I Love the Rain

As a child, we lived in Big Spring, TX.  Not a large metropolis, but a neat town.  I thought so.  Still do. I loved the park.  Have sang at the ampitheatre many times.   Spent most summer nights at the ball park watching church league softball.

We often had singing groups come through town, too.  The Goodman's, the Galileans, Sue Dodge - too many to remember.  Many friendships were made and a love for Gospel music grew.  Honestly, I like
most music!  I think I was the first in my family to ever buy Beethoven!  In our music library we have
the Beatles as well as Beethoven!  Chris Rice to the Beach boys!

One of my favorite songs is from the Gallileans:

Little flowers never worry

When the wind begins to blow.

And they never, never cry

When the rain begins to fall.

 

Oh, it's wet and oh so cold,

Soon the sun will shine again.

Then they'll smile unto the world,

For their beauty to behold.

When the clouds begin to gather

And the storm begins to blow,

Little flowers don't complain,

Though they're tossing to and fro.

Oh, I guess they've learned the secret,

They don't fret because they know,

If it never, never rained,

Then they'd never, never grow.

The weather here in Colorado reminds me of this song.  It is so unusual for us to have days of rain - even just one day of solid rain.  This is a week of rain.  I love it!  The Mesa is so green.  My little garden is drinking big gulps of God's goodness.

This weather brings the unexpected.  The rain has brough rest.  We aren't running about as much.

I am thinking of times in our life of "rain" - storms that change plans and bring darkness.  Sometimes lightning strikes stir fear.  This was not in our plan!

But it was in God's plan.  He who knows the end from the beginning has seen the storm on the horizon since time began.  And He is not worried.

Let the Rainy Day in your life bring some rest to you.  Choose today to breathe deep and take in God's goodness.  Smell the rain!  It's refreshing!  God is near to you!  Listen to the patter on the roof.  Is he tapping on your heart?  The lighting only reminds us how powerful is the Creator of the Universe.  The thunder is His voice declaring,  "Be still and know, I AM GOD!"
Enjoy the rain today!  Let God be God in your storm.

Soccer Field

Yes, we are a soccer family.  We have watched 90% of the World Cup games.  We own more soccer balls than Big 5 Sporting Goods.  Soccer cleats are a major purchase and qualify us for rewards on our credit cards.  We know every bathroom between Durango and ever major city without 7 hours drive.  We keep blankets and umbrellas in our car, along with sunscreen and a complete first aid kit.

We play in beautiful sunshine weather - be it in Albuquerque, Grand Junction, Durango, Denver, Colorado Springs. . .

Sometimes it's a LITTLE windy . . .

but we are there with our family.  Chris even has his own cheering section!

The Randol's and Grandma and Grandpa Beach in Denver, CO.

Jacob, AShley, Caitlin and friend in Denver        ~      Sean Randol - player in training

...and the proudest coach in the league - his dad.

Chris can put a big boot on that ball!

Waiting for the play . . .

"Really?  I didn't see a foul?  He ran into MY shoulder!"

On the run.

I recently realized that most of my soccer pictures are of Chris's back.  Why?  Well, the game moves fast.  And, frankly, unless I see the players' numbers, it's hard for me to tell who is who!  There are the blondes, the brunettes and the goalies!  Sad for me to admit! 

But when he is running, I know my son!  Head down, long stride!  When he marks his man, that player is doomed! 

We decided several years ago that God called us - all four of us - to the soccer field.  David has a coach, Ashley and I as spectators and Chris as a player.  How we live on the field says volumes!  

I believe this statement with my whole heart:

"You are either a Missionary or a Mission Field - you choose."

We are Missionaries.  Sharing God's love on a soccer field.  Sharing God's love in hotels (that's a whole other post - if a reservation goes wrong - it's ours.  Once we were put in a conference room with no beds!).

Sharing God's love in restaurants.  Sharing God's love together.  No, we're not perfect.  And that's not the point.

We are forgiven!

Where is God calling you to evangelize?  

Pastor Steve challenged us today - if we are not among unbelievers, how can we  share God?  The Physician came to the sick, not those who are well.  The Deliver came to those in bondage, not those living in freedom.

Who is God calling you to today?

Where is your Mission Field?

Life is Like . . .

Okay, you thought it would say, "A box of Chocolates!" didn't you?  Not here.  Not today.

I am thinking life is more like a Parade.

I love parades!  As a child, my hometown of Big Spring, Texas had a parade for everything!  The Circus Parade.  The Homecoming Parade.  Of course a Christmas Parade!  We would go downtown and stake out our spot on the street and wait for the police car the signified the start of moving joy.

There was the Homecoming Queen sitting on the back of a classic car throwing candy to those watching.  The clowns walking and handing out candy and circus tickets.  Then, being Texas, there were always the horses with the beautiful Rodeo Queens riding their prancing horses and waving their Miss America Waves to everyone.  Oh, how about the little Shriner cars?  The people handing out balloons?

The bank would have a float depicting the Parade's theme.  And the football players and cheerleaders would be on a float too.

My personal favorite?  The marching band.  Marching Band is the second religion of Texas!  If you didn't play ball, you were in the band. 

And everyone stood, removed their hats and covered their hearts when Old Glory passed.  Everyone.

That's life.  We are so eager for it to start.  There are circus clowns and candy and beautiful floats.  Sometimes there is poop left on the road and someone has to clean it up.  There are passions!  There is a God.  There is an allegiance.  The parade is fun and beautiful and noisy and crazy and people from all walks of life are there!  Poor, Young, Rich, Old - everyone can participate!

And then there is an end:  the police car or sometimes the fire engine

Seems like life ends with a parade - or a Procession - signaled at the end by a the local authorities. 

When I go, I want them to wave banners out the car windows and throw candy and yell, "She's home!  Yeah, Kim!  You can go with her!  Jesus loves you!" 

And then a big red Fire Engine with noisy tin cans tied on the back pulling a sign that reads, "Come and Go with me to my Father's House!"

Because I love a parade!

Monday Morning Poetry

"IF"
Rudyard Kipling



If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

My Father's World

 This is my Father's world,

and to my listening ears

all nature sings, and round me rings

the music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:

I rest me in the thought

of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

his hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world,

the birds their carols raise,

the morning light, the lily white,

declare their maker's praise.

This is my Father's world:

He shines in all that's fair;

in the rustling grass I hear him pass;

He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father's world.

O let me ne'er forget

that though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father's world:

why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!

God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Babcock/Sheppard

I have two favorite hymns, this being one of them.  I rocked my children to sleep to this tune;  I sat with them through colds and coughs;  long nights;  emergency room visits and sang this song.  It was the last word they heard at night.  When they each had surgery, it was the song they head in the operating room as the anesthesia took hold.

And this weekend, I was again heard these words as I sat in the San Juan Forest.  Surrounded by God's majestic masterpiece - how can I worry?  How can I fear?  This is His world!  HE is the creator.  I am an awesome, beautiful, loved creation of His!

So I shout "God Reigns!  Let the earth be glad!"

Memorial Box Monday

I don't usually post a "MBM" but today I have something on my heart -

Remember.

I have such a hard time remembering things!  I was once able to recall every phone number I had ever had as a child;  I could recall every medication and dosage I had ever give my children;  I knew people's names quite well - now I'm not sure of my own name.  My husband says my head is too full!  I'm always thinking, organiing, planning.  So, maybe he's right.

But I want to always Remember God's Grace.

So - after Sis's last surgery, it took 9 days and countless phone calls to foreign lands to get the correct crutches for her.  She cannot use traditional under-the-arm crutches because of her left hand, so she must use forearm crutches.  They healthcare company brought a Child's Size to the hospital - it was for a toddler.  She is 11.  They were 21" tall at their full extension.  She is 56" tall.   So they sent us home with adult-size and promised they would be there on Saturday am.  Nope. 

Monday.  Nope.  Tuesday.  Nope.

It took 9 days for the correct crutches to arrive.  Cute and purple and perfect. They will grow with her if she needs any further surgeries - which is likely.  Of course, she only needed one by the time they arrived and only used it for a few days.

Where's the blessing?  My friend Kr*sten has a rare bone disorder.  As a child, her bones  suddenly turned 90 degrees and began to grow.  Her hips dislocate easily.  She is in alot of pain.  As our Girl Scout leader, I've seen her at camps taking morphine to function;  her hips have dislocated and she had us put the tent flaps down so the girls wouldn't see - such pain!  And then, she hiked 5 miles!  Basically on her hands with forearm crutches.

After years of constant use, she could use a new pair.  But  they are expensive.

But our insurnace didn't ask for the "wrong" ones back!  they said to keep them!  And we gifted them.

I am reminded that our ways our not God's ways.

I was so upset with the  nameless Healthcare company.  I was in tears.  I fought on the phone and then got eerily quiet with them (yeah, freaked us both out!).  I wrote emails.

Finally, God said, "why are you fighting this?  You can't control them.  Let it go."  And I did.

And God provided Kristen a new set of crutches.  We were just a conduit.

I am ashamed for being so upset.  I will remember that He is working ALL things for the good of His children - even when, no especially when I don't see it.

So in my box, I am putting a list.  I make lots of lifsts.  They are my way of making order in my life.   But I want to be reminded that my order and God's Ways are not the same - I must let go.

A song:  Let Go and Let Jesus take Over / and I know He will make a way for you!

Now, the Neurologist's Report

It has taken a few days - okay a week - to gain perspective on the past month.  Thanks for all the prayers, dear friends.

So, the Neurologist's report.  Dr. Abigail Collins - our second favorite Pediatric Neuro (Dr. G Steve Miller will always be first!) came face-to-face with a miracle.  Her PA met with us first for all the basics.  Then he took his report and a copy of Ashley's CT Scans and new MRI to consult with Dr. Collins.

On stage

As they returned to the room, Dr Collins was saying, "Amazing!  This is just amazing!  Have you seen her MRI?  It is so Amazing!"   We had not had a detailed explanation in years and, frankly, memorizing MRI reports is no longer a priority.  I had decided that a new priority was empowering Ashley to make informed decisions on her healthcare.  She needed to hear and see what her brain was doing and how it had survived.

With her Cousin - Children love her

Dr. Collins then pulled up the images on the computer.  She indicated the primary point of the stroke, the arterial branches that were affected and then explained what the missing parts of her brain controlled: inference, muscle coordination and other things that got lost in the translation.  "Amazing" kept being interjected - "amazing she walks and talks;  amazing how can accomplish so  many tasks;  amazing how she reads." 

4-wheeling in the San Juan Nat'l Forest

And we heard once again: "if she had been an Adult, she would be either vegetative or dead."

At Disney World

After being home just a few days, the printed Neurologist report came.  It is filled with basic stuff and then words like, "nondysmorphic, normocephalic, atraumatic with anicertic, noninjected sclerae."  Huh?   I was relieved she read she had normal mucous membrances.  And bowel sounds.  Then bunches of numbers about reflexes and coordination testing and future plans.

I read the report - dry reading for sure - and all I could hear in my soul, "Amazing!  Just Amazing!  How her brain has rewired!  Amazing!"

Going into Surgery

Yup.  Amazing.  Amazing, she is alive.  Amazing, she walks.  Amazing, she talks.  Amazing that the original diagnosis was so wrong.  Amazing that man is so limited in their foresight.

I learned lately that Hope is the most important gift you can ever give a person.  Hope that God hears them.  Hope that things will be better.  Hope for tomorrow.  Hope that what they see today is not the end.  I watched Ashley look at her MRI and I saw hope.  She understood her brain damage.  But not once, not for one second did she hear "disabled", she heard the most beautiful word:

Amazing!