How interesting life is on earth and how very much there is to learn along the journey. What a fantastic sermon our pastor taught on Sunday in his series "Ordinary Life - Extraordinary God." The message titled "Ordinary Faith" was about facing the giants. Giants being anything that defies our faith, what we believe and why we believe it. He stated that giants have a way of showing up in our lives, accept it! These giants are unexpected, relentless and are definite or life defining. The great news is Victory can be ours, we just have to find it.

The giants of my summer of 2008 definitely fit the bill. When facing the giants in my life, I have realized there are going to be many phases. I must take each phase as it comes and in time I will arrive at the victory. I am learning not to be ashamed of the fear in the early stages. The fear that arises when you suddenly realize the fine line of life and death. The post surgery fears I have of flight, the fear of over doing exercise and disrupting the clip, the fear that one cancer cell jumped ship and is invading, etc. Fear is there for a reason- to realize how precious life is and no human will live forever. For every great up- there has been a down for comparison. I am learning to be very appreciative of every day. I am trying to make the most of every day. As Pastor Greg noted, you must find the reason to fight, the name of God. The resource to fight, the strength of God. The resolve to fight, faith in God.

Hello bloggers. I know it has been a long time since we last spoke. I am sorry it has taken so long. I know many of you now have an addiction to checking out our life :^) Anyway, in all honesty I have been having a pretty rough time lately with some feelings of depression. In research I have discovered this is pretty common after brain surgery. I try and tell myself how blessed that God gave me signs before a rupture. I know the incredible journey of an aneurysm survivor after a rupture and my story pales in comparison. I was again blessed to learn of the melanoma in the early stages. However, even with these incredible blessings I find myself struggling to keep my brain and emotions in check. I know that I have not returned some calls and e-mails and I apologize. I am feeling better but I do realize that my journey has not ended. I have been back to church for the last 2 weeks. Thanks to my WONDERFUL, FAITHFUL husband who had to drag me kicking and screaming the first week. The following week was much easier and I have felt so much better being back with my brothers and sisters in Christ and being loved. It is scary how easily the devil can get a foothold and keep you in seclusion. he knows the buttons to push and uses them to his advantage. Thankfully I have a wonderful, supporting God and family who will not let him push my buttons without a fight.

Well enough about the "depressing" stuff. My brother's wife had a baby on Tuesday. Kolby was born by c-section and weighed 6lb. 3oz. He encountered some problems during birth due to swallowing meconium. He has been in NICU since he was born, but is doing very well. He is off the venillator and only has one IV for the antibiotics. My brother got to hold him for the first time today. He will go home sometime over the weekend. Incredibly, I had a free airline ticket. I checked the expiration date yesterday and guess what?!? It expires Sunday, September 7. Another blessing! Cortney insisted that I use my ticket to visit Nashville.I have now taken on a post surgery fear and it was a success. I was so scared that my head would explode with the altitude and I would lose my clip. Well, I did great and my brain is still intact. So, I can fly!!!!

Well, this has been quite a rambling message. I will try and be better about blogging and will tell little things here and there about the journey.