Advent Begins!

Sorry I missed last week! Not much was going on during the week, and then my step-mom was here over the weekend so I totally forgot to write anything. It happens.



This week has been both sweet and sour. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving time with our “chosen” family (good friends) and we feel abundantly blessed in all areas of our lives, so that’s the sweet news. The sour news is that both Kory and I had a doctor’s appointment this week and neither one of them contributed in any way to solving the problems. Ugh.


Kory’s lab work from a few weeks ago showed he had something going on that needed the attention of a urologist. Turns out he has some food allergies (yet to be determined exactly what) and possibly some kidney stones. He hates being the human pincushion while they try to determine the cause of it all so for now he’s decided to do nothing but try to pinpoint the cause of the allergic reactions. I don’t blame him. I on the other hand saw a naturopath for my constant wheezing cough and she too said I need an inhaler, chest x-rays, lab work, etc. If I were going to spend two thousand dollars on something, it sure wouldn’t be to get rid of a cough, so I opted for quick stop at Super Supplements to try and resolve the problem naturally without contributing financially to the medical profession. (I have a five thousand dollar deductible each year so insurance won’t cover a thing.) I do believe God made our bodies to heal naturally, so the farther I stay away from doctors, the better I’m sure I’ll feel. Besides, I know God works miracles and healing my lungs of whatever ails them is not out of His reach.


I’ve also been a bit distracted this week with preparing for my sermon TODAY. It’s hard to believe our pastor asked me to preach, but he did, and I did, and I think it went pretty well. I had to give the same sermon at both services so I stuck to the script so as not to leave anything out. Based on the feedback I got after both services, it seems the Holy Spirit was at work in people’s lives as what I said touched many. Hallelujah! I’m just thankful my gift of gab can be used for good, and not evil, as I’ve done my share of damage over the years with the words I’ve spoken. But God is my Redeemer and He sure made some inroads today.


I’m feeling a bit stressed I haven’t gotten the Christmas newsletter written, nor do we have lights up or a single Christmas decoration hanging, but we did get the tree on Friday. Good thing too as the snow level was so low we barely made it out of the woods and it snowed up there yesterday so we would have been without a tree this year if we'd waited. We went up to the Mount Baker National Forest to cut our tree as we do every year and this year we headed for our usual spot, but got stuck in the snow. I was quite nervous and could only think of the Lee family that got stuck a few years ago on a snowy road down in Oregon. I started praying after Kory had made several attempts to get unstuck, and couldn’t. And wouldn’t you know, we got our own little miracle when three big rigs came barreling up the otherwise abandoned road we were on and helped to shovel us out of the mess we were in. It was no coincidence, it was a total answer to prayer. Hallelujah!


So perhaps tomorrow we’ll be hanging the mistletoe, but today, we are all taking a breather. Kaleb practiced hard this week both for his upcoming piano recital and for the play he’ll be in next Sunday. We have another busy week ahead of us but today is the first day of Advent and we want to spend time just waiting in the presence of God. I don’t want to rush a single thing this year as time goes by quickly enough as it is.