HEART'S CRY

The wind is blowing in snow and cold across Nebraska and the Midwest tonight.  Something about that feeling and the sound drives me domestic.  My urge to go tuck in the animals, bank the barns, stoke the fire and bake is not satisfied after feeding my horses and two chickens.  Nor is it satiated with peanut butter cookies or ham and bean soup or checking all of the doors and windows and calling my boys.   The hope planted in the spring that brought harvest in the fall is nurturing tonight.  The sweet smelling hay that I fed was not put up by my hands as it used to be and yet it was purchased by hope and hard work and planning.  The food, blankets and energy... all signs of my hope.  Hope to live.  Hope to nurture.  Hope to be.  Hope to become.   Hope warms, nurtures, energizes, comforts and challenges us.  Hope is my Heart's Cry.  Hope that my life makes a difference in those around me.  The Blessed Hope t...

Have you ever wondered if we can catch a spiritual "bug" or flu?  Has it crossed your mind as it has mine if my spiritual heart is sick?  Some days does it feel that the lethargy in your heart is like a giant boulder pressing you to the ground?  Can our heart catch cold??   Can I make my heart sick? Proverbs 13 tells us that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."  An expectation (hope) deferred (to draw, drag or seize) makes the heart (inner man, will, heart, understanding) sick (to become weak, diseased, grieved, sorry, to make oneself sick).  I've learned that when I have those beginning symptoms of being ill and feeling worn out that if I'll slow down, drink water and take care of myself I can stop it.  However, if I "buck up" and push through- it will flatten me.  After a few times in the hospital- I listen better to my body.   However, when I'm feeling the twinge of a sick heart where it is dragging and becoming weak, I miss it....

At times it is as if I've been hit by a tidal wave of feelings of inadequacy and fear and it can knock me off my feet.  My heart becomes swamped with those voices of condemnation that I cannot provide enough; am not working hard enough; can't do enough and am not enough.   In these conditions I face the only two choices of a drowning person.  Flog, flail and reach for anything to make me feel better and rid me of these anxious thoughts.  Or float.  Recognize and stay in the situation until I'm rescued by the only one who can save me.    I can try to do it myself but will drown.  The only freedom from self condemnation is in the knowledge that I have been set free from the law and sin and death!!!!!!!!   I am in full surrender Lord floating on this tidal wave of feelings of self condemnation and inadequacy knowing that you alone know how to pull me out of this mess!!!!!  You alone can put my feet back on solid ground ...

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.  Ecc. 11:1 Give it all you have!!  Put it all in the game.  Don't leave anything on the field.  Put it all on the line.  Life is full contact!  Just some of the one liners we use in life.    Cast your bread is such a cool word picture.  I can just picture a woman standing on the edge of the Nile River or in a boat tossing the grain seed in the flooded waters so they will sink into the soil as the water recedes.   Cast here means to send away; to sent, extend, direct, cut loose, let go, set free, to shoot.... She is not standing in the boat clutching the seed to her breast with panic that she might lose all she has.  She is not calculating the percent lost to the percent that actually took root.  I can see her standing with her head up and the wind in her hair as she lets go of everything she has.  Throwing it in the water to come what...

Spent the day with my husband sanding 60 years of stain, polyurethane, gum and who knows what else off the beautiful oak floors.  Using different grit of sandpaper we sanded down cracks, uneven boards, and filled in holes. Cracks disappeared under the grinding of the paper.  Next step is finishing the sanding, treating and staining the floors. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 .  God has put us together to sand down the bumps, dry spots, imperfections and inconsistencies in our lives so that our true character shows through.  It is only after this sanding that we can accept the oil of grace, mercy, forgiveness and restoration into our very being. We have to remember that hurting and struggle does not damage us.  There is a difference between hurt and harm.  Sanding doesn't harm the wood.  Just as discussion and confrontation sometimes hurts- it doesn't harm us.  If we don't let it!!!   Accept the restor...

In an attempt to prioritize and put boundaries on my time and activities, I made this really cool graph working inside out in order to remind me to work my way back to the center of the circle when I'm "overextending."  I know that when I have definition- like the lines to color in- that I feel in order.  Make sense??? Just make sure that the lines do not become traps or excuses to compartmentalize life.  God is not something to be regulated to activities and time but SOMEONE that I walk with all day long. My family isn't budgeting, cleaning, and cooking.  It is WHO I am. The experiences, security, strength and my way of life!!! They are with me ALL the time.  The calling of my life is my family.  God called me to be my husband's wife and my boys' mother.  Being my boys' mom IS my calling.  It has been THE CRY of my HEART for over 19 years when I pray daily, hourly and minute by minute for God to help me overcome my weaknesses.  To live ...

Listen.  "Make an effort to hear something.  Take notice of and act on what someone is saying. Respond ." Dictionary So simple isn't it and yet so hard.  The whole world is crying to be listened to.  The young child with stories galore; the older person aching to tell their story; the co worker; customer; spouse; children; parents; people in the grocery store and our neighbor.   Listen without expectation and without "fixing" or striving or self-interest. Listen with our hearts, minds, souls, senses and body.  Listen with intuition and our "gut" and listen with our whole being! Listening is exhausting when you listen with all of your heart.  Walking into a classroom one day I was determined to listen with everything I had.  I heard all of those little heart's cry to be paid attention to, to be heard, to be touched, to be valued and to be accepted.  Patting one, listening to one's story, giving hugs, encouraging, telling them how big ...

My heart is tearful and I don't know why!  The ability to ignore pain is a strength in my book and a value from where I was raised.  However, it can be a curse & I'm learning to pay attention whether it is a physical pain or a heart ache.     If we ignore pain for too long we build callouses and weaken our responsiveness.  Our hearts cannot function the way they were intended.  Harden your heart and you weaken your soul.  Our spiritual hearts were created to be in a constant taking off the bad and putting on the new.  Just like our skin when callouses disrupt the skin process so ignoring pain disrupts the process of putting off and putting on the new. Pain is meant to cause our Heart to Cry out to God.  Not to ignore or put on pedestal.  Not to whine or use as an excuse.  Not to push aside.  Not to pin on someone else or looking to someone else to take it away or fill the loneliness.  Only God can hear our true Hear...

I've been thinking about why it is so difficult for me to let go.  Holding on is so stressful and exhausting.  Holding on to my own self justification, selfish ambition and self promotion separates me from the freedom of letting go.  Separates me from my relationship with God and my relationships with others.  This reminded me of the verse..."You want something but don't get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.  You do not have, because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."   James 2:2-3 God help me to let go of wanting my own way!

What's in a Choice?  Once on my way to do chores I had the choice of going over the barb wire fence or around the long way.  Still trying to decide, I put my leg over the wire and then hesitated.  Hesitated just long enough to embed a barb in the seat of my jeans.  Not able to go one way or another until finally I pulled away tearing my jeans and a little flesh.  Learning my lesson that I have to choose. Choice.  The ability to choose one option or another. "The act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities."  Making a decision.  Choosing one way or the other.   We have many choices to make.  The choice to obey.  The choice to love or not love.  The choice to serve or not serve.  The choice to fail.  Choice to take a risk and make a stand.  Choice to believe.  Choice to follow or to lead.  Choice to speak.  Choice to work. Choice to think.  Choice ...

I was out in my back yard tinkering this morning when I watched more needles fall from my beautiful pine tree.  So I just watched.  I think we can learn a lot about God and ourselves by standing in and observing nature.   Half of the needles are brown and it is as if the tree shakes randomly shakes them off for me to gather up and use for compost.  Kind of like itchy skin! I looked up to see how often the evergreen sheds needles and amazingly, it is an ongoing process.  The evergreen constantly sheds needles throughout it's life. It is in a constant renewal.  This allows it to manage it's energy not have to go dormant to conserve. The tree can still take in food, sun, oxygen and still produce and grow new leaves in a more constant rate.  Not the influx in the spring and then asleep like my cotton trees.  Makes it strong and resistant and able to handle the cold and drought. My pine tree is constantly taking off the old and putting on...

  I heard a new word yesterday which left me intrigued and curious. Gradualism.   This person put it in simple form of a child asking for something.  We say,  "just one," and then another one and pretty soon it's gone.  Or, we'll see until we say yes. I thought of the frog in boiling water.  If you put a frog in a pan of room temperature water and gradually turn up the heat, it will stay and boil to death.  If you drop it in a pot of boiling water- it will jump out. An advertising guru by the name of Gene Schwartz coined the term as a way to structure or architect belief.  An inconspicuous way to build whatever belief you want someone to have.  He says that it has nothing to do with facts, proof or reason.  Is this the same as building bridges?  Linkages?  Systems theory?  Grooming? Conformity? The slow numbing or our ability to critical think and question?  The apathy and sleep at the wheel syndrome that...

Sitting beneath the tree in the beautiful fall evening, I breath deep of the cool air as quietly as I can.  Almost afraid to mess up the stillness.  The dying leaves are barely hanging on the tree and the squirrels have finally curled up in their nest.  Stillness surrounds me. Like a child spinning in circles, arms wide out until crashing with dizziness. The movement stops but the spinning continues within.  Life seems like that.  Rushing.  Spinning. Hurrying.  I stop.  Waiting for the movement to end.  Then it is as if God reaches out with His still small voice and touches the center of my spinning heart and mind and I become still. "Be Still and Know that I am God."    The word in Hebrew is "to let go."  "To drop."  To relax, surrender, to stop.  To Be Still and truly Know that God is God and He is in charge.  To let go.  Stillness that comes not from ourselves but from Him who has the power to still th...

Breathing.  What an amazing gift.   So basic and primordial.   An instinct, a reflex, a decision and a practice.   Y et it happens without our awareness. Breathing.  Breathing without thought or effort.  Breathing deliberately and strategically.  Lord thank you for breath!  Thank you for breathing life into us.  Breathing your Word into existence.  Breathing life into our spirits and our minds.  The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

All I know about this function on my computer is that when I defragment-my computer works better!!!  Since I am so technologically astute apt, I think this means that everything in the computer is jumbled.   Dictionary to the rescue.  Fragment suggest that breakage has happened.  The whole broken into parts.  An isolated and incomplete part of something.  Defragment according to the dictionary used another very cool word that I had to look up as well.  Concatenate.  To link things together in a chain or series. I n an age of self-actualization, of the human potential movement and dancing with the stars (or the energy of one) and so many seeking to become their own god with their own truth- we need some clean up! I think we need a good dose of defragmenting that only Jesus- can work in our lives.  Alligning ourselves to the truth of God's Word.  Compressing that space between reality and deception that weakens and slows us down...

Letting Go.  The first thing I do when I get home is drop all of my bags on the couch with a thump.   I usually do not hold on to the trash that I am "letting go" of in the trash can.  Letting go of the laundry that I drop in the machine is easy.  Why is letting go of the trash, dirt and baggage in my own life so hard to let go?  Why is it so easy to carry bags of worry and the expectations of others.  To tote around the desire to please someone else and all of the to do's to make that happen is exhausting. Lord, I'm picking up only what you have asked me to carry today and let go of all of the rest for you to take on.  Thank you!!

A simple day for simple pleasures friends.  Life is simple.  We make it complicated.   Feel the breeze and the sun on this gorgeous fall day.  Crunch some leaves, sing a song, wave at your neighbors and smile.  Enjoy the feel of that hug and kiss.  Play and laugh.  Scream at the top of your lungs for no reason at all.  Breathe deep.   Listen.  Listen to the sounds that we seldom hear.  Listen to the still small voice of the ONE who  loves you most.  Listen to the squirrel chewing out the bird in the tree and the sounds of the wind through the trees and the chimes.  Listen to the swings squeaking in the park and the sound of a sprinkler and the birds. Think.  Think grateful, thankful and peaceful thoughts.  Think courageous and still and sound things. Be.  Just be for today.  Be with HIM.  Be with your family.  Be at work.  Be with whomever you are with.  No hidden ...

Such a beautiful fall night and I'm feeling very nostalgic.  So thinking about my one room education in Hereford, SD where I started school with Mrs. Eppenbaugh.  She had also taught my Grandmother Lois. Mrs. Eppenbaugh brought a black lunch box every day with the apple and the paring knife.  At lunch, while we ate, she would cut the apple and read to us from the classics. Beside the front door to the school was an old bell that was the same one that my Grandma and her siblings rang.  Nearby was the flag pole that was the center of the opening and closing activities.  On nice days we would all go and say the Pledge of Allegiance as the flag went up.  The care and folding of the flag was an assigned chore each day where we carefully folded and put the flag up. The front porch doubled as the goalie for cold day soccer or dodge ball or protection from the boys' snowballs and a way to be outside on the worst wintery days.  Beside and behind the schoo...

Fighting disease and building immunity.  This time of year people make plans to get their flu shots on board as "the cold" creeps into our community.  Inoculation is the placement of something that will grow and reproduce to promote and increase immunity to a specific disease.   We are given a weakened version of the real thing.  For example, the flu.  This year's flu shot will include the regular flu and the H1N1 flu.  The flu can cause us to feel drained and depleted and for some is very dangerous.  And yet is it better to depend on natural exposure or go for the shots? What does the spiritual flu feel like?  Do we feel drained and without purpose and direction.  Does spiritual inoculation prevent this disease in our lives?  Do bits and pieces and sound bytes of God's Word inoculate us from the spiritual flu and increase our immunity?  Does a weakened portion of the real thing substitute for the depth and living Word? ...

Driving home from my son's football game tonight on the Interstate.  So much traffic on that road!  I was driving and trucks were bunching up so I blinked my light to let a truck know that he could pass.  When I went by, he flashed his lights in response.  Made me smile.  What a wonderfully small and yet gracious act on a very dark road.    Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow GOD'S WORD In the same way let your light shine in front of people. Then they will see the good that you do and praise your Father in heaven.

Visiting with a couple today who knew my friend Nate Walls for a short time left me with much to think about.  After spending some time sharing memories, the young lady had tears in her eyes.  She talked about the difference he made in their lives with his life, his stories, his compassion and his teaching- being a mentor and friend. Nate influenced people's lives.  Influence according to the dictionary is the power to affect persons and events.  Basically to make a difference in those whose lives connect with mine.  Positive or Negative. Did you know that even introverts have influenced over 10,000 people in their lifetime? It is sobering to realize that we have the opportunity and privilege to make a positive difference in others' lives everyday!!!  Sometimes it's direct influence on a person and others it is because of the domino effect.  Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect of Edward Lorenz?  My translation is that small differen...

  My son wisely told me after preaching Sunday,  "Mom, you have to keep your head."    When I get anxious- I lose my place and wiggle around in more ways then one!  I wiggle physically and mentally!  I'm like a high strung horse who throws my head and loses my sense of balance and purpose.  Keeping my head steady, bowed and true is my prayer and my battle cry.   Louis L'Amour is one of my favorite authors.  He writes, "Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more". My very favorite author puts it another way, " But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." Hebrews 10:39 God did not call us to be spiritually weak.  He calls us to KEEP OUR HEADS !  He says, and having done all, to stand."   Mom, Keep Your Head.  Stand!   

Remember that song?  "I want you to love me.  I need you to need me.  I want you to want me."   What is that song?   Was thinking about that today as I went through my day.   Isn't that what the whole world is saying?  Isn't that the cry of every heart?  Young or old.  Rich or poor.  Busy or Bored.  Top of the world or in the gutter.   We all just want to be loved, needed and wanted.  That is the universal Heart's Cry!  The longing that whispers as it beats and screams as it pounds.  The cry that binds us, drives us and makes us who we are. God answers this Heart's Cry.  He answers us.  He whispers and puts his hand on our shoulder.  He has you on His thoughts and in His mind. He knows where you are physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  He is ALL THAT YOU NEED! 1  O LORD, you have searched me        and you know me. ...

I'm missing my son and my heart is aching and sharing a poem of my HEART'S CRY today and always for my boys. Loving my son It's not easy watching as you spread your wings and fly away. To stand watching you go knowing you are there to stay. It's mostly loving and not getting to hold. Being so proud as you are so bold. Always knowing without a doubt, God will bring good things about. Knowing you are watched by God above. Held tight in his arms of love. Up in the night comforted by the moon. Praying to God to bring you home soon. Watching as you take flight and soar, This son, this man I'll always adore. I'll stand right here and be part of the fight, On my knees in the watches of the night. Knowing I now have a different role, As I pray for God to strengthen body, mind, and soul. Know God gave me boys straight, strong and true; Arrows from our quiver sent whereever he wants you. Always my little boy, my son until my very...

It's a BIG deal!  Mom brought Maurine's pressure cooker to me.  My first.  Back in the days the pressure cooker, canning supplies and quilts were passed on from generation to generation.  This cooker is a symbol to me.  As girls we tire of listening to the stories of this jar or that cooker or this grinder belonging to Aunt so and so or Grandma somebody.  And quite honestly, I would arrogantly blow it off.  Humpf!  Didn't she know that we would be leaving the place someday and would work and BUY green beans?  My Mom, Maureen, Grandma Laura, Grandma Edith and Aunt Ally were mentors, tutors and the legends of our family. Maureen at first worked for my family on the ranch.  She was a tough, sassy and independent lady that mentored my Mom and thrilled her with stories of the past.  She made her own soap which of course we had to go watch.  She helped when we butchered chickens, canned meet or gathered to harvest and freeze sweet ...

As I listened last night to the speaker share about "not being shut up" and living life loud, I questioned my life.  Where in my life have I stopped asking God?  Have I shut up as I listen to the crowd?   The crowd of music, news, tv, computer, people, fear, doubt, "reality" and busyness? The looks, the raised eyebrows and the whispers? Where I have been rebuked and stopped loving and reaching out or being who God has made me to be?   What is stopping me from reaching out to Jesus as He walks by in my life and ask for His help and love for me and for others? As a precocious woman, I don't know if those around me know how fearful I truly can be.  Wondering if I'm missing something?  What do people think?  Am I being understood?  Sometimes when I say something, it is like I am speaking a language of my own.  Have you felt that way? Doubts and insecurities keeping our eyes inward and not on the one who has all of the answers to all ...

So I'm a wife, mom, professional, friend...   I'm still just a girl!   Still a little girl at heart and mind.   The me that I am is still the me that I was and will be.   The boys can't see the precocious tom boy who loved adventure and danger.  My husband still wants the girl in me with the snake head belt and cowboy boots.  My parents see the little me.  What do others see in me? I still want to be the little girl climbing up on my parents' lap to snuggle and be held, the running wild me riding as fast as the wind, the me with the cowgirl attitude flirting with my husband, living on a wild goose chase and the more wise me.   Can I be them all?  Yes!  That's Me.  That's what I want and need.  To be loved and accepted as ME-  all of those pieces that make me who I am.  My heart's cry is to live honest and free. And you?  Do you remember who you are?  What do you need?  What do you want ...

I woke up this morning tired.  Not a physical tiredness but a wrung out heart tired.  Make sense to anyone.  I read Psalms.  First chapter I read was 44 and one verse said, "We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground."  Pretty much said it!  I kept reading until I got to my favorite verse Psalms 46:10. Be still and Know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth. I looked up the Hebrew word for still and found out the same word is used for "Still" and "Letting Go."  To (Be still, to let go, cease striving, relax, idle..) and know that I am God.   It is also interesting to note that God is speaking both to His enemies and His people.  His will WILL be done and He will be exalted in time.  To His people He is telling to be Still and He will be glorified-no matter what happens.  We have to let go of all we are depending on.  We let go of our fears and ou...

Dear God, Our hearts are broken today with the loss of our friend, Dad, Husband, Grandchildren, foster kids and co- workers.  An entire community mourns the loss of Nate Walls.  I met Nate as we worked together years ago when I was a family support worker.  We worked together as we went from company to another.   Companies came and went but Nate stood constant in our community as an advocate for families.  I'll never forget the night that I was late during a visit and he was calling the cops to find me.  He looked after us all.  Everyone knew his kids and grandkids.  If we was out to eat or run errands or working; it was very common to see grandkids riding along!  If you were around him for more than 5 minutes you had heard about his family. Nate's heart was huge.  Big enough for so many people.  Not perfect but that is what made him lovable.  He was good.  He loved with abandon and passion.  My heart is b...

Rest.  An elusive quest!  One I'm always on anymore!!  After reading the verses below... I have lots to think about! God promises us rest!  Remember faith is believing that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do.  Rest for my soul!  God thank you that you have a rest for us that is beyond comprehension! I pray for rest for each of you!  Rest! Let me know what you think of the verses below.   God has told his people, "Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest."  But they would not listen. Is.  28:12 Physically this chapter of Isaiah talks about the rest of war!  Spiritually, the "rest" meant is that to be found in obeying those very "precepts" of God which they jeered at . Jamieson, Fausset & Brown   This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest ...

I was struggling with how to bring up the topic of keeping the faith or shutting down and Rochelle made the comment above that put a great point to it! Faith is believing that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do.   Hebrews 11:1 says in the King James,  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." English Standard Version states, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  Just because something is invisible doesn't mean it isn't real.  Faith is not a force or a power or simply confidence!  It is unswerving belief in the truth of God's Word and in the person of Jesus Christ.  Paul Little states, "Faith is only as valid as the object in which it is placed." Our faith is in the unchanging Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and will be tomorrow.  He is the same in the midst of our victory as in our defeat! Put your head up and walk do...

Isn't this at the very heart of humanity?   We want to move beyond the casual acquaintance and on to something more substantial with God and with others.  Sometimes we build walls with the pain of being hurt thinking we are protecting our heart when in reality we are isolating ourselves even more.  The loneliness reverberates within us causing more and more damage. God made us relational.  In fact, I believe that God created us for that sole purpose.  He wanted to love us and for us to love Him and each other.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for Adam and Eve to have an early morning walk with God.   I wonder if they talked about their relationship, about the animals and about the garden they were growing.  Just chatting in the early morning. It is also important that we recognize that we are known at different levels.  We need to just increase our group of friends.  Do we have to have those intimate relationships with e...

Beautiful fall evening.  I've been cooking, blending and putting some food away.  While tinkering in the kitchen or in the yard I watched the squirrels very busily putting away food for the winter and I feel a great connection.   I remember harvest at home and putting up hundreds of jars of veggies and meat.  It was not a luxury but for our survival for the winter. When I read the following verse growing up - I knew exactly what it meant.  I remember one year that a neighbor didn't put up hay and during an awful winter, his cattle starved. I could see and touch the harvest.  It took me time to understand the abstract of harvest of savings.  I've always lived frugally but not saved for the winter. Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.  When we can earn- we need to and put it away for a season of wi...

Stress Defined: 1 pressure or tension exerted on a material object : the distribution of stress is uniform across the bar. • the degree of this measured in units of force per unit area. 2 a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances : he's obviously under a lot of stress | [in combination ] stress-related illnesses. • something that causes such a state : the stresses and strains of public life. Stress Contained: There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Phil. 4:3 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Is. 40:31 Stress is not evil but it needs contained.   Stress can cause us to turn back to rely on God.  Stress can build our per...

September is my Dads' birthdays!  Yes, you heard that right- 2 Dads!  I am the most blessed girl in the world.  God knew that I needed them! My Mom married Dennis when I was four and moved to a ranch in Western South Dakota.  Very quickly I was followed by five beautiful sisters and a brother.  My Dad Dennis adopted me and they were very wise in being truthful with me right away.  In fact, we would go get a pop at the old Hereford Post Office on that day for years to come.  They told me about my birth Dad Chuck and as much as my Mom could remember about him and his family and the story of my coming to be.  I can't imagine this cowboy taking a very wild four year old along with his wild wife home to the flats to meet the family.   So we became ranch women and I loved everything about it.  It fit me!  I could help feed, ride and have lots and lots of freedom.   Can you imagine being the Dad of six girls?   I...