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!