Who says you can't go home again

Tuesday had me traveling from Nashville to Denver for an upcoming writers conference and ICRS, and for the past two days I've been in Greeley where we used to live for 17 years. I came into town early to visit dear friends and what fun it's been! Here are a few glimpses...

(Me with Paige and Mollie, Judy, Michelle, Suzi, Eileen and Casey, Naila, Darla, Cheryl and her REALLY tall sixteen-year-old son, Grant)

I love the lifelong friendships where you can pick right back up where you started, no matter how much time has passed. Where there's comfort in knowing that the person across the table knows you--really knows you--and loves you anyway, warts and all. Heaven's hope is sweeter knowing these dear friends will be there.

As I head to Denver early tomorrow morning (to meet you, Robin Lee Hatcher, at DIA...yay!), I'll be counting the treasure of friendship many times over, and am praying even now that you have these kinds of friendships in your life too.

And while you can "go home" again, in a sense, I'm already missing my family in Nashville and am reminded that home isn't so much a place anymore...as it is people.

Much love, friends, and more pics next week from ICRS!

Every step changes the view

Last night, Mom and I watched the sunset from her hospital room and commented on how different the same scene can look depending on the time of day. That thought stayed with me through the night as the sweet nurse, Beth, came in at 3AM and started giving Mom a blood transfusion to help strengthen her in preparation for a radiology procedure they'll do today.

View from mom's hospital room about 9PM last night

(click on the picture to enlarge)

It doesn't take a huge mental leap to weave the threads of that same thought into how different a particular situation can look in our lives depending upon our perspective, our faith, and to what degree we're willing to trust the Creator of this beautiful sunset.

View at 9:05PM

Mom's doing much better since she was admitted to the hospital on the 22nd shortly following her third round of chemo. As it turns out, it wasn't the chemo alone that caused her dehydration and other complications. Her resected liver simply couldn't keep up with her body's demands and there was a massive back up of bile (sorry if this is too graphic). They inserted an external drain into her liver on Friday, and it's amazing how much she's improved in recent days. Today they're replacing the external drain with an internal catheter that should help even more as the bile--gunky and gross as it may be--does aid with the digestion and absorption of fat. Everything has its purpose, even the icky stuff.

View at 9:11PM

Amid the pain and endless tests and all else Mom's endured, she and I have managed to laugh a ton in recent days, enjoying this time together. We watched The Closer last night (love that show!), and watched Chevy Chase's European Vacation a couple of nights ago. We're also listening to Elizabeth Edward's Resilience. What an encouraging book!

View at 9:16 PM

We're asking and fully trusting that God will heal Mom of her cancer and that she'll be with us for years to come. We're also trusting in the promise of an eternal home bought with the life-giving blood of Christ and in God's ability to lead us there in the way He knows is best.

View at 6:45AM this morning, shortly after sunrise

Watching the sunrise this morning, I thought of this verse in Lamentations 3:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

As Mom's resting, getting a second unit of blood even now, I'm thanking God not only for His mercies that are new every morning but also for the person who donated this life-giving blood for this precious woman in my life. And thank you to all you nurses out there! Your skills and sweet encouraging spirits are a tremendous blessing to your patients and their families.

Now to get ready and to do something with this hospital hair, then grab some breakfast in the cafeteria. Blessings on your week and thanks for your continued prayers. Hoping in Him...

Guess who came for dinner

Last week I had a fun visitor stop by one evening. Karen Ball, author and editor, is also a dear friend. She was in town for work so she drove down to Franklin to have dinner with me. I actually cooked and everything. Will wonders never cease?

If you know Karen, you know she loves to laugh, and we did lots of that. She also loves animals--especially dogs--and proceeded to take picture after picture of Jack, who seemed to take it all in stride...

We had such a fun evening together, and I was reminded again of how blessed I've been with friends. Writing is a relatively "solitary" profession, mandating long hours alone and, for me anyway, that makes the time I spend with friends and family all that more special.

One of those special times is coming up as I head to Denver on July 7th for a writer's retreat followed by the International Christian Retail Show (looking forward to rooming with you, Robin and Sunni!). I'll not only see oodles of writing buddies while there, but I'm also going back to visit friends in Greeley (where we lived for seventeen years before moving to TN two years ago), and I can hardly wait!

While I love writing, I need my people time to fill me back up--and to give me fodder for more stories, of course. ;)

Please continue to remember my mom. I'm packing today, getting ready to head down to Atlanta. The past couple of days have been hard ones on Mom. She hasn't been able to eat or drink anything and, as often happens with chemo patients, she's ended up very dehydrated and was admitted to the hospital. I can't wait to be by her side. Hopefully she'll be released in a couple of days, then I'll be able to cook for her and hopefully tempt her with some food. That and just plain "love up" on her and Dad.

Me, my daughter Kelsey, and my mom on a recent cruise

(Mom doesn't even look sick, does she?)

She also said she'd love to go out to see a movie (something I'm always game for), so we'll try to do that too if she feels up to it. I so appreciate those prayers for her strength and healing.

Now, to hit the road with iPod in hand. I'm still enjoying all the praise songs you guys have shared with me recently and will be singing all the way to Atlanta.

Special people in our lives

Recently I added more pictures to my parent's digital photo frame and came across some photographs that really took me back. Not because I haven't thought of the people in those pictures in a long time. But because though I haven't seen them in years, they're still with me. They've been gone from this earth for a long time, but I still carry them inside me--what they gave me, what they taught me, and the faith they lived out every day.

God brought Laura Hall into my life when I was a preteen but our relationship really deepened in my late teens and early twenties. By that time, Laura had buried her husband, her kids were grown, she had grandchildren not much younger than me, and she was a wild woman!

On Friday nights, Laura and I would head to Athens, a little Greek restaurant tucked away in Decatur, Georgia where they served the best Baklava I've ever had. Oh wait, it was the first Baklava I'd ever had. LOL! Laura introduced me to many things, not the least of which was yummy Greek food, watching classic old movies on The Silver Screen, and how to find joy and laughter in just about everything.

Pictured below is my husband and I after our wedding reception. As we were getting into the car to drive away...out popped Laura from the backseat! She'd been hiding there, waiting for us. She now waits in heaven and I can only imagine her joy as she anticipates the Lord returning to gather us all Home.

The next picture is one of me and my kids with my mother-in-law, Claudette Harris Alexander (followed with one of Claudette with kids alone). We're at Bear Lake in Estes Park, Colorado, and if you can't already tell by my hair, it was the early 90s (perm, baby, perm!). We'd just hiked around the lake. Claudette was an avid walker and a fabulous Gran.

I knew Claudette before I ever met Joe. She was my girl's club sponsor in college. When I graduated, I made sure that Claudette and my mom met because Claudette had become very special to me during those years. Claudette and my mom, June, really hit it off, and after breakfast that morning, Mom leaned over to her and said, "Claudette, I wish you had a son!" Claudette beamed and said, "Oh I do! I do have a son!"

The rest, as they say, is history.

Following her untimely death in 1995, Claudette led me to this journey of writing (more on thathere, under the question "When did you decide to write a novel?"). Her unwavering faith and optimism, her dedication to reading and loving the Word of God, still encourage and challenge me today. As I stated in Rekindled's dedication, "Scout out the best hiking trails, Claudette, we'll be home soon."

This next picture is of Ben and Lyda Mullins, my uncle and aunt, on the front porch of their former home in Dellrose, Tennessee. If you've read any of the Timber Ridge Reflection novels, you might recognize their names. With Aunt Lyda's permission, I used their names for two of my characters in these novels. And yes, years ago, the "real" Uncle Ben and Aunt Lyda owned a local general store too.

Uncle Ben has been gone for many years now, but I still remember his easy smile, the way he called the cows in from the fields, and how he used to pluck a potato straight from the ground, wash it off, and then he'd peel it and we'd eat it as we walked.

Thankfully, my Aunt Lyda is still with us. I visited her not long ago as she lives only a short distance from me now (pictured below). She and I reminisced about the weeks my brother and I would visit them in Dellrose during summers as we grew up, and we laughed over the memories.

I'm sure you have special people in your life as well. Those still with you and those who have gone on before. Along with you, I'm thanking God right now for sending these precious souls, and many others, into my life to shape me for eternity, and to encourage my journey Home.

No wonder Hebrews 12:1 is a favorite verse:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Running the race alongside you...

Author Shop at CBD

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TV interviews uploaded

I've already made my Kroger run (with Jack, of course) to get ready for the kids who are coming for dinner tonight and I'm now ready--and excited!--to delve back into writing. But first, I wanted to share my new Media Player on my website.

Pictured below is my interview on the Herman and Sharron Show. There's also the interview from The Harvest Show and many others.

If you have a minute, I invite you to click over there and take a peek.

Gathering the manna

As I'm studying about the Old Testament tabernacle, I'm seeing so many correlations to our Christian walk, which is as God intended it, I'm sure. We call that "foreshadowing" in a work of fiction--giving the reader a hint, a glimpse of what's coming down the road.

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God provided manna from Heaven, fresh and new, every morning (Exodus 16), just like the mercies He provides us, fresh and new, every day.

But one interesting thing...while God provided the Israelites sustenance, the Israelites had to leave their tents and go get it. They had to gather it. They had to act on God's free and abundant provision. Likewise, God's mercy is here for me and for you everyday, but we must "gather it" everyday.

It's like having a bottle of vitamins and setting them by your bathroom sink, and yet never taking them. They do you absolutely no good until you take them in to your body. It's the same with God's Word being taken into our hearts.

Everyday, we need to be into God's Word. It's powerful, life-changing, speaks to us in ways that defy human understanding, it can soften the hardest heart, it wounds in order to heal. It gives hope like nothing else, it's alive and breathing, it's God's message and answer for your life, and mine. But we only benefit from its power if we "gather it."

One last thing...take a look at what's coming this fall! 

An omnibus of Fountain Creek Chronicles. What's an FCC omnibus, you ask? I asked the same question when I heard. It'sRekindled, Revealed, and Remembered all in one hard back book. All 792 pages of it. You can either read it or use it to tone those biceps. ;)

Now I'm off to Panera Bread to gather my daily manna (both kinds) then to write for a while (with my earbuds, of course), then back home to do more writing. I need major words today!

P.S. I appreciate your continued prayers for my mom. She's struggling with nausea and headaches from the chemo, but her attitude is so positive. I love that woman so much and will be headed to ATL soon to be with her again.

Getting my land legs

It's back to reality and I must say, it's nice to be home.

The cruise was wonderful! Full of great family time, lots of laughs and treasured conversations on balconies and decks, moments of relaxation squeezed in among para-sailing (and para-dunking), eating, zip-lining, more eating, swimming with dolphins, still more eating, and other activities on the ship--including the life jacket drill (right) before we set sail.

Some quick pics:

One of Joe and me, one of our kids, one with my sweet dad, then the entire family--my parents, my older brother and his wife and their two boys, and sweet Alli Schisler (Kelsey's best friend from high school who accompanied us as Kelsey's "graduation present." What a doll Alli is). [The group pic was taken on one of the two "formal dining nights" before which I apparently missed the wear black memo.]

I'm busy catching up on life and laundry and am grateful for meds (outcome of my trip to the doctor yesterday) as I brought home a sore throat and cold with me--one souvenir I could have done without. But ah well...this too shall pass.

Mom starts her chemo this Thursday so we appreciate your continued prayers for her as we begin walking this road. She and dad and I sat on their balcony one night last week and tried to remember each of dad's birthdays (he turned 77 last Thursday while on the cruise), and it was amazing how few we could recall with clarity. So much of life becomes a blur with time and age. :)

But there are moments that stand out from all the others, and one of those for me was last week as Joe and I watched the sun set over Miami. Can you see the buildings in the orb of the sun?

Breathtaking! But this particular view only lasted for a handful of seconds, and it reminded me again of how brief this life is, and of James 4:14--

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

The longer I live and the closer I get to my forever home, I find comfort in knowing how truly brief our lives are here when compared to eternity. So here's to filling my (our) remaining days with as many memorable moments as possible, and to making them all a glory to Him.