Sonshine On My Shoulder...

Good morning. We have not seen the sun now in quite a few days. So thankful we have Son shine to combat no sunshine.

Galatians 2: 20-21
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

This past weekend I went with Wes and his youth group to a huge youth rally in Arlington, Texas called Winterfest. The singing was awesome and the messages were powerful and challenging. I am thankful this morning for the words we heard and the encouragement it gave us. What a blessing for kids to hang out with church youth groups. Just good, pure fun and a great atmosphere to bond with other people that love the Lord or are learning to love Him more.

While we were there Mom called and said that Dad was put back into the hospital. We were so much closer to them than when we are at home that we took off and went to see him and stayed until Monday night. It was a rough few days for him, but we all got through it and God was gracious and gave us some answers. This was an update that I sent to a lot of friends that were asking:

We are back home for Abilene and the hospital and several are asking on an update on Dad.

He got pretty sick last Friday and could not eat. He has a terrible cough and can't talk or eat very well because of it. They had been to the doctor several times in the past few weeks for help but nothing was working. Mom took him to the ER and they admitted him because he seemed so sick. Turns out he had a UTI and it was getting really bad. He bounced back pretty quick from that but could not eat and could not quit coughing and they were determined to find out why. He had kind of curled up in the fetal position and we had the feeling he was giving up. They did an upper gi, blood work, barium swallowing test, CT of his upper body and head, flu test and other random tests. We pushed them hard to get an ENT to look in his throat.

We prayed so hard that God would just bless us to know why he could not stop coughing and God was gracious and answered our prayers finally, yesterday. When they looked down his throat through his nose the doctor saw that his left vocal chord is paralyzed. He said that this is the reason he can't talk well and is coughing. It probably happened when the tractor ran over him and was made worse by the neck surgery. It will not be an easy healing but we are thankful for an answer.

Ruling out anything life threatening has helped his mental state of mind and just knowing what is wrong has perked him up some. We did a lot of talking about how satan attacks us when we are down and we really have to fight and stand against Him with God's help. Also, talked a lot about how fear can make your body even sicker. He is a strong, wonderful man and I could finally see a little fight coming back into his eyes last night. It was hard to leave them and come home.

Please continue to pray that he can be determined to get through this and I ask that you pray that God will restore his voice.

Love you friends and Praise our Good and Awesome God for His care and love for us! Amy

These two sweet guys are two of sweet Wesley's good friends that went with us to Winterfest. What wonderful young men.

As you can see...there is nothing wrong with Wesley's appetite. :)

We will go to get his stitches out today and hopefully will hear that the results of the biopsy are good and there is no cancer. Wow...life has been a little serious and nitty gritty lately. I am so thankful that we do not walk alone. We keep telling ourselves that all we have is today. Walk it well with a great attitude and no fear of tomorrow.

Blessings on YOUR day! Love, Amy