The "jewel" is now a gem!

Praise the Lord! Isaiah is doing great & was such a trooper today ... he hung in there until they finally took him back for surgery at 2 pm - that's 14 hours without food! He hardly ever fussed unless he saw me (I believe all he saw was a giant milk bottle at that point) so Drake kept shooing me out of the room. Of course he charmed all the nurses with his sweet smile & hand clapping. There had been a mix up somewhere in the scheduling so they didn't have us on schedule in the operating room thus we got bumped to the last case of the day. But the bottom line is his little "jewel" is now all fixed up & something to be proud of :) It's kind of swollen & doesn't look pretty quite yet but that's OK because he'd better be keeping that thing tucked in his pants until his wedding night (which I've told him won't be until he's at least 30!)
Thank you for your prayers & we give all the glory to God.

Taking Care of the "Family Jewels"

Don't worry, no pictures for this one ... and I'm refering to Isaiah! My poor little man has to get re-circumcised on Monday the 15th. :( I think I'm more nervous than my patients were before open-heart surgery! Evidently, not enough skin was taken off when he was first circumcised & then he developed a bunch of adhesions. My Granny is gravely concerned that he can be proud of himself on his wedding night! It's a minor surgery as far as surgeries go, but he still has to be put to sleep which I don't like and he won't be able to eat anything after midnight & they won't be operating until after 10 a.m. For those of you with nursing babies, you can understand ... I'm afraid if I hold him or he even sees me he's going to try & rip my shirt off! However, he'll much more easily rip my heart out if he gives me that look like "Mommy, I need you, why won't you help?" That's the part I think I am most dreading right now - Just him looking at me for comfort not understanding what's going on. My heart hurts already.
Please be praying for our little boy & for the doctors to do a good job.

Just Protein

OK, I knew it would happen at some point, I just wasn't quite ready for it before church this morning ... after all, statistically 84% of all little kids eat about 9 bugs in their lifetime ... of course 47.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot :) ... so Isaiah is getting pretty mobile now, military style, and he was down the hall sounding like he was having fun - nothing harmless down there so I continued to write my Thank You note until I heard the definite sound of jaws working. Eeek! I jumped up & the little booger had something dark on his face & in his mouth... fuzz, oh please let it be just fuzz! Some leaf bit was hanging on his upper lip & I did a quick swoop of his mouth ... and now stuck to my finger was some who-knows-what along with a LEG!! UGHH! My heart started racing, beads of sweat began breaking out on my forehead & my knees went weak - thankfully I was already sitting down. By the grace of God, it was not a roach leg - Thank You Jesus! However, it was something that should not be in my son's mouth ... it's unbelievable what can hide on dark brown wood floors. So you can guess what I'll be doing this afternoon ... & it won't just be with a mop - the knee pads are coming out for a serious scrub down!
I know it's just protein but I'd prefer him to have the dairy variety for now!

Kicking high!

What a night! "I got Christ up in me, Christ up in me, Christ up in me maane..." This is how Reddy, our new rapper who says he is always "ready" to share Christ, kicked off our 1st weekly meeting which just finished an hour ago! It was phenomenal - to God be the Glory! Over 100 students packed the room & I most proud of all our student leaders really stepping out & meeting new people... I think every person that walked in felt welcomed & accepted and they definitely heard the gospel! And at the end of our meeting, you'd have thought we were giving out money at the back table so many students were clamoring to sign up for small groups - Praise the Lord!
The only downside to the night when I called Laura, my new friend & running partner, on the way home to hear "WHAAAA!" She was so sweet & wonderful to watch Isaiah for me but my normally mello fello had totally lost it. I guess I can't blame him too much though as I think there's only been one other time in his little life that I haven't been there to put him to sleep. Poor guy -I feel like such a bad mom.
So anyway, these first 2 weeks on campus have been Great & we're already seeing God at work ... in fact, just yesterday a guy named Jonathon prayed to receive Christ with Drake - Amen! That's all I've got for now ... I'm tired but full of joy!

Off & Running!!

It's actually here... Or actually, it was there! UAB has started school & our first week was more than we could have hoped for - To God be the Glory!! We spent this first week meeting students & letting them know about the ministry. The result? 800+ people interested in knowing more about having a personal relationship with the Lord &/or the ministry ... that's a lot of people to call back! Sprint will be loving us this month :) Thursday we had a Kickin' Off the Year Cook Out & had over 100 students come! Praise the Lord!
And this past Fri-Sat we had an overnight retreat with our student leaders ... 16 students excited & ready to reach UAB came. We are so encouraged & just overwhelmed by God's faithfulness. For those of you receiving our newsletter you recently read that God has sent us another new staff member to take us to a team of 5 ... well, make that 6!! Another wonderful guy is joining our team - so if any of you gals out there are considering full-time ministry, I would love your help & company!

Isaiah's new friend ... Nathan Mack Matteo!

Welcome to Planet Earth Nathan! We couldn't be more excited for Dan & Ashley as they finally got to meet their little boy, Nathan Mack Matteo today weighing in at 7lbs. 5oz and measuring 20" long. He is an absolutely beautiful wee man & looks to have his daddy's dark hair & skin with his momma's little mouth. We praise the Lord for a healthy boy & for Ashley doing so well.

Isaiah has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his friend ... you've heard of arranged marriages, well this is an arranged friendship! :) And Ashley & I have already made plans to get them out on the lake next summer!

Who's yo' Daddy? ... You need to check mine out!

After all the endless hours of cheering me on throughout a life of sports, the least I can do is give a great big shout out to my dad ... who at 60 years old is still a stud! If you've met him before you'll know he is one of a kind :) but did you know he is a 2-time world champion in the high jump?? He still competes in Masters meets all over the country & even in Europe. Last weekend he got to compete at his old stomping ground, Florida State University (where he set the school record at 6'8"). He had a great article written about him in the Tallahassee newspaper which you can read via this link:
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200807310200/SPORTS/807310325

Way to go Dad! I'm proud of you ... and little Isaiah says, "bababa" :)

PS this title "Who's yo' Daddy?": funny or poor taste? Let me know honestly so I can edit it before too many people read it!