Saturday, September 28, 2013

Prayer team pep talk...

So, the doctors have spoken and put a time limit on things. SO WHAT! If that put fear into any hearts let's remember God doesn't give us a spirit of fear, so it's Satan trying to control our minds and hearts and make us give up. I've had the story of Lazarus playing through my mind today. Jesus raised him from the dead after three days. He was stinking and rotten and that didn't faze Jesus. He raised him up completely whole and new. Surely He has no problem reconstructing Bob's body. I've found myself getting maudlin and sentimental and crying over memories. We can't afford that sort of sentimentality right now. We have to replace those thoughts with scriptures reminding us of Jesus's power over disease and death. We also have to remember that He said we've inherited that power. (John 14:12) We have to dig into scripture and find verses to speak out against this disease. We can't glorify cancer by fearing it. It has to bow to the name of Jesus. Bob had the feeling that we had given up and accepted that he was going to die. (Well, we're ALL going to die. But we don't have to let Satan kill us. We will die when it's God's time and not before!) I told him, "No, we haven't given up! We're going to keep on fighting!" As Missy said, he would never give up on any of us. We can't just operate on the fumes left over from scriptures we read years ago and haven't revisited since. We all need to look up healing verses and also examine ourselves and see if there's anything in our lives that would create a barrier to our prayers being answered. This is going to take some discipline (and this email is directed to myself more than anyone else) but it will be worth it! I've been reading scriptures to Bob each day and I hope to do that more and more. I pray over him before I leave him each evening. Tonight I prayed that the Holy Spirit would speak good things into his heart and mind all night long and that angels would surround and protect him from evil. He's having difficulty reading and decoding, so I read aloud to him. The Holy Spirit can and will speak good things to him to counteract anything the enemy is trying to tell him. Every time I feel fear, depression or mournfulness I want to replace it with scripture and faith. I want to picture Jesus healing people and remember He's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I'm trying to lift my thoughts above the thoughts the enemy is trying to put in my mind. I think you could find a lot of scriptures for this by googling "healing scriptures" or something similar. Here's a list of scriptures I jotted down from Bob's book called "God's Promises": Matt. 9:35 Luke 6:19 Heb. 13:8 I Peter 2:24 James 5: 14,15 Mark 16: 17,18 John 14:12 Heb. 10:35,36 I John 5:14,15 Isa. 41:10-13 I'm also leaving the TV on the Christian station to keep scripture flowing throughout the house. The silence gives my mind too much opportunity to wander into unproductive thoughts. Let's keep our minds focused on LIFE. Bob will LIVE and not die. Jesus is Lord over all! The plan at the moment is for Bob to return to the nursing home in Walker on Monday where he will continue rehab while I look into the home care situation. I need to find out what kind of equipment and nursing help I can get and learn all I can before bringing him home. Please be covering him with prayer that he will be filled with hope and joy and prayer for strengthening and complete renewal. If anyone has something good to add to this please send it to the whole group so we can encourage each other. :) Thank you, Jesus! We love you all! Lisa/Mom and Bob/Dad

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Some ATC's I've sent off recently...

This swap was called "In the Style of Rosina Wachtmeister". I do enjoy her style!








These were done in acrylic, which I don't use a lot. It was fun being able to paint over another color.

I also did a swap called "Ballpoint Pen", which required that the whole card be done in pen only.






 
The teacups are my favorite, but I don't think ballpoint pen is my favorite medium!

That's all that's happening artwise. Just doing small bits in the evenings.

Shalom, everyone!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Sweet little grandgirls...

Mama Micah's caption for this photo on Facebook was,
"Audrey just leaned over, gave Hazel a big kiss and said I love you Hazy!!! Doesn't get any sweeter!"
 
 
Audrey (right) and her cousin Cali.

 

 
Jordan (center) and two of his goofy friends way down in Texas. (Well, they're all three goofy. I love it!)

 
Bob is starting on a cancer drug today called Tarceva. He'll take it for a year for his lung and then they'll see how it's going. The side effects sounded pretty scary to me, but the doctor says he doesn't expect Bob to have a lot of problems with it. Much less than with chemo.  If necessary they'll go to chemo after that, but hopefully they won't have to. The radiation therapy he just completed takes a couple of months to do its work. They will be doing MRIs to see how effective the treatments have been.
 
Bob was moved from the nursing home, where he was placed about 12 days ago, back to Sanford hospital because he was confused and his blood pressure was very low. I think he got dehydrated because the radiation causes heartburn and acid reflux which caused him not to want to eat and drink for a few days. His blood pressure is doing better today, but he's still kind of confused. He is eating pretty well. The doctor is checking for an infection, and those labs will take about 5 days for results. So we'll be here through next weekend. At that time it's possible that instead of going back to this nursing home, we can take Bob to a facility in Park Rapids so I will be able to go home and spend days with him. If he can get his strength back sufficiently then he could go home also.
 
Sorry if this is sort of jumbled together! I've been through this information so many times with so many people! :)
 
Thanks for prayers and I hope my two readers are in good health and spirits!
Shalom to you both!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

I'm still here!

Living out of a suitcase in Fargo, ND has greatly interfered with my blogging career!

I've been doing a lot of sitting next to my hubby's bed while he undergoes radiation treatment and now is going through rehab. I never seem to have my camera, computer and artwork in the same place at the same time so I can take photos and upload them!

I've got a couple of new ATC swaps going, but I don't have photos of everything. Here are some cards I just sent in for a swap called "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".







 
 And this card was made for the Monthly Contest at ATC's for All. The theme was "Around the World".


 
I guess I also forgot to post these photos from a swap called "Cactus and Succulents".
 


 


 
 

 


 
Well, I'd better stop messing around and get back to buggin Bob.
 
Shalom!