Living in a rural town we are not availed of having home delivery of our mail, no one in our town is, everyone has to go to the post office and get their mail.  One of things my husband does when he drops our son off at school in the morning is get the mail.  Usually the mail does not make it home until he arrives home in the evening.  On Fridays however his schedule varies and he does not go into until later, so he brings the mail home.  Worked out well for me today!

I woke up this morning just a few minutes before my husband was leaving for work.  He pointed out to me that I had received mail.  What did I receive?  If you read my blog regularly you have heard the names Lisa and Shellie before.  Well these same two woman, having found out it was my birthday, sent me cards!  What a delight!  Both of them also included the most encouraging words within them.

Two woman who I have never met in person were able to encourage me just where I am.  Why is that?  Because each believer is given the Holy Spirit, and the Lord bonds all believers together through the Holy Spirit.  The fellowship we share is not hampered by things in the physical world, it is a connection put there by the Lord.  So despite the fact that we have never met, our fellowship is sweet because the Lord has created the connection.  That connection will then continue when this physical world passes away and we are together with the Lord!

So thank you Lisa and Shellie, and all my other friends I have not yet met, for the fellowship we share, and the constant encouragement that is to me.  I thank the Lord that we have been brought together in such a unique way.  I look forward to the day we all meet, even if it is not here on earth, I know we all one day meet.

2 days ago I celebrated my birthday.  The night before and day of my husband and I had a lot of laughs over what could not “count” as a gift.  There were a couple of other people involved in this, Lisa and Shellie, and this made it all the more fun!

The reason this all started was because we recently moved into our new home, and as such we have ended up buying several new things for it.  My birthday turned out to be a Tuesday, the day of my woman’s bible study in Tooele, and the day we have been going into Salt Lake early to do our “house shopping”.  So we started talking about the things we needed to get and how since it was my birthday it was so convenient that they could be my gifts!  Of course the first item on the list was an appliance, I said “no that doesn’t count” and Mike just laughed–this became a running joke that extended to our twitter friends, and even included things like ice cube trays (which were much needed).  All day on my birthday we kept twittering things like”Do blinds count?” and got responses like “no blinds don’t count”.  Seems ridiculous now, but at the time it was hilarious!

Now back to those ice cube trays.  In the end Mike treated me to a very nice day, including dinner at a restaurant we don’t often go to.  I got to pick up my long awaited Casting Crowns CD and buy the Jeremy Camp Live CD, both are excellent!  I even pre bought the Toby Mac CD coming out in February.  So all in all a good day for music lovers like me.  Those ice cube trays even got remembered, and laughed about a lot.  They became the most consistent running joke of the day, the smallest most inexpensive item we bought that day, gave us the most laughs.  It was just fun.

Every time I get ice out of the freezer I am going to remember all the laughter we had on that day, not because I got those ice cube trays for my birthday (that doesn’t count) but because of the fun we all had together.  Thanks for laughing with us, and for putting up with our silly brand of humor.  It is so good to be able to laugh with others in the body of Christ and to share with them when we have Joy.

One Night my arms just decided to stop working, they stayed that way for one full week.  Both of my arms stop working in one evening within hours of each other for no apparent reason, for no known medical reason.  For me this was hard to accept, but one thing I did know, this was going to make life very difficult.

That week came with many challenges.  No one has any idea what they use their arms and hands for until they do not have the use of them.  Not being able to use one of them was one thing, but both!  I could not eat, brush my teeth, take my medications, scratch my ear, take a shower, use the bathroom, brush my hair, get dressed, nothing.  Anything you would use your arm or a finger for, I could not do.  My husband, once again, became my caregiver.  He took the week off of work and became my constant companion and caregiver, even more so then that, he became my arms.  The one thing that was rather difficult was my hair, that was the one issue that caused the most, and really only, argument.  If you ever think you might break an arm and you have no daughters, have your husband practice doing your hair now.

The Drs suggestion was wait for an inpatient bed, yet none was available.  My solution, tell as many people as I knew that would pray.  That I did, and that they did.  The Lord delights in answering the prayers of His people.  Job 5:9-9 says ” But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” (Job 5:8-9 NIV)  I know this-my arms did not work, people prayed, my arms now work again.  God works wonders.