For today, I have one of our latest photos for this season from Tom’s office dinner & party.  We are family, this year, with my beautiful daughter, Rebecca, joining us.   We were very happy to have her with us for a few days because we rarely have out-of-town family around near Christmas any more.  They all live so far away and are caught up in active young families of their own, while Tom has to always be here to work through Christmas, seeing as how newspapers keep coming to your door day after day, even on holidays.

So, Rebecca’s visit was a great blessing in our lives – and we hope, in her’s.

Cheers, today!  And many blessings to you as you navigate these last few days until Christmas!  Stop to remember God’s gift to all of us – the most important ever!!

Dee

Romans 8:38-39

The New International Version

You guys are so patient, I’m tellin’ ya.  Waiting for my next installment of the “Arkansas Memories Tour of 2009 – Day 2:  Gassville (GASS-vul) & Cotter” to be posted.

But, due to circumstances WAY beyond my control (as if I ever had any in this complicated world of ours to begin with), I have been unable to write one as yet.  And, due to the total incompetence of the phlebotomists who last drew my blood for several different blood tests my endocrinologist needed today (but as it turned out, not enough blood) when I went for my three month check up, I have to drive 20 miles south on the interstate from here tomorrow to see her once again.  After having more blood drawn today in her office.

I said a bad word when I found out my trip to her office today was wasted.

The good news is that God is working mightily in my life and in the lives of those dearest to me for His good.  I am thrilled beyond measure.

No matter how hard satan tries to bring us down, if we turn to God and Jesus Christ in prayer, seeking His will in all things, He will hold us close and give us the victory in all things, in His name.

Thanks be to God for His love for us beyond our comprehension or understanding.

Be back as soon as possible with more Arkansas trip adventures . . . and there are many more to come, believe me.

Here’s a peek at what comes next and a question for each of you.  What do you think this building below in Gassville, Arkansas was when the Andrews boys were little kids growing up there and what significance do you think it would have had in their lives – all three of them – with identical problems?

Think about it and give me your best answer below in comment, okay?!  That’s your task for today.

Love ya!  Dee

]]> http://deeandrews.net/2009/12/08/for-i-am-convinced/feed/ 0 http://deeandrews.net/2009/11/17/who-am-i/ http://deeandrews.net/2009/11/17/who-am-i/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:34:36 +0000 Dee Andrews http://deeandrews.net/?p=1951 Casting Crowns

Click here to view the embedded video.

Being in the middle generation between an elderly parent and grown children with young families many times – as has been lately – brings about all kinds of family crises.  Add to the mix siblings, nieces and nephews, even a grown grandchild with a little girl of her own and life can become a whirlwind.

It has been thus now for the past several months, more so now than ever, and I begin to wonder who I really am, you know?  I have to shift gears so often and quickly that I forget whether I am a mom talking to a grown son or an aging daughter talking with her own mom and sometimes the lines become blurred.

I find myself wanting to just dictate to those around what they should be doing, how to do it, when to do it and let’s just be done with it.  I grow impatient with all of them and think that somehow they should just be me, so as to act accordingly.

How foolish I am in thinking those things, but I think human.  I don’t even have a clear path before me some days, much less for anyone else.  I flounder and fail.

It is hard these days to even find a moment in which to reflect on the deeper values in my life – being God’s bewildered child, striving to do to all, but not even taking very good care of myself in the process.

My pinched nerve in my neck from last spring/summer began flaring up again Sunday.  Not terribly painful – yet – and not at all, I hope, so I started sitting in traction again this morning.  I tried to do so all day yesterday, but urgent family matters intervened.

I could not even get out of traction this morning before new ones arose.

Upon getting a couple of those “sorta” settled, I decided to watch the video above by Casting Crowns and to remember who I really am and how things really are with me.

I hope you will join me today in praising God and thanking Him for all we have in our lives – even the troubled times – because He is always here with us and will help us and lead us in all we do if we will turn to Him.

Many blessings to each of you today!  Dee

P. S.  Hope to be back next time with more of our Arkansas Memories Tour.

One of the biggest blessings came yesterday about noon when Rebecca called me to tell me she’d had a CT scan early yesterday morning, that the abscess in her right kidney was completely gone and the radiologist took the drain tube out of her kidney that came out on her back, with a tube down her side that had been draining pus for a week and a half.

We all rejoice in this good news for her.

Yet, she has a long way to go, being still on antibiotic and having to take iron tablets three times a day because she is very anemic and they have not yet determined the cause.  She tires very easily and must rest a lot.

Also, there are a couple of major rifts in our family right now that are beyond my comprehension or understanding.  Tom struggles to understand, as well, as he holds me close as I grieve and cry out to God for wisdom to know how best to be His servant to everyone around me, beginning with my children.

Yet, I am strengthened and uplifted  – rested now – by your ongoing prayers for us.  God is the source of my peace as I have spent the past two days here at home alone in silence in a beautiful place of meditation on this earth.

I sat here at my desk yesterday afternoon looking out my long window, open to the cool breezes coming from our front porch and the woods across the road (to the east).  A small nearly black bird with dark gray breast – a kind I have never seen before – came and perched on the edge of the porch just outside my window and sat for the longest time.

He chirped loudly and clearly and I watched him until he flew away, thanking God for sending him to me to consider.  God’s small winged bird that He watches over just as He watches over me.  I felt an overwhelming sense of wonder that God loves me so.

So, I leave you with another song today – and video.  It is Chris Tomlin singing “Amazing Grace,” but with beautiful lyrics and music of his own added that make it even more inspiring.

May God richly bless you each with His peace today in all things, even in times of greatest hardship, as He has me.

Dee

Click here to view the embedded video.

I am home (last night at dark) from an eight day, 575  mile (one way) trip alone to go stay with and care for my dear daughter, Rebecca, last week out near Dallas.  She spent nine days in the hospital with a severe kidney infection and belatedly discovered abscess in her right kidney.  She nearly died during the night a week ago Thursday in the hospital.

She is doing enough better physically that I was able to come home yesterday (in a grueling 10 hour trip, during which I was heavily fatigued – and still am, for that matter).

Tom had all of the lantern lights on across our front porch as I drove up and I began weeping and could not stop for about three hours, I was so happy to be home, to see him and have him hold me in his arms once again.

I had a good night’s sleep last night and have spent the day at home, alone, in complete silence until about 2 p.m., fasting most of the day and in prayer.  My family is deeply troubled and I continue to seek your prayers with me and for me, Tom and my family, beginning with Rebecca.

I cannot say more here.  But, I do leave you with this deeply meaningful song, that has been in my heart, mind and soul for the past several days.  May God strengthen me as He always has in my life so that I may be His servant and have the special graces I so desperately need in this time of crisis to offer wise counsel and help to those in my family who so need His love, grace, help and peace.

Click here to view the embedded video.

May God richly bless each and every one of you who reads this.

Dee

Oh well . . . all is resolved now, modem wise, as of late yesterday afternoon.  Although, I had to spend all morning this morning now dealing with AT&T about not receiving all of our emails.  The problems seem to corrected, except for one, which remains to be seen.  The terrific tech support young woman in Birmingham, though, is going to graciously give me a call back in the morning to check on that one.

Meanwhile . . . thought I’d offer two more of our family reunion photos from Great Wolf Lodge.  The first is my sister Laura, me, Mom & my daughter Rebecca.  Whata ya’ think?  Who looks like whom?!

This next one is a bit blurry, but it will probably be the only photo we’ll ever have of Mom, me and my older son, David, with four of his children.  His oldest daughter, Caitlin, 20, was unable to be with us as she lives in Maryland.

(Note:  Just for the record:  Caitlin has a little girl, Kiley Elizabeth, 2, making me a great-grandma & Mom a great-great grandmother.  We have FIVE generations presently in our family!  We just wish Caitlin & Kiley could have been with us. )

In the photo below are:  Victoria, 8, standing, Katrina, 10, in front of her, Tiarnan, 7, on my lap, Mom and David, with Brendan, 5, on his lap.

They are all as sweet and well-mannered as can be!  The three oldest all look much like their mom, Karen, while Brendan looks a lot more like David as a boy.  I’ll post a photo of Karen with Victoria soon.

Y’all have a great day.  Many blessings to you each today!  Dee

This link above shows you the greatest pictures and video you will ever see of a 22 member, 4-generation family reunion at the great resort, Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine, Texas, for three glorious days in July, 2009.

Y’all enjoy!

And, thanks to my son, Mark, and daughter-in-law, Lynn, for the photos and video.

Many blessings to each of you!  Dee

My mom & sister came, all three of my children and their kids (except for my oldest granddaughter) came, Tom’s daughter and two grandchildren came over (only his youngest granddaughter was missing), and it just so happened that Tom’s older brother and nephew from Bowie, Maryland were in Dallas on business, so we all saw them, as well!!

We took lots of photos (Tom & I have about 140 pictures) and video (Tom will have to help me with that) that I’ll be sharing with you the next several days/weeks.  For now, here’s a link to see 36 photos I uploaded to my FaceBook page this afternoon:

Family Reunion at Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine, Texas July 2009

There are two pages of photos, so don’t miss any!

Tom & I left home last Saturday to go out to Dallas and I’m sorry to report that my pinched nerve hurt badly the entire 10 hour trip and I was on strong pain meds the whole way.  But when we arrived at his daughter’s I sat in traction twice and rested (totally off my neck), sat in traction 3 times on Sunday, and felt much better by Sunday afternoon.  By Monday, I was pain free for three days!!  Thank God!!

We all gathered at Great Wolf Lodge Monday afternoon (exactly one week after my first epidural in my neck)  and I felt really good and rested (although in traction every day) until our return 12 hour trip home in the car on Thursday.  Once again, from the long car ride, my pinched nerve was killing me, but by yesterday (Saturday), I was feeling much better.

Today, the pinched nerve is hurting again, but not nearly as badly as it was.  I will be going back in for my second epidural in my neck two weeks from tomorrow, so hope that will improve my overall recovery.

Must go for now, but check out the photos, look for video and . . .

Many blessings to you all today!  Dee

Well – let me forthwith correct that.

The 19 of us arrived, en masse, Monday afternoon, the last two straggling in about 5 p.m.  Tom & I were the first to get here – about 2:30 p.m. – and Tom had swim trunks at the ready, but by the time the last of the clan arrived, we decided it was about time to gather ourselves for our evening “adults only” dinner f0r six (see last post).  However . . . the remaining parties, i.e, all three of my children and all nine of the grandchildren here, went straight to their rooms, into swim gear and down to the indoor waterpark, with  numerous water slides, including one called the vortex (think tornado), the canyon slide, and one dropping from the four-stop tower at about a shuddering 85 degree angle (think straight down), round and round and into the pool below.

That was just a foretaste of good fun ahead.

Yesterday and today have been non-stop, water logged fun, aside from lost kids, who were fine in the end – much better than their frantic parents, grandma Dee & great-grandma Jean.

What has surprised me the most is that most of the gang time has been spent outdoors at the outdoor waterpark pools and slides area.  I mean – guys – yesterday HAD to have been about 105 degrees in the shade, no wind (and this is west Texas) and absolutely miserable, even in the shaded portion next to the building.  Of course, the inside water park wasn’t much better.  It was a bit cooler, but about 100% humidity.

But, hey – when you’re a kid – or a grown-up kid, what’s the problem, ya know?!

We’ve all been sleeping in, leisurely sauntering down to the water parks and various indoor places, having lunches on our own and gathering in the evenings.  Tom had his grandchildren, Julian & Veronica, here yesterday and we all gathered here at our end of the 3rd floor hallway about 7 p.m. last night, where Julian (nearly 17) serenaded us with a selection of violin pieces, including the “Ashokan Farewell,” from Ken Burns’ PBS program, “The Civil War.”

When that finished, we all caravaned to The Rainfall Forest in a nearby outlet mall for dinner, the 22 of us at two tables next to each other.  I have to tell you – we had 7 young children, and everyone one of them was on their best behavior (lots of photos to come) as the jungle animals loudly harrumped (the elephants), chattered (the birds) and chimpanzees snorted, while the tanks and tanks of fish watched.

The only sticking point was that the place made you go through the gift shop both on the way in and out!  Smart marketing, but I don’t think they landed a sale, despite the fact that we saw two grandkids cuddling three stuffedd animals on the way out, with more right behind them.

Today, our last day here, we have all gotten into high gear.  It has been a “tad” less hot and my mom and I ventured out to set in the admittedly hot shade by the outdoor pool to watch the goings on.  Tom brought a friend’s video camera and I learned enough to be able to shoot some video around, so hope to be able to share some here after we return home, hopefully, tomorrow evening.

Mom & Laura are driving back to Abilene in the morning, we are going home and I think the rest (my three children & families) are going to check out here at 11 a.m., keep their water park passes for the rest of the day, and then retire to Rebecca’s house, which is about 30-45 minutes away, for the rest of the day/night.  David & Mark will leave from there Friday morning to drive back to Virginia & Picayune.

This evening we are gathering in the outdoor veranda on the main level at 7 p.m. to take the group’s photos and eat pizza together.  Tom’s brother and nephew are visiting Dallas from Maryland, and they are joining us, as well, so this has just been the greatest family reunion EVER!!

More – much more – to come when we get back home.  Probably on Friday.

Please pray that we all have a safe trip home and back to reality.

Many blessings to you all today and this evening!  Dee

P.S.  I have been sitting in traction, but have not had to take a pain pill since Monday morning and have been feeling great, over all!  Praise God for His kindness and mercies upon me.

Here we are 24 hours + into our big family reunion at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas, and what a day this has been!  The thing is – it’s not over, yet.  It’s 5:30 p.m. and hours to go before night falls out here in the great state of Texas.  Somewhere around 9 p.m., more or less, seeing as how we are on the far west side of the Central Daylight Savings Time time zone.

Tom & I left south Mississippi Saturday morning and arrived in Grand Prairie, Texas that evening to spend the weekend with his daughter and family.  As it to happened, Tom’s older brother and nephew arrived in Dallas Sunday afternoon from Bowie, Maryland and we all (8 of us) went to dinner at Pappasito’s where I had the BEST Mexican food since I was a kid on vacation with my family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Wow!!  Everything we all had was outstanding.

The rest of my family all congregated at my daughter’s house nearby on Sunday evening and yesterday morning and then they all caravaned over here to the Great Wolf Lodge about 4 p.m. to meet up with Tom & me (we arrived about 2:30 in the midst of total bedlam caused by about 20 million kids and their parents, who totally filled the grand lobby and snaked out the front door in the 105 degree heat).  What chaos!  We’re way too old for this, I’m tellin’ ya!

Once we got all of our stuff in the room, we immediately went back downstairs to hang out in the Loose Moose Cottage eating/bar area open to the lobby so we could sit at the bar watching out for incomings.  Sure enough, here they came, all faces looking as if they were in total shell shock from the heat, combined 9 children, 6 adults with tons of luggage in tow.

The youngest grandchild, all of two, screamed bloody murder for the 45 minutes it took them all to check in, being totally traumatized by the sound decibel range.  Tom & I went to say our hellos upon arrival (one at a time) and then retreated back to the bar area taking comfort in the fact that we were grandparents and could let our children handle their own children.

My son-in-law, whose two sons are 20 and “nearly” 18, joined us as we plotted and planned a first night’s “adults only” dinner with Tom & me, my daughter, Rebecca, and son-in-law, Garth, along with my mom and sister, Laura, upon their arrival.

Garth treated the six of us to a Brazilian all the meat you can eat, with a fabulouse salad bar to begin with, and all I can say – again – is WOW!!

Right now it is a little after 6 p.m. and we are all gathering in the hall (our rooms are all nearby on the 3rd floor), at 7 p.m. to go to dinner together at the nearly Rain Forest Cafe in Grapevine Mills Mall.  As we gather in this end of the hall outside our rooms at 7, Tom’s grandson, Julian, will play classical music on his violin as our “call to arms.”  There will be 22 in attendance to dinner.

So far today, we have lost several children for way too long a time.  This morning, my younger son’s two older girls, Zoe, 6, and Hannah, 4, got lost in our hallway with their magic wand.  Luckily (thank God) they knocked on the room of my mom & sister and were “rescued.”  Then, this afternoon, Zoe was “lost” (talk about panic) for over an hour down in the indoor water park.  I contacted security and with the help of the staff and multiple family member urgently seeking her, she was found – safe and sound – in the water park right where (when we found her) she was supposed to be.  Again, thank God!!

Then, mid-afternoon, one of my other granddaughters, 10, was missing in action.  I haven’t heard more lately, so presume she turned up.

I did a good deed this afternoon when I met a young 11 year old boy who has been diabetic since he was 15 months old.  I encouraged him, his mom & his uncle, all I could that he could do well if he was smart and took good care of himself.  He had pale blue eyes and was so sweet.  God bless this little one.

So far, we are all having a great time!!  Wish y’all were here.  You’d really enjoyed it.

More tomorrow as we enjoy our last full day here.

Many Blessings to you all today!  Dee