ways to help make a difference

I used to go to these sites daily and "click" to help stop hunger and also to fund mammograms.

I had forgotten about them until I saw the button on someone else's webpage.

So now I am sharing with all of you!

It's very simple - click on the buttons above, they will take you to the website where you just have to click on another button. You "click", the corporate sponsors pay, and the hungry eat and/or mammograms are donated to women in need.

How simple is this - click on a button and help others! It's free and takes about 30 seconds of your time!

Click daily!!

Anyway

I heard this song on my way home from work today and loved it - the chorus really hit me, especially with all that has been going in my head.

Anyway by Martina McBride

You can spend your whole life building something from nothing
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway
You can chase a dream that seems so out of reach and you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

Chorus:
God is great, but sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway, I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy and is hard to believe that tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway
You can love someone with all your heart, for all the right reasons, and in a moment they can choose to walk away
Love 'em anyway

Repeat Chorus

You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in that tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway, sing it anyway

I sing, I dream, I love, anyway,

Who am I?

Who am I?

Only a short while ago the Lord's friends gathered around to hear Him speak of great and wonderful things. The things of God, eternal things. We hung on every word, savoring it, digesting it. Now, they are gone and I alone remain, sitting at His feet. Like a delicate fragrance, the sound of His voice seems to linger in the air. I breath in the essence of His presence and sigh. It's good that I should be here; I want to stay forever. For a moment He shuffles in His seat and I fear that my Lord is going to leave. My heart sinks until I realize He is leaning forward and reaching out His hands to me. All at once the child in me comes alive as Jesus lifts me to His lap and cradles me in His arms. Tears of joy fill my eyes and overflow, cascading down my cheeks. I weep softly and bury my face in the folds of His robe as His strong arms close around me.

Who am I that the Lord should hold me so tenderly? Did He hear my anguished cry for more of Him? Had He peered into the depths of my heart and dug through the sin and deeply rooted pride and greed and actually found some good buried there? Is there any good in me? I am still so slow to learn, so quick to fall. My reasoning weaves a maze through my mind as I try
to comprehend. As Jesus draws me closer to Himself, a thread of gold enters the woven maze in my mind and I understand. Jesus holds me not because of my goodness, but His; not because of my love for Him, but rather, because of His great love for me. My thoughts become a blur, struggling to grasp what is unimaginable for the human mind. He is able to do exceedingly and
abundantly more than I think or imagine. My Lord and my God loves me. I savor this delicious morsel of truth as He gently cradles me in His strong arms like a dear beloved child, and holds me close to His chest. A favorite Scripture from Isaiah comes to mind: "You are mine, you are precious in my sight and I love you." I ponder this, these words meant for me as well.

As I listened to the Savior's heartbeat, He also was listening to mine. What I couldn't put into words He heard from the cry of my heart. My desire for Him. My love for Him. My longing to be with Him. And the heartbreaking sorrow I felt for ever having done anything that put a distance between my beloved Jesus and I. For a moment He stops rocking me and I can feel His warm breath on my forehead. He tenderly says, child, look at me. I am reluctant to look up because I know that my eyes will meet His. What I have longed for, now suddenly fills me with dread. I fear what He will see in the face of this unworthy child. His fingers are beneath my chin and He raises my head until my eyes meet His. What I see is more beautiful than words can express. In His eyes there is an ocean of love, deeper, wider, and higher than all the world can contain. His eyes are the color of mercy. For a moment I feel as if I am little more than an ant at the foot of the cross, just beginning to comprehend His love and sacrifice. The King of all the universe is gazing into my eyes and communicating His love to me.

Jesus' hand is warm against my face. He cups my cheek and wipes away my tears with His thumb. God's thumb, wiping away my tears. He holds my face firmly for a moment and looks deep into my eyes as if to say, this is important, listen to Me. His eyes seem to plead with me as He speaks. He wants me to understand and believe it. As His eyes fill with tears, He says,
"This is why I did it; so I could hold you and love you for eternity."

Opening up my heart....

okay - so this post is a little hard to write and I don't even know if anyone reads this blog anymore (other than Renee!!) since I have moved back to BC, but I need to get this all out and this seems like a good place to do it!

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Yesterday morning in church, my pastor - Pastor Tom (or PT as I will use for the rest of this post) said that he felt that there were people in the congregation who needed a specific strength for something they were going through, and that sometimes taking a step out of our comfort zone (our seat) was needed and that today no one was going to come up and pray with us individually but that we would pray as a congregation (as a family) for those who stepped forward. And that this was more between just God and us. Well, as soon as PT said a specific strength - I knew that God was talking to me. And I had two specific strengths that I need.

First was strength to get through the separation of Ronel & I for an undetermined length of time. It made me really face the fact that though I can put on a good face and be positive about this all, and I am positive about it for the most part, BUT it doesn't mean that I am all okay and that was what I really had to tell God today.[cause you know He didn't know already:)] It made me feel better though about "breaking down" sometimes and crying, being upset that we have to be so far apart for so long. (and anything past NOW is TOO long) I know that God put us together and that this was part of His plan.

Second was strength to get through my biopsy on the 26th of this month. I am scheduled for a small bowel biopsy with a gastrointestinal specialist in Vancouver to see what is going on with my insides. My doctor thinks that I may have celiac disease, which if true, would mean a HUGE lifestyle change as I would no longer be allowed to eat any wheat or gluten, which in case you didn't know is in like everything (Ok, slight exaggeration but not by much!) And while I am not looking forward to that, I am more scared about the biopsy procedure. It is invasive and there are two options (according to a search on Google) for the biopsy - either to enter through my nose and send the scope down to my lower intestines/small bowel or to enter from the other end and send the scope that way. Now - I am not sure what option is more preferable! One seems definitely shorter but not sure if it is better! I do know that I will be partially sedated and my mom is coming with me cause I won't be able to drive myself home (or that is what they tell me!) I have had SO many tests done to figure out what is going on and this is so far the only thing that came back as even an option but the blood test is not the best way to diagnose it so.... But I think that I am just nervous about what they will find. I am still waiting for my appointment to see the specialist about my malfunctioning thyroid (I know! I am falling to pieces!) Currently it isn't too bad off but my doctor wants me to see a specialist now cause this could cause problems when Ronel & I want to get pregnant.

Anyway - so as I stepped forward at the church, I just had to admit to God (and maybe even more to myself) that I STILL need Him~ that just because I am back in Canada doesn't mean that now I can do this all on my own. And while I know that God was in the middle of Ronel & I's relationship while we were in Haiti, I felt like I had been taking it bit by bit from God and that I needed to give it ALL back to Him. It's not going to be easy, but I know that it will be for the better.

Then PT's sermon was about "Seeking" - the second part of a 3 part sermon about Ask, Seek, Knock
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7 (New International Version)

And he mentioned how this really means KEEP Asking, KEEP Seeking, KEEP Knocking. Don't just do it once, KEEP doing it, and this hit me! I asked - once or twice, I seeked - maybe a couple of times, I might have knocked once or twice ~ anyway you get the picture ~ I needed to do the "keeping" part.

It was admitting that I needed someone other than myself that I really needed to do, and admitting that while I know that God has His hand on Ronel & I and the whole immigration process, and God knows what my biopsy results will be NOW, even before they have done the biopsy - I have to GIVE IT OVER TO HIM!

Then I was reading a friend's blog (okay - friend of a friend) and this song played when it loaded. I have never heard any of Sara Groves' music before but now I want to listen to more of her!
(I've put into italics the parts that really hit me)

go here and select the song to hear a sample of it

It's Gonna Be Alright
by Sara Groves and Gordon Kennedy

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

I can tell by your eyes that you're not getting any sleep
And you try to rise above it, but feel you're sinking in too deep

Oh, oh I believe, I believe that

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

I believe you'll outlive this pain in you heart
And you'll gain such a strength from what is tearing you apart
Oh, oh I believe I believe that

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

When some time has past us, and the story if retold
It will mirror the strength and the courage in your soul
Oh, oh, I believe I believe,

I believe
I believe

I did not come here to offer you cliché's
I will not pretend to know of all your pain
Just when you cannot, then I will hold out faith, for you

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

So I don't know what the future has in store - but with Jesus by my side it's going to be alright!

missing my kids

so today I was missing my kids (from the orphanage) and so I created a little slide show that I put in the sidebar. I think that I will occasionally switch it for other photos of the MANY that I have on my computer - from Haiti, from here, family, friends, landscape etc. Hope you enjoy!

what BCers do...

when the temperature goes below freezing and stays there....


They create their own ice rinks! First there was a photo in the paper where a family was skating on the ice that was on their road and today on my way to Langley, I saw dozens of people creating their own ice rink in fields that had flooded before the snow and are now frozen. There was atleast 30 cars parked on the side of the road (a major road too - which is why I don't have a photo, even though I had my camera. Doing 60 km/h on a fairly major & busy road isn't conducive to stopping and taking a photo!) and they had hockey nets out, and there was like 4 or 5 impromptu rinks. Coming home as I came over the hill and could see them all skating below me with the sun setting - it was a lovely sight. (again - ARGH that I couldn't get a photo!) But I thought it was a great idea. That is for those who can skate! I'd be on my butt in less time than it takes to say my name! It also was neat to see all these families out there skating together and there were games of hockey going on.

We don't see frozen fields in the lower mainland very often - especially ones that you can stand on! and so people were taking advantage of the cold weather we have been having! (It was again -8 on my way to church this morning. It warmed up to a whole 0 degrees by 4:30pm and then it gets dark, so the temperature drops again. The big news is that we are supposed to hit 2 degrees tomorrow as the high~!)

changes.....

Yes, I've changed the colours on my blog. I like playing with all the new features that Blogger now offers.

Mirlande

I saw this photo on my friend's blog and asked her to email me a copy cause I knew I had to have it!
This is SO Mirlande, and I love how the water looks in the black and white. Everytime I see photos of the kids in Haiti, I miss them, and Haiti in general. This has nothing to do with the fact that Ronel is there, but that my heart is there - with the kids I worked with, the people I became friends with, the beauty of the country and yes, my husband. But I know that even after Ronel is here in Canada with me, I will always miss Haiti. The people & the country had my heart from the first time I set foot on the soil in February of 2002. And reading blogs of people still living there, and also of people that are adopting from there just remind me how much I fell in love with Haiti -

Enjoy the photo!

Girls' Day Out

Well, this post is a little delayed but whatever! Last week I got a call at work saying I had won tickets to the Wedding Fair in Vancouver. So, I called up my girlfriend who is getting married in June and we went off for a day of fun last Saturday. Well, it was a good time indeed!
Because we are planning on having some sort of reception after Ronel arrives, I went as a bride to the fair and so you get to enter into TONS of draws for lots of free stuff as well as a chance to win an $87,000 dream wedding, which Shealyn entered. We got lots of info on all aspects of planning a wedding and saw some neat ideas, but it was also crazy! There were SO MANY people there and it was absolutely packed everywhere you turned! It was a good girls' day out though and it was nice to spend time with Shealyn, as we haven't done as much of that as we would like to, between my job and her school schedule we are busy people!

I don't think I have won any prizes from the fair but they haven't posted the winners yet but I am happy that I won the tickets to the fair and that I got the chance to go and see everything they had to offer.

what is this white stuff??

Tuesday night at about 10pm, snow started falling and it didn't stop until last night around 7pm. I awoke at 6am yesterday and went out, shoveled the walkway, driveway and all around my car (which is parked on the road) and then cleared off my car. I then came back inside, showered and went back to lie down for an hour!

The view out my living room window at 6am Wednesday morning (that is my little car hidden behind the big white bush)

I then got up and drove to work (stopping along the way at Walmart & Superstore to do shopping for work), I got to work safely at 10:30am Wednesday morning and drove out of the parking lot today at 3pm!! We were not able to transport kids to school yesterday or today because of the road conditions and also staff numbers - today we had like 5 staff not in because of the snow!

Around 4pm, with the snow still falling, I started getting concerned about driving home and having to be back at work at 7:30 the next morning. I mentioned this to Terri, our director and she said that her and Eli -her husband were planning on staying at the church(daycare) cause they would need to be here at 7am in case other staff didn't arrive. So, we decided to spend the night together at the church - we walked( or tromped as my friend Renee called it) up to Safeway to buy some food for dinner and then lunch today, got a movie for the kids and some warm beverages from Starbucks for the way home and then we tromped back to the church - much harder on the way back! By the time we got back, we were tired so we made dinner (Theresa nachos which Terri says are the best!) and then we watched some episodes of Murder She Wrote on DVD (on the nice big screen we have at the church--- projector and screen) and then set up our "sleeping areas" Because we have group care which is under 5 year olds, we have sleep mats so Eli got out those and set them up and then pushed over the nice couch from the church lobby and so Terri and Eli took the sleep mats and gave me the couch - for which I am very thankful! Around midnight we (Terri & I) went to sleep while Eli went back down to watch a movie! (just a bit crazy!) I woke up a couple times in the night but slept quite nice and was warm, which was nice - I thought I was going to be cold.


Eli & Terri all bundled up ready for our trip to the store

We woke up early this morning, checked out the school closure lists (none were closed except the private school we service) and then we waited for parents to show up - which they did! Some were okay with the fact that we would not be taking their kids to school, others decided that they would take them to school themselves, and then we had a fun snow day with the kids, we went outside and played in the snow, slid down the parking lot on crazy carpets and had fun digging the bus out of the snow! I managed to dig my car out of all the snow that had covered it in all the time it had sat in the parking lot (27 1/2 hours!) and it even started (my car doesn't like the cold and can be hard to start some mornings!)I have decided that this is not the weather for me!


my car - this is only the snow that fell between 11am & 6pm yesterday!

HUSBAND UPDATE
Oh - I just talked to Ronel and all the photos and paperwork I sent to him (via a group going down from Yarmouth Nova Scotia) arrived safely in his hands yesterday and he is already handing out the photos I sent for different people! I love being able to call my husband and talk to him whenever I want! Yeah for technology and SKYPE!

Warm wishes from COLD BC
(it is supposed to be -17 today with windchill - too cold for this gal with Haitian heat blood!)