What a week! It started with Bristol's 1st birthday last Wednesday. From there we had a church-wide ladies retreat that was a huge encouragement to me personally! (Heather is playing the drums in this picture!) Elyse Fitzpatrick came and imparted to us her wisdom in the area of biblical fellowship. We were all made aware of how much we need to grow in this way. How grateful I am for our church that makes such truths not only available to us, but encourages us to live them out in our daily lives. Reality is what we want, not nominalism (being a Christian in name only!). Click here to access our Metro Moms blog where the messages are available in the right hand column.

The ladies retreat ended at noon on Saturday, which was followed by Norah's 1st birthday party at her house. What fun to see both of my granddaughters celebrate such a special day. Thank You, Lord!

On Sunday it was time to celebrate our dads for Father's Day. What a joy to have Tom's dad here with us on this special occasion. I bought all the guys a new game called Ladder Ball. Even though it rained most of the afternoon, they played for a couple of hours and had a great time.

Pops, Tom's step dad was invited to visit his sons in New York for the weekend. They played a round of golf on Sunday and had a great time together. Since he was away Tom's mom as well as his sister, Debbie, joined us and so for the third time in one week we were all together as family.

On Monday, Tom's Mom had a scheduled appointment for a heart cath. She had been having some difficulty and the cardiologist wanted to rule out any serious problems. Thank God he did! He discovered a major blockage in the area of her heart called "The Widow Maker". It's called this because there are usually no symptoms, and consequently you find out you have it when you have a fatal heart attack! The most recent example of this happening was in the death of Tim Russert who had a blockage in the same place. Thankfully, she went through a double bypass operation yesterday morning, and the doctor said everything went very well. She is recovering in ICU as I type this.

Family is a gift from God, and we have no guarantees how long we have to spend together. Every conversation and celebration should be made the most of because the time is short. One day we will all take our last breath - this is certain! But, how we live each day up until then is optional. I pray that God will help me to embrace life for His glory with every hour He grants me. I pray that you will as well!

I'll end this post with a couple of questions my husband recently asked me, "How is your soul? How is God helping you through the trials you are facing?" I encourage you to cry out to Him for He is the only One Who can sustain each of us through any kind of storm.