a life beyond running shoes.

seriously. i have not cried through a book like this since i read a severe mercy years ago. same kind of different as me . ron hall & denver moore. homeless man.... who was a sharecropper (aka slave). wealthy man..... who makes millions selling art. they become friends because of the rich wife. she loves jesus. she loves the homeless man. she gets her rich husband to love the homeless man. she dies. it is the story of their friendships, their struggles with faith, god showing up, amazing things happening..... and of course, my snippet of a post can do no justice to their story. a story of redemption. of grace. of love. of jesus. and of course i started it thinking it was a different book entirely. boy was i wrong, but glad i was. i must have heard of it since i actually requested it from the library. i figured out i had the wrong book about 30 pages into when i realized it had nothing to do with ethiopia. whoops. i love good mistakes!

okay.....not that old, but certainly not recent. a mother's heart . jean fleming (published 1982) i have been working on this book since january.... it took a while but it was worth it. i found her "dated-ness" refreshing, straight-forward, honest, and biblical. while, there were a few theological differences.... they were minor and did not deter from the heart of her book. a few good nuggest: "the single most important decision a mother can make is to develop her own life with god." (page 59) "the goal of parenting is not for us to decide what we want our children to become and then ruthlessly teach, train, squeeze, badger, and cajole them into that mold. instead, we must recognize that god has already designed them." (page 89) there were other good things that were just good reminders of thinking about my kids in term of their spiritual hearts. remembering to pray for them as individuals.....pray for myself as the mom of three individuals and the...

and yet, today sweet pea turns two!!! in the midst of it all, we managed to pull off cupcakes. we didn't pull of much more than that....but we pulled off something. happy birthday, little lovie. may you continue to grow in grace and beauty. may you be a woman of noble character with a beautiful heart and love others. you are a delight....even when you act like a two-year-old.

the kidney transplant was a success! surgery started around 10. doc came out to say hubbie was out at 3. doc came out to say kidney took and recipient was done around 4. here are some pics: pre-op: post-op with first walk around icu floor: heubert working: