Walk with me as I "Follow the Fish"...JESUS!!!

Last night we went to a fundraising benefit for Basket of Hope . They are a ministry that provides baskets (of hope :-) to newly diagnosed children with things such as cancer, diabetes, etc. We had a great time visiting with our friends who started Basket of Hope - the Brunette's...they are like our extended family! We were so thrilled that Michael was available and decided to go with us as we don't get to do much with him these days. So our family set out to enjoy the festivities of the evening at Lafayette Square. We got a GREAT family picture... And were blessed by meeting Andy Benes - What a GREAT guy he is!!! I loved the way he shared his faith with the group when he talked. Heather gave him a book from CTA and he seemed so excited to read it. We had a GREAT time and are thankful we got to spend some family time together!!!

Well - Larry went to a new doctor a month or so ago. While there she did a prostate exam and found something that concerned her. They wanted him to have an ultrasound of the area but they don't have a code for JUST that ultrasound...the only code they have is ultrasound/biopsy. They don't have a facility that can do the biopsy side of it so she sent him to a urologist. Today was his "lucky" day and the urologist found the spot too...says it's about the size of an eraser...must be a new way to measure lumps. Says we have 2 choices - 1) do the ultrasound/biopsy or 2) wait 6 months and see if it changes in size. At the doctors recommendation, Larry has chosen to wait 6 months to see if there is any change. I pray these doctors know what they are doing and will trust in the Lord!!!

My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer March 27, 2007 and went to be with Jesus on May 27, 2009. My mom never smoked a day in her life and died from second hand cigarette smoke...so sad. My hubby seems to have some breathing/hacking coughing issues so they did a chest xray which showed some sort of spot on his lung - thankfully his new doctor is very proactive and decided to do a CT scan of the chest also - they called this morning and there are actually 3 nodules (2 upper left & 1 lower left) all under 5mm (a pencil eraser is 6mm so these are tiny) at this point there is no way to biopsy without cutting him completely open so the protocol is to wait 6 months...the medical field recommends another scan in a year but we're so thankful for our new doctor to be so caring and proactive that they are going to do it at the beginning of December to have us "good news" by Christmas. I'm telling the devil that we're NOT going to have a round two of all of this...we ...

Well - this past week has been an UNBLEIVEABLY busy one for us. It started last Friday night with Larry's niece Lauren's wedding... Brothers - 'Gary & Larry' - can you tell??? Momma June & Larry Larry & his niece/Goddaughter/namesake in German 'Lauren' Lauren & Paul...aren't they adorable!?! We were suppose to go to Relay for Life after Lauren's wedding but we never made it, we had a funeral at 10am Saturday morning for a friends husband - an unfortunate accident really...so sad. Church Sunday morning, packing and prayer Sunday night and off to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on Monday morning to attend a Minister, Leadership & Helps conference. We had 3 days of classes and much fun... We came home Thursday night and left Friday morning with Heather to attend another Friday night (never have I heard of a wedding being on a Friday night and we've now attended 2 of them in the last 2 weekends...weird!) wedding in Quincy, ...

There was an urgent call for the homeschool families to come to the steps of the Jefferson City, MO capital on Thursday, May 14. I haven't been to a "rally" before so I prayed about it and felt that Heather and I needed to head to Jeff City...at 10:30am we were on our way. We were so excited to be blessed with a parking spot RIGHT in front of the capital at 12:55...just in time for the 1pm rally. It was the coolest thing to open in prayer on the capital steps. There were over 2000 in attendance. Thanks to Kerry Messer things got straightened out and some positive changes took place for us homeschoolers. They requested that we take a lap around the 3rd floor of the capital...that was fun. What a blessing and a "surprise" for Heather to run into many of her good friends while she was there...

I woke up to a WONDERFUL mothers day - breakfast in bed, flowers, a jewelry box, stepping stone, a necklace, cards and an Applebees gift card...the best gift was spending the morning with my wonderful kids!!! Michael came to church and went to lunch with us - we had a very good time! It was rough celebrating this mothers day without my momma but we stopped by and placed flowers on her grave. On the 27th of this month she will be gone a year. I miss her!!! Since my moms death, I've been trying to determine "WHAT" my purpose in this world/life is all about. I think I've finally figured it out, I always wanted us to "go" and be missionaries but I feel like the Lord is teaching me that my "children" are my mission field. They are my gifts from God, if we minister to the world but our children go to hell, what does it profit us? I have been asking the Lord alot lately to change me and help me to be a better mom. My relationship with my daughter...