Jenny’s very last update:

“Jenny Bizaillion (age 31) passed from this world at 3:38pm today.
She was the most beautiful, wonderful friend, perfect mom, devoted sister, loyal daughter, and best wife a person could ever have.

From the Bible:  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?   But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

A few of you may know about Jenny, a 31 year old wife and mother who is fighting for her life right now.  People literally all over the world are praying this week.  On a Facebook site set up for her, “Praying for Jenny Bizaillion,” there are over 6,600 members to date who are praying for her as well as thousands of others.

Jenny entered the hospital 17 days ago with the flu which had turned into pneumonia which quickly turned to Sepsis, a bacterial infection spread throughout her whole body.  She has not only been battling for her life, her legs had to be amputated below the knees four days ago, and now Sepsis bacteria has entered her brain causing her to have seizures the past couple of days.

Throughout all of this, her family is staying close by and keeping their faith with the knowledge that “God is mighty to save.”   The only reason that Jenny has lived and made it this far is because of God answering the many prayers on her behalf.  Just a couple of days after being in the hospital, a doctor admitted he didn’t know why Jenny had improved but to “keep doing what you’re doing!”  In other words…pray!  Many of the prayers on her Facebook site, including mine, mention that through all of this, the glory goes to God!  God is the one who has brought Jenny this far, and whatever the outcome He will still be glorified!

Psalm 147:3-5  “He (God) heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.  Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.”

It was such a blessing to be with family during the holidays.  Our son was home from college, and we had a great time being together.

We have many blessings!  We’re so thankful for both of our children, son-in-law, grandbabies, my mother-in-law, and our friends.  God has blessed us and is taking care of my husband and I through our job search.  My most precious blessing, though, is my relationship with God.  Jesus is not only my Savior, he is my best friend!

The first Thanksgiving was a feast of thanksgiving to God for the harvest of food with which they were blessed.

Psalm 100

A psalm of thanksgiving.

¹ Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
² Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

(Biblegateway.com)

“Nearly every moment of every day we have the opportunity to give something to someone else – our time, our love, our resources. I have always found more joy in giving when I did not expect anything in return.”

September 11 Memorial Video Tribute

Please join me and pray for all of those who lost family and friends on that horrible day!  Say a prayer for our country, too!

This is the view out of my kitchen window.  My curtains look dark, but they actually match the cream color of the blooms on the Crepe Myrtle tree just outside the window.  Every day when I’m standing at the sink, I see this pretty view.  Years ago when we first moved to this house, all I could see out this window were a lot of rooftops and the very tops of a few small trees.  Time really does make a difference.

When thinking about the concept of “time,” there are some verses in the Bible that I like to think about.  In fact, these verses are in a popular song by the Byrds called “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season).”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

There are a lot of good books on the market nowadays such as Fireproof and The Love Dare.  There has been a lot of talk about these two books being such great books to read.  These are books I eventually want to get.

There are also other good fiction books on the market, too.  I like to look at Christian books for these.  Janette Oke is one of my favorite authors in this category, and I have read several of her books and have more that I want to read.

This is in response to Lori’s “Finding Faith” post.  I was going to leave a comment but then realized it would end up being a long comment and it was actually something I would like to share with my readers.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures.  I took digital pictures of photos I already had, but hey, it works.   Well, here goes:

This happened back in 2001 on a Saturday morning.  My husband was gone for the morning, and it was just our son and me at home.   He wanted to go next door and see the neighbor boy.  The weather report said that a storm was heading our way but it sounded like it would be 30 minutes before it got to our house, so I said OK.   He opened the front door and then came back inside.  Then we heard the tornado sirens going off.  Minutes later, we heard someone knocking at our back door.  It was a neighbor who informed me that our two gigantic trees had  blown over and completely obstructed the sidewalk and front door.  We ran around to the front and sure enough, there was this massive forest of tree trunks and branches all over our sidewalk.

Neighbors gathered quickly and covered the hole in our roof with tarpaulin  because rain was headed our way.  That was a blessing because soon the rain started to pour.

(The picture below was taken after trimming had been done.)

When things had settled down a bit and my son and I were talking about all that had happened that morning, I found out that when he opened the front door, he actually saw those two gigantic trees (which were close to our house, not far from the front door) swaying from the ground up.  In other words, the trunks themselves were swaying which meant they were getting ready to come forward towards the house.  I realized that God had kept our son safe from going out onto the sidewalk where the trees were getting ready to fall.

On Monday when the insurance adjuster came, he couldn’t get over how those two huge trees did not cut our house like a knife.  He said that when you have two enormous trees fall over on a house, it usually cuts completely through the house.  Again, I realized how God had protected both my son and me from being hurt by the trees and a falling roof and ceiling.

One thing I remember, too, is that my husband said those two trees looked like they had been laid gently on our house.  I believe it was the hand of God, easing the fall of those trees to protect us!

How many times does God protect us throughout our lives and we don’t even realize it?

We ended up getting our roof repaired and a replacement chimney.  One tree did major damage to a corner of the house where there is a walk-in closet.  (You could stand in that closet, look up, and see the sky.)

I felt sorry for the guys on trash day who came to pick up tree limbs! Those pieces of tree trunk and large limbs were huge and very heavy.  Those were 60 year old trees so they had done a lot of growing!