 25:29 says, "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance.  But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away."  

What better time than the present, to start using the gifts and talents that you were given, to glorify God!  As children of God, we are also given spiritual gifts.  Do you know what your gifts are?  Some of your gifts may surprise you!  Why not find out where your strengths are?  Click the link below to take the Spiritual Gifts Test.  God has magnificent plans for each of us, if only we will stop and wait for his direction in our lives.  Have you thought about your childhood dreams lately?  Did you give up on your dreams from childhood?  Have you learned of God's plan for your life?  When will you stop long enough to wait and listen for his direction in your life?  It really is that simple.  God wants to lead us to better things, but we must trust in what we don't know.  Give up your control and let our Father in Heaven...be the driver!  It is never too late to start!  

Don't be afraid to dream big!  Don't ignore the dreams that God places in your heart, because they are obviously there for a reason.  God is the master of all things......and that includes YOU!  Why not start enjoying the blessings that He has for you!