THANKSGIVING 2012

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:6,7 NKJV
This passage has always been especially dear to me for many reasons (not the least of which is that I have always been an anxious person), but in the recent past it has become special to me for another completely different reason:  those two little words, "with thanksgiving".  Sometimes I think that we (or at least, I) have a tendency to overlook those two important words........and believe me, they are very important!  So many times I have been looking for the answers to those "requests" or waiting for that "peace that passes all understanding" to arrive, and I tend to forget to thank Him for all of the things that He had already provided........not to mention giving thanks beforehand for the things that I am asking at that time!  You see, I believe that is exactly what this verse means, that whatever it is that we are praying for at that particular moment, we should be thanking Him for it before He even grants it.  Not too long ago a very wise Christian Counselor pointed this out to me, and I am so grateful that he did because it has changed my prayer life immensely!  There are alot of things in prayer that I had never really thought about when praying, like the verse in The Model Prayer where we asked to be forgiven of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.  When I think about that, I really start quaking in my boots!  Do I really want to be forgiven by the way that I forgive??  I realize that I have digressed here, but I just had to get that thought out!  Clearly, this post is to be about Thanksgiving!  So, I have many, many things to be thankful for this year, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on this verse in Philippians because it has become so very dear to me lately........in fact, the whole book of Philippians is dear to me!  Some of the things that I am truly grateful for this Thanksgiving:  God and His Holy Word; a very wise Christian Counselor; my family; adoption and how God has blessed our family through it; God's provision for me; an awesome Church family; the gift of friendship; all of the miraculous ways that God is working in my life!  Obviously, I could go on and on and on, in fact, I just thought of several more things in that few seconds........you get the point!  I hope that each of you had a truly blessed Thanksgiving, as I did........many blessings to you until next time!  

THE 27th ANNIVERSARY................

................OF THE DAY THAT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER.  November 18th is a day that will be forever etched in my heart.  I will spare you the details, as most of you already know them anyway........suffice it to say that this is the anniversary of the day that my beloved went home to be with His Lord and Savior.  This day is always a very hard day for me, but this year I was a little worried about it being extra hard since I am away from all of my family.  So, I set out in my mind before it got here, to make sure that I stayed extra busy and that I would keep my mind occupied with happy thoughts.  Of course it was rough, but as usual, God intervened and helped me through it.  Just as one example:  I was on the computer at some point during the day when I was feeling kind of low, and I decided to read my daughter, LeighAnn's blog post for that day.  Well, it was a story about a conversation between her and the boys regarding her father's death and his whereabouts as of now.  I don't mean that it was anything distasteful, it was just a story taken from their little minds and how they comprehended the whole situation.  Needless to say, it was hilarious........I found myself laughing out loud the whole time I was reading it, and in fact, had to read it over again because it was so funny!  If you get the chance, and would like to read the story, you can find it on her blog at:  www.pruiksmasprogress.blogspot.com.  What truly amazes me is that those boys had no idea that the anniversary of his homegoing would be the next day when they started asking questions about him, and honestly, LeighAnn did not even make the correlation of the dates when she posted the conversation.  I firmly believe that it was God's way of providing some lightheardedness for me in answer to my prayers for ways to cope that day!  He definitely does work in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform!  It was a tough day, but in so many ways God provided for me, as He always does, and I got through it just fine.  I had alot of friends thinking of me and praying for me that day, which reminds me of that blessing of friendship that I spoke about in one of my earlier blog posts.  I am attaching a picture of the love of my life, my very best friend.  I am so grateful for the time that we did have together here on this earth, even though it was short........and I am most grateful that He is with our Lord and Savior, and that we will be together again one day!  Thank you all for listening........my love to each of you!

ALL ABOUT BABY

Well, since I am totally behind in my blogging posts I will have to be post dating this and possibly the next few posts!  This one is from November 8th thru November 10th.  I had the privilege of making a trip to GA for Joseph and Lillie's Baby Shower on November 10th.  Those couple of days were filled with lots of fun!  I flew in around mid-day on Thursday and spent the afternoon with LeighAnn and the little ones.  Then on Thursday night, Joseph, Lillie, and I had dinner together and then went to a fun appointment for Lillie, to have a 4D Ultrasound of the baby!  It was so very special to get to see the little one that clearly!  He was quiet and still at first, but the technician was able to "wake" him up and get him moving!  He was playing with his little foot the whole time, and the views of his little face were so clear........I think that he has Lillie's nose and Joseph's mouth!  What an exciting, fun time to share with my son and his wife........we had so much fun!  I will post a couple of the pictures at the end of this post.  On Friday I had an appointment of my own, but I spent the rest of the day with the kiddos!  I was the babysitter on Friday night, and we had a blast, as usual!  Love those babies so much!  Then on Saturday, we had the baby shower/brunch.  Shannon hosted the shower, and I have to really give her special recognition because she did an absolutely awesome and outstanding job!  Of course, there will be pictures of the shower to follow also!  We had so much fun playing cute games and eating great food, of course, and Joseph and Lillie really got some very nice things!  The decorations were beautiful, and Barbara Green gave a really special devotion.  I was so happy to be able to see and spend time with all three of my children at the same time that day........these days that doesn't happen very often, so it was truly a blessing for me!  I am so very blessed with a wonderful family, and I do love them all so dearly........I can hardly wait until we welcome the newest member of our family, Josiah Malachi Smith!  Thank You, Father, for a truly abundant life!!!!

**Disclaimer**

*I am still kind of new at this blogging thing, so I have quite a difficult time posting pictures, as you will see!  They are all here, but unfortunately scattered and definitely not in the order that I wanted them to be!  I did manage to figure out how to get them to show up at the end of my writing (thanks to my sweet LeighAnn), but somehow the order got mixed up and I spent well over 40 minutes trying to get them in the order that I wanted them........I have given up!  Hey, at least they all made it to the page!  If anyone out there that uses Blogspot would like to assist me with some directions, I would totally welcome any help that you could offer!  Thanks to all who "endure" with me in this trial of my blogging, and I hope that you enjoy! 



He opened his eyes for us!





Playing with his little foot!







 

FALL FUN!!!!

Last week I had the privilege of spending five wonderful days with some of my family!  My daughter, LeighAnn, had the opportunity to go on a business trip with her husband, David, so........I was, as my Dad used to say, "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" for a few days!  I think that I may have just seriously dated myself with that phrase, but........oh well, it is what it is!  Never the less, it was a wild week, to say the least!  It actually (after the initial shock of everything that happened) was quite ironic how it all played out.  We all thought that the two little ones would be the ones that might have the hardest time being away from Mommy, especially Linnea, since she had never been away from her.  Well, that wasn't the case at all!  Don't get me wrong, she did say "Mama" many times, but all in all, she actually did beautifully........as did Ethan.  He was fabulous, and a tremendous help to me when the bigger boys were not around........he even taught me some sign language that helped me alot with Linnea!  He is a super helper and I was very proud of him for being such a big boy!  On the other hand, little Luke was super sick and I felt so bad for him........he too, was a trooper and did not cry at all.  He just laid on the couch and in my lap, and took it all in stride........I'm not even sure that I could have done as well as he did with a fever like he had, but he was great with it!  Nathan, the one who usually loves staying with me, (or anyone else, for that matter) was the one who missed Mommy and Daddy the most........this is most out of character for him!  He got past it after the first day, and all was well from then on out, but it sure was crazy there for a little while!  Four kiddos:  one who was sick, one who missed parents alot, and one who doesn't speak much English!  Well, let's just say that I know why God gives us children when we are young!  ;-)  I said that because it is true, but honestly it was a great week all the way around!  We had alot of good times laughing, giggling, playing, and just generally having a great time together.  On Friday I piled all of them in the van and we went to McDonald's for lunch, and no, I did not go in with all of them........we came back home and made a picnic in the floor of the playroom, and they loved that!  Everyone was thrilled to see each other when Mommy and Daddy came home later that day!  Friday was actually Linnea's "3rd" birthday, so on Saturday we had a birthday party at the park, her favorite place to be!  I also got to spend some time with my son, Joseph and daughter-in-law, Lillie, who are expecting a new little boy in January........Lillie looks so cute being "preggo," she is definitely all baby!  I loved getting to spend time with them as well, and thank them so much for being my airport shuttle coming and going!  All in all, it was a great week........I had a blast, and I have pictures to prove it!  Here are a few, and you can check out my Facebook page for the rest of them!  God bless you all!!!! 


Nathan ~ All grown up!



Ethan and Luke



My sweet Ethan ~ aka E-Bear



Luke

Linnea ~ aka Linnea-Bug

Happy "3rd" Birthday, Linnea!

The dress that I gave her!

The doll that I gave her!

Forever........

........Friends!

"A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."  Proverbs 18:24 NKJV.  I just cannot say enough about the people that God has placed in my life through the years.  Yes it is true that I have been blessed with an awesome family, and for that I am eternally grateful........but today (actually I have been pondering this for days and am just now getting to writing it) I am focusing on friends.  I love this verse from Proverbs mostly because through the years God has placed so many friends in my life who completely depict this kind of a friend.  I have many friends in different aspects of my life, and I find that so refreshing the way God chooses to put certain ones in certain areas of our lives.  There are friends who go waaaay back that I still keep in contact with, and there are those who have come into my life in recent years.  There is one thing that I really love about a true friend, and that is one whom you may have been friends with much earlier in life, and you haven't been in touch with for years........and then through some interesting way (God's plan, for sure), you meet up again years later, and you pick up right where you left off just like you had never missed a beat!  This has happened to me just recently, and just totally LOVE it, and I love her dearly too!  It has been SO neat catching up and then starting all over again during a new season in our lives!  I also can't say enough about my friends from church........have to put a plug in for my church now, Avalon Church of Christ!  It is SO awesome to be a part of such a loving church family, and I am SO grateful to be a member there and have a family of friends of like precious faith.  I have been very blessed through the years to be a part of other churches through relocations, and I can honestly say that I have dear friends from all of them!  I feel like I am kind of rambling now but I have just had these thoughts of friendship running through my head all of this week, and then God led me to the verse in Proverbs, so I knew that I just had to write these thoughts down.  It really is true that to have a friend, we have to be a friend........and there really are friends who are just like family to us!  I am so truly grateful for all of the friends that God has placed in my life through the years, and I just want to thank Him again for those blessings........for that is what they truly are!  I will leave you with this link to seal my thoughts.  Hope that you enjoy because a friend is a friend forever if the Lord's the Lord of them!  <3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ped1jYLFtkA

In The Beginning................

........Who would have ever thought it??  Me, a blogger........not me, never in a million years!!!!  Well, guess what??  I have decided to give this a try!  I have actually been thinking about it for a long time.  My life has taken so many turns lately that I can hardy keep up with it myself, much less for anyone else to know what is going on!  The Lord has done many things for me in my lifetime, and especially now in this season of my life, He is working in wondrous ways........and I want to be sure and keep track of all of it.  So I thought, what better way to do this than to blog about it........that way I can keep a journal of everything and share it with my family and friends if I want to.  I love playing on the computer so it was kind of fun getting started and setting this up!  I never thought when computers first came out that I would be very good at it, but now I actually think that I am quite computer savvy........well, maybe!  ;-)  I got a new Smartphone last month, and my daughter actually said to me, "welcome to the world, Mom"........so see, I am coming along with all of this technology!  Then my son said to me the other night that I should try my hand at a blog, so with all of that, I decided that it was time!  I will be sharing mostly the things that the Lord is doing for me, and of course, I will have to talk about my family........after all, it is a rite of passage for a grandmother, or for me, a "Mimi!"  ;-)  I love taking pictures and I love scrapbooking, so I am sure that there will be plenty of that to go around also!  In any case, I hope that someone out there will follow me, and maybe even receive a blessing from God by reading about what He is doing in my life.  I am looking forward to sharing with you all, and hope to hear back from some of you!  In the meantime, I will leave you with a picture of my sweet little kitty cat, Abbie, whom I dearly love (she loves the computer also), and these words from God:  "The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."  Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV