Free Will

Wow...sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. Our family has been through a lot recently. I don't want to get into the details, but I have learned a very important lesson about free will. God gave our family an opportunity to reconcile some broken relationships. I was quick to praise Him and thank Him for answering my prayers because I knew He was providing a way for us to communicate again. However, my praise and happiness was quickly squashed. The other family member made a choice (the free will that God gives us) that may have forever severed our relationship with them. It amazes me that God can make the path so clear for some people, but the other person involved just doesn't get it. Then, I read my devotional today and it was totally about all of this. How God turns bad things into good, but if someone isn't living in the way of the Lord or doesn't have a relationship with Him, then of course they aren't going to see the opportunities of good that God has planned. I don't know if that all makes sense because I'm not the best with words...but it totally put the puzzle pieces together for me today. We serve an amazing God and I will continue to trust in Him. He will get us through this storm and we will be stronger for it.

I found this devotional when I was searching for daily devotionals for married couples. It's funny because it isn't supposed to be read until June 2nd...but I still found it. After reading it, I feel very blessed that I am in a marriage that possesses all four qualities. My husband is my best friend and always will be. I truly believe this since God is in the center of our marriage. I am a very blessed woman. :-)

1 Minute Daily Devotions

June 2, 2008

Best Friends In Marriage

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you..." - Philippians 1:3

The Bible repeatedly says of marriage that "a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife." The message is clear; our spouse should be our best friend. If they are not, we need to get this right.

What are some qualities of a best friend?

* A desire to be together. This is why I believe a weekly date is so key to staying in love with your mate.

* Great communication. Best friends can talk about anything.

* Loyalty. Best friends are loyal. They keep confidences.

* Willingness to forgive. They accept one another and are so committed to the friendship, that they choose to forgive and work through it even when the other friend lets them down.

Is your spouse your best friend? If so, thank God for a marriage like He has in mind. If not, ask God to forgive you and to help you forgive your spouse, and make a commitment with your spouse to become best friends.

© 2008 Right From The Heart Ministries. All rights reserved.

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Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there. :-) Today I wasn't able to spend time with my mom since she's in Indiana and I am here, but we are planning to meet in the next couple of weeks and spend a day together.

So, today we spent the day with Jesús' mom and her fiancé. We at lunch at Red Lobster and then went bowling. When we got home, we ended up renting a "girly" movie...27 Dresses. We watched that and now we are just relaxing and watching the Survivor finale. All in all, it has been a great day and we had a lot of fun.

Jesús bought me a new digital camera for mother's day which was very thoughtful. It is so great to know that he appreciates me as the step-mom of his boys and to know that he realizes the sacrifices I make for them and of course how much I love them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day and enjoyed it as much as we did. Have a great week!

Westridge Church Softball Team

Well, we had another double header today. Jesús and I started out by stretching out really good. We have finally realized that we are no longer in our teens/early 20's and can't just get out and play. If we don't stretch first, we'll be "stretched out" on the couch the next day since we'll be too sore!

Damen slid into base again and re-opened his sore from last weeks game so Kristin took out the first aid kit and put on the bandages.

I thought since last week we played better than the week before, that this week we would do even better. That wasn't the case. I think all of us had sore legs from last weeks game so we were all pretty much hobbling along! At least we are on the "fun" team.

We lost both games due to the slaughter rule today...but, at least we all had fun. Sorry there aren't any pictures of me...but I was the one taking the pictures. :-)

IVF Study

Well, it looks like so far I am in the IVF study. Everything got pushed back about 30 days because all my bloodwork didn't come back in time. Also, I had to get a Rubella shot since the test came back and said that I was not immune. So, that means I can not get pregnant for the next 30 days because I could pass it on to the baby if I did get pregnant. So, we have to wait. I am ok with this because I have waited so long that I figure "what's another 30 days?". Right? Plus, this is all in God's plan....and I have totally given this to Him and I know that He is in charge. So I have nothing to worry about. :-) Plus, on the selfish side...we already bought our plane tickets to go to Aruba in Jan '09 so this will be better timing for me! Because if I do get pregnant, then I will only be about 6 months pregnant instead of 7! I know...it's selfish...but this might be my last vacation where it is just Jesús and I. :-)

Infertility History

I figured that I should start journaling my experience going through infertility. I will start first with a little history and factual items. In November of 2005 I started tracking my monthly cycle. It was then that I realized that I had a problem because my cycle (time between periods) would last anywhere from 35-50 days which isn't normal for me. I was referred to a gynecologist who "specialized" in fertility problems. He did several blood tests and determined that everything was normal, but I wasn't ovulating on a regular basis. So, he recommended that I take Clomid (a low grade infertility drug) for 6-8 months to see if that would help me to ovulate and get pregnant. So, I started taking Clomid in June of 2006. Needless to say, I didn't get pregnant...however I did ovulate every cycle. My last month of taking clomid was in March of 2007. After that, Jesús and I decided to take the summer off because by then we were both pretty stressed out. During this time, we started attending a new church. I joined a women's small group and shared with them that I was struggling with infertility. That is when one of the women told me about Dr. Charles Miller. She said that there were a few ladies a church who went to him and he was able to get them pregnant using advanced treatment. As the saying goes "If Dr. Miller can't get you pregnant, no one will". So, I schedule an appointment to see him in October of 2007. Everything went well so Jesús and I decided to give it another try. They told me to give them a call the next time I started my period. Of course, this cycle I never started my period. So, we ended up going in again and Dr. Miller gave us our plan. He said that there was an IVF study that was starting in 2008 that he would like us to try to be in. We were excited about that because we knew we would save money. However, he said if we couldn't get in the study then he wanted me to go through 2 cycles of IUI (inter-uterine insemination) and if that didn't work, then go to IVF. He also wanted to do surgery on me to make sure everything was normal inside. So, I had the surgery on Feb. 11th, 2008. On my follow-up appointment Dr. Miller told me that he was able to clean out some build-up I had in my uterus. He also determined that I had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). He confirmed that the study was still going on and wanted to get us to enrolled in the study because he said we were perfect candidates for it. So...that brings us up to date. I will write more in my next journal entry.