Welcoming a New Year

What Was SUPPOSED to Happen Today:

I was going to lay on the couch and watch the DVD's my husband gave me for Christmas while the kids played with all the neat stuff they got for Christmas, then I would read a book while dh watched a football game on tv tonight.

What ACTUALLY happened today:
We got a phone call this morning from my mil. Her news was this: My husbands aunt, J, who lives in Florida, suddenly and unexpectedly lost her husband this morning. We think it was a heart attack. J herself is very sick with what MAY be lung cancer, but we are not sure yet.

My dh's uncle, R, who has suffered with cancer for some time now, is much worse over the last couple of days. He is refusing to see anyone except his wife, his father, and my dh. Dh tried to go see him today, but he has recently moved, and dh could not find his house.

Dh's grandfather suffers from prostate cancer. But, because it is slow growing and Papa is of an advanced age, it has not been treated aggressively. It appears that the cancer may have spread. Dh will be taking his grandfather to the hospital for tests tomorrow.

Because my mil will be leaving in the morning to be with her sister in Florida, my neice, who usually stays with my mil when she's not in school, will be staying with me. She's 11, and I'm sure my 2 girls will be glad to have her here. And, my son will have one more girl to contend with, but he'll be okay :)

I feel so burdened for my dh tonight. He dearly loves his aunt J and uncle E( who passed away this morning) his uncle R, who is so ill with cancer and unsaved, and his grandfather, who is also sick. All this, and he has to get up at 5am tomorrow after being off since Dec 21. Yuck!

On the upside, we've had a wonderful time together as a family this holiday season. Even today, though it's been hard, has had it's nice moments. We even enjoyed our time together taking down the Christmas tree and other decorations. We have the peace of knowing that aunt J, uncle E, uncle R, and Papa are all in God's hands. Dh is going to try again to go see R tomorrow. So many times, he has seemed SO close to accepting Christ as his Savior. Please pray with us that He will come to know Christ before he leaves this life. All indications are that his time is short. But, we know that with God, all things are possible.

We also have birthday parties to plan! Our oldest child turns 10 in January, our youngest turns 6 in February, and our "middle" child turns 8 in March.

I"m also putting some thought into exactly what we will cover in our second semester of school, and how we will cover it. I want to make some changes to what we did during the first half of this year, but I"m not certain what those changes need to be just yet. Dh goes back to his "main" job tomorrow, but he doesn't return to his second job until Monday, so we probably won't start school until then. There would be no point to my trying to do any lessons with my neice here anyway, and she may be with us the rest of this week. So, I"ll be using the rest of this week as "teacher inservice" time for planning and organizing.

On a completely different note( my brain is random like this sometimes!) I read 2 FANTASTIC books this week! I am probably the last adult female in America who had NEVER read a Francine Rivers or Karen Kingsbury book before. This week, I read Francine Rivers book The Scarlet Thread and Karen Kingsbury's Even Now, and I LOVED them both!! Now, I'm reading Francine Rivers A Voice in the Wind. It's okay, but I"m not enjoying it as much as I did the first 2 I read. I can't wait to get my hands on some more Karen Kingsbury books!!

I've had tons of thoughts running through my head today about the New Year~how the Lord blessed us last year, and what goals I'd like to set for this year. But, I'm a bit too worn out tonight to organize those thoughts enough to post them. So, that will probably come tomorrow.

For tonight, I hope you all have a happy and blessed New Year, and that you will hold tight to our Heavenly Father's hand through whatever 2008 brings you.
In His Love,
Vicki