Cactus Flower

unsplash - Igor Ovsyannykov Spring, 2014, forgetful, numb, messed up, full of crazy thoughts, unable to sleep.  All the signs of post-traumatic stress, that was me... cracked up. I was trying to fix my family and nothing was working.  Everything was out of my control.  My prayer life consisted of one recurring phrase - Oh, God, please help me.  My daily conversation with my husband was mostly - What are we going to do now?   We had a rebellious, unmanageable son and seemed to have no hope for resolution.  We'd tried everything we could think of.  Our marriage was a mess.  I was a mess . Our ministry seemed like it might be over. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not   2 Corinthians 4:1  Some how I was determined to not faint, to not give up, but how to do that seemed beyond my capabilities.  I felt that God could not use me at this time.   It seemed better to la...

This Friday evening the youngest of our clan will finish up high school and move on to the next stage of his life - summer!  Oh, and then college and what not. It's been an incredible eighteen years... Greyson was always a cutie-pie with his blonde hair and blue eyes in a country where that was a rarity.  Word is that when he was around five or six years old on the island camp people would ask to take photos with him and that he would oblige for a small fee.  Cute and knew it? For the most part he's been a joy, even though he doesn't comb his hair very often and making his bed doesn't come easy.  Perhaps his musical right sided brain could never deal with the structure of making a bed each day?  I'm hoping he'll learn at college! As the last in the nest, Greyson enjoyed a few years of being an only child.  Byron and I got to take a long awaited road trip around southern Brazil with Greyson in tow.  We made some great memories and en...