I am working for only 1 more hour this morning and then off to Peoria to see our Illinois kids and grandkids. YAY!! Oh woops, did I say working????? It's like the commercial where the family is going to Disneyland the next day and the parents holler at their little boy to go to sleep. Then you hear this little cute voice that says "Im too excited to sleep". Well, I'm too excited to work. Seeing my kids is always priority!! I only wish Grant and Chelsea were there too. We are looking forward to being there for Jared's graduation party. We are very proud of him!! Well, back to work.....he he!
My girls have been after me to post more but I dont have a lot of time to spend on the computer and havent had anything really important to share until this weekend. This weekend was worthy of sharing.
For those of you who dont know, I work for an Orthopedic surgeon and have for 9 years. We have become good friends and I know his wife just casually. I have talked to her when we have office parties at various times of the year. Last week, he asked me to move his schedule for this week because his wife is having surgery tomorrow. He said that she had had some questionable test results and was very nervous about this surgery. I told him that from my own experience, I knew she would feel much better as a result. We didnt discuss anything else about it until Friday when he called me in between surgeries and asked me if I would call his wife and talk to her because she was so nervous about her upcoming surgery. The thought crossed my mind that it seemed a little strange that he would ask me to talk to her when I knew she had a lot of "Mormon friends" that she had to be much closer to than me but I told him I would be happy to and hung up. The minute I hung up the phone I had this feeling that a phone call would not be sufficient and that I should invite her to go to lunch which was also strange, since I had never done anything with her socially. Driving to the restaurant I found myself praying for help to be a light to her in our conversation. When I got there, we sat down, ordered and talked about her surgery for maybe 10 minutes. I soon realized that her uneasiness was much deeper than an upcoming surgery. Out of the blue, she informed me that she had left the Mormon church which she had been a member of for almost 50 years. She told me that she had never believed it and finally had the courage to walk away. She told me that she had visited a Baptist church, Pentecostal church and had listened to some TV preachers but hadnt found anything that felt like what she needed. For an hour and a half she quizzed me about what I believe and the Church and asked me what she could expect if she were to visit. I tried to make the most of every question while trying to hide the lump in my throat and the chills running up my spine. All of the things that I had considered strange were not strange at all. When I left I was totally overwhelmed at how God had used me that day and could hardly concentrate on my job for the rest of the afternoon. I raced home and took a really long walk. I needed some quality alone time with God and couldnt stop thinking of how awesome he is. When I came in from my walk I opened my class book and bible to spend some time preparing for the class I had to teach Sunday. I almost fell off my chair! The story I would teach was Philip and the eunuch. I WAS BLOWN AWAY! God may not have brought me to a eunuchs chariot but he took me to a lunch table of someone I hardly knew because she is searching. I wondered if the job that I have done for 9 years was to bring me to that moment. I thought about the influence that we all have in the little things every day and I realized that not only this, but in all things, God works through us "in his time". One of the main reasons I shared this with you is so that you will all pray for Elaine that her heart will be open to the truth.I dont know if anything will ever come of this but I do know that if we plant seeds,God can and will give the increase even if we never see the results. I hope this encourages even one of you as much as it has me in the last few days. Thanks for listening.
Wow! Talk about having an "opportunity" thrown in your lap! That is really neat mom, I KNOW your example has surely brought you to this situation! We'll pray for Elaine and Dr. Hess too!
That is so great! Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. We will definitely keep both Elaine and you in our prayers! PS- Is your boss Mormon? Did he leave the church also? I work for Mormons also.. but here in Phx.
There are some pictures of my dad on my grandparents wall in TN. My dad was probably in his early 20's. I always ask Sydney, "Who's that?" She always says, "Uncle Brian!"
Hi thank you so much for telling us about this event! And it is in my prayers. How wonderful that your just living each day as a child of God was seen by this doctor. Those who are the closest to you on a daily basis really know who you are in your actions! What a compliment! God bless & keep you In His care.
Thanks for remembering my birthday! Rob took me out for prime rib and surprised me with tickets to see Jim Brickman. He is one of my favorites. I love piano things. It was a really relaxing great evening.
He's not up there yet. He went up and bought a house and went back to Phoenix. My parents are taking some stuff out to him this weekend. I think he doesn't have to be up there until the 31st. The house is in S. Weber. The neighborhood feeds into Northfield High School I think? I'll let him know that you guys offered to help!
Hi I don't know you, but I love seeing mom's of grown kids on here! I can't get friends my age interested! I'm Deb Griffin, our son and his wife go to Valley in Phoenix! Our youngest son & family live here in the same town as we do. I'm soon to be 52! And growing old gracefully!! You have two beautiful daughters! Nice to meet you and I'm so glad you had a great birthday!
Hi not a problem! I make those mistakes all the time!! you will have to post about your life a little so we can get to know you. If you look through my pages you can see picture of our family and read some post about our Granddaughters. I'm getting ready to go to Phoenix on April 8 and stay 7 weeks to help our daughter-in-law with the girls. She is helping me more than I'm helping her!! Spending time with the girls is going to be so nice and the weather there will help relieve most of my FMS pain. And the back will do much better until I can finally get into the Orthopedic Surgeon sometime in June or July to schedule back surgery. I go to the ortho clinic on Thur. the 27th and that took 2.5 months to get in. So it will take that or more to get into the surgeon. You can see how i'm reaping more benefits than our daughter-in-law!! I'm taking my hubby's laptop with me so I don't tie the kids computer up!! So I will be posting from Phoenix, When I have time!! Have a great Bible Study tonight!
And a post includes just a few words!! Then you can say you posted!!! I do all my personal work online now for the last 7 years! I can't do the physical things that I use to. I love the internet to pass prayer request and encourage others!!
Oh, if you make a mistake just type in the first word of your post and pleo will display all the sentances with that first word, just click your arrow on it and it will bring the whole phrase up and you can arrow over and correct what words you need to!! I have to use that little function all the time!!
Hi! I am Dana, nillabarr and chelsea_pickup's mom. They told me I need to be on pleonast so that I can see all the things they are talking about so, here I am.
Dana Bryant?????? How are you? It's Karen Jones Soto the little girl who used to go to church with you in UT!! I saw you on Jill Custer's blog. This is such a small world. I guess now I'm going to have to go and look up Jessica and Chelsea!
And, you and Rob look exactly the same as I remember. Brian is getting transfered up there in March. So maybe we'll see you guys sometime soon. Frank and the kids and I will for sure be through in Aug. when we go up to OR to do the FC camp up there.
we miss seeing you guys visit here too! Aaron really enjoyed Mr. Rob staying and talking basketball with him on his last trip here! We would LOVE to come visit there. That is already on our travel list! We'll just see how many years it takes to get there!
Hi Dana, it's Becky Custer, I haven't ever posted anything, I guess I'm going to have to one of these days. You have really cute grandkids! We have Philip and Ashley Price attending 'Valley' now. God's family is so awesome, you can always find a familar face.
I just found your comment, sorry!! I actually need to put an updated picture of them up, they are so big!! I can't believe that Mabry is about to be 3!! Mitchell turned 5 in August and is in Kindergarten now!! It's crazy!!
This is a great way for you to get updates on your family, and the groups are great too!!
Welcome to Pleo! I'm Kristin and I live in Georgia. My parents and my brother and his family (the Greens) worship with Jared and Jessica. Jess is a sweetheart!
Hi! My name is Kacey and my husband Kenneth and I knew Jared and Jessica in Tampa. Jared and Kenneth and Charlie Trotter all went to USF and graduated together. I've enjoyed getting to know Jessica better here on Pleonast and I'm glad you have joined! It's so fun. :)
Thanks for remembering my birthday! Rob took me out for prime rib and surprised me with tickets to see Jim Brickman. He is one of my favorites. I love piano things. It was a really relaxing great evening.
