Baby Skyler

I am resolving to be more active in working on my little Narrow Stroll. I really slacked off. I was initally enthusiastic with it as I love to write--but--I got caught up with studying during the last part of the year and with the birth of my nephew little Skyler William Curtis Meade. The photo to the left features my Mama and Dad admiring their first grandchild!

Our little fellow is quite the miracle! You see, during birth he began to bleed in his brain, the blood was trapped between his brain and his skull which triggered a seizure. At birth, he had no detectable heartbeat and was not breathing. We prayed. CPR was preformed by the wonderful staff at the hospital. His amazing Dr. came barging through the doors, obviously wrestled from his sleep and that team gave our little baby such care! He was med-flighted that very morning to Niswonger's Childrens Hospital in Johnson City, TN. The NICU team there was equally as wonderful!

Although we had a AMAZING medical team paying Skyler such tender attention, We know without a doubt that the Lord delivered Skyler to us. There is no doubt in our minds or in our hearts that he heard our prayers. He heard us. Even though we are unsure how long Skyler was unable to breathe-- HE HAS NO DEVELOPMENTAL PROBLEMS! He is growing quickly and he moves and eats and cries perfectly fine. His neurologist sees nothing to be worrisome over. His pediatrician (the same sleepy eyed doctor mentioned before) says he is doing wonderful. He weighs now a hefty 17 lbs and will be 4 months old on Jan 14. He is not only the joy of my sister's life, but he is the apple of my eye. Skyler has his Dad,aunties, grandparents, great grandmother, cousins,aunts and brothers wrapped around his fingers.

I, thankfully, was on vacation the week he entered the world and was able to travel back and forth to Tennessee daily to be with my sister, her boyfriend, and sweet Skyler.

My church prayed and prayed and inquired and sent gifts and their love, the love of our Lord, really sparkled and shined through them in our troublesome, sorrowful time when we weren't sure of anything. Bless them.

So, I hope I have more time to talk now since things are a bit calmer :) Below are some photos:

*sigh* Warm Fuzzy.

GLOOORRRIIIAAA! Gloria, Gloria!

Christmastime! Ah, How I love it. I know, I know, it is a stressful time for so many—and sadly—sometimes, that blocks our view of what Christmastime truly is.

It is a miracle.

It is a time for hope, for love, for laughter, for hugs, for making sweet new plans, for remembering, for eating, for gathering, for hearts of giving, for glowing, for having long conversations, for smiling, for lounging in pajamas, for appreciating your family, your blessings, for working on your shortcomings, for using that patience you have been storing up all year.
Christmastime is my favorite time of the whole year.

I remember: snuggling with my sisters and brother to watch a Christmas movie or cartoon, popcorn, crowded dining tables with uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins and cousins, and more cousins, candlelight church services, sneaking about on Christmas Eve night to get a sneak peek at presents, but rather receiving a sneak attack from my father who laughed while chasing us back to bed.

I am 32 years old and Christmas still gets me excited! It still fills me with tenderness. It still makes me hopeful. I still praise God for the gift of his son. I still read my bible by the light of the Christmas tree after the whole house has gone quiet and it is just me and the Lord and a Silent Night.

I pray that anyone reading this has a Merry Christmas—whatever your circumstances are, whatever your beliefs are, where ever you live, whether your are poor or wealthy, whether you are alone or surrounded by a bazillion people. I pray you have love, comfort, and peace.

Not Much

It’s been a while since I was able to post anything. I have been SUPER DUPER busy with planning my sister’s baby shower. Becky’s shower was held on Saturday the 20th. So, now that is done and over with—we are just waiting impatiently for the arrival of Skyler William Curtis Meade. Skyler is the first grandchild for my parents. He is also the first Great-Grandchild for my grandmother. We are all very excited!

The shower was a lot of work, but, when the day of the party arrived, everyone was able to relax and enjoy it. Of course, there were several people involved in the planning/pulling off of the shower. We all worked together to make it special for my sister.

So, now I have just a bit of free time—but not much. I am in my next to last semester of college beginning yesterday. So, that will take up a bunch of my time. I’m also working with the youth group at church, so there is another chunk of time. Sometimes, I think I have way too much on my plate—but then gain—there isn’t anything I can really cut out. I feel a little frustrated. My time to relax is very little. It’s a struggle for me.

I don’t have a specific topic to write about today, so I feel a little fuzzed up, but I wanted to just put something up. So, there.

Heart Balm

bro·ken·heart·ed : overcome by grief or despair

com·fort : to give strength and hope to

We have all, at some point in our lives, suffered from a broken heart. Rare is the person who can say that they haven’t. Although, I would be slow to believe such a statement.

The anguish of being truly broken hearted is a pain unlike any other. I cannot think of one thing to compare it to. It is the worst feeling in the world. There is heaviness in my chest and in the pit of my stomach that I cannot quite explain.

Having a broken heart is often accompanied by many, many tears and perhaps some sleepless nights. To sum it up: It is misery.

What breaks our hearts? It varies from heart to heart. Humans are not the same. We are not carbon copies. Death of a loved one can break our hearts, the loss of a beloved pet, losing a friend (there are many ways that that occurs), dreams left unfulfilled, loneliness, unrequited love, the loss of a mate.

There are so many ways that a broken heart can manifest. When you stop to think about it—we are so arrogant sometimes and think we are so “strong” when actually, we are pretty fragile. Any strength we have comes not from ourselves. It never will. Any sense of strength we have comes from the Lord, I am sure of it.

So, how do we handle having a broken heart? When we feel in despair, it is so easy for us to question God isn’t it? Maybe we begin to wonder where he is. Where is our redeemer and our strong defender? It is so easy to start taking steps backward and sliding down that slippery slope that separates us from God. We begin to think that we are alone. We feel alone. We feel helpless. It is terrible.

I want to take a look at some scripture that talks about our broken hearts. I wanted to look at some scripture about comfort also. The following scriptures come out of the King James Version.

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psalm 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

Psalm 71:21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.

Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.


2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

So, if we look to the definitions above of broken hearted and comfort, we see in what opposition the meaning of those words are. When we read our bible, we will come across the theme of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit giving comfort to the broken hearted.

So, if you are suffering with a broken heart of any kind, from any source, I know it is hard. Believe me, I know, but, lift your head because love is coming.

The scripture I have for myself is:

Psalm 25:1 Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

Canine Pals

One of the things I enjoy most in my life is my dogs. Therefore, I feel the need the display some photos of my “fur babies”. Now, as previously stated, I do not have any children, but, we all know that all proud parents will force upon you pictures of their progeny. It so happens that I am a proud mutt mama. So here are pictures of my darlings.

Trixie is a purebred German Shepherd. This September she will be 3 years old. Her full name is Trixie Belle. She has papers but she isn’t registered. She was a Christmas present from my brother. I have always admired GSD’s. I think they are noble and beautiful.

Trixie always makes me smile. She is very smart. She is also very stubborn. She is a typical GSD. She is wary of strangers, but warms up after a little bit. She loves children. She will take up with a child ASAP. However, if there are more than two of them in any given spot, she will attempt to herd them into one spot.

Trixie loves: chasing her sister, barking at cats, catching tennis balls, sleeping on her back, peanut butter, belly rubs, playing in the water hose stream, napping, tilting her head to strange angles, going bye bye, Mamaw’s house, a little squeaky hedgehog friend, tennis balls, one tattered stuffed giraffe, anything she can throw up in the air and catch.

Her pet-peeves: cats, squirrels, not having her own space, her sister stealing her rawhides, kisses on her nose, any sort of contact with the dog brush, high pitched noises, and the mailman.

Sheena is my other four legged companion. She is a beagle/jack Russell mix. Sheena was abandoned at a shelter, and adopted by family friends in South Carolina. Their young grandson was really too rough with Sheena, she only weighs 12 pounds, so we gladly transported her to Virginia and loooove having her. Sheena loves nearly everyone she meets. She is very friendly and bouncy.

Sheena loves: running, hunting bugs, meeting other dogs, play fighting with her sister, particularly picking those fights, napping anytime. Seriously. Sheena would sleep all the time if she didn’t have to eat or potty.

Sheena dislikes: having to be in her house, being home alone, having her nails clipped, the smell of finger nail polish and mean cats! The furry girls are nothing but a joy. I swear, when I come home from work and they greet me, I can just feel my blood pressure/stress level going down. They are excellent companions and always manage to make me smile!

Serious.

Nap Time Twins!

Sporting the red harness.

Requesting belly rub

Together as puppies.

See, nap time!



As puppies, Sheena steals Trixie's

Blue eyes and big ears

Cornerstone House of Prayer

Since I am going to be blogging quite a bit about my church and my church family, I think it would be suitable to post some photos of my church. It is very lovely. I include also some pics of my church family. All of us together during a play we did Easter of this year. I plan on learning some more about the history of our building itself which I will post at a later time. There is a photo of our church. There are two photos that include the cast of our play. If you look closely, you can see that one photo is a serious one and the other is goofy. The very last photo is a pic of my sister and I. Jenny is in her costume, you will notice she has the black headscarf on.

You can also see our lovely stone floor which is one of the most unique features of the interior of our church. The whole building is lovely, but the stone floor which stays icy cold during all seasons is particularly interesting and lovely to look at. If you are at all interested in seeing many more pictures of our church and activities, please visit kilbournephoto.smugmug.com, our associate pastor is a talented photographer and during most special events can be seen with camera in tow.

June 23,2011

I have found that I absolutely cannot do without Wednesday night services at my church. It is really amazing what that service will do for you right in the middle of your week.

When I was growing up, I remember my family going to Wednesday night services, but, I didn’t start really attending Wednesday services at my church until recently, well, within the last few months.

I had always had something else taking up my time in the middle of the week. I know that sounds terrible, but it is the truth. I had to force myself to clear out that block of time on Wednesday evening. Making that commitment has really changed my week.

Our service on Wednesday is very informal. It is a discussion type session. I like it. I get to pipe up and talk about what is going on with my walk with the lord. Sometimes, some things are just so relevant to what I am going through and where I am at and it is so great to talk about that with some members of my church family.

Our congregation is a small one. Let me clarify small for you: Our congregation rarely numbers more than 30. It seems like this might limit us as a church body, but really, I enjoy the “smallness” of our church. We are intimate. We all know each other. We are free to speak frankly. We make connections and build relationships. We are all close to our pastor and get time with him. We all get the chance to be active in whatever kind of thing the church has going on. There is always a spot that needs filling. It’s nice.

So last evening, our congregation for the mid week service was about Testing and Chastisement. We are on our second lesson on this subject. Last evening, we talked about how we can tell the difference between when the Lord is testing us or chastening? We are also beginning to look at how we can/should react to these events in our lives. We have been looking at Job and his trials as well as the trials of others like John. We are looking at how they reacted while going through their own trials. For example: Job lost his home, his wealth, his children and his health and he still praised God. He never resented God or blamed God for the terrible things he was going through. Read Job 2 9-10 to see how Job reacted to his trials. Would we be able to do this today? I would like to think that I could react that way through trials like that, but, to be honest, I am just not sure. I strive to perceive my trials the way Job did.

We talked about how Job endured. The definitions of the word endure are: 1) to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo 2) to bear without resistance or with patience.

During all of Job’s trials, he truly did endure. This is the standard that we are to strive to meet when we are under fire. We discussed about the standard we are held to, not by people, but by God. He wants to see us endure so that we might persevere and move forward in him.

This is something I needed to hear! This is a wonderful lesson for me because I have a hard time enduring. Small problems throw me for a loop, so you can imagine how major ones have an effect! In the past few years have been tumultuous for me. I have struggled to deal with the stress. I have struggled to endure. So, this is useful study for me to participate in. Job inspires me. He gives me an example to live up to.
So, I am going to try to be more like Job when I am going through rough patches. That is what God is waiting for me to do; it is what he desires from me—to praise him in the storm.