Fall is here!! Whoop! Whoop!

Towards the end of July, I started seeing a bit of “back to school” posts on Social Media and I panicked a bit. I kept thinking, “No way! Summer hasn’t even begun yet!” When you live on the Oregon Coast Summer doesn’t truly begin until August. At the end of July, we were still wearing sweatshirts around here!

Thankfully Summer did finally begin and we got in lots of camping, 4H at the fair as well as some long-overdue time with family and friends. All the fun was sprinkled with a few memorial services, two cancer scares and a bit of under the breath cursing as Mr. Wonderful and Bridger towed the travel trailer to various locations in Oregon. Life always seems to have the good and the bad camping right next to each other so I am continuing to live in each moment whether that means shedding a tear or two or laughing till I pee.

It started raining here two days ago and I am ready for it now. We have been to one HS football game, dance is back in full swing for Nat and B has a cross country race this Thursday. The leaves haven’t quite begun to change yet but I am already in the mood to begin to revisit all of the things I am thankful for. I am a journaler so I write out things I am thankful for several days a week throughout the year but Fall seems to provide so many more opportunites to express gratefulness and a large part is because of the beauty that surrounds this season.

I love the colors of fall. I love the drive from the coast to the valley during this time because views are absolutely breathtaking. I see God’s handiwork so much more clearly in the fall and I am in awe that He gives us this gift every single year. This kind of beauty makes you pause, it makes you slow down and soak it all in because you know that Winter’s a-comin’.

During the last few weeks of Summer, I became aware of a few kids and their families who are having to dig deep to find ways to give thanks. One is a family right here in my home state whose son had a heart transplant, I think he’s 12 and goes by his nickname “Dude.” It hasn’t gone great but the family is united and strong and wading through this the best they can. Another is a little boy named Toby who was adopted into an amazing family, I think he’s 3. Toby has had a severe lung infection and has been in the hospital for 300 days. They are hoping he gets to come home soon. The third is a little girl named Eva (pronounced Ava) who although took a minor fall, suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). She’s 7 and has been in the hospital for 19 days. The Dr.’s prognosis for her has not been good but God keeps doing things that are surprising them, the family, friends, and people all over the world who are believing for complete and total healing for Eva.

I don’t personally know these families, I have just felt called to pray for them. I have to admit I really don’t know what to say most of the time and I have slipped into begging more than once. Of course, the sermon at church on Sunday was all about prayer and how important it is and how it’s hard to have a relationship with someone you never speak to. I have been speaking a lot lately and I am becoming more and more aware of how little I know about talking with God. I tend to feel like I am doing or saying the wrong things. Fortunately, I was reminded that I wasn’t asked to pray perfectly, I was just asked to pray. I figure the more I do it the easier it will become.

I know what it feels like to have a kid in the hospital for more than a few days and I know what it feels like to be in the hospital myself for more than a few days. My circumstances were nowhere near what these families are experiencing but since I have had a taste, I am praying all that much more fervently for healing and wholeness.

The most interesting thing about all three of these families is that none of them are staying in the place of grief and desolation. They are all experiencing grace and beauty and love in the midst of unimaginable anguish. Why? because people have stepped in to fill the gaps. God has moved in people’s hearts all over the world to pray, give, visit and love.

At the beginning of Summer, I witnessed several Christian leaders make decisions I never expected them to make or others who just walked away from faith altogether. At the end of Summer, I saw thousands of regular people come together at one specific moment to pray for a 7-year-old girl they’ve never met to take a breath when the breathing tube came out earlier this week.

I don’t know the outcome of any of these situations. My selfish selfish heart wants them and every other child in this world suffering in a hospital somewhere to be restored to health here on earth. I know this is not how things work but I feel honored more than ever that I can continue to ask on their behalf.

This Fall as I take in all the beauty around me I am going to be thanking God for giving me the opportunity to pray.

Have A Beautiful Day My Friends!

How do you measure the difference one life can make? On the outset, this can seem like too broad of a question to undertake. What I am referring to here, however,  are not the famous people, the athletes or the heroes but just you and me. Every day, average run of the mill people. We get up, go to work, raise families and hopefully get a bit of time off to play and hang with friends.

I have always loved the Christmas film, It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. I love how his ordinary life, the life he was bummed about living became something extraordinary when he was given the chance to see what life would have been like had he never been born. The gift was he got to see that by him just being him helped other people live lives that would not have been possible had he not been there.

Aimee’s 30th Birthday Party. Aimee Palooza!

All these thoughts came rushing back to me as I was chatting with Mr. Wonderful a few weeks ago. July 8, 2011, my best friend Aimee lost her battle with breast cancer and went to be with Jesus. I have been thinking about her a lot lately and it dawned on me just how much has changed since she passed. The hole she left, instantly and permanently altered all of our lives. Plans and dreams became different to compensate for her absence. The same thing happened when my brother in law passed away unexpectedly in 2005. Everything changed in a million different ways.

Tony holding Natalie, Christmas 2003

I am not saying that the changes were either good or bad but rather noting that nothing is the same when someone you love dies.

It’s fairly simple to view the life of someone who is no longer here, but what about you and me. I have spent a lot of time over the last several years trying to figure out what’s next or dreaming about being an author. All of this is great and I am going to keep pursuing dreams and writing things down for as long as it is physically possible. But the reality is that just by existing and living our everyday lives we, you and me, fill a space that no other human being on this earth can fill. I have never been on T.V. or won a gold medal, or saved a child from a burning building. But I have made friends and family laugh when they thought they would never laugh again. I sat in a chemo infusion room for hours with my best friend every Monday for months. I have wiped tears for people I love, dreamed big dreams, fallen down and gotten back up again.

So have you. Your life looks different than mine but you have done all these things and more. You being you makes people’s lives better.

I still want to do great things, I dream of writing books and loving as many people as I can in the process. But I also know that every once in awhile, I need to step back and remind myself that if God takes me home tomorrow, who I am today and all that I have done up till now was enough. Me just being me has helped others live a better life.

It’s a reminder, I need not forget so easily and neither should you.

Have A Beautiful Day My Friends!

Tiffany