Ailing loved ones plus a time to learn and a time to celebrate

Last week was very full!  Brother Jim had a scare on Monday.  The circulation to his foot was cut off, so they had to go back in to strip the clots from his arteries in his lower leg.  Mary called that evening telling us about it and said that they feared they might have to take off his lower leg.  Anita and I rushed over to be with her during the surgery.  Thank the Lord, the surgeon was able to get all of the clots out and save his leg!  He still is having a rough time...not eating well, very weak, and still unable to put weight on his leg due to swelling and pain.  Please keep him and Mary in your prayers!

Pam H. had her knee replacement surgery on Tuesday.  The surgery went well and she went home on Friday evening, but she is in a LOT of pain.  Please continue to remember her as well.

Thursday, I went to Frisco for the annual Texas CASA conference.  It took almost 2 hours to get there, so I arranged to have my first session at 2:00 to avoid morning traffic.  My first workshop was about creating security for stressed out children in the foster care system.  It lasted 2 1/2 hours and was very insightful!  Afterwards, I got checked in, settled in my room, and ordered up pizza to be delivered.  They had scheduled a "meet and greet" which I went down to check out, but it wasn't my sort of thing, so I just grabbed some fruit and hightailed it back up to my room.  Sheila arrived around 9:00 and we watched a little tv before turning in for the night.


Our hotel suite

The view out of our door on the 10th floor

Friday was a busy day!  Our keynote speaker was Dave Peltzer, the author of "A Child Called It" (and 6 other books).  He was a very entertaining speaker...not at all what I expected.  It is so nice to see someone who has suffered SO much cruelty, at such a young age, but maintains a positive and hopeful attitude.  He was really funny!

After his session, we attended a workshop on hope & healing for drug endangered children.  After lunch was a panel of former foster kids who are currently going to college at UNT. These young adults have been through so much, but they are overcoming and plan to use their experiences to help others. They really opened my eyes to how wonderfully blessed we are, and how difficult it is for those who "age out" of the system. Even if they make it to college (foster kids receive vouchers for college when they age out), the obstacles they face are enormous! One girl had received $100,000 in scholarships for her first year, but still had to drop out after a couple of months. (She joined the navy for 6 years and then went back to school on her GI bill.) Scholarships only covered certain items and they have no resources for the myriad of other essentials. What if their mealplans doesn't cover weekends? Where do they go during the holidays? What do they do if they get sick or have a car wreck? They have NO ONE to call or to help. A teacher at UNT recognized their plight and created a student organization (PUSH) for a support system for these youth. Very inspiring stories!. After that we attended a session on advocating for foster children's health needs.  Friday evening, Sheila and I skipped the banquet and awards ceremony and went out for some Mexican food.  Saturday morning, we had two more workshops (one on the educational rights of foster children and the other, an informative look at the new permanency roundtables being implemented by TDFPS) and then headed toward home around noon.  So much information to process!  My brain is on overload!

Saturday, I went straight from the conference to Brother Wayne's 90th birthday party.  So nice to see so many of his friends and family gather to celebrate this momentous occasion!  When Ricky arrived, he told me that he had seen a vendor on the side of 180 selling fresh shrimp.  Since Sheila had been out of pocket Friday night (when our young folks usually gather at the girls' house for a fire) they were getting together Saturday night instead.  So he wanted to have them all over to our house for shrimp quesadillas first.  He volunteered to cook them, if I would get everyone ready.  So I stopped and bought a few pounds of fresh JUMBO shrimp, went to Walmart for the rest of the stuff, and started peeling and heading shrimp.  Rick and Chris joined in with the cleaning.  Neither had peeled shrimp before, much less headed them, but they learned quickly.  Then Ricky cooked everything on the charcoal grill, while I made queso and guacamole.  The final product was AMAZING!

The birthday "boy"

Friends and family gather to celebrate

We had a houseful at Highway yesterday morning...Ricky counted 61 in attendance.  Layne gave a WONDERFUL lesson on living for God...truly an inspiring assembly!  Leanne and the girls were there (for the birthday party), and all of the Pettit clan were up to celebrate Debbie and James' 40th wedding anniversary.  Sharice was also in town (but she doesn't really qualify as a visitor).  So good to see everyone!  Then last night, Ron spoke on the 16th chapter of Exodus and entitled his lesson "Trust and Obey".  It tied in perfectly with Layne's lesson of the morning.  Ricky closed the assembly with a few well chosen words.  A perfect day!

2Ki 6:15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.