Death to ALL ShiTzus

Before I begin this little tale about ShiTzus, I need to share that life has been incredibly hectic because of our budding athletes. Three times a week we are headed to T-ball, Softball practice and games. At first, i was quite annoyed that I had to spend so much time on this thing, but I am enjoying it very much. Jeremiah is a NY Yankee (we refuse to buy a NY Yankee shirt, we are Oakland A fans till death!!!!) He looks mighty handsome in his navy blue uniform. It's very entertaining to watch his team, they are all 4 or 5 year olds. There are so cute.

Then there is Karis. She is the star of the team. (I am exagerrating a bit) Actually she is quite talented in the sport. She was awarded the game ball the second game and then the coach came up to her and asked her if she could coach Karis in basketball. She was being recruited!!! For those of you who know Karis well, you know that she is very organized and rule oriented, so this game seems to work with her personality well, much better than soccer.

Kayla is taking our soft bat and swinging at anything she can in preparation for T-ball in a few years.

So, the second part of this tale. We went to a church function last night and there were 4 ShiTzus there and one of them bit Jeremiah in the eye. Jeremiah bent down to pet it and it jumped up and bit from his right eye brow all the way to where his eyelashes are on both sides. Does that make sense? Anyway, I have been in panic mode for a while now. We went to the ER, (useless) let me tell you. I called my friend who is an optometrist and she advised to have his cornea looked at. She also told me that this could only be done with a powerful microscope device. She advised me to have the doctor come and look at the cornea, but if he doesn't use a microscope, he probably doesn't know. The Dr said as he looked at is with his naked eye," It doesn't look like there is any visible damage to the cornea, and if there is, it heals fast, no worries..." What ever!!!

Today, we took the initiative and took him to an Opthamologist who specializes in pediatric care. He did all these tests and said that the dog missed his tear duct narrowly. If the dog had bit a little closer, we would have had to have his tear duct surgically attached.  My poor baby!!! My poor baby. We are now waiting for the next ten days because of rabies or infections, so please if you have a moment please pray for him and that everything will heal well. His eye looks very bad. Please pray for him.

I told my co worker that Jeremiah was bit by a dog and I didn't tell him that it was a ShiTzu. He started to tell me about his daughter and how she was at her cousin's house. Her cousin has a ShiTzu and as she bent down to pet it, it jumped up and bit a part of her lip off!!! SO, at this moment I do not really like ShiTzus very much. Sorry to all ShiTzu owners, but my baby is hurt and honestly, animal or not if you hurt one of my babies you better be scared...

All joking aside, please pray for Jeremiah. Thank you.

Wow! It has been a very long time since I have had a chance to myself. I think that is why I feel so overwhelmed. I have been very short with my husband lately and I think it is because of this ridiculous schedule our family is on.

We have begun little league softball and little league baseball. We are a white family.  Our kids have two games each week and one practice, each. That means there are six difference places we have to drive our kids to. I just spent the entire morning at the "opening day" of the season. Who would've thought that there was another world that revolved around kids' sports.

On to something a little more serious. I wonder if any of the women out there feel this way. I feel very depleted. I feel like all I do is give, give, give, and then give some more. I guess this is the period in my life. I feel very isolated from really anyone. I feel like I don't really have friends, and that is because I have no time to contact them or anything. After giving to my family, I am exhausted.

At church, I spend most of the time making sure that our children are not interfering with the ministry and I even feel isolated from God. It is strange. Is it just me? Or is this the phase I'm in? How can I get joy from giving and serving without feeling this way? Any advice?

I have come down with strep throat. And I must say it is the most painful thing I have had next to giving birth. It started out as a sore throat, then shivers, then with such extremem aches that the blankets were hurting me and there was no way to be comfortable because every part of my body hurt, even my fingers and nose bridge. Random parts of my body that I did not even know that had muscles would ache endlessly. So, with a fever of 104, I still didn't think I needed to go to the doctor. On Saturday, I thought I was dying because I was shaking so much and nothing seemed to really work, Theraflu, Motrin. Finally the combination of the two drugs seemed to work. But then, my throat was so swollen, I could not even swallow water or my own saliva. I was basically drooling. Yesterday, when all Urgent Cares are closed, I couldn't take it anymore. Yung drove me to the only Urgent Care open in Ventura County.

Oh, yeah, I was so sick, I didn't want to talk! I was silent the whole way to and from the doctor's, Yung was sad, he said he had never seen me so sick that I would not want to talk.

The doctor looked at my throat and said, "Oh, that looks bad". For those who have never had it, it's like this - there are dozens of open sores in my throat in my gums, tongue, and inside my cheeks. Without knowing this, I ate a sour pickle that made my throat choke with pain.

So my loving son, Jeremiah, upon hearing that I am so sick says, "Oh no! Who's going to make us food!" He is such a guy!

I am still feeling pretty bad, but it's managable. I wanted to ask anyone out there who might know, how does this happen - strep throat - and how does it become contagious to others? I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. I want to learn about it!

The Body of Christ

I woke up last week feeling very tired from another sleepless night. I have not been able to sleep well for a while now. I think all that "junk" that happened in the last few months is really hitting me.

I started to get real angry at God. "Why do the wicked prosper? How come the wicked get to live so well and the good are suffering? How come my children suffer whenever these things happen?" Then I started to feel the weight of loneliness. I started to feel very unloved by God.

I was sobbing my groans and moans to Him demanding some healing to this broken heart. I was starting to become bitter and I was getting miserable from my sinfulness. As I was throwing a tantrum at God, someone I had just started to become friends with called me.

She felt led to call me and feel concern for me and my husband's well being. I was encouraged. I started to feel His warmth. But I was still pouting. I called one of our friends who is a PhD student at Westminster (a brookliner), I cried on the phone with him and demanded he give me an answer. He tried to console me with scripture. I was still mad. He asked me this one question, "So, what are you gonna do now? Leave God?" We both laughed at that and it was great to just demand an answer from someone.

The next day, we were invited to another friend's home for some lunch and a special time of worship our friends had arranged at my husband's request. They fed us, led worship and shared a message with us regarding how we are all working toward something, we are "just in the way" of God's work, being privilleged to be at the designated place at God's designated time. (Thank you Lord for your children, who love you and us) We were weepy and encouraged. That same evening, we met with a certain oncologist, smith graduate and their child for dinner and they loved us in the way only Brookliners can - with time, affection and sharing of God' love.

God's body received a call from the Lord and the body responded. Praise you Lord!!!! I feel so loved by God! This is for ALL the Brookliners, you guys have continued to love and encourage us (our entire family) throughout this walk, it has been incredibly encouraging in many ways.

Thank you guys, for sending love to us in so many ways. By the way, seeing you guys up north was healing. We felt so loved. Thank you. It made me long to go back again in August just to hang out with you wonderful people.

Thank you Jesus for your body, your family.

Thank you body of Christ. Thank you friends.

Lion's Den

I am in the Lion's Den.

I can hear the growls and the gnashing of teeth.

I am helpless.

It would be better to die than to live like this.

What else God? What else do you want from me?

I feel dead.

I am almost feeling hopeless.

Where are you? Please help me. I need you. I need your help.

Please pray for me, oh perfect righteous God, please help me.