The Heart of Our Lord

In Luke chapter 7, you'll find the story of a funeral procession for a widow's only son. In that time, women didn't own property or really have the ability to care for themselves. The fact that she was a widow meant that she was relying on her male children to take her in and care for her. This was a funeral for her only son - so she was pretty much out of luck. Being that she was son-less and a widow, she'd probably be forced into begging or prostitution to provide for herself. Being that there was a good chance she didn't own any property, including her home, she would probably find herself homeless. It is a scene of deep sorrow and desperation. Luke 7:13 says, "When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."
What a picture of the heart of our Lord. Here we have a real life tangible example of how much our Lord is there for us. Jesus' heart went out to the widow, and his heart goes out to each and every one of us.
I have to say, we've had a rough month. Three people in our world have passed away. While we were not super close to two of them, our hearts still hurt for those left behind. Yes we're still grieving for Z ... and yes, most days are good days and most memories make me happy ... but still ... it's a lot ... Teresa passed and left a husband and three young children. Roger passed and left a wife and three children (23, 18, and 13). Whether the passing was expected or not it's still hard to face ... and it still hurts my heart.
Here, however, I find comfort. For in the lowest moment of this widow's life, Jesus' heart hurt for her and went out to her. So for us, in those moments of desperation and loss - in those times where we can't understand why - how incredibly comforting it is to know that God's heart goes out to meet us there.
Now, being humans and by our nature, we get in the way of God and God's workings. So here I pose a question to you ... How much more comfort and solace could/would we feel if we didn't get in God's way?

29

days till pitchers and catchers report.

I am happy.

Life is good.

Baseball is almost here again.

How I lost the last two weeks ...

Friday morning, January 5, 2007, Tyler and I received an aweful phone call. A very dear friend of ours and his mother were killed in a car accident the night before. He was 25. I'd rather not dwell on it right now ... I will however say that JZ was one of our best friends. In the 6 years we were blessed with his friendship, we were also blessed with a lifetime of memories. I know that we won't loose those, because he will live on in all of our friends and in his widow, Mandy. His memorial service was on Monday the 15th. It was really nice. I think that we all needed it, and I know it was what he would have wanted. Yes, there were tears (a dear friend was ripped from our lives too soon), but they were far outweighed by the laughter that day.

And I'll give you, and myself, a moment to transition .......................

So I should be at work right now. It's Thursday, so I should be at the school working lunch ... however Tyler left for work this morning and took my keys. Of course, he has his keys too. So that leaves me with no keys. So here I am, not working, just chilling ... figured it was past due time for an update.

So, what else has gone on around here in the last couple of weeks? ... Things with Kayla are going well. She's social and honestly, after having two guys in the house while Nooner was living with us, it's a treat to have two girls. Tyler's training with Aflac this week. He was in Cincy Tuesday and Wednesday. It was really nice to have someone here with me while he was gone Tuesday night. He'll be there Friday and Saturday morning too. It'll be nice to have Kayla here then too.
Things with jOURney are really moving along too. Public launch is this Sunday. Check out the webpage (link on the side of my blog). Kayla's been a real gift in that area too. She's been so willing to just pitch in where ever. She's also been coming along to gatherings on Sundays and Bible discussion on Tuesdays. It's been really good to have an outside perspective. Tuesday night on the way home from Bible disucussion she said something to me that was wonderful to hear ... she said that she feels like she can just be with the people here. These people she's met she feels like she's gotten to know, like she'd acctually want to come back and visit them ... like she's not just here for a month and she hasn't just met them. She feels like they're being real. WOO HOO Y'ALL!!!!! That's what we're going for. We strive so hard to be authentic, but we don't really have anyone new or outside of our little group of friends to tell us how we're doing ... and apparently we're rocking out on the right track. :)
Things with the school are going great. They've been so understanding of me needing a bit of time off to help with whatever I can for Mandy ... they've been so good about letting me not work because my temp job won't let me have days off without swapping them for a Tuesday or Thursday. Kayla and I were talking about this the other night ... we don't know when we started not expecting the best from people. And it bums us out that we don't anymore. It shouldn't be that way, we shouldn't be shocked when someone is sweet and understanding ... but it does ... and that's not cool.
Things with Sophie are going well too. I am so blessed by that family and the time I get to spend there. It's a bit of sanity for me. It also allows me to serve where I know I am needed ... and Becky expressing her appreciation is nice too ... not necessary ... but nice to hear that I am helping out.
Things with the temp assignment are poopy. The woman who's admin I am doesn't seem to know for sure what I'm supposed to be doing for her. She wanted someone to make sales calls, but she's also given me 700 other things to do and track too. I'm doing the sales paperwork, tracking inventory, requisitoning supplies for the crews, tracking that, marketing plans for online sales, cost analysis on those, dealing with some outside side sales for another company, phone calls, tracking and recording $ sales amounts daily and month and year to date, and filling in for the receptionist while she's at lunch. So yesterday, the woman called me into her office and yelled at me for not making enough sales calls. But she's the one who has me following her around and doing a ton of other stuff for 3 hours a day. I'm only supposed to be there from 9-1 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, there are very few days that I acctually get to leave at 1. Usually it's more like 1:30. Which is okay ... it just severly shortens my lunch break (I have to leave to get Sophie at 2:15). Yesterday, I left work after 2 and had to go straight to school. The woman had a clear understanding that I cannot stay and work indefinately when I started there. She knew I have an afternoon job and that I have to leave to pick Sophie up at 2:15 at the latest. She understood that I have to leave at 1 on days that I have Sophie. I know she got this. Yesterday, at 1:45 when I reminded her that I really had to go, she gave me yet another huge pile of work that had to be done yesterday. It was after 2:15 when I left yesterday. I had to go straight to school yesterday. I hate having to do that. My head hurt so bad yesterday because I didn't have any food after my breakfast at 8:15 that morning. Why didn't I eat? I wasn't allowed to stop working. grr ... Oh well ... as soon as Tyler starts making money on a regular basis I'm out of there. I am so looking forward to going back to the school five days a week. Then I can pick up more seamstress work and a couple of cleaning jobs maybe. I am however, going crazy there ...
... and holding down three jobs is getting old (and tiring) very fast ...

Okay ... so before I completely wrap this up here I have two more things to say:
1) Cole Wright is home and adjusting well. Please go read about it. It's been so uplifting and such a blessing to keep up on the happenings in the Wright's adoption world. You can read it on Trevor's blog (linked on the side of mine).
2) Ryan and Andrea Clements are two of the coolest people around. Their son Reese is up there too. Monday night they made dinner for the three of us. It was major yummy chicken tacos. So we're sitting there after dinner and the kid is going on and on and so Andrea thought to change his diaper (he's almost 2). But on her way upstairs with him and he says, "Front Poop." Yeah ... front poop ... apparently since he knows the word "poop" he has decided to clarify which poop he's doing - poop or pee ... yeah ... sweetness all around. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was fabulous! We also watched Cars. Super cute, we hadn't seen it yet. I'd watch it again. Andrea also made carmel popcorn for during the movie. It was perhaps the most amazing thing I had eaten since the chicken tacos a couple of hours earlier. mmm mmm good ...

Okay ... I think that's plenty for now ... sorry it was so long ... I think I'm going to take care of some business/cleaning around the house. I couldn't go to work today ... so I might as well be super productive around here instead.

a week's worth of ramblings ...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Best of luck with all of your resolutions and keeping them. I hope you did well keeping last year's. (Not to toot my own horn here ... but I did keep mine pretty well ... I didn't loose as much as I could have, but I did loose almost 30 pounds last year. That's not too bad :))

Okay ... so I haven't been on much. This time of year is crazy for everyone ... so I figure it's not so bad.

I'm happy and relieved ... Trevor, Lori, and Emma are home safe and there's one more Wright on the way next week ... prayers for that trip for them ... (They're adopting ... click on "Trevor's blog" in my links on the side ... read the last month's worth of entries.)

I'm recovering from perhaps the strangest "flu" bug I've ever had. We came home from Journey on Sunday and I was so sick ... my skin hurt, I was nauseous, I had a fever ... I was sick. I was up till about 4 am just miserable. I finally slept from about 4 till about 9 and then was up. I was still weak Monday morning, but today I'm pretty much feeling fine ... I do feel bad because I was supposed to spend the day with Sophie, but I didn't know how I'd feel today. I didn't want to get her sick. So I called yesterday and cancelled. I'm glad that Becky's home with her today.

Tyler has to go to Dayton today. His meeting is from 1-4. He thought it was from 11-4. A couple of days ago his Aflac office head guy (I know ... a technical term it's not ...) called to ask him how he was getting down to Dayton. Apparently Chris's father-in-law is also an agent who is going down to this start-of-the-year shindig. So Chris called to offer Tyler a ride. Wow ... nice one there God. I am always amazed as to His ways of showing us that we're on the right track here. Not only is Chris a very religious guy ... but he's living out his faith ... and Tyler is benefiting ... at least that's how I'm choosing to look at this. We're not spending any money today on Tyler's trip down ... nice ...

So our Christmas was good. It was nice to have both of our moms here. Family Christmas at Gramma's went well too. It was REALLY nice to see my cousins. I haven't seen them since I was in grade school ... wait ... I saw the younger one once when I was in high school. Stephen, the older brother, brought his girlfriend with him. She was sweet. They met while he was in Mexico running some resort thing ... she's not so great with english yet ... but she's getting there. The two of them seem happy. And that's good. :) We have yet to get together with Dad and Syl (they're coming here the last week of January), Gammy, and Al.

Kayla's here. I'm glad. I hope she finds Emory Adams Park okay today. She's doing her geriatric pharmie rotation at Blanchard Valley. She has to take the hospital shuttle from their overflow parking back there. She went out last night to find it but didn't go far enough down the street. She got to Main St. and thought that she'd maybe one too far and got discouraged. I'm really looking forward to having her here this month.

So Ford's funeral is on tv right now. It's very simple compared to other Presidential funerals, or at least that's what they keep saying. The pagentry still strikes me. As simple as it may be, it still seems elaborate. I know he was a president. I know he deserves honor ... and even perhaps on a national level. But something still doesn't sit well with me. And it's not just Ford's funeral ... it's all of these national funerals ... am I un-American for feeling this way? ... I don't know ... I can't imagine having to grieve in public like these people do. It almost seems as though it's too much for them at times. I know it's hard to bury a loved one. I know it's hard to grieve. Part of me can't help but wonder if thoughts of "Keep it together, there's a camera right there" or other things of that nature are in their minds. And in that case, are we robbing a very private moment from this family who is stuck in a public eye that is often unforgiving and way too nosey? ... I don't know ... just something doesn't seem right ...