there she goes....

My lovely sister, Bekah, is off, again on more adventures :D

Here is a link to catch you up on her current adventures at OLD School: Bekah's Blog 

This is my prayer for you my lovely sister,

May "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-26).

I am praying that you are filled with strength, courage, grace and peace.  I pray that God will grow you in physical strength and spiritual wisdom.  I love you dearest sister!!

30 years .... A love of grace

If you have the pleasure of meeting my parents, Russell and Melonie, you will be blessed. They live extraordinary lives and have a marriage like few others.  Here is their story…

In August of 1977, a beautiful blonde, we will call her Melonie, moved across the country to the small town of Hartsville South Carolina. Leaving her high school in Arizona friends, Melonie was not too pleased with this decision and firmly decided she would never marry a Southern man, which meant that any South Carolina boys were out of the running.  Haha, what she didn’t know was that she wasn’t really in charge of this decision either and that the Lord had great things in store for her.  So in the coming months/years Melonie started praying that the Lord would bring her a Godly husband. In the meantime she started taking classes at Florence Darlington Tech and working in the Registrar’s Office.

Russell, a southern boy, native from Florence South Carolina began attending Florence Darlington Tech and taking classes to complete an engineering degree.  A mutual friend tried to point out the dark haired country boy with a beard to the former military brat, she was completely oblivious. Russell may have even stopped by the Registrar’s Office more than 1 time to borrow pens. When he shaved his beard, the story quickly changed..... Melonie noticed him and well, he kept noticing her :D  

Still choosing love ....

Melonie grew up attending church with her family out west and was saved at a church camp in middle school. Russell grew up attending the Episcopal Church and went to First Baptist Church, Columbia, SC where he was saved in college.  Out of all the decisions these two could have made, the individual decisions to believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins on the Cross, rose the 3^rd day from the grave so they could have eternal life with the Father shaped their lives the most.  

As my sister reminded me, the second most important decision that shaped their lives, not only earthly but also eternally was on September 8, 1984.   On September 8, 1984 two redeemed sinners said "I do."  On September 8, 1984 two redeemed sinners said "till death do us part" and meant it. 

My mom will willingly admit that it takes a special person to be married to her and it takes a special woman to be married to my dad. Stats prove that many men and women leave the marriage when one spouse or child gets diagnosed with a disability or other physical/emotional/mental disability.  Many difficult times come and the spouse leaves.  They both are human and sinners.  They aren't perfect but they are redeemed.

That's not true of my parents. About measly 7 years into their marriage my beautiful 30 year old mother was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).   According to worldly standards, they could have called it quits and ended their marriage.  My parents choose differently, they to continue loving each other like Christ loves the Church with a love that is as pure and blameless, as humanly possible.

Ephesians 5:25-33 

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

A special thanks to Bekah, for helping with this post!

So happy I could cry :D

It maybe the lack of sleep grad school brings, the yummy coffee I drank this morning or the fact that I may get to observe a cochlear implant (CI) surgery May 15 but I am so happy I almost cried!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it!! So stinking excited and super grateful to start my summer internship at the Medical University of South Carolina on May 13!

A cochlear implant device

I love hearing and I love working with children with cochlear implants as they develop speech, language, auditory, cognitive, and communication skills similar to peers their own age!  I just LOVE it!  I have always wanted to see a CI surgery and now I have the opportunity to see it! Wow!

It is hard work, undoubtedly, turning play time into goals that are practical for my kiddos.  Nonetheless, I do enjoy it so.  I enjoy helping families and children progress into little humans who speak and talk like their peers in their home and community environments.

Something cute I found on Facebook :)

I loved finding Matthew 11:4-5a and then this morning, after receiving the good news, I found Mark 7:31-37.  Jesus gave the deaf man hearing and fixed his speech impediment; Jesus did my job, something that can take years, in the matter of minutes or seconds.  That is miraculous!!  Years just became seconds.  Wow!  Jesus gave this man a huge physical blessing.  More importantly, I know what could be more important than hearing and speech, Jesus provided an opportunity for an eternal blessing.   Jesus allowed the deaf man to hear so that he might hear the Word of the Lord and be an eternal child of God!  That is more important that observing cochlear implant surgery!  This man was given the chance to hear Jesus speak.  What a blessing!  Now that is something to be thankful for!!!

Well I am off to finish my last exam of grad school EVER for my Habilitation of Children with CIs class.... 
Blessings,
Carolyn

PS, don't Google CI surgery, surgery is, well, always surgery....

1,000 gifts

During my new nightly ritual, reading until I fall asleep, I started a book titled One Thousand Gifts.  In search of something good and easy to read, I pulled it from the shelf and began reading.  My sister could have never known how this book would influence me.

Ann Voscamp, the author, creates a list of daily gifts over the course of a year.  Her list encourages her to grow a heart of thankfulness and gratitude.  Throughout the book, Ann's desires to know what eucharisteo truly means and she desires to live a life displaying eucharisteo.  The book is filled with reflections of how through the Cross of Christ, she has so much to be thankful for.  Ann's list it's the beauty of gratitude. She promotes a life of eucharisteo.

May we live a life of eucharisteo and a life full of thankfulness and gratitude!
Blessings,
Carolyn

Luke 22:19 "And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

New Year's Resolutions

If I resolved to days without failure in the New Year, it won't last very long....I have failed lots this year. Remember The 5:30 am Club??? Yep, that didn't last for very long.  Less than 2 weeks later it stopped.  What about days with a list like this... or days with lizards.  What a year!!! There have been plenty of days with failure yet alongside days of failure there was an abundance of grace.

I think Paul David Tripp has the right idea in his post Ringing in the New Year, none of us completely resolve to transform our lives in one day but the daily tiny changes are the ones that matter most, the changes that transform us the most.  He suggests that it is the 10,000 little moments that change us. Ten thousand little moments of personal insight and conviction, humble submission, foolishness exposed and wisdom gained, sin confessed and sin forsaken, courageous faith, obedience, and "forsaking the kingdom of self and running towards the kingdom of God."

To encourage these 10,000 moments, I want to read the following books this New Year.

1. Love to Eat Hate to Eat by Elyse Fitzpatrick
2.  Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick
3. Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp
4. Broken Down House by Paul David Tripp

So here is to "10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator" this year!
Blessings,
Carolyn