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"Here's a guy that could use our help. He lost his arms and legs in Iraq and has been in the hospital for two years without visitors outside of his family. I am going to send him a card (that's all the family wants, no money) and express my gratitude for his service. If you would do the same and perhaps get a few others to join us, it might help his will to survive.
Sgt. Daniel Thornhill USMC
Fort Sam Houston Fisher House
3623 George C. Beach Rd
Fort Sam Houston, Texas 78234"
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May we all consider ourselves blessed today.
I also have three thanksgivings that I want to share with you all. Back in December, I fell down a flight of stairs at my parent's home in Alabama while holding Noah. Thankfully, he was okay but my foot was not. I have no idea if I fractured anything because I just wanted to tough it out. It still is painful but not debilitating - I run 6 days a week on it so it hasn't been that bad.
However, about a month ago, I noticed a marble sized knot forming and growing ever bigger on top of my foot where I first injured it. It has been increasingly painful and the lump was hard to the touch. Finally, I got an appointment set up for yesterday morning to get it looked at but when I was about to get ready for the appointment, I looked down and noticed that the lump (which I was scared to learn more about) was GONE. Simply gone! There is no pain there, no swelling, no lump. So, I cancelled my doctors appointment and gave up some praise to the Lord!
Just yesterday, my dear friend Lori Herrera read some of our blog updates when she noted that I mentioned we were trying to sell our Pathfinder. Within hours, she and her husband bought our Pathfinder for her mother-in-law who is also their nanny to their girls. What an answered prayer! No more advertising that car or trying to sell it to strangers. And we can keep it till we leave island on the 27th so we don't have to worry about renting a car. That might seem like a small thing to many, but when you have to pack up your entire lives to cross back over an ocean, selling a car right away that you can't take with you is a BIG thing.
Another praise that I have concerns my dad. Back in July of 2000, I was in the officers version of basic training for 5.5 weeks at Tyndall AFB, Florida. We had no phone privileges, no internet, no connection with the outside world. I knew that my parents were in and traveling around France but I didn't know which dates they'd be flying.
Our basic trainers never announced the news to us until one day when we were in the auditorium and one of the trainers got on stage to tell us that an plane with many Americans on board had gone down in Paris. Well, sitting at attention and hearing that was very difficult for me because I knew my parents were there. I just silently prayed for their safety and waited to hear that everything was okay with them. Thankfully, it wasn't their flight - it was the last flight of the very famous, super-sonic Concorde jet.
2 weeks ago, my dad left for his annual trip around the world (mostly in Asia) with several of his employees to Troy University campuses in various locations. They were supposed to go to one of the Russian countries following their trip to Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea but their flight in Dubai was delayed so my dad and his best friend, Colonel Schmidt, sent the rest of the team onto Georgia (the country) and they took a flight to Paris where they had a 1 day layover then came home to Alabama.
That was less than a week ago that they were in Paris. Just 1 1/2 days ago, an Air France jet disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean. They still haven't found it. My dad and Colonel Schmidt could have been on that flight had they been delayed a few more days.
God does answer our prayers of healing and safety. He wants us to pray for ourselves and take authority over our bodies as well as take authority in prayer over our loved ones.
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
I encourage you all to just give thanks today when you find yourselves in trying situations. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that my patience and endurance has been tested beyond what I think I might be able to handle at this really stressful time in our lives.
You name it and it has happened to me and Dan in the last 48 hours (lots of poop eating, dog-sitting two very high maintenance dogs that have done more damage to our home than you could imagine, mud, water hoses brought INTO the home all while we are trying to get our lives organized and packed for Maui AND to move to Louisiana while taking a month's leave between here and Louisiana... you get my drift). But NOTHING is worth complaining about when I could use that energy to praise our Lord and thank Him for our safety, our health, our happiness.
I am so thankful for those three answered prayers today and I choose to be thankful and cast down satan and his "snares."
