It started when I went in for a routine, annual exam in mid July 2008 with my OB/GYN.  When my doctor was doing the breast exam, she found a lump in my left breast.  It felt like a marble.  I had not been doing regular self-breast exams, so I had no idea it was there.  She told me that since I was 40 years old, I needed to have a mammogram anyway, and for me to schedule one as soon as possible.

While waiting for the day of the mammogram to arrive, I was filled with anxiety, but tried to not worry too much since breast cancer does not run in my family.  No cancer does.  It has to be a cyst, I told myself, since I had had one in the past.  During the mammogram, I was praying to God that it wasn’t cancer.  They did 4 mammograms, and then made me wait, and then told me they wanted to do 4 more.  I was told to sit in a chair outside the room while the doctor looked at the mammogram images immediately.  Not long after, I was told that the doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound done.  Now, I was beginning to worry.  I will never forget the moment when the doctor doing the ultrasound told me that she actually saw 2 places of concern.  One looked like a non-cancerous mass, but the other, looked totally different, and looked cancerous.  They told me that I would need a biopsy to determine exactly what they were.  At that moment I was told not to worry…a cancer diagnosis is no longer a death sentence like in the past.  When caught early, it is highly treatable.   This didn’t seem to relax me at all.  The biopsy was painful and unpleasant, and I was very scared since I was fully awake as they did it, but not unbearable.

Two days later, I received a call on my cell phone while I was at my sister’s house.  They told me to sit down, and at that moment, I knew.  I was informed that one was definitely an adenoma, which was a non-cancerous mass.  The other however, was cancer.  My heart sunk in my chest, and I burst into tears.   I was referred to a breast surgeon.

I was scheduled for the Lumpectomy on Aug. 6, 2008, one week from the original date when I found out I had cancer.  What a crazy week I had endured with all the testing and doctor visits.  I was relieved that the surgery could be done so quickly.  Once I learned I had a cancerous tumor inside my body, I wanted it removed ASAP.  He explained that they would continue to remove tissue until the margins were clear, and that they would remove 1 or 2 lymph nodes to make sure it had not spread.  Those words scared me.  Spread?  Oh my gosh!  I had a son that was not even 1 ½, and a daughter about to turn 5.  My prayers were that it hadn’t spread.  I HAD to be alive for my children.  Dying was NOT an option.

The surgery took about 3 ½ hours, and was successful.  When I woke up from the anesthesia, I was so relieved to know that the cancer was no longer in my body.  I reached down to the bandages on my breast, and was relieved that my breast was still there.  I was worried that it might have been removed in the surgery.  I was also worried of what my breast looked like, and what it would look like after it healed.  I had a drain sticking out of my side, to drain the fluid that would be “oozing” from my body for about 10 days.  Luckily one of my friends is a nurse, and between her and my mom, I never had to “drain” it myself.

A couple of days later, I was called by the doctor and told that the Sentinel lymph node had one, microscopic “dot” on it that was cancerous, but the 2^nd node behind it was clear.  The doctor told me that even though it was tiny, it was recorded as “positive lymph node” even though it appeared it hadn’t spread.  He said it was literally like someone “dotted a lower case letter I”.  Normally, the node will have many cells on it, not just the one “dot”.  This news made me realize, that we had caught the cancer just as it was starting to spread.  Wow.  Praise the Lord.  He informed me that I would be coming in a couple of weeks later to have my chemo “port” surgically implanted at my collarbone, and while I was under anesthesia, he wanted to remove 10 more lymph nodes to make sure it hadn’t spread.  He told me that his medical training told him that if the 2^nd node was clear, then the nodes behind it would be clear…but since I was so young and had very young children, he wanted to make sure all the nodes were clear.  I agreed with him.  Whether or not they were clear would determine my treatment.

My 2^nd surgery was done on August 26, 2008, almost 3 weeks after the first one.  The idea of the chemo port freaked me out, knowing it was implanted under my skin, and would be the means of allowing the harsh chemo drugs into my body. The port is used due to the power of the chemo drugs.  If it were just done with a standard IV, the veins would be destroyed by the chemo, and burn marks could also appear on the skin.  The port was definitely the way to go.  It was routed through my veins and you could see it under my skin at my neck and collarbone, which was creepy to me, but necessary.  The results from having the 10 extra lymph nodes removed were clear.  Great news!  The cancer had definitely not spread!  Again, praise the Lord!

(During this time I also had the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing done, to see if my cancer was genetic.  I am very grateful that it was NOT.  They checked for 2 chromosomal abnormalities, and both results were negative.  This means I did not pass anything down to my children.)

After giving me a few weeks to recover from the surgeries, I started my first chemo cycle on Sept. 26, 2008.  I was in tears that day, knowing this was the beginning of the brutal treatment, to kill any remaining cells that might be in my body, but undetected by the testing

It took about 2 ½ hours to get the chemo.  Each cycle was followed by a shot the next day, to raise my red/white blood count.  The chemo lowers everything, and the shot gets them back to a more normal level.  The combination of the chemo and the shot caused severe side effects.  There were days I just wanted to die, it was that bad.  No energy to even drink water, no appetite, nausea, pain, etc.  It would take about a week to get over it, and I’d still be weak and about the time I got over it, it was time to get it again.  There were days that I wasn’t sure I would be able to continue with the treatment, but just took it all one day at a time.  My kids gave me the strength to get through all of side effects.  It only takes one cycle of chemo to make you lose your hair, which happens on about day 15.  That is a shocker, especially to a woman, to have your hair fall out.  After seeing patches of my hair come out, leaving bald spots on my head, my mother shaved my whole head.  To try to lighten the moment in which we were both in tears, we gave me a “Mohawk” before completely saving me bald.  That picture is one that only a handful of people have seen!  What a sight that was.

I had already picked out my wig, one that looked much like my normal hair, before chemo started.  As soon as we shaved my head, I put on the wig and realized that within just a few seconds, I could appear fairly “normal” again. This helped with the issue of being bald, but I cried many tears over losing my hair.  I will never complain of a “bad hair day” again.  A true bad hair day is when you don’t have any hair!  The only good thing about chemo?  You don’t have to shave (anywhere!) for the whole time you get chemo!  I saved on razors and shampoo!

With my faith as my strength, I got through all 6 chemo cycles, the last one being on January 6, 2009.  I was allowed to recover for about 30 days before starting radiation.  Luckily, the radiation doesn’t have any side effects, like the chemo does.  I started radiation in February 2009, and received a total of 33 daily treatments.  The only side effect I had was looking like my breast was really sunburned at about week 4, but after chemo, radiation was a breeze.

April 2, 2009 I received my last radiation, and received a certificate of completed treatment from the nice ladies at Texas Oncology.  What a great feeling!  I felt like I could start to get on with my life, finally.  Looking back, it was so hard to go through, but doing it just one day at a time made it all possible.

I was still wearing my wig, since my hair hadn’t grown back.  Once it started growing back in, a couple of months later, I quit wearing the wig.  My hair was still extremely short, but at that point I was just so excited to have hair again!  And, it was very hot to wear the wig, so it was getting uncomfortable.  My daughter, who was 5 at this time, would kiss my bald head every day, and when my hair started growing back in, she told me every day “Mommy, you have more hair today than you did yesterday!”  It made me cry every time she told me.

I have thought about where I would be now if it hadn’t been caught when it was, or if I would be here.  Breast cancer is highly treatable when caught in early stages.  I am living proof of how early detection is the key to survival.  If mine would have been found just a year later, I am afraid my outcome would have been different, since we caught it just as it was about to spread.

I have heard many women say that they aren’t 40 yet, or there isn’t any cancer in their family, or that they are scared to get a mammogram as reasons for not getting one.  It’s not a correct statement to say “What I don’t know won’t hurt me.”  What you don’t know can kill you.  At the age of 40 I was diagnosed with a 2.4cm cancerous tumor, with no history of cancer in my family.  The doctor told me it had been growing for 3-5 years.  Sometimes, mammograms aren’t done for 6 months after you breastfeed, and I had just quit breastfeeding my son 3 months before diagnosis.  Don’t let this stop you from getting one.  There are women in their 20’s and 30’s with no history that are diagnosed with it.  If my story can cause just one woman to go get a mammogram, and her life is saved, then everything I endured was well worth it.

Today, I have been cancer free for 3 ½ years now.  I continue to get blood work and mammograms done every 6 months.  This will continue until I get to 5 years, and then I will just go once a year, like normal.  I feel great, and feel normal, just like this never happened.

I will never know why this happened to me, but in a way I feel blessed to have been given this diagnosis.  It gave me the chance to make some changes in my personal life that were necessary in order to live a happy life.  When you see how quickly your life can be taken away, it makes you want to live every day the best way possible, and as happy as possible.  On a lighter note, I learned that hair does grow back!

Philippians 4:13  “I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me.”

Lori Ross
FBC MOPS Member

In order to bless our kids and model Christlikeness to them, we can cultivate a grace-based atmosphere in our homes. We can offer grace-based consequences in the place of harsh condemnation. The Pharisees, elders and scribes loved to grant Jesus the opportunity to condemn people, but He didn’t. When a person entered into the presence of Jesus, that was a “grace place.”

How much effort are you putting into making your home a “grace place” for your kids?

I’ll admit that offering grace is not always fun or easy. Being “fair,” offering judgment, condemning others for their faults, and clinging to grudges can be much easier than gifting others with the blessing of forgiveness.

Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”[i][i] Because we’re flawed humans, grace and forgiveness don’t flow naturally from our fleshly spirits. These attributes are divine gifts, showered upon us like a refreshing spring rain from the Author of life.

For me, on most days, grace looks like patience. It’s offering a loving gesture and a kind word to my kids when I feel like screaming instead. It’s scrubbing mashed banana and cereal bars out of the carpet without harping, “How many times do I have to tell you not to eat in the living room?” My friend Caryn said that she prays throughout the day, “God, be my patience.” Now I often find myself praying that, too.

We can offer grace and forgiveness to our children because we’ve been offered grace and forgiveness. We love because God first loved us. First John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” We can “take every thought (and word) captive to the obedience of Christ,” knowing that the struggles of this life will not last forever.

In her excellent book “52 Things Kids Need from a Mom,” author Angela Thomas offers several fun and practical tips for making your home a place of grace and forgiveness. Here are some of them:

• Let your kids see you praying every day. Even better, let them join you.
• Be sure to touch each of your children each day—a brush on the shoulder, a hug, a pat on the back before school, a kiss goodnight.
• Give specific compliments and praise.
• Prioritize sitting down together for dinner as a family.
• Set boundaries and be consistent about discipline. Play the “MOM” card (say “no”) when you have to.
• Keep your promises. If your plans change, communicate that to your children.
• Involve your children in giving to people who are less fortunate than your family.
• Choose your battles; don’t point out every one of your children’s flaws. Miss a few things they do wrong. Exhibit the character of Christ and allow room for grace. Be a peacemaker instead of a perfectionist.
• Occasionally be a “supermom” and go all out for them. Plan a special surprise, a big birthday party, or something else over-the-top to communicate to them, “I think you’re awesome!”
• Talk to them and listen to them as though they are fascinating people; they are!
• Make a big deal out of God. Show them that God is #1 in your house. Be “doers of the Word and not hearers only” (James 1:22).
• Let them make dumb mistakes without condemnation.
• Introduce them to your best friend, Jesus.[ii][ii]

More than anything else in this world, our children need grace. I believe when our sons and daughters look back over the arc of their lives, their relationship with us will be influenced most by this: whether or not we were moms who modeled grace instead of grudges.

So, back to the doctors appointment.  We had been told that it was likely that she had a milk allergy and that it was probably the cause of the eczema. We had switched formulas to a soy formula though, and the eczema didn’t seem to go away, so we decided to get it tested. The test results made my stomach sick.

“Your daughter has severe food allergies – peanut, milk, egg, and soy. The peanut allergy is as high as it can be, and she should not be around or touch a peanut or she could go into anaphylactic shock.”  This is where the body perceives an ingredient of being dangerous to the body, and begins to swell up to fight it off. It can cause the throat to swell shut if not treated very quickly, and can cause death. I had just been told that a peanut could kill my daughter, if she ate it, or touched one. Thoughts came to surface of the places we go as a family – church and Sunday school, vacation bible school, playgrounds and splash parks, preschool classes, playdates, birthday parties, holiday gatherings. All of these could or do contain food brought in from other sources.

Overwhelmed doesn’t quite cover the feelings I had. Normally I am not a person who feels the need to control any environment other than my own home, but this caused me to realize that my control ended when we walked through our door. I didn’t know if the child climbing on the jungle gym at the playground had just eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and if his mom washed his hands real good first. I don’t know what ingredients are in the crockpot dish my mother in law made for Thanksgiving. I started to feel the weight of making sure my child stays alive. Most  parents just want their child to be happy and healthy. But for us, even our beautiful healthy girl could suddenly die from a reaction.  I also started to notice that some of the women I was friends with stopped inviting us to playdates, or to hang out. One of them frankly told me she was too scared of the food allergies to include us.

I felt alone, and devasted. I didn’t want my daughter to be “that kid”, or for me to be “that mom” that is the reason Burt can’t have his pb&j sandwich the two days of preschool. I got a little irritated when moms would say “but that’s all he will eat”. I do understand the trials of having a picky eater – my  son is one of those. But even before I had a food allergy child, I would have bent over backwards to ensure safety first for all kids in a class instead of what the wants are. Luckily, there are options out there like soybutter, sunbutter, almond butter. This wasn’t to me a debate. Peanuts can kill my child.

We later found out that soy is not an allergen of hers afterall, but we do still have egg, peanut and milk, and then also added strawberries. It’s been a huge adjustment. I get asked all of the time “What CAN she eat?” Actually lots, once I started calming down and working on the goal of having a variety. Whole foods, vegetables, fruits (except for strawberries), and a lot of home made things. I actually buy almost all of our groceries from Wal-Mart and Target. I will occasionally go stock up a a few specific items from Sprouts, or make the long trip to Whole Foods.

I also want to clear up some common misconceptions about food allergies that I hear a lot.

1) Since this dinner roll is gluten free, she can have it right?

Not unless it’s also free of milk, eggs, and peanuts. My daughter does not have a gluten allergy. Im not sure why some people think that gluten free equals allergy friendly, but it doesn’t.

2) If my son eats a peanut butter sandwich can I use hand sanitizer to clean his hands before he plays?

Hand sanitizer does not clean off the peanut protein. It kills bacteria, but will not affect the severity of the reaction a peanut allergic child can have. Always use soap and water to wash hands before playing.

3) There is no milk in this cake. Just butter, and…

Butter has milk in it. Labels are supposed to be clear about the top 8 allergies, but not all of them are. Milk can be hidden  in butter, whey protein, cream of _____, and a multitude of other things.

4) Margarine is always safe for milk allergies, right?

A lot of margarine has milk in them. I use a specific Fleischmans, and the Best Life margarine. But even after you find a good brand, ALWAYS check the labels. Companies will sometimes change ingredients. And, some of the stick margarine is safe, but the same brand in a tub is not safe.

5) Lactose free means milk free right?

Not always. I have still seen milk appear in things that are lactose free. A lot of soy cheeses have milk in them.

6) (This actually happened to me) My MIL: Can I give your daughter a tomato?

Me: Yes, but not with ranch on it, because ranch has milk.

MIL: Ok, I have a sliced tomoato here. Let me just wipe the ranch off of it.

Because the ranch dressing was on/in the tomato, you can’t just wipe it off and give it to a milk allergy kiddo. Better to be safe than sorry.

7) Labels reading made in a facility with peanuts are ok since they don’t list peanuts as an ingredient, right?

Due to the severity if my childs peanut allergy, the answer is no. Different mommas have different comfort levels about this one. You can also call the company to ask what measures they use to stay safe of cross contamination, but I prefer the ‘safe not sorry’ line of thinking about this one.

Then by far the biggest, most dangerous misconception that I get is:

8 ) There isn’t that much of (add allergy ingredient here) in this. It will be ok.

If I had a quarter for every time I hear this one. Let me tell you a personal story that happened just last week to help clear this up. We were at a restaurant together as a family, and I saw some candy machines. I noticed one had the ingredient label on the machine, and I read it two or three times to make sure it did not say it had ANY of her allergens in it. I let her have about three of these little candies. Within 15 minutes she started throwing up in our booth. Since I had read the label so thoroughly I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We take her lunch with us practically everywhere we go, so we knew it wasn’t anything from her lunch. When we got home I researched the candy online, and discovered that it had egg in it. I was devastated that I had given her this candy without researching it online too. Sometimes, it’s not enough to read the labels. She had only had three small candies, so this was a good case of just a trace amount of her allergen causing big trouble. A little is way too much. She threw up for two days, then her skin broke out in her thick eczema rash, then she started having asthma. We are finally on the tail end of that. So, when I get crazy looks from people, and “aren’t you exaggerating this?” I get frustrated, but I try to remember that I must educate others about this so that they will know. Until I had a child with food allergies, I wouldn’t have known either.

I really hope this was helpful and answered questions that any of you may have regarding food allergies. Please feel free to ask me anything- it’s my goal to make the world a safer one for all of our kids! I also have a lot of awesome recipes to share that are super yummy for everyone and you can’t tell they are “allergen friendly”.

Shock for about a day is all you get!  Decisions had to be made and immediate action had to be taken.  We got a crash course concerning our three plus year battle against cancer.  JC is still undergoing chemotherapy and should be done on April 12, 2012.  He goes in to clinic for chemotherapy and blood work every other week.  He has spinal taps every three months and he takes chemotherapy at home every day.  All of this is in his “maintenance phase” of treatment.  At the very beginning, we practically lived at the hospital.  He had spinal taps weekly then monthly and took tons of medications.  One time, he had a horrible allergic reaction to one of the medications.  He was hospitalized with a special team of allergist.  Unfortunately, this particular medication was designed to stay in the body for a long time.  Every time the medicine “kicked in”, he would have a reaction.  I’ve lost count of the nights we’ve gone to the ER and days spent in the hospital.  Even though he was so young when he was diagnosed, he still knows that his body doesn’t feel right.  He has told me several times that he can’t wait until he’s done so he can feel better.  On one occasion, he said he was “ready to go to heaven so he could get his new body.”  As a mother, hearing your baby say this will rip your heart out.  He has some restrictions due to having a suppressed immune system and he doesn’t like being different than other kids.  Our lives changed that day and they will never be the same.  The negative impact that this has had on us is mainly financial.  I can say, the positives far outweigh the negatives and are priceless.

This journey has been one of many up’s and down’s.  I can tell you, I never once blamed God.  I am a firm believer that only good comes from God.  What I did make a conscience choice to do was always be positive and upbeat about the situation.  The only thing I had control over was me and how others saw me handle this awful situation.  Cancer has no answers!  You can ask all the questions in the world but all the doctors can say is, we don’t know, not sure, the studies indicate….  Call me crazy, but I’ve never even looked up any information about leukemia on the internet.  Why go there?  There is no cure for cancer!  If you’ve ever come to a “let go, let God” moment this is one of them.  I’m very active with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I know of children who have completed treatment and within two months the cancer came back and they passed away within a matter of months.  I have no idea what the future holds for my family and quite honestly, neither do you.  But what I do know is that in my house, every day matters because I’ve had to ponder the thought of one of my children dying.  I mother my children very differently than most because our lives and our relationships changes on January 29, 2009.  We all draw on our life experiences as we parent our children.  Hopefully, we all do the best we can and show our kids as much love as possible.

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.

Melissa Elliott
FBC MOPS Member

As I contemplated on what to write about, I decided give a short testimony of my faith since I am new to the group and many of you do not know my story. (I will shorten it so that you are not reading for hours!) I look forward to getting to know everyone this year ~ I am so blessed to have found this group!

One of my favorite songs that I grew up with in the church was “On Eagles Wings” by Michael Joncas. The words are loosely based on Psalm 91 and Isaiah 40:31.

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
who abide in His shadow for life,
say to the Lord: ‘My refuge,
my God in whom I trust!’
And He will raise you up on eagles’ wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of His hand.

These words and song have carried me through some extremely difficult and trying times in my life.

I can’t say, like many people, when I found God. I grew up in the Catholic Church and always felt that I had a strong connection and relationship with God. Unfortunately, I never knew, growing up, that I could have a relationship like I have now with Christ. I always said my prayers at night, said my rosary on occasion and attended church every Sunday until I moved off to college and was very active in my church youth group. That, in my mind, was enough. That was what a relationship with God meant to me.

I married young, only just 23 years old and fresh out of college. I followed my heart and it led me astray – blinded to God and the direction that he was trying to lead me. We moved quite a bit, moving first to central Louisiana and then to New Orleans within a 2 ½ year period. I felt as if life was great – I was content – I had been blessed with a job as a high school teacher and then a corporate event planner. I thought I was happy – yet, something was missing, but I did not know what. I wanted to find a church, but my (x)husband had no desire…so, I dropped it.
Although the relationship lasted for nearly 10 years from the time we met, God was not at the center of our marriage. Ecclesiastes 4:12 states, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” The spiritual foundation in that marriage was non-existent. I was embarrassed to even listen to Christian music while he was in the car with me.

Needless to say, when the marriage ended quite suddenly, I was ill-prepared and only 28 years old. “I just don’t love you anymore” were the words that stung to the quick. I had an extremely hard time even comprehending these words after enduring the death of his father that same year, along with a tragic miscarriage and the impending Hurricane Katrina that was quickly headed our way. I will never truly know why ~ I could only have faith that God knew what He was doing. I had no one to fall back on, no Christian friends, no support group, no church ~ I was lost. Truly and desperately lost.

We evacuated to Dallas while Katrina swept away the city. In the aftermath, we had little that was spared, including my job. Just one more thing that was ripped from a fabric that I thought was tightly woven. We left simply with our one small sedan, each packing 5 pairs of clothes (thinking that we would be returning), our 86 pound boxer, our Corgie and 3 cats. Twenty-three hours in the car with the man I swore to honor and cherish for the rest of my life, but who had suddenly changed his mind, was an unwelcome and awkward trip.

By December 2005, I had secured a great job here in Dallas while he moved to Oklahoma with his job and by March we were divorced.

I may not be able to tell you when I first found Christ, but I can tell you when I truly entered a solid and wholehearted relationship with Him. When I found Jesus….again. It was then. It was when I was at my lowest – at my breaking point.

I laugh now, because I say that God literally washed my life clean with Hurricane Katrina.

I began attending a church in Plano that I called my home for many years. It was there that I sat in the back of the church crying…..pleading with God to enter my broken heart and to make me new again. It was there that the Holy Spirit did.

Over the course of the next year, I began to heal. Nearly one year to the day of the anniversary of my divorce, I decided that I was ready for a serious relationship again. Unfortunately, though, I still worked in corporate event planning, which caters to a faculty of women and gay men….hardly a great place to meet a man! I wanted to steer clear of the bars, as I wanted a wholesome, Christian man.

I continued to pray and knew that if it was in God’s plan, that he would send me the right person. Who would have guessed that it would have been online! Yes, ladies, Match.com does work surprisingly enough!

Two months after “talking” to Jonathan online and trying to find an open date in my calendar to meet him, the stars aligned and we had our first date in May of 2007. Jonathan, too, was divorced with no children and had also strayed away from the church. I was able to bring him back and the bond that we had only grew stronger as we delved into church and the Word together on a regular basis. We were married 2 days shy of our first dating anniversary 

I still keep the lyrics of “On Eagle’s Wings” close to my heart as I encounter struggles in my day-to-day life, including unending drama from our families and my struggles with post-partum depression and anxiety. I know that God is the only one who can make me stronger – and I am learning to thank him daily for the strength that He has already given me each day to carry on.

It is now 2012 and I am so elated to have the love of a man who loves God above all things, to have two amazing and beautiful children (no matter how difficult they can be), for the material possessions that he has laid in my care, for the air that I breathe and the heart that beats inside of me…..I fall to my knees in the presence of God and give overwhelming thanks and praise to a Him, for only He knew what joy my pain and agony would eventually lead me to.

We each are dealt different circumstances in our lives, but even the most difficult ones make us stronger in God if we have faith and trust in Him!

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2

Melanie
FBC MOPS Member

I hope in addition to a wonderful holiday break, you all have had a little time to pray and reflect over this past year.  Did you have something exciting happen in your life?  Were you recently given some great news? Or were you faced with new challenges?  Did you struggle with a big decision?  How is God working in your life?  I know for me personally, 2011 was a year of growth.  God is doing big things in my life and stretching me in ways I never imagined.  This “stretching” process is a little more prolonged than I would like it to be sometimes, but I know He is always concerned for me….always guiding me along the way.  I hope you feel God’s presence in your life.  In good times and bad, God is always there to help you.  He knows your every thought and concern.  He rejoices with you in times of celebration, and knows your pain in times of struggle and sadness.  He is fully attentive to our every need.  Isn’t that the best?!  I think so.  While 2011 has not been an easy year for me, I know God is shaping and molding me into something better than before….to serve Him in greater ways.  I hope you feel His presence too.

One of the devotionals I read had two great verses for the New Year….

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:2

And a verse I always come back to….

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” – Jeremiah 29:11

I’m looking for great things to happen in 2012!  The Lord has a great second semester planned for you here at FBC Frisco MOPS, so you won’t want to miss a single meeting!

I look forward to seeing all of your beautiful faces this Wednesday, January 4!

With love,

Taryn Crouch

2011-2012 Coordinator
FBC Frisco MOPS