The Fern and the Bamboo

I got this story in an email and I loved it so I thought I would share it on my blog:

One day I decided to quit --- I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
"God," I said, "can you give me one good reason not to quit?"
His answer surprised me. Look around," He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes," I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet, nothing came from the bamboo seed, but I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful, and again, nothing came from the bamboo seed, but I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed, but I would not quit. In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the
bamboo seed, but I still would not quit.
Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant, but just 6 months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. God said, "I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He then said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots. I would not quit on the bamboo; I will never quit on you. Don't compare yourself to others."
He continued, "The bamboo has a different purpose than the fern, yet they both make the forest beautiful. Your time will come. You will rise high!"
"How high should I rise?" I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.
"As high as it can?" I questioned.
"Yes." He said. "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never regret a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life. Keep going.
Happiness keeps you Sweet.
Trials keep you Strong.
Sorrows keep you Human.
Failures keep you Humble.
Success keeps You Glowing.
But Only God keeps You Going!
God is so big He can cover the whole world with his Love and so small He can curl up inside your heart. The Son is shining!!

Wow, that's a great story! I love to think that in the beginning of our Christian walk we begin on the inside by creating our "roots" in Him! And changing the stuff inside of us that needs to be changed.
I also love it that it states that we are to rise as high as each of us can, not compared to your neighbor. We are all called to do different things and be different, we should not compare ourselves to others!!

Didn't work out!

Well yeah you read it right, it didn't work out. We had Jaycie for 4 days and she snapped at Phoebe. Right when she did it I said, Oh my we've got to give her back. And then I felt bad and thought we can't do that, it was just a fluke we'll keep her. The more I thought about it and then telling Denzil about it we called the Tulsa Boxer Rescue and said she snapped at Phoebe and the women asked no questions, she just said Ok, I'll call the foster home back and they'll come pick her up tonight. It's cool though because they have a 2 week trial period where if it just doesn't work out, you can try another if you want to. So we got on the website and found Glory. She's a beautiful white boxer with black spots and it said she was good with kids and is playful. Jaycie did not have a playful bone in her body, she was just laid back and relaxed and so the kids became an annoyance to her and she hadn't ever been around kids. So we told them that we would try Glory out and see how she'd do. So on Saturday my mom, Phoebe and Eliott and I drove up to Oklahoma City (her foster home was in OKC) and got her and then drove back here. OH MY! What a change from Jaycie. One thing I noticed early on but didn't really think anything about was that Jaycie would get in between Phoebe and I or in between Denzil and I. I guess maybe it was an early sign of jealously and she wanted to be the center. So I am truly glad she showed her "real" self before the 2 weeks was up!! But Glory is just like have a great playful puppy but also the joys of having an older dog (ie: not having to potty train her, not jumping up, not biting with those little sharp teeth, etc.). And she is really great with the kids. I think we found a winner this time. We're taking her to the vet tomorrow morning to get her shots, heartworm test and to look at some scratches on her but it's all on the Tulsa Boxer Rescue because they just hadn't had time to do any of that yet and her shots aren't due till August anyway. So it's nice of them to pay for them.
Well I've got to get to cleaning while the kiddos are asleep-

Thank You!

I just wanted to say Thank You to those of you who helped us through our surgery! Connie brought us dinner the first night and then my mom, dad & stepmom brought us dinner through the weekend. During the week we had Sarah C and Sandy bring us dinner and Connie brought us dinner again yesterday. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for that! We really appreciate it and it helped us out so much knowing that we didn't have to make dinner. And thank you for calling and checking on me to make sure everything went ok, that means a lot!!
I think Denzil is going back to work tomorrow so finally we'll be back to normal, whatever normal is! He stayed home Monday for my drs appt and he was going to take this whole week off but I feel much better today and I know he's got work piling up since no one covers for him while he's gone.
Well that's all for now-

Our new family member!!!

Well we also got a new dog this week!! Her name is Jaycie and she's such a sweet girl!! We've been wanting another dog for awhile now but haven't found the right one and did not want a puppy. Before kids our two "kids" were our dogs, a beagle named Lady and a weimaraner named Noah. We loved those dogs and they were truly our spoiled "kids". Right when we brought Phoebe home from the hospital Lady was acting really weird and would lay on the sofa and shake and then jump up and run to the other side of the living room and hunch over and shake. We went to the vet and they said she had bloody diarrhea and to give her some pills and special food for a week. Two weeks later she was no better and so we brought her back to the vet. After many tests and a lot of money afterwards we ended up having to put her to sleep because she had a tumor in her stomach that was causing liver failure. That was sooooo sad and a horrible experience. Well then Noah was okay with Phoebe as a baby and was okay with her crawling but once she got walking and then running he couldn't get away from her and she got on his nerves. He snapped at her one morning when we were all laying in bed so we knew we had to get rid of him. He just was never around kids and his breed is known for not being good with small kids so we gave him to my mom. And they love each other and both are happy together!! We knew we didn't want to get a puppy because they are just way too hyper and I don't have the time to potty train. So Jaycie is 18 months old, potty trained, not hyper and spazzed out like a puppy and is a great dog. Phoebe & Eliott have both already pulled on her and Phoebe hugs and kisses her all the time and says "I love you" and Jaycie is fine with all of it. We got her from Tulsaboxerrescue.net and we can tell she's been hit before because she'll cower down sometimes but she's such a sweet girl. They said that she had been left tied up in a backyard for 2 weeks and the homeowners left. OH MY, how can people be so cruel??
Anyway, just wanted you to meet our new family member, Jaycie!

F's Day, Garage sales and struggling!

Well surgery went well and I'm feeling much better than I did last week but my belly is still sore. We didn't really realize or I guess stop to think how Phoebe would react to me being gone for 5 hours and then coming home drugged up and dazed out just to go to bed and not spend the day with me at all. Thank God for the plastic door locks that you put over the door handles so kids can't open them!!! She screamed and cried when I went to bed after I got home. She just didn't understand that she couldn't lay in there on the bed with me and jump on it and have fun. I felt really bad for her and it made it pretty hard on Denzil but he managed and made it through this week. He's taking tomorrow off too though because my doctors appt is tomorrow. He said he could take another week off and after today I may ask him too. I was feeling really good and I thought back to 100%. So today I wore normal clothes (My incision is right under my belly button where most of my pants button) and that was a big mistake. It started hurting half way through church and so I'm obviously not back to 100% yet.
We had a good Father's Day. It was a good sermon about what Wives can do to be better wives and then came home fed the kiddos and then left hoping that they would both take their afternoon naps in the car before we went to a late lunch with my Dad, Grandpa and Aunt & Uncle at 3. Eliott slept the whole time but Phoebe fell asleep at 2:55! Of course, that's the way she does it!! So she only got about a 10 min nap but she was ok, surprisingly.
We also had a neighborhood garage sale on Saturday that my mom came over and helped me out with. Denzil went and played paintball for the first time with people from work and had a blast! We made $90 though and may have made $200 more with our tv. A couple said they'd buy it if we still had it on Monday when he got paid but we'll see.
Man oh man, I'm really struggling with this thing of being negative. Not necessarily out loud but more of the thinking and thoughts in my head. I've really got to work on being more positive and it's something I've got to start praying about daily. I pray about it but only when I had a bad day. If anyone has any suggestions on books I could read to be more of a Godly positive person I would appreciate the suggestions. I read The Positive Wife but I've got to focus more on being a woman of God before I focus on being a positive wife. I mean it helped and maybe it would be good if I read it again but it talks about that you've got to have God as your #1 and not your husband and I think I struggle with that. It also talks about if you look to your husband for your happiness than God's not your #1 and that's where I do fail. If Denzil and I are fighting than I am really down and down with God too.
Well I also have some good news but it deserves it's own post...

Prayers answered

Well we've made it through the first 2 weeks of summer break. Phoebe's been out of school for two weeks already. I thought I'd miss my time with just Eliott and I running around town shopping but it's been fun having her home, although I'm trying not to let Phoebe outside very much and defintely not in the evening, but we've been painting, drawing, playing with play-dou, playing with her new kitchen and dollhouse, etc. She's only 2 and she knows all her colors too!! She just keeps getting bug bites, they swell up the size of Texas and get infected all in less than 24 hrs. Very frustrating! And all this is happening with OFF on. I guess the bacteria that infected the first bite that put us in the hospital has collonized on her skin and we've got to get rid of it. So I'm washing her with Hibiclens and putting 1 TBS of bleach in her bath water. Yeah, you read that right-bleach. OH MY! But if it works, I'll do it. I just pray that they go away and those bugs leave my daughter alone!
It was a pretty good week. I actually had a prayer answered this week and He was so quick about it too. On Monday night I layed in bed praying and noticed (or heard) that Denzil was already asleep. So I prayed that we would do better as a family to be more like His Son, read our bibles, pray at night together and that He would help our marriage as we have been fighting a lot lately. On Wednesday afternoon I checked my email and there was an email from Denzil and the subject was "Your surgery and US". Hmmmm...so I opened it and wow, I started crying. I'm going to be having hernia surgery this Friday, the 8th and I'm kind of nervous about it. I've never had any kind of surgery before or never been knocked out or never had anesthesia before (yes I've had two kids but both natural with no drugs!). Denzil's going to be taking a week off work to take care of us and I've been thinking that we would probably fight the whole time because he's just not up to being "Mr. Mom". But the email was very sweet and he was just letting me know that he is here for me and there is nothing he'd rather do than to take care of us on his vacation. Ahhh! And then he said we needed to sit down and talk tonight, no tv or PS3 tonight, WOW! And one of the things he said we needed to talk about was how to be more like Christ. Wow, right when I read that I thought about my prayer on Monday night and thought God had really put it on his heart that we needed to talk. That's awesome! He does answer our prayers and most of the time I don't see it instantly so that was pretty cool!! So pray my surgery goes well. Denzil is going to watch the kids while my mom takes me to my surgery.