Please, Please Pray Hard For Ethan Powell!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just read the update page for Ethan Powell and he is not in very good condition at all. He has caught some type of respiratory virus that is wearing him out. His immune system is extremely low right now, and any type of bug could beat him pretty badly. When things were looking up for this little child he has suddenly slid back down the very mountain he was climbing.

There were four updates on him today and all four were not good. He can't breath very well because they think he might have a good size blood clot in his nose from all the nose bleeds that have occurred.

His heart rate has been way above normal for a little child his age and his lungs are exhausted. They had an oxygen apparatus in his nose but it did not seem to do the trick for him. He is on a ventilator to help him breath better and maybe this will help his lungs rest and get rid of some of the fluid built up in his lungs.

I look at this picture of this rainbow and it gives me great hope in all things. I believe it is "The Living Creator" showing His awesome power to us. I haven't seen one in a long time though, but the last one I saw I tried to follow it and I never found the end of it. A rainbow to me is like God's love it's never ending. It stretches to a great distance and you'll never find its beginning or its end.

I pray God will push Ethan back up that mountain of healing and that our faith will be even greater if He decides to push or give Ethan rest. I pray for a huge miraculous push. Also, my Aunt Monna goes to get her leg x-rayed tomorrow, I pray for a huge healing difference in her leg. She's ready to go home soon!

My blog from yesterday might have been pretty harsh about Bush and other things. I guess sometimes you just have to let it out instead of holding it in. I hope nobody was offended. Praise our Father in Heaven for giving us more than we need, our cup overflows!

Prices Going Up, And A Rich President!

Well I went to Walmart today and I was not in the mood to do it, but I did. Five minutes into the journey I was getting furious because they are changing our walmart. They have completely moved everything around so I was getting slightly fired up. I knew where everything was in that store and now they have totally screwed me up.

I found every thing I needed, but then the prices got me totally agitated. What is the deal? What is going on with our country and the high prices on gas and groceries. It's ridiculous, I have to contain myself from screaming at the top of my lungs to all the shoppers my frustrations. I just want to scream to everybody in the store " How much more are we going to take?"

We just keep getting taken by our government and the rich and we just sit there and take this non-sense.

Bush: If you voted for this MORON, I hope your happy. I don't care what any Republican might try to say to defend this monkey in a suit. But he has ruined our country! You can say he is a Christian and he has the right values and he is Heaven sent, you're wrong! I never believed his Christian tactics he used to get into office. He will pay for his foolishness! I have been holding this in for a long time, but I worry for our country and the failure it's going through.

I have decided to not vote this year, because nobody interests me at all. Mc Cain is nothing but an old grump, Obama is Shady and Hillary I have no clue what to think about her.

We are just in a hole we can't dig ourselves out right now. To be the most advanced nation on this planet, we're sure not making much progress toward things that matter right now.

I told Shannon tonight how can we make progress toward energy efficient cars, if we have a president who makes millions from oil in office. He's not going to push corn run cars or solar power anything because he doesn't want to lose his precious oil money. The whole government is cheating the American people. I think we need a complete house cleaning of these bums and get somebody with integrity to fight for us.

I continue to pray to God for a light at the end of the tunnel, we are all getting ourselves in debt myself included. Jobs are scarce in this nation, and the pay is horrible. How much are we going to take?

I think some times we are paying for our ignorance as a nation. We have a generation of misfits right now. Homosexuality is on the rise, our foul thinking minds have gone way out of bounds, we have let God down by not defending Him in public places, horrible parenting have released to the country a bunch of delinquent children, greed is devouring our minds and a horrible irresponsible clan of government leaders nation wide is killing our integrity as a country worldwide.

When are things going to get better? Sorry to be so gloomy about things but we are in deep trouble as a nation. But that is the opinion of one person and I know alot of people with the same opinion. We all know it's the truth. Pray for our country, pray for our troops and pray for the advancement of Christianity in our country, because some are trying to silence our freedom of speech.

March 30th 2008. Happy 5th Birthday Macy!!!!!!!!

I want to say Happy Birthday to my precious angel Macy. She is one of a kind and I love every minute I spend with her. 5 years WOW! Every day of those 5 years she has made sure she has spent them well. Many of them making us laugh and the others sitting in time out and aggravating her brothers. Tonight she has been counting her presents on the table, there are five she wants six. I said too bad!
She has been so excited for her birthday, she has been asking since the 1st of the month. But she deserves a good one, she has done so well in school. She has gotten so many positive behavior punches on her card at school this year. The first time she filled one up, I almost asked her teacher "Are you sure you got the right kid?" I know Macy is good at school, she just knows how to push the right buttons at home to get in trouble.
The next pictures are of the Searcy fire department coming to our house and taking the kids to school. That was great, I was going to ask them if they could do this at least twice a week, because Daddy wants to sleep in. Snooze, Snooze, Snooze!
Brayden had won the road trip at the Harding Academy auction back in the fall. Actually, his Mimi made sure he won it. So they arrived in front of our house with sirens and lights doing what they were created to do, attract attention! They loved it, Macy was a little skeptical about it but she rode on. The truck pulled into Harding's parking lot and dropped them off in style.
Prayer request for Ethan Powell, things are kind of not going to well for him. His health is in limbo right now. They really have no answer for his situation right now. The nose bleeds continue and his hemoglobin and platelets continue do drop. That's the best I can explain the medical jargon, but continue to pray for him and the many other children at St. Jude's. I hope you all have a great weekend and a powerful Lord's day.

My Little Jedi's

Yes, Star Wars does run in their blood. We have had the Skywalkers in our house now for about 8 years. Brayden is a Star Wars junkie. From what I hear my little cousin Levi is also a big fan of it.
I caught them the other night all in their robes acting like Jedi Knights screaming at the top of their lungs. I didn't expect Cayden to have a robe on either, he's about as small as Yoda. But, they had agood time trying to destroy the Empire. I remember those days a long, long time ago in a galaxy far,far away.

Easter 2008 & God's Love

Well, we survived another Easter. It's a struggle to get through these holidays with getting the kids to cooperate for all the pictures and telling them to not wrinkle up their clothes before they get to Church.
The last picture is of Macy, she lost her first tooth at the age of four. There is another right beside it ready to fall out. The tooth fairy is getting expensive these days with two kids losing teeth at the same time. It's fun to play the tooth fairy, every time I do it I am afraid they are going to wake up.

Of course when Easter comes around the world is supposed to be reminded of Christ and what he did upon Calvary's cross. Even though we have no exact date in the Bible of when Christ died it's nice to have a day to try to get those who never think about him to have a chance too.
I wonder what life would be like to have no real point to live. Those who don't believe in Christ I wonder what their goal in life is. Are they searching for some kind of direction to point their life to. I couldn't imagine not having the routine of prayer in the morning or not having anyone to thank for all the days blessings at night. I would be empty and feel meaningless all through the day.
Every day I wonder about my Father in heaven and think about how good He has been to me and my family and how faithful He is to all of us. I heard the phrase not to long ago that our God is a Jealous God. WOW! Now that is something to think about. The God who created the universe is jealous for our love and respect.
I can understand that in the human way, we constantly want praise from our parents, spouse, children, boss and those around us. We want people all the time to notice what we have done and what we have. That makes sense in that way why our God would be a jealous God. The Max Lucado book I read not to long ago titled "It's not about me" sticks in my head when I think about God being jealous. He wants our praise and thanks for what He has done. I believe He deserves praise every time a word comes out of our mouths which is impossible for us to do.
He's done so much for us all I wouldn't have enough space on this blog to be able to write it all down. We need to remember life is not about us, it's about giving God the praise and thanks he deserves continuously.
He gives us the freedom of choosing to become a Christian or not. It's almost like fishing, he's got it all hanging right there in front of us to reach and grab. But like some fish they just ignore the worm hanging right in front of their face, they only choose what they want to grab. Same with us, we might choose it or decide to never grasp onto the greatest thing ever. Like the fish we see it and think it will be there tomorrow to grab, but it might not be. In fishing that hook with the worm will not be there so now they have to continue to search for something else.
We think God's love will be there tomorrow and it will be, but decide fast because it might not be back and time is up.
The only difference between fishing and humans is that if the fish grabs the worm that painful hook punches great pain into the jaw of the fish. Where if we decide to grasp onto the hook of Godly love there is no hook or pain, because Jesus already took the pain of the hook for us. Amazing isn't it, a free gift to a better life without pain. Which hook will you take?

The Mystery Is Over!

I have been plunging Brayden's toilet for 2 weeks and couldn't get anywhere with it. Nobody would admit to sticking anything down there.

Of course Macy and Brayden denied it, and Cayden being age 2 didn't know what I was talking about.

But they loved to watch me plunge, they just thought it was great. I don't think they realized I was plunging in anger, because I was taking it out on that stupid commode.

So today I went to Lowe's and bought me a snake to get to the bottom of this disaster. I spent about an hour working on it. The I heard this punching sound and a huge sucking of air. And TA-DA, it came out a small sized plastic dixie cup, how wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!! Cayden I believe is guilty, because I caught him the other night getting ready to stick a small rock down there.

So what have we learned from this class, that yes cups do flush!

Happy Easter. I know mine will be now!

How Could You Not Believe?

This time of year I always get excited to see the newness of Creation. In 1992 I found my passion for plants when Bill Beckett gave me an opportunity to work at his garden center that summer. I didn't have a clue what any of the plants were, let alone the difference between a shrub and a petunia. I always wondered what the deal was with me and plants. When I joined The Good Earth in Little Rock I found what the deal was. It was a Godly passion. I saw what I was really looking at everyday, was something created by a higher power. When I look at a plant I think of the effort God put into one plant. Creating one plant would take a life time plus for any Human to do, we could never do it. All we have is the ability to cross pollinate or graft a stronger variety of a plant that already exists. We can't do it ever! Plants made me believe in my Creator, because I see it and have no idea what materials he used to create it.
Have you ever thought like that? We know wood comes from trees, but what is wood made out of? We don't know where God came up with the materials to make wood. Maybe that will be a question he will answer when we rise to see Him.
I look at these pictures and I am just amazed at their beauty. How can somebody say they have no belief in a Living God? The Earth amazes me, the way things are, and how they came to be.
To look at the Earth during the winter months and how drab everything is, and then to see trees popping out and flowers displaying their beauty as usual is something of pure joy.
I hate it in the summer time when those little annoying bugs known as gnats and skeeters (an Arkansas term for Mosquito's) come crawling out and drive you insane. I can say I hate the skeeters but the gnats turn my brain in complete circles. I wonder how God created such a little creature like that. They are so tiny, and to see them fly and to see something so small like a gnat move. I wonder how small their little organs are. To think the Creator of the Heavens and the vast Universe took His own time and effort to create a little tiny bug like that. I am Amazed, yet those little "Stinkers" can tick me off in a split second. WOW!
Yet even with all this before our eyes we still have people who deny the Creator. I could look at all this and be totally speechless, yet there is something else that completely leaves me in AWE!
My children, they bring me to complete belief in God. I just can't look at my children and not see the excellence of the Creator. Creation of life is a topic that humbles me, the process of how we are created is unfathomable! I remember when each one was in Shannon's stomach and I thought what gift is He going to give me. With a child you have no clue what your going to get. Tucked away like a wrapped present, you have no idea what your getting until the gift is unwrapped. Clueless we parents are! The Greatness of God. By faith we suffer for 9 months wondering what we are getting. Things run through your mind all the way to point of birth, hoping every limb is attached, that they have a head and a heartbeat. With all three children I worried for 9 months if everything was okay with them. The ultrasound should have been proof enough, NO! I wanted the product in my hand before I quit worrying, a sad lack of faith on my part. But after each one was born my eyes were filled with tears and amazed at the gifts God had so humbly given me and Shannon. I am filled with joy every day I wake up to see them and hear them talk, sing and yes even fight. We who are parents need to step back and get on our knees for what God has truly blessed us with.
I write about this topic because of all we hear about ignorant people fighting against us Christians to rid of us of our rights to free speech and free religion. The American Family Association sends me emails about topics like that above. I've gotten to the point where I just delete the emails and never open them. I get to angry and hateful toward these atheistic people that I just want to get in their face and scream at the top of my lungs at them. But I don't want to be like that, I want to be peaceful with them.
I believe if they just sat down with me or any other Christian and gave us five minutes of their time. They would see a different picture of a Christian, not how the media portrays Christians as war mongers and one sided opinions. If they would just look at the creation and open their eyes to a different view some might just release their disbelief and take in the amazement of God's creation. I know they would completely feel the "Big Bang" when they see it for themselves. I will finish with this passage from Genesis 1:31
"God saw all that He had made, and it was very good."
Even The Creator took a step back and looked at His work!

Great News On Ethan Powell!

If you know somebody who flat out needs a miracle or is totally ignorant and completely doesn't believe God exists. This news will blow their mind.
The results are in and Ethan Powell shows no signs of Leukemia.
How amazing is that? The faithful in God win again and the non-believers fell very short Again!
It came back with .003% of leukemia. His parents are relieved and so grateful for all the prayers for him. But he is still not totally in the clear, but now their hope for a healthy child looks better. 4 million faithful people prayed this little boy and look at the results.
Praise God for all he is and what He continues to be, faithful to the end.

Prayers Answered

My friend Jason made it through very well with his surgery. So the prayers of many were answered. He will have a long healing time before he will get back to his normal routine. But it was all I could think about all day.

An update on little Ethan Powell, he had a bone marrow aspirate the other day. His father wrote that the website had so many hits at one time waiting for an update that it shut down. Under the microscope it appeared to be know signs of Leukemia, but they had to wait for the labs to come back to see the real proof though.

I just pray that it comes back with a positive result of no cancer. Ethan is still having lots of problems with bad nose bleeds. I hope you will keep this little guy in your prayers and that he can go on and live a life like any other child does. There have been over 4 million hits on his website, that's amazing.

Slaughtering A HOG B-day Cake!

This was my brother- in -laws birthday cake. This was one awesome looking cake, with its long nose I thought it was Jewish ! We just couldn't wait to slaughter the thing.
And so we did! It was delicious,and I had two pieces. We really wanted to see how they put this booger together. I wanted to know how they put the tail on. So we pulled on the tail and I made a huge squeeling noise. It was put on a clear tube that looked like the pig was getting an enema. No wonder the pig looked like it was hunched in pain! But then we saw the bad side effects of eating it afterwards.
I turned into a HOG! :)

Please Pray For Jason Floding

I have a prayer request for a college buddy of mine. He wrote me the other day on Facebook that he would be having a very serious and rare surgery on March 14th.

He had been having painful attacks in his side area around his liver over the past 2 years. The doctors finally told him he needed his pancreas removed. There are only three hospitals in the world that do this procedure.

Once the pancreas is removed he will undergo another surgery and then his liver should take over the functions of the pancreas.

Jason is originally from Belpre, OH and now resides in Alabama. Jason and I were really good friends at both Ohio Valley and Harding.

The surgery will take place at UAB hospital in Birmingham Alabama. He said God had blessed him by making the hospital close to home. I ask you to please pray for him and that the surgery will be successful. Thanks, Clint

If I Had A Drug Problem

Read the article it's pretty good. If it is too small click on the image and it should enlarge for you who are blind!