January, 2015

It is hard to believe that January is over!  It blew by like a hurricane.  We started off the month sending our bigs back off to their real worlds of school and work and then Scott and I went out to MD Anderson in Houston for my 6 month check up.  There were some enlarged lymph nodes that required biopsy so that was no fun and there were a couple of really long days of appointments, but at the end of it, all is good.  No signs of cancer.  Three years out from stage III melanoma is a big deal and I am not taking it for granted!  So grateful God has seen fit to let me live a little longer.  :)

We got home from that trip and turned right around heading to Arkansas to marry off our little girl.  Carlie and Ethan had gotten engaged and were busy planning a May wedding but decided five months of planning and stress was not for them and decided to just do it.  So our family and his family converged on Eureka Springs at Thorncrown Chapel and they got married.  It was small and intimate and beautiful.  Carlie says it was exactly what they wanted and they are very happy with their decision.

They are all moved into their first apartment and back at school.  I think it was the perfect plan for them.

In the midst of all of this, we decided to re-do our room - there was not enough craziness going on - and I am thrilled with the results.  We cleaned out, painted, rearranged, and are making it work for us so much better.  In old houses, space is at such a premium (i.e. tiny closets, tiny bedrooms, no storage, etc) that you have to make every inch count.  We are finally so much more organized and it is great!

I got a new book while we were in Houston and have finally finished reading it.  The title is Walk to Beautiful and the author is Jimmy Wayne.  I do not follow country music but evidently he has had a few songs.  What piqued my interest though is that it is his story, of being abandoned repeatedly, neglected, in and out of foster care and group homes, all ending in a homeless teen boy on the verge of dropping out of school.  Enter an elderly couple who took a chance on him and ended up saving his life.  He finished high school, finished college, and went on to have a music career in Nashville.  But more than that, he has a passion for aging out foster kids.  He is inspired by how Russell and Bea Costner cared about people.  He said they "didn't talk about loving God and loving people; they just did it."  He fights to raise awareness of the plight of teens aging out of foster care and works to get legislation passed to help them.  One of my favorite quotes in the book is, " Don't walk only when it is convenient; don't merely walk till you get tired; keep walking through it all.  Walk to Beautiful."  Check it out!