Thursday~

Quiet day today for the most part....I know that I have been absent as of late but I honestly just needed some time to absorb all that is going on~ Tom lost his unemployment last week just in time for the van to need a complete overhaul...over a thousand dollars later and my melt-down is complete. His an appeal coming in a couple of weeks...so much prayer would be appreciated. Seems the company he was working for part-time told unemployment that he has been working full-time...wouldn't that be wonderful! It has been two years now and to say he is ready to work full-time would be an understatement. So we sit and wait until his appeal and the judges decision. He continues to apply everywhere and so do I but nothing as of yet~ He finally did hear from the company in Texas; they ended up going with someone local..oh well. I am holding out on the Lord~ He and I had a long conversation the other night...I totally let it out..felt much better afterward. The kids and Tom are watching a movie tonight ....The Princess and the Frog~ the girls had been dying to see it but a trip to movies has not been in the budget. Thank the Lord for Redbox....who can beat a dollar?~ Tomorrow my dad has another surgery ..this time on a cancer on his eyelid..and next week a major surgery on his circulation in his leg..his foot has an another ulcer and than of course Tom takes him to dialysis three times a week. My who ever said life is easy but there are joys along the way and I have learned that it is these moments that I cling too~ glimpses of heaven that the Lord allows us to see. The kids are looking forward to dinner tomorrow night at my parents..they haven't seen their papa in a week as Gabby had an awful cold over Easter. I'll be cooking a big dinner and it will be a good time of fellowship for them and us. God is faithful I've learned through all the trials and struggles; He has given me the strength for the journey...I remember learning as a teen about sanctification and our Christian life and how if we drew it out on paper it would look like a series of valleys and hills and mountains....well little did I know at the time what truth there was to that....right now we are in the valley..but I am looking heaven-ward to getting to the top of the mountain although at this moment a hill would not be so bad~

2 Peter 1:5-8
Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness; knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:3-4
We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

We are rejoicing today that my father finally has come home...he did fall today as I was placing him in the car but! although he is bang up he did not break anything. I continue to pray that the Lord would not only give him strength but confidence..which he is lacking right now. He has come so very far these past six weeks. Tom and I are continuing to work hard on our marriage; our home-life and ourselves. I did not get any of the jobs after many series of first, second, third and even fourth interviews. I now know it is because of us having to close the business~ but I know that the Lord has something for Tom and I and He continues to provide. So I am taking a breath and holding on for what the Lord has in store for our family. I believe that He has not forsaken us~ Nor has he left us.