Christmas Camryn-17 months old

I could just eat this little one up, couldn't you?  All dressed in her Christmas attire for her morning at Forest Pointe Church.  Couldn't resist sharing these photos with all of my family and friends!

In Memory of Marjorie Adell Smith-AKA-My Mom

Today I have been out of sorts despite the plan for a very relaxing Christmas Eve Day before I head back to work tomorrow.  It was as if I had PMS after "the monthly event".  Very strange feelings today.  And it is not as if I don't remember what this day represents to my family but I guess it was just not at the front of my mind.

Then the mail arrived and I received some beautiful Christmas cards from friends and family across the US.  Later today the door bell rang.....when I finally got the dogs calmed down and made it to the door the UPS man was already gone and there in my mailbox sat a small package.

I opened the package that my God Mother sent to me.  She often blesses me with kitchen towels or note pads alway thoughtfully picked out just for me.  So as I opened the package I was expecting a similar gift to years past.  Instead there sat this plaque that looked vaguely familiar to me.  Inside there was this handwritten note in my Aunt Jane's beautiful script stating that she decided to re-gift this to me.  She shared in the note that many years ago (guessing in the 1970's) mom had lovingly made this for her and now she felt that I may want to have it.

At this moment, I realized why I have been out of sorts all day long.....19 years ago today my mom died of lung cancer on Christmas Eve.   That is why I feel the way I do today and hadn't figured it out until this package arrived.  What a thoughtful gift for me to receive today and I thank you Aunt Jane for thinking of it.

Mom was such an example of faith to me those first 20 years of my life.  She showed love to everyone in her path and you see "God is Love".  So in this and many other ways she showed Christianity to me through action as we should all be showing to those around us.  They don't want to hear our words, but instead desire to see us exemplify Christ.

Merry Christmas to all of my family and friends.

Stacey

Jessica's Baptism

Recently I found myself telling one of my friends that I didn't have anything new to share on my blog in response to her saying that I had not updated it recently. I was very wrong!

In October I had the honor of being present when my first small group member, Jessica Norman, was baptized at Forest Pointe. Little did she know that I would secretly invite all of our group!

Jessica has been such an example to me of the reason we have small groups at FPC. When Jessica started attending our group her marriage was struggling, new to FPC (driving nearly an hour from Hickory each weekend!), and not connected at FPC. Now her marriage is much stronger and she is expecting her first baby in April. After our group volunteered one Sunday she became a weekly leader in our Kidzpointe area. This semester I asked if she would consider helping me lead our group some weeks and she took that on as she nicely told me that I had "a way of pushing her out of her comfort zone". Then this fall she told me she was scheduled to be baptized by submersion at the largest baptismal in Gaston County (the YMCA Pool!) This brought tears to my eyes because you see this is like a wedding ring, it shows publicly that you have chosen to accept Christ and plan to follow Him. This day was a special day for Jessica but also for her leader as well. I couldn't think of a better time than Christmas to share this story because you see the gift of Christ is a free one for us to accept, but that cost our God tremendously.

Merry Christmas Card

This is the card I designed using the CPS 145 sketch which you can find here: http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/

This is my first time using one of these sketches and I think I am hooked! This is also the first time I have posted one of my cards on my blog but think I will continue to do so......

Paper: Basic Grey and Bazzill

Stamp: Hero Arts

Ornament: Cricut

Extras: Stickles, Basic Grey Brad

Facebook.....a place for connection but also a place to be an example to others

I think we can all agree that through Facebook we have been able to reconnect with many friends from our past. I think we would also agree that Facebook has been a great way to keep up with friends' and family members' daily lives and enjoy many pictures!

What I would like us to now ponder is the example we leave in print on Facebook daily......

A couple of comments have been made to me recently that have caused me to pause and ponder the power of Facebook. I was visiting with a friend over lunch in Maryland 2 weeks who I have not seen in over 16 years and she asked early on in our visit about "my story". Well, me being a bit slow started telling her about how Mark and I met and a little about our lives. Later on when Mark had gone to sit off to the side to give us time alone she asked me again, "so tell me your story" only this time she added this statement:

"Stacey when I first found you on Facebook I was of course thrilled to get back in touch. As I read more and more on your page and looked over your photos and interests I kept saying to myself, 'this is not the same Stacey that I went to college with; something is much different." And she repeated, "so tell me your story" and this time I got what she was asking! Now let me preface this by saying, I was not a wild child in college but I made some wrong choices and let's just say tested the waters of being away from home a little too often. So at this point in our lunch I proceeded to share my story of become a Christian with my friend because after all this is what she had been asking about the entire visit.

The other comment I had recently was from my husband and he was commenting on one of our friend's Facebook pages who we attend Forest Pointe with. He commented one evening to me, she must really be unhappy at her job all she says in her posts every day is how glad she will be when her day is over, 3 days over, how frustrating her job is. That made be think of another friend who is always putting in her status how the people she deals with at work are frustrating her, "work ugggg", etc. Now I don't think either of these friends meant to come across as being unhappy with employment but as just a way of commenting through their daily lives.

Now I know I tend to be a little over the top with my optimism and joyfulness but this has really made me think about how we come across to others on Facebook and other public arenas so readily available on the world wide web these days. It also made me realize after talking with my friend over lunch that day that we could be reaching others for Christ on Facebook and that WOW'd me! I want to be that example that says, "hey this girl is different than the world" and makes others want to know why that is because I love my God and want everyone to know that! Have a blessed day!

Mimi again!

Mark's other daughter, Cristina had our second grandchild on Wednesday! Tony Nicolas Renzoni arrived 4 weeks early weighing in at 3 lbs 15 0z, 17 inches long. He is breathing completely on his own and is doing well. Crissy is doing well despite some pains from the C -section. We are now the proud grandparents of both Camryn and Tony! Excited to return from Maryland to meet the very little guy! Please pray for Crissy and Tony as Crissy heals and Tony grows!

Urgent Prayer Request for Malcolm

August 4, 2009

I received the following email this week from my step nephew’s mom, Julie with unexpected concerns on his MRI and Bone Scan following his chemo regimen. Please be in urgent prayer to our faithful God for Malcolm as he returns to the hospital for Pet Scan on Monday. Here is Julie’s email:

Hi Guys,

Malcolm’s scans came back, and they are not clean, there are two new areas of concern that had not been detected in previous scans. His tail bone was glowing in the bone scan, and the top of his femur and area around it turned up on the MRI. These are both areas that were within the region of the massive tumor he had. Orthopaedics thinks the top of the femur could just be necrosis, but onco is fearful it is cancer. The tail bone could be something in how he now postures and moves himself. Oncology is concerned because if it is the Ewing’s, it means it was able to grow despite the chemo, and they would have nothing in their arsenal to combat it. He had not had a scan since they stopped giving him the Doxorubicin four rounds ago, (the most toxic of the chemos—they had to stop because he had reached his life-time cap on the allowable limit to administer). We certainly pray that whatever they are finding on the scans is not cancer.

They have scheduled a PET scan for Monday to see if they can determine what kind of material they are looking at. If the scan is inconclusive, then they will biopsy those areas.

Please pass this information along to your prayer groups so they may pray for benign results.

Thank you!

Julie

Another updated email from Julie today:

Thank you for forwarding the feedback emails!

Please pass along to all prayer groups that the femur is clear—just necrosis. It is the tailbone that is a concern. There are two areas in the tail bone that light up on the CT and PET scans, and they cannot tell for certain what they are seeing yet. They are quite concerned.

So please have people pray that the tailbone is clear as Malcolm is a very intelligent and motivated young man, who can do a lot of good here on earth when he grows up!

Thanks so much,

Love , julie

Moving back to blogger!

Well, after moving my blog over to my Mac IWeb site a little under a year ago, I am now returning to blogger. I love the graphics and flexibility associated with my Mac IWeb site but have heard some say that they are unable to open much of my site and I want anyone interested in my day to day chatter to be able to reach my site. Plus, I am going to rely completely on my Mac photo gallery to keep pictures up to date instead of having them in two locations to simplify life a bit. So with all of that said.......I'm bacccckkkkkkkk! Over the next few days I will be updating my blogger site and carrying some of my favorite blog entries over from I Web site. Parden the dust as this site undergoes a bit of reconstruction! Have a blessed day! Stacey

The Root of My Positive Attitude

Many listen to me talk as I turn everything into a positive no matter how dire the situation and get aggravated. Some get irritated. And then others just wonder how one person can be so stinkin’ positive all of the time. You are about to discover the answer..........

Many of you know that I have had multiple abdominal surgeries due to a hereditary disease called Familial Polyposis. When I was 12 years old I was in New York University Hospital recovering from my first major surgery to remove half of my colon when I was introduced to my roommate, Lisa next to me. Now let me tell you, before the surgery and right after I don’t think that my attitude was all that great. I was in the why me stage and also very scared. Spending time with Lisa changed my attitude for the rest of my life. Lisa was 12 also and was dying from cancer. So here next to me was someone my very own age who was dying......suddenly my situation did not seem all that grim. I learned from that point on that there is always someone worse off than me and that I should be thankful for my situation no matter how hard. Through the difficult times in my life I have grown stronger and learned to rely on God more.

Another influence on my attitude was my mom. My mom and I were like best friends (except during those rough late teenage years!). We shared a lot together, including our hereditary disease, our many doctors appointments, our many tests, and surgeries. When mom would go into the hospital would often go a different way than expected, one time almost cost her her life when she spent 9 weeks in the hospital. Mom had many surgeries, treatments but always no matter how bad she felt had the most amazing attitude. Mom was always thinking of others despite what she was facing. Mom “graduated” way to early in 1990 but her legacy of her positive attitude that she modeled for me will always live on.

So when you think you are having a bad moment, day, week, or life.....I challenge you to look around outside of your world and see what others are struggling with......it can be an eye opening experience.

Have a blessed day!