Church is AWESOME!!!

Last night we started our 3rd service per Sunday at CrossRoads church here in Red Deer. We're doing the same service 3 times each Sunday in the hopes of appealing to people who like to attend church at different times in the day.

So, the kids and I attended service last night at 6:30 pm. It was a great family service. After the service, there was a pancake supper served by church volunteers. They had all kinds of different toppings. It was wonderful to sit with people and fellowship over food after our time of worship.

This morning, Spencer and her father had a conversation on the way to the sitter's house. According to Rob, it went something like this....

Spencer: "Dad, last night I go to church and it was AWESOME!"

Rob: "Really Spencer?"

Spencer: "Yep, they had pancakes at church and I had some and they were AWESOME!"

Rob: "They were Spencer? That's great!"

Spencer : "Yep. Mine had whip cream and that was AWESOME!"

Spencer: "Mine had stawberries and they were AWESOME!"

Spencer: "And mine had syrup and that was AWESOME!"

Spencer: "And mine even had Gummi bears and that was AWESOME!"

Spencer: "Yep church and pancakes are REALLY AWESOME!"

Spencer obviously has discovered the word 'awesome' in the last week. But even more special for us was how much she enjoyed this event in which we got to eat nice food and spend time with people who love Jesus. Spencer is right....it was AWESOME!!!!

This week....bad news all around

I realize that I am not the only one that this happens to, but this week it seems that as each day went by, Rob and I were confronted with bad news. Early in the week my mother called and said that my grandfather had fallen in the nursing home and apparently had suffered a stroke [we were told that this was likely the cause of his fall]. He had left sided paralysis.

A few days later I got an e-mail from a friend going through a very dark time on a number of fronts. And still later in the week we got a call from another friend who has a tumor on their Thyroid gland and water on their brain. They are not sure if they are dealing with cancer at this point or not.

Then I got a call from my mother late yesterday to say that my grandfather had been taken by ambulance from the nursing home to the hospital. He was then transferred to a larger city likely for brain surgery. Apparently, he hadn't suffered a stroke but instead had fallen, hit his head and his brain had bled due to the head trauma!!! So today, my 87 year old grandfather, who is already suffering from Dementia, underwent brain surgery to remove the blood that had accumulated in his brain after his fall. Following the surgery, all of the paralysis has resolved and this has made my 89 year old grandmother jump for joy to say the least.

We are all breathing a sigh of relief as this could have had a much more negative outcome.

It is in times like these, that I am so glad that I have a loving saviour that I can lean on. I spent the day today, praying. Praying for my grandfather, my grandmother, and the surgeon as he performed neurosurgery in a city that is mostly without power due to Hurricane Earl hitting the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

I felt peace today, despite the bad news of the week as I know that no matter what is on the horizon God knows the circumstances and is with me no matter what. No matter what!! The circumstances may look bleak. They may actually be bleak. But that doesn't change His love for me or His desire for my good.

Thank you Jesus for the peace that you give to us. Peace that passes all understanding!!

"See ya later Dad!!"

Well, it's time again for a Seth story. For those of you who read this blog, you have gotten to read a lot of "Seth stories". These are stories that detail the exploits of our Autistic son Seth. He has a zest for life that is unrivaled!

Yesterday I was at an all day meeting. My wonderful husband was with the kids for the day. Jonah had a dentist appointment for a cleaning so Rob pondered what to do with Seth and Lauren for the 75 minutes Jonah would be in the dentist's office because there is NO way that Seth would sit for that time.

Rob decided to take them to Bower Ponds. For those of you not from Red Deer, Bower Ponds is a wonderful park area in our city with walking trails, paddle boats, a children's park etc. While walking through the park, they saw a young man that Rob knows from church working in the paddle boat area. He waved Rob over and told him that he would let Rob and the kids use a paddle boat for no charge. So, into the paddle boat the 3 of them climb.

They started to paddle around the pond areas and all of a sudden Seth stands up in the boat. Knowing our sons' love of water, Rob quickly grabs him by the shirt and says, "Seth sit down." Seth then turns to his father and says, "See ya later Dad!" and jumps out of the boat and into the water!!!! Now, if you live in Arizona this is likely a refreshing thing to do. In Red Deer yesterday, the high was 15 C and at night it is getting down to around 4 C, so the water was quite cool yesterday morning to say the least.

According to Rob, as Seth hit the water his eyes became the size of dish plates and he yelled, "Help me Father, Help me!! Rob paddled the boat back to him and hauled him back into the paddle boat and they quickly returned to dry land. Seth had to strip off in the parking lot and wear Rob's coat home to ensure he stayed warm and dry.

As you can see even little excursions with Seth become very interesting and adventurous!!