We arrived safely in the St. Louis area where we will be until Thursday. This is to attend the national meeting of the group of Baptists we are a part of. While I write this, I am in the hotel room with the boys and Dixie, our Beagle. :) Cala went with Glenn to the beginning of the meetings tonight. I am recovering (hopefully) from a stomach virus that has had a grip on me since late Wednesday night.

God certainly has a way of taking care of us! We had planned to leave our home around 2 a.m. this morning, but by 10 p.m. we were just really ready to leave and decided to. Our thoughts were we would drive until 2:30 or so in the morning and find a hotel to get just a few hours sleep. Come 2:30, we actually pulled into a hotel in Iowa and before even checking on a room, we decided to walk Dixie first. Before it was all said and done, we hadn't even gone in, but decided to keep driving! We would really have only had about 5 hours sleep and just thought between us both, we could keep going. We are so glad we did! By 6:30 this morning, we pulled into a Denny's for breakfast and the Weather Channel was on... Seems our area had some strong storms last night around the time we would have been leaving, AND the area where we had planned to spend the night?! The SAME! When we were in the parking lot, we saw lots of cloud to cloud lightning and thought little of it. However, God knew!

We were able to get to the St. Louis area early and get a good nap! (never felt so good after several sleepless nights for me). I've taken the boys swimming (watched them) and now they are enjoying the t.v. a few minutes while we wait for Glenn and Cala to come back. All is well for now.... all is well.

Here I am after months of not writing... thinking about this blog from time to time, wanting to get back to it. Here I am, 5 months on the other side of a surgery that had scared me, yet made me peaceful... I remember telling Glenn and my Mama, "either I'll wake up and see ya'll, or I'll wake up and see my Daddy" (he's been in heaven almost 3 years now). Either would have been fine with me that day!

I certainly had no desire to leave my husband and my kids, or my various other family members, but to see Jesus would have been equally wonderful, no- even more wonderful!!! Then, I would have also seen my Daddy, whose death July 10, 2008 took me on a roller coaster ride of grief and depression. Oh how I miss my Daddy!!! I am by no means 'healed' of my grief totally, but it certainly is true, that one day, after you have lost a loved one to death (he's not lost- I KNOW he's in heaven by the way :o)....

Well, after you've lost a loved one to death, the pain you feel is incredible, it feels like it will rip your heart out at times. It feels incredibly sad that you have no idea when you'll see that person again. I mean, I have the hope, the knowledge that one day I'll be face to face not only with my Saviour, but with my earthly father once again. Oh what a wonderful day!!!! And yet, the knowledge that I wouldn't see him here on this earth again has been almost more than I can bear at times.

When I found out I had cancer (Dec. 17th, 2010), I wanted nothing more than to call my Daddy. He knew what it felt like to hear those words, "you have cancer". That's probably been the worst part- not having someone that I could talk to who KNOWS what it's like to hear those words. They can do surgery, get it out of there (as they did with me on January 12, 2011), but still, the worry is there at every back ache, every strange sensation.

OK! I certainly didn't mean to come back and write a novel here, but that's what you get when I stay away from this blog for months at a time. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get back on here lots quicker and surprise you :o)

We are in the middle of an incredibly busy week, doing outreaches not only in our hometown, but in the Cities as well. We are excited to see what God will do!

Thanks for reading....