prayer requests from Iraq

I follow a website called The Baghdad Prayer Patrol which issues daily prayer requests for the war in Iraq and also keeps track of casualty numbers, progress, and the feelings of the soldiers over there. It makes a nice counterpoint to the typical media coverage.

This is a link to a letter from a soldier on his second deployment in Iraq. IT contains his sentiments toward the way things are going and his prayer reqeusts for his division. Check it out.
http://prayercentral.net/baghdad/?page_id=154

Let's keep praying!

Another healing.

I like posting these things. Remember a few months ago when my mom's friend's husband had a heart attack, and people prayed, and he was up and around in a couple of days and was able to keep his job without any restrictions? Well here is another answer to prayer that I got over the email today.

Dear friends,

An update for you who have been praying for Patti's pastor Larry who was dying of bone cancer. He got up out of his deathbed - literally, hospice and everything, he only had days left- and flew to Lakeland, Florida where there is a great healing revival going on. Even the events surrounding the plane trip were miraculous.

I watched him come up on the stage to testify last night. You can Google freshfire.ca and click on streaming revivals for 5/19 for the 7:00 program. The event is right after 2 hours and 4 minutes into the program. He undid his tubes and oxygen and got out of his wheelchair and walked on the stage. "Dead man walking" Wow!

Thanks for praying,
Leann

It really is true. Nothing is impossible with God.

Praise the Lord!

Pondering age.

I'm going to be twenty-seven tomorrow. For the first time in my life, thirty is in sight. I can hardly believe it! I can remember, not so long ago, when thirty seemed like an impossibility, when nothing beyond twenty-one seemed a feasible age for any person of action and chharacter development (I was thinking in terms of my fictional characters; now you know why I haven't bothered really writing anything yet), and now I'm going to be twenty-seven, an arm's reach from thirty. How did this happen? I don't feel old (which is reasonable because neither 27 nor 30 are remotely old), but I don't remember getting to this age. I feel like there should have been more time in there somewhere.

I suppose that in my mind I'm still hovering around twenty-two. I don't feel wise enough to be twenty-seven. I feel like I'm behind development curve. A weeke ago, I thought a twenty-seven-year-old should be much more assured, experienced, and level-headed than I am. I thought nothing could phase a twenty-seven-year-old. A twenty-seven-year-old would be calm, unflappable, and firmly established in all the areas of life that she has chosen to establish herself in. A twenty-seven-year-old would be a grown up and never giddy, silly, inconsistent, or confused. A twenty-seven-year-old would always exist in that clarity of mind that has that revelatory "aaahhh" feeling about it, like the sun breaking through the clouds in a movie.

Somehow, I don't feel like I qualify.

On the other hand, I am a mom and a good one so far. I am a military wife. I have willingly endured separations, frustrations, and responsibilities that many women won't know.

I have learned that God doesn't weigh out his provision based on my piety and that it really is good to obey the Lord.

I have learned the value of submission to my husband, to instruction, and to circumstances beyond my control.

I have learned that I don't know everything, but that what I do know is solid enough to build on.

I have learned the limitations of my spheres of influence and consequently that there is a time for self-assertion and a time to stand back and and wait for God to bring persons, hopes, and circumstances around.

I have learned that I don't have to imitate or envy the successful if their success is in something foreign to my nature. I have learned to be more comfortable with myself.

I have learned that God really doesn't need me to manage my own salvation. He's got it in his hands.

I have learned that it is possible to love someone so much that I would die for her without a second thought.

And I have learned that even though I will forget these truths from time to time, that doesn't mean they go away or cease to exist. The reality of God is a great solid thing at our backs and over our heads and beneath our feet, and we make a comic picture protesting that it must not exist because we can't catch it with flailing hands or see it with our eyes covered.

A big part of growing up is learning that life isn't like you imagined it to be when you were a child. I am not what I thought a twenty-seven-year-old would be, but I am what I should be. I'm not talking about disillusionment. I'm talking about relief. Life is better than I expected.

I've been tagged

Hi, everybody,
I got tagged, and since it's been forever since I've posted a non-baby blog, I thought I'd go along with it. This is called the 3 things Meme. Carma (my blogging buddy) didn't know what a meme was. I'm thinking it's a typo of "me." Any other opinions?

3 Things Meme
3 Places I Go All the Time- I've been kinda homebound lately. Let's see --
1the Commissary (Navy version of a grocery store),
2 church,
3the frig (I get so hungry these days)
3 People Who Email Me-
1My mother
2 my mother-in-law
3 Mary
3 Favorite Places I Like to Eat-
1 Noah's Ark,
2 Boston's Pizza,
3 Dairy Queen
3 Places I would rather be right now-
1out and about (I have so many errands to run today!),
2 somewhere sunny,
3somewhere with wide open spaces -- Yellowstone maybe?
3 Projects I would like to get started-
1researching the history and mythology of the whole world (just a little project that will take the rest of my life and then some)
2 reorganizing my cupboards,
3 painting my house
3 People who will do this-
1 My mother-in-law (maybe. Sometimes she does tags)
2 Alicia (same logic)
3 possible Denae, but she's got two little boys and a photography studio to blog about, so maybe not
3 TV Shows I could watch over and over-
1 Numbers
2 Bones
3 NCIS
Runner up- Dancing with the Stars

Guess what!

HE'S HOME!

And he adores his little girl! He keeps looking at her and saying "Amazing." So thus past week, we've been introducing Niki to Seth's side of the family. Here are Pake and Beppe holding their first great-grandchild.

And since they're both hale and hearty, we'll probably have them in her life for years to come. I'm glad. I hope she has lots of years to make memories with her great-grandparents.

And finally, an advertisement for one of Beppe's favorite places -- the Oregon Gardens in Silverton, OR. Yes, that is a hobbit hole. Now don't you want to take your kids there?

Toodles. Got to go change a diaper.