Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Miracles - God Can Read Your Facebook Page

Miracles

What does it mean to pray for a miracle?  We pray harder for them when there is a crisis or illness, but do we believe they'll happen?  Do we?

A miracle did happen in my life today.

Remember when I wrote about Job?  Wondering how he could accept the good AND the bad from God?? (Here's where I wrote it.)  I reflected then on all that seemed bad and God used for so much good in our life.


Well, last night was very hard.  I didn't sleep much - maybe a total of 4 hours (because my dear husband let me sleep in until 7:30 but Damian hadn't really fallen asleep until 3:45ish).  He has had cycles of fevers that we've been treating.  All of this is yet another level of the this-seems-so-familiar with respect to Louis' illness.

As I was playfully complaining about being tired this morning on Facebook, someone made a comment about baby Damian making up for not letting me sleep and I said...



 Later in the day, I tried to do something on my phone and my Divine Office app started playing. So, I shut it off.  A few minutes later, it randomly went on again and started playing the morning prayer again.  So, once again, I shut it off.  This happened several more times and I'm starting to get a little creeped out.  The darn thing would not stay off!  As I'm trying to get the boys together and into the car, every time I tried to use my phone the app started playing.  Finally, after at least ten attempts, I just gave up and let it play.  The boys complained but I told them hopefully if we let it play through we can then turn it off and it will stay off.

And as we are driving through the country side and boys are talking over it, I hear the reading announced.  Can you guess what it was?  Yep, it was the SAME EXACT reading from Job that struck me before:

READING Job 1:21; 2:10b
Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb,
and naked I shall go back again.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord!
We accept good things from God;
and should we not accept evil?


And after the reading was over, the signal glitched and I tried to stop it and play Pandora (which previously had just made the app start again), this time it worked.  Our day moved on, but there was that verse again...

Maybe it was just a malfunction, but God can even use malfunctions.  Here I was complaining & joking that I would have to have words with God ... and He has words for me!  



I have prayed that He would take this illness away, that my boys, our family would not have to suffer like this.  I have prayed for miracles of healing for Louis and now for Damian.  I knew what miracles I wanted to have happen.

You know, God did give me a miracle today, but not the one I wanted nor expected.  He gave me the miracle of reaching into my life and making Himself known.  It was a miracle of a moment of confirmation that He is here with us now and He has us in His hands.  What a gift to realize God is with us!  And He can even use an iPhone!  I'm all sassy like "I'm going to talk to God about this" and He's all like "yes, let's talk, I'm here- why don't you think about this again?"  He scooped into my little mundane life to speak to me.  And of course He does this constantly, but this was in such a vivid way that it floored me.

Moral of the story: God loves me personally.  God loves you personally, too.  And ... watch out, because He is reading your Facebook! ;-)

a punch to your shoulder,
the Martins




Monday, October 07, 2013

What the Heck was That?

What the Heck was That?

That, ladies and gents, was a Monday.  :-(  I could tell you how Damian was miserable and couldn't be put down all day, how the others could sense my vulnerability and dove in for the kill with obstinate "make me" attitudes, but I better just do this:

Say THANK YOU! to you all for praying for us.  (Taking each moment at a time, and trying not to wonder, worry and be anxious ... trying!  Jesus, help me!)   And focusing on the good points of the day like:

The boys laughing hysterically when they found these little toys and remembered how I found Leonardo sleeping last week ...
Maybe the super heroes are protecting his brain?


And the-oh-so-funny continual joke that "daddy" began and the boys just can't let go...
If you don't get it, just think about what someone could say if they saw that on the ground ... and pretend you are a 6 year old boy.
Oh sure! Laugh away!  It's not so funny the 50th time you step on it and almost twist your ankle! ;-)

And that's all I got - it's been a h-ll of a day and baby Damian is still not well, but sleeping on daddy right now so I can have a little time alone.  I'm not sleeping well - so if you could pray for one specific thing, please pray that he sleeps in longer stretches through the night.  The lack of continuous sleep is making me a little delirious and it makes it more challenging to deal and cope with things...

Damian actually goes in for his 4 month check up tomorrow morning - not that they can do anything about the flairs and fever (the pediatrician already informed me that that was not her field and only a specialist could help with that).  That appointment is set in mid-November.  Hopefully we will have the genetic test results back by then!

Good night!

a punch to your shoulder,
the Martins







Sunday, October 06, 2013

Sunday TOP TEN of Boys Being Boys


Sunday TOP TEN of Boys Being Boys

10. Last spring year Leonardo looked like this:
because he had gotten into my make-up and wanted to look like "an army guy."  Yeah, go ahead and smile, but my coal eye color was completely kaput! He tried to totally play it off which is the funniest part.  He came downstairs and casually said,"can I get up from quiet time now?" (As if we wouldn't notice!!) I look up and saw his face and asked what he did and he burst into tears... well...

Last week I found him like this:
Obviously skeptical, I questioned him. And like the sweet mama I am, I video-ed it. ;-) #ammunitionforteenageyears ;-)


9. For a school outing the boys got to go meet the police!  

(Louis recalled when he road in a police car ... yeah, the morning my heart stopped. We woke up to find him missing.  Looked all over and then Pete got in the car to search for him and saw the police car.  He had Louis.  Louis had said "I was just going to the store for ice-cream." No, he had no idea the store was miles and highways away!) 

8. We have a new friend! "Socks" our new farm cat, aka outdoor cat.  

We also got a second cat "Missy," but we haven't seen her lately :-/  O_o



7. We went for brick oven pizza at Suncrest Farm!  What a fantastic atmosphere!




6. Just another day ... fighting the "crazy tree!"



5. Finally getting back to feeling like myself (somewhat) and cooking more creatively.  There is nothing like the smell of fresh baked home-made herb bread!
  
4. Sweet images...
Oh yes, the Two Year Old King returns!


All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

3. Pirates and warriors ...


2. Damian's first bite of "real" food!!! (Gregory was the videographer for this one ;-)



1. Enjoy this assortment of insanity ...um, I mean... our wonderful life! :-)




a punch to your shoulder,
the Martins