He Will Give You Rest...

O heart bowed down with sorow!
O eyes that long for sight!
There's gladness in believing;
In Jesus there is light.

Earth's fleeting gain and pleasure
Can never satisfy:
Tis love our joy doth measure,
For love can never die.

His peace is like a river, His love is like a song;
His yoke's a burden never;
Tis easy all day long.

Chorus:

"Come, O come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest,
I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls."


Good Morning....

I found myself humming this song over the weekend, you know.. you get one of those tunes stuck in your head and it just plays over and over again in your mind! As I started thinking about it and about all of our kiddo's that are struggling so much right now, I found peace in these words. "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." What peace, perfect peace. I think at times we get so caught up in the moment when we are faced with stress, grief, frustrations, etc. we forget to STOP and turn it all over to God. We try to fix it ourselves, or bear it on our own... I am reminded of a billboard that one of our prayer warriors recently shared with us.... RELAX, GOD IS IN CONTOL. Turn it over, "come unto me" and find the peace in ALLOWING God to be in control. Goodness, you guys and our families teach me so much!!! Thank you for the lesson's you present with your lives each day.

So many of our kids have had a pretty rough week. It is my prayer that each will have a much better week.

Elizabeth was some better yesterday, but still really needs our prayers. Pray for her to have no pain, and complete healing. I know it is all in God's time, but in Elizabeth's words.."hurry Jesus, hurry". I pray today starts off a great week for her and her family. I just talked to Grammie, they are asking for specific prayers for her kidneys, and her platelets, and her high fever to come down and stay down. Basically, overall complete body healing. She will be having some more test today, pray for results to lead them in the best treatment for Elizabeth.

Alex D is doing better, he did get out of ICU and is back on transplant floor and proceeding with treatment. Please pray for him to continue to feel well and for the doctors hands and minds to be guided by God. Pray for his complete healing. Please be in prayer today for his family as they await the final results from his test last week. The preliminary results gave much hope, but they most now wait for the official final report that should come today, possibly tomorrow. The wait is the most difficult part. As one of our St Jude mom's has said to me, "you feel like you are facing a firing squad". I can only imagine, the long wait, then the moment the doctors walk in to tell you the results....until the words finally come out of their mouths, must be some of the most difficult moments in a parents life. Keep Brian and Jennifer and their families in your prayers today for them to find peace in Him during this waiting time. Pray for the final report to support the preliminary report. Check his site if you have not updated yourselves on his preliminary results.

Dax was also released from ICU and returned to the transplant floor. They are also preparing to move forward with treatment. If you have not checked his update... PLEASE do so. There is a video of the St Jude runners who left out last week from Memphis St Jude and ran to Peoria, IL to raise money. You will be so touched to see this video and see the amount of funds raised in this effort. IT WILL BLOW YOU AWAY!!!

Now, if they can raise the amount of money they did..... WHAT ARE WE WAITING ON????? We need to get motivated and get our fundraising on the ball. Yes, that means me!!! It means you too :) Send out emails to your family and friends, mail out letter, post on your facebook... lot's of ways to begin getting the word out there. The Tea Room that hosted the Teddy Bear luncheon for me last year, and gave $5 from each plate sold to St Jude is doing this again for me. Ask around in your area for someone to do something similar for you. Host a pancake breakfast at your church or local community center. Most of you are much more creative than I am... share your ideas with us, you can leave a comment with your ideas at the end of this post.

Mallerie is just not feeling well right now, she is continuing to have test run to determine what is causing her stomach issues. Please pray for her to feel better and for them to get to the bottom of this and get her on her way out of the hospital and home!

Read up on Trevor T. They can use some encouragement, Melinda has some questions she is trying to get answers to. Pray for her to have the right words for the doctors and she will find her answers. We are so thankful that Trevor is doing well and feeling so good. His smile just makes you smile!!!

Reagan has been having some really good days and LOTS AND LOTS of BIG fun!!! Please keep her and her family in your prayers. I am still praying for her miracle and believing that God can give her that miracle of healing. Let's all pray along with her family for her to receive her miracle. Have you seen her picture with her two puppies???? So adorable, she looks like such the proud mommy, I just love the sweet smile on her face. I hope each of you enjoyed the post about her special Christmas. This family is so amazing, Reagan is one lucky little girl to have such a loving family surrounding her. This child has touched so many lives. God bless her!

Salena is out of ICU, but will be staying inpatient for a couple of weeks. She is feeling better, but they want to watch her closely and make sure she is responding to the antibiotics the way they need for her to. She had such an easy transplant, but she has certainly had her share of problems here at the end of it. Pray for all of this infection to clear up and for her to be able to go home soon.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary that Sully was given his life of no pain, no cancer, and a home with God in heaven. This has been a difficult week for Jason, Tabitha and family to face. I spoke with Tab this morning and she said they had made it better than she thought. It seems the anticipation is worse than when the actual time gets here. They celebrated Sully's life by spending the time together, going to the cemetery and then Hannah suggested they go have ice cream to celebrate Sully's life. She thinks Hannah has given them a new tradition to mark this day from now on. I give kuddo's to Hannah... she is a master at coming up with some awesome ideas! Jason took off work today, and they plan to go and order his marker for the cemetery. Many of you contributed to this when he passed, it has been a very difficult task for them to order it, they really wanted to make sure they were making the best decisions when ordering it to honor Sully's life. Pray for them today as they go forward with this task at hand. These steps are so difficult to take. Keep them in your prayers.

Lot's more going on out there... check everyone's updates, keep them all in prayer. Pray for Ryan, he is doing so well. Keep Christian in your prayers. Praying for her miracle, with God all things are possible. There have been some fun times and good things going on this past week too... read up. Thank you Lord, for all of the great things You have done for us and the many gifts You have given us this past week. Make sure in all we do and say, we give God the glory.

Have a great week! Look for the opportunities to help others and see God even in the small things each day.

Take a minute, even in tough financial times, do you have an extra $10.00 you can give to St Jude to help keep the treatments and research going? Consider clicking on the link at the top left of this page where it says "DONATE TO ST JUDE" and make a donation, no amount is to large or to small. The money raised here goes toward our goal to raise $30,000.00 for the St Jude Marathon. It is directly donated to St Jude through this site. Consider between now and the first of December making a weekly or monthly donation. Each dollar adds up. Take the money for one lunch or dinner outing and donate it to this cause... will you really ever miss it? If you want your donation to go directly on one of the team members pages to help them achieve their personal goal, just click on their name when you get to the Team page and you can donate to a specific member that way.
GO TEAM BELIEVE!!!

BELIEVE PRAYER WORKS!!!