Home for the Holidays

I've just returned to Fort Worth after 5 days in Ruston for the holidays! It was great to be home, to forget about school, and to enjoy time with friends and family. Daniel and his brother, Joshua, came home with me, so we spent much of the time introducing them to people in my world. He and his brother both are super easy-going, and of course, everyone loved them and welcomed them!

Some highlights from the holidays:



TAKING STEPS
My cousins' baby, Annie, is now walking!! (She celebrates her first birthday next week!)



MEMORIES
At my granny's house, we spent time after lunch telling one another what we are thankful for and remembering memories people in our family who no longer share holidays with us. Walking down memory lane is so much fun - especially with family. There's so much history there!!!


STORIES
Listening to granny tell stories about how our family ended up on the "Fowler Farm" - the land where granny, mom and dad, and now Laura (my cousin) and her husband and baby live.


COUSINS
Seeing family that I haven't seen in a while. As we've gotten older, some have married and moved away from Ruston, others have gone off to college, and well...I'm not in Ruston anymore. We don't get to see each other all of the time like we used to. Getting together always brings a lot of laughter and fun!


MAKING SENTENCES
My cousins' baby, Abby, is now speaking in sentences!!! She would say, "Give me this!" Or when asked what Santa will bring her for Christmas, she said, "Dolls and toy-ees!" ("toy-ees" - our southern 2 syllable word for, 'toys'!)



PUZZLES
Putting together a 1000 piece puzzle - started it Thursday night after Thanksgiving dinner and finished it Friday afternoon!

OPEN FIELD, OPEN SKY
Mom and dad live out in a wide, open field. It was so nice to be away from the city and be at home. It's so quiet there. The sky is so big there. Nights are beautiful - bright white lights meeting the deep, dark black...GORGEOUS! I even saw a shooting star! Daniel and I bundled up one cool night for a walk beneath a blanket of stars.

BEST FRIENDS
Hanging out with 3 of my best friends from high school!The four of us have not been together since before I left for Egypt in 2002. We've seen each other separately, but not all together! FUN TIMES and LOTS OF LAUGHTER and walking down memory lane! I love those girls!!!!

CAFE ISTANBUL
Saturday night we came back to Texas and Daniel and I went out with some friends of his that he knew from the time he served in Turkey. We ate at a Turkish restaurant in Dallas. It was great to meet some people from his world. He'd had such intense days in my world! There were 16 of us at Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's side of the family and 20 of us at dinner with my dad's side of the family...plus, random friends who wanted to meet him. I was glad to have a taste of meeting new people. He was glad to have conversation with friends of his and reunite with them! His friends were great and we had a nice dinner with them. For you Techsters who read this and went to Turkey with the BSU in 1999, you may recognize Ryan Smith in this picture - blue eyes and beard. He was a journeyman when we went that year...SMALL WORLD!

Well, it's back to Fort Worth now and lots to do in the next week and a half - a couple of assignments for classes, but mostly a lot of studying for finals, which are next Monday thru Wednesday! Daniel and I will be back in Ruston this weekend for Kristin Kilpatrick's wedding as well. Hopefully I can get some studying done during the drive. I'm looking forward to December 7, my last day of finals!! Then...a LONG break!!! Praise the Lord!

In the News...

Yesterday I was reading an article online about Mohamed and Ahmed in ABC's news page and MSNBC's news page.

Here's an excerpt: "Mohamed, who is walking now, has the dance moves. The quieter Ahmed, who gets around with the help of a walker, prefers to listen to the music while cuddled up with a family friend who sways to the beat. They have come a long way in just being able to move around."

The "family friend" he's cuddling up with was ME! :-) It was last Tuesday night when the photographer and journalist were there. Ahmed was in my arms, swaying to the music!

Johnny's anyone?

For the Ruston-ites, this entry needs NO explanation. For the rest, let me introduce you to the best pizza ever! Johnny's pizza (http://www.johnnys-pizza.com/index.htm) is baked with all the right ingredients to give you a bit of a sweet tasting pizza. Not sure how to explain it, but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Ask anyone you know from Ruston where to go to get the best pizza and I guarantee you the answer will be, "Johnny's." So...the next time you find yourself driving through Louisiana on I-20 and see the signs for Ruston, take the Louisiana Tech Drive exit, go south, and Johnny's pizza will be almost immediately on your right! ENJOY! I hope this doesn't sound sacreligious, but...it's a little taste of heaven! At least...I hope there will be Johnny's pizza in heaven! ;-)

The Return

I've written a bit about 2 precious little boys in my life and their family, especially their mom. And I've posted a link on my site now that takes you to a photo gallery of the boys on the hospital's website.

I spent 8 hours with them yesterday. This is their last week in the States. Saturday morning, early, they will fly out to return to Egypt. They have an older brother and sister who will be waiting to see their brothers. This will be the first time in 3 years for them to see each other. The boys are only 4, so other than talking with Mahmoud and Asmaa' on the phone and seeing pictures, I'm sure they have no real memories of them. Sabah and Ibrahim both told me how much they will miss their friends here, how nice everyone has been to them here in the States.

They've definitely stolen my heart. I've quickly fallen in love with Ahmed and Mohamed and over the past few months, my friendship with Sabah has deepened so much. Although my times of seeing them haven't been as often as I would have liked, the times when I have seen them have been precious and memorable. I will never forget this season when God blessed me so much with the chance to fall in love. To fall in love with two little boys whose lives I am POSITIVE He will use for His glory! Again yesterday they asked me over and over to sing, "Enta Azeemun" to them, an Arabic worship song. Again yesterday as I prayed over them, they said, "Amin ya rab!", which means, "Amen, oh Lord!" The Holy Spirit is definitely at work within them. After I prayed over the boys and prayed for the family before I left, Sabah thanked me for the beautiful prayer.

OH GOD, CONTINUE THE WORK YOU'VE BEGUN IN THEIR LIVES UNTIL THEY CALL ON YOU AS LORD AND SAVIOR! BRING BELIEVERS IN THEIR PATH WHO WILL BE OBEDIENT TO SHARING TRUTH WITH THEM AND ONE DAY, BRING DISCIPLERS IN THEIR LIVES TO TEACH THEM TO FOLLOW HARD AFTER YOU IN SURRENDER TO YOU! MAKE IT SO, OH JESUS! HOLY SPIRIT, CONVICT THEIR HEARTS. SPEAK TO THEM. VISIT THEM IN DREAMS AND VISIONS! MAKE YOUR NAME FAMOUS THROUGH THEM!!!! "Amin."

COWBOY UP!

It has been a CRAZY 2 weeks! I've written 2 research papers (12-15 pages each, one on the Person of Jesus Christ in the Qur'an. the other on the healing and life giving touches of faith in the story of Jairus, his daughter, and the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years.) 2 down...one paper still to write before Friday! But...it's not a research paper, just a 7-10 page devotional. And I'll use the same research as I used for the paper about Jesus' healing touch. Feeling a LOT more relaxed these days!


I got to enjoy a great evening last night with the COWBOY in this picture and others in the lifegroup we are a part of in Arlington. Daniel is a part of the college ministry to UTA students through Grace Community Church. His lifegroup is great. Last night we went out to a family's house who have a big open field with a barn and a couple of horses, a playhouse, trampoline, swimming pool! It was KIDDIE HEAVEN, that's for sure! And there were several little kids running around (not to mention big kids!!) It was a great night of fellowship as well as worship. We sat out underneath a blanket of stars, thinking on God. Dialoguing a bit about faith.

Think about this. The God, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, who put the stars in their place and knows each of them by name, who, with the command of His voice set this world into motion, desires to have INTIMACY with us. We live in one of many galaxies. We can't even understand just how big our galaxy is. We live on a planet that sits just so perfectly at a distance from the sun that we neither burn nor freeze. And it's this SAME GOD who knows every detail of my thoughts, every aching of my heart, every joy that can hardly contain itself inside of me! Have you thought about that lately? The AWESOMENESS of God is a bit hard to fathom, to comprehend, but OH HOW GREAT it is to be loved and cared for by such a GOD!!!

the GoOdNeSs of God Almighty

The wind. We can't see it, but we know it is there. We feel it.

God. We can't see Him, but we know He's there. We feel Him.

I'm so thankful for the way the Lord uses His children to show me His love, His grace, His faithfulness, His forgiveness, His joy, His peace, His desire to take care of His children, His heart for the nations.

I praise Him today for His passionate pursuit of His little girl. Teaching me to better understand His character in greater depth.