Desiring God National Conference

One of the main things God has used in maturing me as a Christian during the last couple of years is John Piper’s ministry Desiring God and his preaching. The deep truths of God and what He is up to in this world, and how I and my circumstances fit into His great play has been an anchor that has been unmovable in my life, even when the waves of two heart surgeries for my newborn Anna Grace were crashing down all around me. I have learned these deep truths first from the Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit, and watched them be illuminated by John Piper to the glory of God. I am so forever grateful for Dr. Piper.

Let me put forward a question. If you thought the Living God who is the Cause and Source of all things might be speaking today, would you want to listen? Would you lend your mind and an ear to try and hear? I not only believe God has spoken (the Bible and creation), but continues to speak to this very day. He speaks through His prophets every Sunday when His prophets preach from His Bible with fullness and clarity. But, I also believe God has set apart a few unusual men to speak through to reach multitudes of His children. I believe John Piper is one of those men. He preaches with a trembling and awe of the Most High. With quotes like “if the Bible does not support and teach what I’m teaching, or if you do not see what I’m saying in the Bible, DO NOT BELIEVE IT” demonstrates he stands under the authority of Scripture – under the very authority of the Living God.

I think any person who truly wants to know God better and understand more fully what is happening in this world should read Desiring God. Something happens when you read, dig, press and work through a tough book. There is a blessing that comes from reading you just cannot get anywhere else. But I know some do not like to read, and hey look that’s ok. People who love to read are not the only ones who are blessed. God blesses all those who with a sincere heart seek Him in whatever way they can – prayer, media, etc. So below is an hour long crash course into Desiring God and Christian Hedonism. Be prepared to be challenged and stretched. I’m confident you will be blessed for taking the time out of your busy schedule to lend an ear.

My prayer for you –
Father in heaven, you are glorious and magnificent. Please bless whoever decides to listen or read Piper’s Desiring God. I pray lives will be changed when they see you are a happy and most joyful God. Lord, if there is error in any of this teaching, I pray you protect your flock and lead them not astray. May we as your children grow in Christ Jesus, in our joy and happiness in you, and may you be exalted in our joy for the glory of Jesus Christ beautiful name.
Amen



Due to the video starting automatically I've removed the embedded script and posted a link to the video instead.

Just click the this link.

Newspaper Article

The lemonade stand was featured in today's Herald. I have attached a link for you to check it out here. Click here to go to the article.

I am so thankful that the Herald did this story for us and that we were able to share a little bit of our story with the community :)

Thanks again for your support!

Awesome Lemonade Stand

It is 8:30 pm as I type this post and the Lemonade Stand was a huge success. We had a terrific day. Thank you to all of you who came out to support our fundraiser for Palmetto Hearts Charity. We are humbeled. Truly.

The weather was hot and sunny so it really was a perfect day for a lemonade stand. There were 7 of our Upstate Heart Moms in attendance along with their husbands and children. It was so nice to have my heart Mom friends all here together and even more wonderful to be able to meet their families. I didn't count how many children were here today - at least 20. All of the kids played so well together, as a Mom it warms my heart to see kids running around smiling and laughing and playing - certainly even more knowing many of these children are heart kids and have endured so much in their little lives. Even little Anna Grace who we all know is a little anxious around people had a great time walking around and "mingling" :)

We set up a couple of tables and we had some folding chairs set up under a tree next to our driveway (super casual lemonade stand). One of the families who came were so awesome to bring a canopy (thank you Bill & Pam) that we set up to give a little more shade.

We had a steady flow of traffic beginning at about 2:00. Although the sale didn't officially start until 3:00, we weren't going to turn down an opportunity to sell some lemonade! My parents came early and were a huge help watching the kids and helping to get things set up for the day (THANK YOU WONDERFUL PARENTS - seriously - couldn't have done it without their help)! Friends, neighbors and family members all came out to buy lemonade and some people just donated and didn't even want lemonade. It is overwhelming and humbling the amount of support our little lemonade stand received.

I am also happy to say that the Herald did send a reporter to our lemonade stand. She spent at least an hour talking with several of us Heart Moms and she said that the story will ether be in the Tuesday or Wednesday paper - so be on the look out. She also took some pictures to go along with her story so I am hoping to see some of our sweet heart kids smiling faces in the paper this week!

At the end of the day, our little lemonade stand was able to raise $450 to give to Palmetto Hearts charity. Isn't that truly amazing??? I am very grateful for the opportunity the Lord gave us today to fellowship with other heart families and to share our story with friends and neighbors.

Thank you Lord for Your blessing today. May you be glorified through this lemonade stand.

Lemonade Stand - Another Update

Just wanted to let you know that I spoke with the Herald here yesterday and I feel very encouraged that they will give us a little press on our lemonade stand. They said they might send a reporter to our stand, but that if they couldn't we could send them a press release and some pictures and that they might possibly run a story for us. So, no commitment from them about a story, but I was encouraged from the conversation that there was a good chance they would run a story. So, keep your eyes peeled over the next few days in the paper for a story :)

I also just checked weather.com and it is supposed to be Sunny with a high of 89 tomorrow for our sale. That seems like PERFECT lemonade drinking weather to me!

Not much else to report - I better get off the computer and start clening up. We're going to have a lot of people here tomorrow! I'll try to post tomorrow night and let you know how it goes!

Lemonade Stand Update

Thank you Chick-Fil-A!!!!!!

I wanted to share with you all that the Lemonade Stand is coming together! There are two Chick-Fil-A's in the town in which we live and each Chick-Fil-A is donating 5 gallons of lemonade for our sale so...... we'll have a total of 10 gallons of lemonade to sell on Saturday. That's a LOT of lemonade folks and I don't want to put any of it my refrigerator at the end of the night - I want to sell it all. I am very hopeful that with the support of so many friends and family members that we will be able to do just that! How awesome would that be????? I bet you're already craving lemonade aren't you?

I am also happy to report that even though today is only Wednesday, I have already been able to raise $75 to donate to Palmetto Hearts. Those donors don't even WANT lemonade, they are just some very generous neighbors and friends who are going to be out of town on Saturday and wanted to be able to get their donation in for our fundraiser!

Do you feel the excitement? It's contagious!

Tomorrow I am going to be giving our local newspapers a call to tell them about what we are going to be doing Saturday. I am hoping they will send a reporter, but if not then we will be sending them a press release following the sale along with pictures of our kids in action! I am hoping that a little press will go a long way in educating the public about Congenital Heart Defects and what our kids have endured and will continue to endure and in doing so perhaps help raise money for research. I know, I know.... I am swimming upstream here. I am praying for the Lord's blessing and guidance in this. Please join me in praying about this.

Whew.... it's a big week for our little kids :) I will keep you updated.....

Lemonade Stand Fundraiser-THIS SATURDAY

THIS SATURDAY (May 21) we are hosting a Lemonade Stand as a fundraiser for Palmetto Hearts charity. (www.palmettohearts.org) This organization helps families with children who have hearts defects, like our Anna Grace. It was such a blessing to have Palmetto Hearts as a resource, especially when we first found out about Anna Grace's diagnosis. So, now that things have "settled" for us a little bit, I would like to give back to them. So, our family, along with some other heart families from our Upstate Heart Moms Group are hosting a lemonade stand that our KIDS are going to be running and we are going to be raising some money the "old fashioned" way :)

I am also happy to say that Chick-Fil-A is DONATING the lemonade for our stand so anyone who comes to buy some lemonade will not only be helping a very worthy charity - you will also be having some of THE VERY BEST LEMONADE EVER! Seriously, if you've never had lemonade from Chick-Fil-A you are missing out.

We are selling our lemonade for $2 a glass - although we are happy to take any donataions over and beyond this. All donations made by check will receive a tax deductible receipt since Palmetto Hearts is a 501(c)3 organization.

So..... if you're interested in coming please let me know and I will let you know how to get here. Just a reminder.... it's THIS SATURDAY from 3-5 pm. Rain or Shine :)

The Lake Update

So, we went to Mee-mee and Granpop's lakehouse on Friday afternoon and spent the night. Here's the update on how the night went..... I put Anna Grace to bed about 7:45 pm (which is her normal bedtime) and she slept until about 10:30 pm. She woke up for about an hour and cried and cried. She wouldn't watch cartoons she just cried. So, after an hour I heated up a bottle of milk and lo and behold she drank it down and drifted off to sleep. I put her back in the pack-n-play and that is where she remained until about 6:30 am. She was restless through the night - tossing and turning and making lots of noises, but she might do that every night and I don't know about it because she doesn't sleep in our room with us. We have a monitor in her room at home, but it's set low so I can only hear her if she's crying. Anyway, it wasn't a "great" night, but it was OK for the first sleepover. We didn't spend the night Saturday night, but we stayed at the lake ALL DAY on Saturday and had a great time visting and swimming and playing. We hit the road at bedtime and got the kids home and in their own beds by 9:00 pm on Saturday night. We had a great time and are looking forward to another lake sleepover in the future :) I'll try to post some pictures. My hubby took some with the "good" camera and as soon as he sends them to me I will post them up for you to enjoy!

The Lake

As I type this our family is on a little "vacation" at Mee-mee and Grandpop's lakehouse. We've done day trips down here before, but we've never attempted a "spend the night" trip - until now. Anna Grace is not a great sleeper even under the best of circumstances, so sleeping away from home hasn't been high on my list of things to do, but she is getting older now.... and we are out of quarantine..... so you have to start somewhere. So, we are giving it a try. We got down to the lake about 2:00 this afternoon and we've played outside and in the water and snacked and read books and gone for a walk and I have just put Anna Grace down for the night (hopefully) in her pack-n-play. I am praying for a good and restful night. If not, we are only 1 1/2 hours away from home so if we need to pack up and head home we're not so far away that we can't do that. We've really had a fun day down here today and I am hopeful that we can do more weekend trips to the lake this summer. I will keep you all posted on how the night went!

The Competition - 5K for Palmetto Hearts

I am excited to be sharing with you that I have volunteered to be a part of the committee planning a 5K run/walk in the Spring/Summer of 2012. This 5K run is being planned to benefit Palmetto Hearts, which is a local charity which exists to support families of children with heart defects, like Anna Grace. This organization runs off of a very tight budget and they manage to do A LOT for heart families on the little operating budget that they have.

So, I am very excited to be a part of this fundraiser to benefit Palmetto Hearts.

Part of our job as a committee is to come up with a NAME for the 5K run/walk as well as a design for the t-shirt that the runners will all get as part of their registration.

So.... here's where YOU come in. For those of you out there who are creative (which I most certainly am not) this might be fun for you to be a part of.

Please submit your idea for a Name for our 5K and a design idea for the t-shirt.

I will take all of the ideas/submissions from my BLOG and submit them for the committee to review at our next meeting in June. The winning idea will be printed on our shirts AND the winner will get a FREE shirt after they are printed with the winning idea. Make sense?????

If you have any trouble leaving the comment here on my BLOG you can e-mail your idea to me at coupons2mom@yahoo.com

Thanks everyone for your help. I am so excited to see what great ideas you come up with!!!!

We're Back!

I know it has been a LONG time since I've posted. We have been sick, sick, sick with the stomach virus and we are just now starting to recover. It has been like 12 days or something crazy like that. I don't think we had any old stomach virus. I'm thinking maybe it was Rotovirus or something like that. Needless to say, Anna Grace was SICk for 6 days, I was SICK for 5 days and Zachary was SICK for 6 days. Amazingly, my hubby never caught it.

I won't go into the details of it with you - I know you can imagine what that many days of the stomach virus was like - yucky! But, I am thankful to say that we have turned a corner and are back in the land of the living again. Although, I think we will probably stay close to home the remainder of the week and just get stronger beore we re-enter the germy world again :)

Oh and just a little teaser about my next post..... it is going to be a competition and I want ALL OF MY READERS to enter. So, my next post will elaborate......