KAITIE -- we will pray for him anyways; GOD loves him and wants him to be comfortable and at peace. Plus GOD ultimately decides when your DH's cousin goes home. So I will pray that he will be comforted at this time with lots of love and caring people around him as well as for a peaceful passing when that time comes. I always pray for every possible positive outcome no matter what the circumstances. I am sure that your visit means a lot to him too; probably more than you realize. I know that I sure appreciated someone coming to see me any time I was in the hospital, as it isn't always fun laying there all day alone. I'm so glad for him that he has friends and loved ones around him at this time.

Katie These are never easy, but I understand how you feel. However, I agree with Rosebud. Y'all being there probably meant a whole lot to him. Praying for all concerned.

THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR MY DH -- he was very agitated this AM; and again early this evening. I called a friend to come to visit and stay the night with me. I pray GOD will bless her for this as it helps me a lot. DH seems to calm down when company comes; and I gave him some new meds tonight that I hope will help him sleep better too. We've been under a lot of stress lately and hopefully that will end soon ...


Don't you kinda feel like this song should be a Christian Banner Song; I do ...

It's called HELP ME FIND IT by Sidewalk Prophets ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjZ94K7UQs

Prayers continuing for all

I have a request-Our DS2 heads back to college tomorrow. It's earlier than usual, since he's a senior and has to help plan football camp this year. He's getting to move into an apartment and found a nice one on the 1st floor of a house with a guy who's a couple years older and graduated. Things were set to go until he found out that the current 'renter' can not move out until Saturday, but DS2 has to be there Friday, so he's having to go and sleep on the couch until we can bring his furniture on Sunday (not going on Saturday, because there's a football banquet on Sunday). This just kind of threw him for a loop, as he's been struggling with the depression a bit just thinking about going back to school anyway. He has what they called an 'adjustment disorder' which simply means that when he has things planned out in a certain way and they don't go that way, he has a hard time adjusting to the new plan and gets depressed that it worked out differently. He knows this happens and realizes it's part of the illness, but it still takes him some time to get back to normal. So, he could just use some prayers to get settled in and back to school (classes start on the 20th) with an optimistic attitude. Thank you all!

RONNI -- sending up prayers for your DS2 about this situation for peace of mind with life's little delays. Sometimes you can plan and plan but life can throw a monkey-wrench into those plans and screw things up for us. I know how he feels, just as we have had to wait for our own money to come back to us this month.

We are learning to trust GOD so much lately; and GOD knew this was a sensitive area for me as we were poor for a good part of our childhood, and I still have memories of that today. We had some very lean years when we first got married, but GOD carried us through and I learned a lot from those experiences. That was one reason I took bookkeeping in high school and accounting in college ...

GOOD NEWS NEWS -- THANK GOD, our August's money was finally transferred into our account on the 7th (a bit late but our overdraft covered our mortgage, etc). I also thank GOD for the wisdom all those years ago to get that for emergencies like this; and other financial wisdom I learned over the years (like paying off all debts, learning how to make credit work for us, putting savings away each month, and having a monthly personal allowance so we each had our own pin money, etc, etc, etc. )

I will share these tips with you each month from now on: I really felt that GOD wanted me to share this with other Christians at this time. Interestingly, I just mentioned this to a Christian friend who then admitted to me that she was in terrible debt right now, and was broke for the rest of the month. I told her that I will help her if she needed money for food but she said she had enuff for now. I know that she has enuff money to live on with some left over, but she made some big purchases that have caused this problem.

Her mistake -- buying things and owing debt when she should have waited until she could afford them. So now she can't do what she wants to do in a comfortable and peaceful way becuz of that error. I am praying that she will learn from this experience and be more careful next time. Even if she has debt, she should set aside enuff money for her food and transportation each month. Pay debt off with a steady monthly payment so she can still eat and get around.

Ronni Praying for your DS2 that the Lord will help calm him and give him peace during this time.

Rosebud Glad you got your August money. I know about having to live on a budget. Money has been so tight since DH kids lived her all those months and we had to pay more. Didn't have to live so close paying bills etc before then. Still had a difficult time when they left because helping DH grandson and him living here during the summer and being a normal teen, I don't think the kid ever gets full. LOL DH has hit the gap in his meds insurance so we are having to pay 80% for meds. So just too much at one time. But God has helped us before and somehow He will get us through this time too. It does help that we don't buy anything on credit unless we can pay it off when the bill comes in. Hope your friend can learn that too. She is blessed to have you to help her out.

Bargoo Are you okay? You are in my prayers.

Ronni- praying for your DS2.

Rosebud- praying for you and your DH, and glad you got the money. Your advice on finances is timely- I'm not in trouble but I find myself far too often living for the moment and not saving money the way I know I should.

THANKS DEE -- hey, I am still learning stuff through this experience myself. I prayed that GOD would use this to teach me and others through it: IOW, turn what started out as a bad situation, into good for us. I am re-reading a book I bought many years ago; and since our circumstances are different now, there are some tips that I can use now that didn't apply to us before.

The biggest lesson I learned is that I would like to have a bit more in savings just in case; esp now that I can do that. Moreover, I am glad that I listened to GOD all those years ago, and took measures that helped us out today. I would have really been in a pickle if I hadn't; plus I am grateful for the offer of help from our bank. I can be really frugal in a pinch, and that has helped us out before and will again, I'm sure.

I have some plans that I will implement over the next few months that will help us as well. It is good to be prepared just in case something unexpected happens out of the blue, just like what happened to us recently. I also found out today that the bank had changed the way some transactions are done and was able to have some changes made to our benefit as well.

So there seems to be many things that I am learning from this incident; and I am glad to share that with others through this journey as well. There is a scripture that always pops into my mind when I am considering buying something that says, "why do you spend your money on things that are not bread". I will look that up to make sure I have it right.

Isaiah 55:2 -- Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. See Isaiah 55:1-3 (in Context) Isaiah 55 (Whole Chapter)

I ask myself "do I need this now" or can it wait; and "can you afford this now" or should you wait? If you look around today, there are many places that you can look to get the things you need (and want) for better prices. I went shopping today and found so many good sales that I was under my budget by $50.00; so that will go into my emergency savings fund. I had started this a while back and I hope to have it ready in only two more months.

SPECIAL PRAYERS PLEASE -- could you please send up some special prayers for DH & I tonight. Apparently he had some kind of misunderstanding or disagreement with a neighbour about something (they won't say what it was about for some unknown reason). So her son came to tell me that they wanted him (not sure if he meant us, but I think so) to stay away from his mother. He was gonna say it, but I asked him to let me do it; and just as I suspected DH doesn't recall any such conversation taking place. So he is either denying it or can't remember it (which is more likely). It was very embarrassing for me for many reasons, as he brought up stuff that really had nothing to do with me and that I don't fully understand any co-relation. So I asked DH to stay away from them and their house and I know he will be upset as he thought they were friends but he was wrong; and so was I (as I thought the same and obviously I was wrong too). We were misled to believe that we were friends. They know he has ALZHEIMERS but he admitted that they can't handle it or something to that effect. Please pray for me as I am so sad and embarrassed right now although I know my LORD will help me somehow. I have so much on my plate right now that I really didn't need this kind of problem too. I'll have to go try and find DH soon; ask for angel help to find him ... thanks so much.

UPDATE: THANK GOD DH came back home and is fine; and I talked to my SIL and she offered me words of support. I told the man that I am doing the best I can considering the situation. I wish they had been more understanding but I think a lot of this has more to do with them than us; and there was a lot of projection going on there. You know, my mother always used to say that it was very hard to make friends with neighbours unless they were very mature and balanced people; so it was best to keep an arms length, which I have always tried to do myself. May the LORD help us deal with this situation in the most peaceable manner that we can. Thanks again ...

THE BENEFITS OF STRUGGLE ...

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared -- he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily; but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were GOD's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If GOD allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been; and, we would never fly ...

Author Unknown

Great post, Rosebud!

Amen.

Great story, Rosebud. I'm going to copy it for my son

Prayers for all. God is listening. He knows the needs and He does provide

DS2 is doing much better after just a couple days, so it's been a much quicker adjustment than usual for him. Thanks for the prayers!

Rosebud, I worked in finance for many years, here is a tip many people don't realize regarding credit card debt. If a person has credit t card debt and pays only the minimum payment they will never get the debt paid off. I am not referring to you, Rosebud but people in general who may be in trouble financially.
I was watching The Doctors the other day and they had a tip re Alzheimers patients. Their suggestion , old music, not just any old music but maybe music that they may have learned way back in grammar school or perhaps something their mother may have sung to them. It seems to bring calmness to them and good memories.

Bargoo So glad to see you. I've been missing you. Hope you are feeling well.

Prayers continue for all.