temporarily going offline.
return eta: unknown

currently employed

many of my readers have been asking me where I work...and wanting to just know what I am doing...so I thought that I would share a link to Pathway's website. This is the place that employs me and puts up with me!

click here!

I am also working at Logan's again...more of a filler right now. Overall, life is full of...things, lots of things, but it seems to be going well. I am balancing the best I can and relying on God to do what I can't...which is many things!

Heading home this weekend for the annual "chili cookout". Greatly looking forward to it...especially watching Ricky interact with the chickens! I don't know that that will ever be anything less than amusing to me! And I, of course, love loving on my family...even the dysfunctional crazies, like me!

If I could only say one word...

community.

I have not written lately. Busy, and no desire...not for a lack of something to say, rather, not really knowing how to say it and how to emphasize its dynamic impact on me.

I have come to realize that it doesn't have to impact you...I can and will still share.

I prayed and searched for years for "friends". Friends that I could trust, love, and live life with.
God is so gracious...exceeding what I ever could have hoped for (Ephesians 3:19-22).

He has brought me into community with people that I trust, love, and that I live life with...and they love me. They have taken the time to really know me, and they still love me! This is worth celebrating!

So, I want to take this opportunity to celebrate a little about these amazing people, and not just them, but also what God has taught me through them. In doing that, I want to share an excerpt from a book (Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen, shared with me by Kirsten):

(leading up to this excerpt, Nouwen is talking about finding and embracing the truth that we are loved by God just as we are and the very real things that we must do to remind ourselves of that truth)...The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace...you have to keep looking for people and places where your truth is spoken and where you are reminded of your deepest identity as the chosen one. Yes, we must dare to opt consciously for our chosenness and not allow our emotions, feelings, or passions to seduce us into self-rejection. The synagogues, the churches, the many communities of faith, the different support groups helping us with our addictions, family, friends, teachers, and students: All of these can become reminders of our truth. The limited, sometimes broken, love of those who share our humanity can often point us to the truth of who we are: precious in God's eyes.

Please read that again.

I have a wonderful and dysfunctional family...and I love them so much! And it is "my cup running over" that I now have so many beloved friends around me, and I would dare to call them family as well. I can be more open and honest with them than I can nearly anyone else in the world. They are not perfect either, and I love that! I am challenged by them, I am loved by them, I am encouraged by them...I am grown by them. Jesus told us that the second most important commandment was to love others. How can we do this, if we are not in true community with others?...if we don't take the time and discover who they really are?...if we don't let them know us for who we really are? Being given the gift of knowing these people, truly knowing them, has taught me so much about who I am, at my core. And all at the very same time, they love me right where I am, and they challenge me to be better every day. I love them.

God answered my prayer in abundance. Thank you Kirsten, Kindi, Lydia, Jill, Heather, Jennifer, and Jenny...for the gift of your friendship and bringing me into your community. I love you all.

my silly little princesses

Whitney lost her first tooth!

She asked Rick to pull it out yesterday...so he did! It was an eventful morning. Everyone gathered around Whitney and Rick as if we were watching a breathtaking moment in history! What memories we are making.

The tooth fairy, who she is not totally convinced is real, brought her a golden dollar! ;)

A love story still in writing...

My aim in writing this is to implore my readers to click the link that will follow my short story. I want to give you a glimpse into an amazing testimony of love, faith, providence, and humility...a glimpse that in my hopes, will compel you to accompany me and many others on a journey through a tale that transcends time, distance, and prison bars.

A dear friend of mine, Kirsten Harrison, is sharing her story with others, openly and honestly. A few years ago, her husband, Scott, was incarcerated for two periods of time totally nearly 18 months. They had 3 small children. Scott was being charged with murder, a murder he did not commit, and was later acquitted of. This alleged crime had taken place 10 years earlier than his arrest. Amidst the chaos and the turmoil, Kirsti and Scott triumphed, in very small ways, and in ways that seem near impossible to our feeble minds. During this time, they wrote each other daily, sharing their thoughts, feelings, daily lives, pain, joy, desires, and their unwavering faith in a God so much bigger than their circumstances. Kirsten is sharing those letters on her website. Every day, a new later. She posts them in chronological order. "It's like getting a love letter every morning." It is a rare day, that when I am reading these letters, I am not brought to tears. The emotion they invoke, joy in celebration, and sorrow for their longings and hardship, will certainly remind us of our humanity and our need for something Greater.

I write this to urge you to come along with me on this journey...you will be moved!


Start here!

more photos from Sue!