In my part of the world when we are in winter weather and the leaves have all fallen off the trees and things seem barren and devoid of life it can play on our emotions especially when difficulty comes our way. I love this Psalm because it portrays a strong and compassionate Lord who knows what we are going through and how difficult it is for us. If we could only see how He shields us from many things which we will never know in this life on earth. He loves us so much and He is whispering in your ear I know what you are going through and I am walking with you through it. You will get through it.

Ade and James have been walking through tough times which seem unending. Lord we ask that you would be the lifter of their heads and that you would envelop them with your peace, strength and healing.

Joanne's family has been through many trials and another one has come up with Joanne's husband. We pray Lord you know in the end what is best in this situation and I pray that the outcome will be in your will and decisions will be made for this situation that will in the end give you all the glory. However while they are in the middle of this I pray for complete peace that will surround Joanne knowing that you Lord are greater than her worry.

As Margo goes through her chemo treatments I pray Lord you will surround her with support and encouragement and I pray that she will be able to handle all of the side effects with your strength and love.

Have a good day dear sisters in the midst of all the trials.

Love,

Nancy

Thank you Margo. I am sure there are more than me here praying for you.

I am ramping up my best efforts in my photo competition for this year. Here is one from today.

Have a good night dear sisters.

Love,

Nancy

Nancy I am so sorry. May the Lord grant you comfort and wisdom in your plans. Your photo is beautiful.

Thank you all for the scriptures, prayers & banners. When you post these you never know when someone is needing just that ministry.

Joanne, the Lord is your glory and the lifter of your head. He is faithful and will see you through ALL of the trials.

James is day 5 in bed with fevers. Our nights are long and days are weary. Nothing comes to us unfiltered by the sovereignty of the Lord Who loves us. (He never says, "Oops - I didn't mean for THAT to happen!".) But He is NOT a mean or careless Heavenly Father. He has a purpose for everything and a plan always for our good, even if we can't comprehend it in the here and now - so we praise Him in the storm. Amen?

Hugs to all,

Ade

Ade and Chris thank you. I was miraculously able to move my CT of the chest up to tomorrow. Yes, they have Saturday apts now and I am so grateful for that.

Ade, my continued prayers go out to you and James. God refines us in these trials and one day you will understand the whys of this but in the mean time hang on to Jesus as tight as you can. He will carry you both through this very tough time.

Chris, I pray you have a good week next week.

I will be in touch while I can.

Love,

Nancy

Thank you Margo. I have my CT scan this morning and then will leave on Sunday as the funeral is on Monday. Continuing to pray for you.

Love,

Nancy

Wishing you a season filled with peace and unexpected gifts of kindness.

Nancy,

I’m so sorry about your scans and I’m praying for God to give you his peace that passes all understanding.i know it’s been a rough week for you and hope your weekend is better

Nancy may the Lord grant you restful peace in the storms of life and GOOD scan results. Your banner says it all. A good friend of ours' wife was treated for uterine cancer, went into remission, HE was treated for lung cancer & lost part of one lung - then SHE had mets in HER lungs and was given 3-5 years. They had chemo together! Yesterday he gave a report and a praise that she is completely cancer free - no nodes or spots left or anything! Our God is a MIRACLE working God. Don't fear your scans and the "ifs". We're praying for you, Sister!

Thank you who have prayed for James. He had a week of really bad fevers and now has a migraines today. What a test! He fears those days of fevers will harm his already diseased heart and the violent chills take the wind (literally) out of him. We remain trusting the Lord.

In this busy season take time to sit before the Lord's Presence and let His love for you sink in. He delights in it and you need it!

Love to all,

Ade

Hi dear sisters. I appreciate all of your encouraging posts. I really need them right now. To add insult to injury I got a denial from my VA claim last night. There were some mistakes made which I can only address after talking with my VA advocate. My Mom's money has to drain a little further and then I think the appeal should be granted. That sent me into a frenzy of activity that continued into the night so I only got 4 hrs of sleep. I took a long nap after church today and am trying to regroup. The sermon was on JOY today and I really needed that. I truly need a tax expert and and my Mom's financial guy to help this time around because this VA form is SO tricky and no matter what evidence you give them if you don't have your details accurately in the right place on their form which is very user unfriendly then they will deny.

Margo, I hope you are doing well as can be with your treatments. Have you had your second chemo yet? I usually am pretty good at keeping track of these things but with all the driving back and forth for funerals and such my brain is mush right now.

Ade, I can only imagine how you both must feel. To say I will continue to pray sounds trite but of course we know that it is not. It is by His might through prayer and absorbing His word into our hearts and minds that we truly understand that He allows trials so we can run to Him and have a closer relationship with Him. I believe in Romans 8:28 as it is my verse I have on all of my photo cards. He will work all of these things for good for us. The hard part is the in between times when we can't see how He is working but of course if we had that special vision to see Him and his mighty army of angels working and fighting on our behalf we would be on our knees worshiping Him. I am praying that he will lift James up and that these fevers and migraines will BE GONE!!!!!

Chris, I am SO happy to hear you got to go on a cruise with your DH. I hope it was fantastic. I am sorry to hear you got home to a sick little one. I will pray she get well and you WILL NOT GET IT.

I have not heard any more from my PA in oncology. The doctor was out of town and she said she will get back to me after she has a chance to talk to him about my situation. She mentioned if he wanted a scan asap and I am thinking NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I don't have time. I am leaving on Friday for three weeks and will be staying at my Mom's house. I am trying to get things done but time is short.

Have a good week dear sisters.

Love,

Nancy

Thank you Chris for the prayers. I hope you can get rested up from your vacation (sounds funny but we DO need vacation recovery time) and that you don't end up getting sick for the holidays.

Nancy, you've carried quite the load lately. May the Lord give you His peace with all that you must deal with, and bless your trip to see your mom. The music and video were just beautiful and I will share it for sure. Thank you for your encouragement too.

We have a respite form the fevers & migraines just now but never know when they will hit again. We saw James' cardiologist today and he thinks, as a guess, the fevers may be Autonomic Neuropathy. We would have to go to Dallas (a 3 hour drive to the airport then a flight) to have a specialist test James. The Cleveland Clinic can also do it, which is just a 4 hour drive from where we may be moving to so that may be a better option. The prognosis is not good for that disease and it is pretty rare with no cure, then fatal. I pray that is not the case. The better news is that James' numbers are ok, BP where it should be, and Doctor thinks the fevers will not harm the heart. We just trust in the Lord no matter the trials, for He is with us - right ladies?

I am tired, it's been a long day, and we have company for dinner tomorrow to prepare for so I will go get the jammies on and relax a bit.

Love and a hug for each of you brave sisters!

Ade

This was the moon setting one morning last week over the fog capped mountain.

Ade, I hope you can get a correct diagnosis from someone for James. I have had a doctor not all that long ago imply that I might have this autoimmune disease and he had me in a tizzy. This disease ended in death. The thing is the condition he was talking about didn't start as a child as mine did and if what he said was true I should have been dead by now. What I learned from this is that doctor's sometimes speak without using a filter knowing that their words can cause a panic in their patients when they are really thinking out loud and not truly believing what they say but in my case scaring me into having a biopsy which I never did. I won't go into all of it but I knew he was way off base.

I had another doctor tell me I had an infection in my sinuses (this was immediately post surgery of the sinuses) that was resistant to all antibiotics and he didn't know what the #@$$ we were going to do. I truly went home thinking I was going to die. That afternoon his nurse called and said they had called in an antibiotic for me. I was totally relieved and angry all at the same time.

So doctors don't know everything and can say things that really sound scary that do not turn out to be what they said at all.

Doctors are great but they do make mistakes and I am praying that this doctor is wrong.

I was out driving last night and saw the moon looking very cool with the clouds. Looks similar to cool photo.

I have had some really rough days lately but today I woke up feeling much better. I got a phone message from my Oncologist nurse. My PA in oncology consulted with my doctor about the need for the CT scan of the abdomen and now they have added the pelvis the the mix. She said he was fine dealing with it at my next apt which won't be until Oct. or possibly Nov. I haven't made it yet. So I am not going to be too worried if they can wait on it almost a year.

I have emailed a few times to my VA advocate downstate and I have set up an apt with him for Jan. 6. I scaned ten pages of the denial letter which he didn't get but it goes to the Chicago VA office.

Our forms are not the same as I am not applying for disability. They told me the specific forms I can use and in my case I will have to give new facts because our situation deals with net worth and income as the main points right now. My Mom's income meets they expectations but they are saying her net worth is too much. Six months later (at present) her net worth is considerably lower so I will have lots of number crunching to do over the holidays. Just what I wanted to be doing. I do pray that we both can have a good outcome the second time around.

I did feel much better today and I dropped all the things i needed to do before leaving on Friday and I just felt led to go out with my camera for only 30 min. I heard a tip of two eagle sightings at this lake I frequent with my camera. It was very cloudy and I could have used more light but I saw the eagle flying over the lake as soon as I drove by. I whipped my car around to the parking lot and flew out of the car with my camera. I didn't have time to put on gloves and my hat and it was very windy and freezing but this may be the only time I get a photo of an eagle. I will have to post one soon. I wish I could go back when it is sunny but I don't think that is going to happen with all that needs to be done.

It is very late and I need to get to bed. Take care dear sisters.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Life is tough and it helps so much to have friends who pray and understand.

Love,

Nancy

Wow Jean. I can't believe how much Valentina has grown. What a cutie. Thanks for sharing.

Love,

Nancy

Joanne, I still have that verse on my refrigerator attached to a crocheted pot holder. It was given to me by a church that one of my good friends was associated with when I was going through cancer treatments. They prayed for me and gave me this keepsake as a reminder. I keep it up there because I still look at that verse and it stills gives me comfort in all the other challenges of life. Praying for you in all that is going on with your family.

Ade, I failed to thank you for sending me that link.

Chris, wow what a gorgeous photo. It looks like it could be in Better Homes and Gardens. Such a view. I have never been to CA but maybe one day I will get to go. Enjoy your son. I can feel your excitement!!

One thing that the Lord showed me when I was at my Mom's house in one of the many times I have been there lately I will share. Her house is up on a hill and I remember my Dad struggling to mow that steep hill with his issues from a car accident. After he died and my nephew died it was a struggle to find a dedicated mower. That hill turned into a mess of practically no grass. Some of you that go way back on here with me may remember in my three week stay in May of a few years ago I tried to plant grass seed and spent a small fortune on supplies and seed blankets etc. I stressed over that ridiculous situation and every thing in the world that could have gone wrong did. Basically I spent hours on this project and that meant less time with my Mom who at that point could have cared less about the lawn with her memory issues. Slowly over time some of the grass came back and it looks some better. The Lord reminded me that in the scheme of things what a VERY minor thing this was and to expend all of this energy and stress got me where? So that helps me to look back on things I have stressed over and see how things work themselves out with the Lord's help. So with the things I am stressing over now more than likely I will look back and see how the Lord worked it all out in His timing and that I could have spared myself all the wasted energy and stress over things that if I had only trusted God completely things would have gone so much more smoothly. A lesson for me and one to share with you. BTW we have had an excellent Christian who faithfully mows and does other things for us now.

Love,

Nancy

Nancy, that excerpt from Charles Stanley's devotional (I read two of them in the mornings) REALLY ministers to all of us. I will print it and share with James. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us. Your story about the grass on the hill (or lack thereof) is so true. The things we "get our gizzard in an uproar" over, as my mother-in-law used to say, end up being mole hills when we are on the other side of them looking back at how the Lord dealt with them. It's all perspective and remembering just how BIG the Lord we serve IS compared to our issues! That is something hard for me to remember yet it has happened SO many times. Thank you for the reminder to remember!

Chris I can't even imagine looking at that beauty in your own home (though the shadows forming all day on mountains surrounding us here still takes my breath away). What amazing photos! Thank you for sharing. How BLESSED you are!

Joanne you always have the right scriptures for the right times. Thank you for your Spirit led blessings to us. May the Lord bless your heart this Christmas season and lift you up.

Lord bless and keep all of you in His lovingkindness,

Ade

Hope this encourages us all. Love, Jean