Seasons....

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Ecc. 3:1 We are officially in the "Fall Season," seasons of life come and go, facing the months before me are the hardest. I have memories of Joel and there are many specific dates that are very clear, but starting in Oct. 2006, I have these pieces of paper that have most everyday of what he ate, how he responded, how active he was as the fevers came regularly, so I can look at these and literally see what he was doing on this or that day in Oct. 2006 and it is so hard as I envision all that he was going through, he was as a tender ewe, following his parents in the pursuits of trying to find an answer, he did not resist but helplessly followed.....By definition mourning and sorrowing are the same but by experience, feelings and emotions they seem to be different to me. For me my mourning was the first months, maybe the first 7-8, once the acceptance came and now I still have many tears but it is a sorrowing with rejoicing, a hope, I will always have this sorrow and now as this season of fall is here, when I play by play it in my mind the sorrow is heavy, its weighty to my spirit. I find myself sighing out loud, I find myself pleading for a token of good that the Lord might show me because of this trial, I find myself a bit wanting the Lord to "show" me something, I want something given back for the taking of. I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it, My faith is truly and has been exercised, I guess at this very moment, I feel like a runner and I need and energy boost to finish. He hath made everything beautiful in his time.... I guess I am longing for that time to be now. I miss you, my Joel!!!!

One way to describe our lives now, is revolving doors, not always like this when they were all younger, but that way now, its exciting and fun....so I will fill you in.....remember Rancho the new puppy, well on Tues he got very sick, he goes to vet, they end up doing an x-ray and think he has a foreign object in his intestines, so they do surgery and no object but his intestines were kind of fip flopped around, he is still at the vet getting IV fluids but improvement....yea, like $$. Next the Tulsa Fair went well for Bethany and Andrew! Andrew placed 4th in the open show and he placed 2nd in the Youth Show, Bethany got Reserved Champion in the Youth Show. Friday some of us went to the huge Wildlife Expo and met up with the Burnett family and they came for dinner Friday evening. Played volley ball and a game inside later. Bethany is preparing for breeding season and she wants to continue higher breeding so that means we do not use the buck we used last year, which means we need a buck for this season, which means we pray and ask the Lord for provision because these little or "big" animals can cost as much as a used car ya know!! We literally did not have all the resources to do this but the Lord accomplishes and answers prayers through means that seem to come out of the blue but not really. We get a call from a couple from Colorado and they are coming to the sale that Bethany is attending today. Somehow they found our website and want to look at the bucks that we have for sale. They came by on Friday evening and are very interested in both!!! Yea!!! He said he would let Bethany know at the sale when they saw our crew there, which they did confirm they want both of them. So now Bethany is at the sale and has found a younger buck she is interested in and we are praying the Lord will grant this specific one to be auctioned to her bid! This is just one of those stones that I mentioned awhile back that I desire each child to see that they can use and stand on in their future of how the Lord does hear and answer prayer according to his will. Very neat!!! So here we are on Saturday, some are at the sale, some of us here preparing for Sunday church at our house. Oh, and I fixed Goat Chili on Thursday, the guys did not have a clue it was goat!

Blessings to all!!!

Cindy