Lord Help Me!

I need your prayers again. I've been wanting to write and share joys and the busy-ness I'm still trying to juggle. I've been meaning to give everybody an update on Rachel's progress. But, I come here today with another prayer request. Please, please pray for my Daddy, Jim. He's been admitted to the VA Medical Center in Omaha because he's had a stroke. I just got the call from my mom this evening. He just had a mini-stroke in December and he had a more serious mini-stroke in 1998. I don't know how serious this one is, but I am believing that he will be healed by the blood of Jesus. I'm kind of a wreck; been missing my family lately anyway and this happens. The outpouring of prayers from my church family and friends so far tonight has been a blessing. I would be untethered without them. My Papa (my dad's dad) died when he was 59, and now my dad is that age. To me, he still seems young. To my kids, he's Papa. Please help me pray.

Praying for a Miracle

Five days ago, my best friend from Jr. High put an urgent message on my Facebook page. "Do you know what's happened to Rachel Stotler? I don't know but all I know is we need to pray HARD for her!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!" That started a quick frantic search of Facebook to find out what was happening. I followed a link to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper article that recounted a bad car accident on icy roads that led to my friend Rachel (Stotler) Clasemann to being admitted to Creighton Hospital in Omaha. I friend requested her husband, Jon, who I'd only met at their wedding about 11 years ago and sent him a message. He was kind enough to get back to me the same day, after I'd read his journal on the Caring Bridge site set up for Rachel.

She is 35-years-old, a physical therapist, and mommy to 2 little boys: Nathan and Jacob. They are too young to be visitors at the ICU where their mom is in a coma. She is recovering from a severe brain injury. So severe, in fact, that 2 parts of her skull had to be removed to relieve the pressure from the swelling in her brain. There have been some good developments in the past few days, but we are dwelling in the needed-miracle area here.

Please join me in prayer for my friend of 23 years, Rachel Clasemann. Also, pray for peace, strength, and joy for Jon and their sons, and Rachel's parents. I know Jesus has this situation in the palm of His pierced hand. I continue to lay my fear and anguish for her at the foot of the cross. I am believing for complete, miraculous restoration! She will not only wake up, but be fully healed in the name of Jesus!

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
   I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
   I will be with him in trouble,
   I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him

   and show him my salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16

Flying with Daddy

Towing the plane out to the tarmac. Daddy is so strong!

Last week, I had the exciting privilege to go flying with my Daddy. He joined the Air Force straight out of college to be a pilot and realized his dream by flying B-52 bombers. However, most of his career in the service was on the ground, "flying a desk" as he called it. He retired just after Nick and I got married and has since done quite a bit of flying. He's taught private lessons, even did a stint as a charter pilot, and is currently working at the Aero Club on Offutt Air Force Base as chief flight instructor. (I may have that title wrong, but believe me, it's something equally impressive. ;) Anyway, my dad, Jim Newman is a pilot and occasionally does some joy flying, especially when the grandkids are around. He's also the pastor of a church, has been married to my mom for 35 years and has 9 grandchildren. Quite impressive, no?

The view up here - river, crops, roads, God's good earth

It was fun to go up with him in a tiny 4-seater for about half an hour. We flew from the base (on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River), over to the outskirts of Council Bluffs, Iowa where we (kind of) saw my parents' house, then south a little to see the bluffs, farmland, the Platte and Missouri rivers join, a racetrack, and even a golf course with the Omaha skyline on the horizon before landing again. The engine was noisy so we wore headsets with microphones to communicate. Keliah's voice was heard often, I think she was getting a kick out of it. She even asked quite loudly when the radio chatter was going to stop. Daddy said he thinks that the controllers must go home tired out from talking all day. (I think sometimes that happens to Keliah, who doesn't want to talk to me on the phone. What, you're eating bagels? "Yes." Are you having fun? "yes" Did you ride the horse? "yes" What's up with that?)

Cecelia and Keliah - enjoying the flight

I only had one moment of fright during this time. When we were about to take off, Daddy turns to me and says, "If my seat for some reason falls back suddenly when we take off, just pull this black knob so we don't flip over." Uh, okay. Inside, I'm praying this doesn't happen because my brain would probably freeze!
Thank you, Daddy, for a great day. It was a great chance to appreciate the glorious beauty God has created for us to enjoy. How green the grass and fields! How lovely the winding river! How amazing the farms and roads, bridges and cities that we small humans have created with the talents God has given. And, how incredibly blessed I am to have you for my earthly father. Love you!

Back in the Saddle Again

This is my sweet baby niece, Hope, on the day I said good-bye. She's a pretty emphatic napper. It was so great to see her and hold her and revel in the newborn-ness of her. There is something magic about babies. Anyway, I had a great visit with my family and even snuck in a brief visit with my in-laws, who are big blessings. My sister, Holly is handling the transition from being mom of a preschooler to being mom of 2 (one of which is totally dependent, and the other making a big adjustment to life as "not the baby") very well. I think as soon as her stitches fully heal, she'll be ready to take on this new life with all her usual passion! Please continue to pray for Hope's right ear. They have an appointment with a specialist in September to determine if her inner ear is developed, and what the future looks like regarding her ear. Her ear canal is closed, so right now we don't know if she has hearing on that side, or not. Her other ear is perfect, though, just like the rest of her.

I'm glad to be home with Nick and my 3 little ones. They handled my absence well, but BOY, have they been clingy the past few days. On Thursday, they fought to sit on me. I spent a good part of the day watching Noggin with 3 kids laying, sitting, squishing on me.

I'm excited to be getting back to OHOP too. I will be spending a lot more time in the prayer room starting Monday. I need to concentrate my prayers and do the work God is calling me to! The whole family will be attending the set from 10-12 every Monday morning, so look out - here we come! We really feel like we should have the kids in the prayer room more, raising them up "in the temple" as it were. Hopefully, we'll have a crew of Samuels who will know the voice of God.

I'm gonna wrap this up and spend some QT with my Sweetie. Come back this week to hear more about my adventures in Omaha & Lincoln. Blessings!

On Vacation...

I feel bad about not posting for a week! It's been a crazy time, though. We had a houseguest from Kansas last week and then I flew out on Wednesday afternoon with our 4 oldest kids for Omaha. They get to have lots of fun visiting with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - not to mention long-time family friends in the midwest during the whole month of July. I flew up here for the week to visit with my parents and especially my sister, Holly, and her family. Her new baby girl, Hope, is 2 weeks old today! She is a doll and is good at sleeping and eating! Her big sister, Sophia, loves to tell everyone that they have a new baby girl. She also likes to be just a tiny bit bossy about how to act around Hope. But, hey, that's big-sister perogative, I think. I will have to post pics of them after I get home on Wednesday night because I forgot to bring my camera cord.

I'm packing in as much fun as possible over the next couple days, so you probably won't hear from me till Thursday or Friday. Tomorrow's schedule includes: a short sight-seeing flight with my dad who happens to be the pilot and my 2 big girls, a call-in meeting for OHOP, spending the afternoon with Holly and Hope, and possibly eating out and watching Monsters VS. Aliens. My time here is flying by, but I miss Nick and my 3 munchkins. It will be good to see their little faces again. In the meantime, I'm really not missing the mountains of laundry, dishes, and messy diapers. Please pray for Nick as he is doing a great job with them on his own. Thank you!

Baby Picture Sundays - The Heat is ON!

This is my Daddy (Papa to the kids) holding Luca at the end of Summer 2006. Luca is just 4 1/2 months old here. We were at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, which is awesome. Definitely the best zoo I've been to. I chose this pic for this week as a slightly belated honor for Father's Day to my dad. Also, at this time in our life, the heat was ON! Not only was it late August in the midwest, which means high heat and humidity, but we were also living with our parents. We had fled Florida out of fear after a job fell through. We headed home to safety, family, the known. We had 6 kids at the time and we were too far along in our life to be living with and depending so completely on family. We discovered during the 4 months we were "home" that God had meant for us to stay in Florida - the new home He had called us to. The job Nick had lined up before we came back to Nebraska got sidelined and he ended up working for them in a very low-paying position. The home we had thought we were a shoo-in for was denied us because of the size of our family. It became an impossible situation. Not only that, but at least once a day, there was some reference to Florida put in our path. It became a lesson in obedience, patience, perseverence. FAITH. Before the end of our 3rd month home, Nick had 2 job offers back in Florida. We moved from Missouri to Florida, to Nebraska, to Florida again in 1 year. God's heat was on us! We were feelin' it! Thank you, Lord for your love, patience, and trials by fire!

Also, thank You for tiny beautiful baby boys to bring joy and light in the darkest times.

Verse for the Day:
Hebrews 5:7-9
"During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him."