The Good Side of the Internet

There is a raffle of epic proportions going on over at Sorta Crunchy. Sweet Megan is blessing the family of a 4-year-old darling who has had a stroke. She suffers with myocardial bridging causing restrictive cardiomyopathy and is in need of a heart transplant.

Megan has put together a fund-raiser/raffle to help out the family of this precious little girl . There are some amazing gifts for:

The Little Ones - with t-shirts and onesies and so many cute things.
The Princess in Your Life - featuring crowns and other lovelies.
And for Mama - truly an amazing package that also includes a prayer shawl from my needles.

Please take a look and read about Gabriella. And buy a ticket, or two, or three. This is what Megan hopes to accomplish with this effort:

• We hope to be able to alleviate some of the financial toll that has come as a result of Gabriella's stroking by paying off the Vegas' bill at the Ronald McDonald House at the Phoenix Children's Hospital
• In the hard days ahead filled with speech therapy and adjusting to life post-stroke, we want to provide relief from the burden of coming up with an answer to the "what's for dinner?" question by providing restaurant gift cards
• If you have ever walked through a major life crisis, you know that even the smallest of needs can seem overwhelming. We hope to meet some needs on a practical level for the Vegas by purchasing grocery and gas gift cards
• The part of Gabriella's brain most affected by the stroke is the speech center. She has many days of speech therapy ahead. Insurance covers only 60 days of outpatient therapy, and the family will be responsible for $25 for each of the insurance-covered therapy session. Last Monday, Kristi wrote that they are asking God for means to be able to pay for extended speech therapy sessions. Any monies raised that go above and beyond meeting the needs listed above will be donated to the trust set up by the Vega family to offset costs of Gabriella's medical care not covered by insurance.

So hop on over there and try your chances. Not only might you win a great prize, but you will also be part of what life is supposed to be like: people helping people.

Thank you so much.

On Facebook, Blogging, and the End Times

Do you Facebook?

I do. Too much. But what fun it is. I have gotten in touch with some friends I have known as far back as elementary school. I'm friends with people I used to see weekly and now not so much. Both good friends and casual friends. I love seeing that little box on the bottom of my screen that tells me which of my friends are actively on-line. I have only chatted a couple of times, but I get such a kick out of just seeing that we are surfing together. I would much prefer to hang out or have lunch or visit over tea, but that is too often not even an option.

And then there is the whole blogging thing. Don't we all just love comments: evidence that we are being heard? We visit each other's blogs like we are stopping over at a friend's. We chat about our kids and how we made this fabulous dinner. We give each other helpful hints. We delight in the little peeks into each other's lives and homes. It's like our own little neighborhood.

The other night at Bible Study, Beth was going on about something unrelated to where I am headed and read a verse that just stopped me. It was Hebrews 10:23-25. Here it is:

²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I have read these verses before, but the last one in particular meant something different this time.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - all the more as you see the Day approaching.

What is "the Day"? If you read that passages in some other translations, you won't need an explanation. It is translated the way Paul intended it: the day of His return. That "His" would be Jesus. (He is coming for us, you know!)

The verse is encouraging us to do is something that I believe many of us are already feeling the urge to do - gather together. We seem to have a new feeling to get back in touch with others. To be close in all the ways we can.

Not that I haven't always tried to keep up with some people. We exchange Christmas cards and get together at reunions and special events. But now we have the opportunity to "meet" in ways that were not until recently an option. I think it is very timely.

I don't know what your thoughts on the End Times and the eminence of Jesus' return for us are. Whether you think He is coming soon or not in our lifetime, we are still in the End Times. Everything between when He was here the first time and when He comes for His flock is considered the End Times. We have been living in the End Times for 2,000 years. I do happen to be one of the many who believe that He can't leave us here much longer. In any case, we are closer to the end of the End Times than we have ever been before. It is time to make sure we are gathering.

I am the consummate loner. I have always liked to be alone. The things I like to do are mostly things that I can do by myself. I could be a hermit with very little encouragement. However, when I was struck with my anxiety awhile back, I think it was more than just hormones and an unusual family situation. God really used that time in my life to teach me about community.

Most people with anxiety that I have read about shun other people when they are in its throws. They tend to isolate themselves and avoid any place where there may be more than just a few people. I had the opposite reaction. I think the anxiety must be counter to your instincts. I mean, most people love to go out to eat or to a party or hang out at the mall and just get out. When anxiety strikes them, they hide. I would be perfectly happy within the confines of my own 4 walls most days of my life. When I was dealing with anxiety, I wanted to go ANYWHERE where there would be people. Any. Where. I didn't need to talk to anyone necessarily. I just needed to know they were there.

With God's help, I have gotten over (most) of the debilitating aspects of the anxiety. And while I don't have that constant need to be around people like I did when I thought I was going to burst into flames at any given moment, I enjoy and seek out people a thousand times more than I did before. I think it's important. I think it's what we are supposed to do. I think we are to gather.

Don't fight the urge to get together with like minded people. If an idea occurs to you, go with it. Ask a few girlfriends over to knit the afternoon away. Go volunteer to cook dinner for the youth. Take an elderly neighbor to run errands. Just get out there and get together. And by all means, if you are not in a church community, find one!

Be an encouragement to others. The Day is approaching!

This too shall pass...

...and it did.

We were scheduled to have a day of fun with friends new and old at the motocross track today. However, yesterday the hubs was struck with a kidney stone. I believe he was fortunate in that the whole ordeal lasted less than 24 hours start to finish. He may argue that point, but is grateful to have gotten it through. I mean, gotten through it. : )

He is doing just fine again and we look forward to the rain check Evan promised us. We have got to get some more use out of that cute pink helmet!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, my friend.

(Can you believe these two old women have been causing trouble together for 35 years?)

Miss Eris

Whew. It has been a long week.

I got called into help out at church this week because the regular cook for the day school was sick. They wanted me four, but they only got me for three days. (The fourth day we were playing with Michelle and her beautiful babies. What fun we had!)

When I cook for the thundering hoards at church, there is lady who helps out in the kitchen. Her name is Eris. She is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. Here she is:


Eris had a stroke. I will not call her a stroke victim because there is nothing that says "victim" about Miss Eris.

I don't know her well. She doesn't talk all that much. The words don't come as easily as they used to. She doesn't have use of her right arm. Her right leg is a little slower than her left. I do know that she worked for 20 years at a major oil company in their computer department. Not anymore. Now she pushes this little cart to bring food and drink to the kids in our day school. She washes the dishes, prepares their juice, divvies up their snacks, and keeps this cook company.

She is only allowed to get paid for 4 hours of work each day because of her disability checks. I'm not sure when she gets there each day. I have never beat her there. I see her work about 6 hours.

And do I mean work. This woman works as hard as anyone I have ever seen. She hardly ever stops moving. In fact, just today she didn't feel well. She said she didn't get to sleep until around 2 a.m. She sat down to eat a little lunch. After a few minutes she said she had to get up or it would be naptime. So she got up and went back to work.

It is hard to complain when you are around Eris. When you see her determination to accomplish her tasks despite great odds, you can't help but be inspired.

I know from talking to other people at church that her children would like her to go to a nursing home. I find that laughable. I didn't have the privilege of knowing Eris before the stroke. I'm sure she is very different from the mother they grew up with. I'm sure they see her impairments and wonder how she can survive each day on her own. The Eris I see in the kitchen each day is doing just fine, thank you very much. She's not so proud that she won't ask for help when she needs it, but she is determined to do all she can by herself.

I feel proud to call her my friend.

I'm Baaaack!

So, how was your August?

Mine was...interesting. It was mostly good. I'll spend the next couple of posts updating you on where I have been and what I have done.

I will start with this week!

I went to dinner with my dear friend, jac. (I would love to highlight that and send you to her blog, but SHE WON'T START ONE!!) Our birthdays are right next to each other. Hers is the day after mine. We go out every year to celebrate "our birthdays". We were both swamped this year, so we didn't get to go out until this week.

We went to a lovely restaurant called Shade. We had a de. li. cious. meal. And some lovely adult conversation. How rare is that?

We don't usually exchange gifts, but this year we did. You'll never guess what we spontaneously gave each other. Preserves! I gave her figs and she brought me some of her yummy orange marmalade. I'm already almost halfway through the first jar. She is my big-city-simple-living buddy. She named our chicken, Scarlet. She lives but a mile down the road and we hardly ever see each other. : (

But we saw each other this week and it was fun!