Where have we been? In Bethlehem Inn {Part 1}

Whew!!!  What a whirlwind December was!!
So much so that it nearly knocked the wind out of my sails,

and rendered me in need of a sabbatical for a few weeks!!
I had writer's block.
It always seems to happen that way.

And here we are.

Already half-way through February!!!
We've been enjoying the less hurried pace of these deep winter months
early in the new year, and I'm finding my voice again.

In December, our family was consumed with the Christmas production at our church.
It was the very first year we did anything like this and it was amazing!!

I had the privilege of directing this and it was a 12-month labor of love!
When we walked in the doors of our church back in May of 2007, I felt immediately
that this was a place that had the potential of doing amazing things to tell the story
of Jesus's love for us through drama.
But I never envisioned that it would be another 11 years for us
to be ready for something of this magnitude.
Through a friend at a former church in Michigan, I heard about this amazing story.
When I first presented the idea to our Music Minister several years ago,
we had to shelf it because of some administrative transitions happening.
We finally received the all-clear in the middle of 2017, and my kitchen lady and I were sent
to Michigan that December to view it first hand and bring it back to our church in Texas.
What a glorious blessing it was to watch so many of our people work so joyfully
together, to use their talents and skills to create beautiful crafts and art work and all the costumes,
and to meet so many new people in our community eager to be a part of this.
So many of our people didn't know a lot of the new members and many new
friendships were forged as they collaborated together.
But most importantly was the incredible spirit of unity
as we worked together to tell the story of Jesus and how He came to us in our mess
to ultimately die to pay the price for our sins.
So much joy!!!

A Night Before Advent Invitation

Happy birthday, Dr. Frederick Grant Banting!!

Today is World Diabetes Day.
It's the birthday of the Nobel Prize winning co-discoverer of insulin, Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
I originally wrote this post on January 11 which is the anniversary of the date Dr. Banting and his collegues first administered insulin to children dying of diabetes.
Below is the incredible story of how their discovery changed the lives of millions.



A stunning thing happened on this day in history.
Most people aren't even aware of it.
It was the silent miracle that literally raised the dead.
It's incredible to me that this discovery, which had such dramatic effects on the lives of so many, can still be within the memories of those alive today.  It really wasn't such a long time ago.
Many advancements in treatment have been made since this life-saving discovery, and for that I am so thankful.

According to this website the above picture was taken in 1922.
On this date 95 years ago, January 11, 1922, insulin was injected for the first time ever into a 14-year old Type 1 Diabetic child in Canada.  One of my favorite stories about what happened after that date is this story taken from Wikipedia:

Children dying from diabetic ketoacidosis were kept in large wards, often with 50 or more patients in a ward, mostly comatose. Grieving family members were often in attendance, awaiting the (until then, inevitable) death.

In one of medicine's more dramatic moments, Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting an entire ward with the new purified extract. Before they had reached the last dying child, the first few were awakening from their coma, to the joyous exclamations of their families.^[45]

Can you just imagine?  Knowing that a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence for your child.  A very slow, horrible death.....and there was nothing anybody could do?? And at that time, they did not know enough about diabetes to have the distinctions of Type 1 and Type 2.

A couple years ago, I was fiddling around with some of my family genealogy.  I was pretty much blown away to discover that my great-grandfather had passed away in January 1922 of diabetes. Nobody in my family had ever mentioned that before.  I found his death certificate online!
I knew at that point that scientists first treated someone with insulin in January of 1922, but I was thinking it was later in the month.  So when my friend mentioned on facebook (January 11th a couple years ago) that insulin was first administered this week 94 years ago, I ran and pulled out my notebooks.
Could not BELIEVE what I found.....

My great-grandfather died of diabetes 95 years ago YESTERDAY....January 10, 1922.
One day before insulin was first injected into a dying patient.
He was not quite 30 years old.
My grandfather had been married not quite 3 years earlier.
He left behind a nearly 23 year old wife with 2 children.
The youngest of which was almost 5 months old.
She would eventually become my grandmother.

This is my Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother on what we assume is their wedding day.
June 2, 1919

How grateful I am that his great-great granddaughter was sovereignly chosen by God to be born in the 21st century and given Type 1 Diabetes where the treatments and technology for this horrible disease have advanced so far that patients can live fairly normal and healthy and long lives!!

I can't WAIT to see what God is up to in our Ashlyn's life, and why He chose this for her/us!!

Texas State Fair 2018

This field trip will not go down in the record books as "The Most Fun Ever!"
But it will probably be remembered as "The Craziest Thing We Ever Did."

Here in Texas, you can get free homeschool tickets to the Texas State Fair

by simply requesting them early in the year.

This year I actually remembered to do that.

Once we received them around the first of September, 

we checked our calendar and decided to go on a Monday in October.

It was the only Monday we could fit it in and all of us were looking forward to it.

The children would get a day off of school work and PE class so they

were especially excited.

But as the day drew closer, the weather was not cooperating.

In fact, it was becoming clear we would break records for the wettest

October on record in our state.

To make matters worse, on the day we were planning to go,

the temperatures were forecast to be frigid along with heavy downpours all day.
We had a family meeting the night before to decide together if we still
wanted to brave the terrible weather and make an adventure of it,
or just can the whole idea.
We collectively decided to go for it, and that we wouldn't gripe.
We would make the best of it and make lemonade from the bushel of lemons
we were being handed.

What a challenge it was to make that lemonade.
My plan was to create a map of what we wanted to see
and then figure out a path of walking through buildings in an effort
to stay out of the rain!
What I did not count on was how much farther we would park away from
anything we wanted to see,
and that there would be rivers of water that we would have to walk through,
jump over, or navigate around.
But often we were trying to keep our eyes on where we were going
and on what we could see
and then would accidentally be in water over the top of our shoes.
We didn't have enough umbrellas or layers of clothes to keep dry.
By the time we were ready to walk back to the car
our feet and clothing were soaked and we were freezing.

In retrospect, I learned that no matter what, it is not worth
braving the traffic and rain just to use free tickets.
All the children had a great time though
and only think fondly of our wild adventure.

So very grateful for hot showers, hot soup,
hot drinks, warm jammies and blankets,
and a cozy evening with candlelight
and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

{Butter sculpture}

{This fried pumpkin pie warmed me heart and soul!!  It was so delicious!}