Twas 3 days before Christmas....Penny here. My hope is that John too will post to this to do better at communicating! After almost 5 years out of the country, I asked our mission board to send on our mailing list so I could "update" it during this luxury of having extra time. I was horrified to see how outdated it was, and we plan, with Cornerstone's help, to remedy that when John joins me in mid-January.
Our grandkids call my folks GG (great gran) and GPa. I have been with them in Sun City now just over 2 weeks, and have seen GREAT improvement in my mom. The portable oxygen tank made her recovery so much easier- she is now walking about an hour a day in 3 seperate outings. We will get a recheck on her anticoagulant therapy tomorrow. While still discouraged over her energy level, and at times still short of breath, I think she is encouraged by how far she's come. She has begun to do simple chores, fixing her own meals, making her bed, etc. What a Christmas gift, to be given this additional time with her!
To use my time well while on this "Sabbatical", John encouraged me to buy a travel guitar so I could practice while in the states. Said he'd get it for my christmas gift! So....trying to be a good steward, I decided I would attempt EBay. That first week, I spent hours online, working out the intricasies of bidding, trial and error. Pretty funny! Didn't occur to me til after I had bids out on several guitars at once what to do if I got them all! Oops! Fortunately I was outbid on all but l, and finally got my first choice. To give credit where credit is due, one of my parent's friends was visiting mom and saw my struggle, took over and made a final bid for me, then aware I had not yet discovered that I needed a Pay Pal account, he put it on his own account and I paid him cash when we discovered I'd won the bid! Its not arrived yet, but half the fun was bidding on it! In the end, I saved right about $50 over the store price here. My sister Shellie called the next day to let me know she'd just deposited an annual rebate check from our auto insurance- for $1 more than the purchase price of my new guitar! Isn't that just like our God?
Another first for me is learning to text message. Decided since that was the language of our kids and grandkids, I would learn to do it. Came up with a wall, tho, when I realized I had no idea how to enter numbers while texting, and Kate wanted a phone number. Haven't mastered that yet.
With Mom doing so well, I ventured out in my first solo rental car Saturday AM to go about 2 1/2 hrs north to Sedona, AZ to visit John's brother, Gary, and his wife Jane, great encouragers of ours. The weather cooperated, despite the awful weather elsewhere in the US, and I had no problems. Jane and Gary direct a non-profit ministry called "Potters Hand", that puts on several major productions yearly in Sedona, one being the Christmas "Bethlehem Marketplace", along with an awesome concert/drama in the Brooklyn Tabernacle style. Really enjoyed seeing what the Lord is doing thru them in this mecca of New Age thinking. Jane and I visited from 4 am-7 am on Sunday- she is an early riser, and there was no other free time with her 3 day intense commitment to the production. I alway come away from my time with her convicted. (and yes, Dr. Don, CHANGED!)
John is occupying his time with me away finishing up 2 little patios he's had in the works now for a bit, with a man from church helping. Since he did such a good job, John kept him on for a bit to finish up the trim inside the house, that we've had ready and waiting for 4 years now, hoping some visitor would feel led to do it. No one has had time, so finally its getting done! John said the annual church christmas program was last night, and said there was no comparison to our program 4 years ago and now. He was VERY impressed by all the growth.
Just in the nick of time, the Lord sent 2 LPN's to fill the pressing need in the hospital. They will be orienting for the next month or so and then fill a critical shortage in the schedule.
May your Christmas be blessed, full of peace and joy. In Him, Penny
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