Joel's Journey: Couples Valentine Dinner party!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Couples Valentine Dinner party!

We hosted our 3rd Annual Couples Valentine Dinner again this year! I started this 3 years ago as a way to use the space in the new kitchen area God has blessed us with and to give different couples each year to go on a date!!! It has been alot of fun to see as the years go by, the different people that God allows us to meet and fellowship with!! This year some of the most dear and wonderful folks came, our church family!!!! We have grown so in love with these folks! We love our church, the church are the people!

Soooo all these folks got to be "guinea pigs"!!! A new recipe was tried out on them and they said they liked it!! I found it in pinterest! It is called Spinach Lasagna Rollups! I did the noodle part just like it says bit added 3 to one feta when it called for mozzarella and also we used Anna's homemade spaghetti sauce for the marinara instead of their recipe! Bethany made the breadsticks and I used Kristen's grama's recipe for the salad dressing! I made three cheesecakes, Turtle Cheesecake, Cherry Cheescake and the most delicious cheesecake in the history of cheesecake eating, the Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake! (I made this before and posted the recipe somewhere) I also found the little heart cakes in a book, "Sweetheart Cakes!" and of course Sugar Cookies! Way too much dessert!

I like to blog from my phone but the only hindrance is I can't upload the photos in order, soooo you will have to look over that!! It bugs me but it's just easier to do it from my phone!!

Please pray for my friend I have mentioned! Huge challenges ahead!! Hopefully soon I can share more and you can pray more specifically! Please, please pray!!

Today... getting all the party stuff put away, birthday shopping with my hero, Jeremiah Morris!! This kid is amazing!!!

Have a great weekend!! I love you all!!

Cindy

7 comments:

Mandy said...: Wow! Everything looks delicious! Have shared the marinara recipe before? Hint, hint. ;); February 17, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Leslie Shepherd said...: SOOOO FUN!!!; February 17, 2012 at 10:20 AM
Alicia said...: Wow! What an amazing dinner, and what an amazing blessing you are to those couples.; February 17, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Paige said...: Looks awesome Mrs. Morris you have an amazing imagination.Very pretty!; February 17, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Vanderpolclan said...: Cindy, you amaze me at how creative you are. What a lovely way to bless others. Thanks for sharing.

Cindy; February 17, 2012 at 5:37 PM
Teena said...: beautiful!

Hugs,
Teena; February 17, 2012 at 7:08 PM
janicerichard04 said...: Oh my goodness this post left me craving sugar! Everything looks so beautiful! It reminded me of a comment my son made when he was a wee one at my sister's house, "Look mom all the plates match!" It's something he never saw at our house as no 2 plates match in our home but .... all our plates have a story! ha! Any chance of sharing the "Spinach Lasagna Rollups" recipe? They look so good!
The New Brunswickers!; February 18, 2012 at 8:17 PM

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Joel's Story

Joel, our 11th of 13 and a twin of Josiah, at age 3 was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, on December 6th, 2006. Joel had three perfect years of health and he and Josiah celebrated their 3rd birthday Sept. 13th, 2006. The first of Oct. Joel started having unexplained fevers for a few days and would return to active play. After the fourth round of fevers we took him to our family Dr. which they said his iron was low, so we treated that for a few weeks and took him back only to have his hemo. showing lower than before. We were referred to a hematologists and saw him a few weeks with blood checks twice a week. At a visit on Dec. 4th we showed the Dr. the bumps, (which were tumors but we did not know at the time) on Joel's head and he was very concerned and we were told we needed to admit him immediately and start extensive tests the following day. Joel went through rigorous testing and then the dreaded results were given. Joel was at a stage IV the most extensive stage, but we were hopeful that the Lord would use the means of Chemotherapy treatments to restore Joel's body. Joel endured 8 1/2 days in the hospital, came home for Christmas, and returned for his second round of chemo Jan. 3, 2007. Joel had a seizure that night after midnight and went into a coma due to a tumor bleeding in his head area and causing his brain to swell. After tests the following days, the Dr. declared Joel "brain dead" and took us to court to force us to take Joel off life support, as we did not agree with the medical field's definition of death. Our family sought to stand with the scripture, "life is in the blood,"and until Joel's heart quit beating naturally, he was living. We were making arrangements to bring him home and on January 23, 2007 his little heart stopped beating and he went to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our lives are changed forever. God is faithful in the midst of this trial and we look with great hope to be with him someday.