"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory." Eph. 3:20,21
God, to you be the glory!!
A few months ago Ed was put in charge of heading up the MP Ball scheduled for Oct. 3, 2014. Ed reserved the hotel but in order to reserve it he had to sign the contract. It was a contract for $10,000. WOW! My first thought was "great" (NOT) now we are going to be held accountable for $10,000. We had to have at least 330 people sign up for the ball just to break even. Ed didn't seem concerned at first but as time got closer - July/August and not many had signed up and one unit was going to be gone at the time of the Ball, Ed became more restless and concerned. Even those who had signed up hadn't paid for their tickets yet. OK, time to ask God to help (should have done that to begin with); We need people, we need tickets sold, and Ed needs peace. Well, people began to sign up, people began to pay for their tickets and people continued to sign up even after the deadline - a total of 614 people!!! And Ed was no longer worried about tickets being sold. To God be the glory!
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:34 "Give your attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
At the time I wrote this blog we were getting ready to move my mom into an assisted living home, so these are the words I wrote the week before:
Next week if God allows (James 4:13-16) we will be moving mom to an assisted living home. God has always been faithful but I still sin by doubting and worrying. I need to remember Eph. 3:20&21 EXCEEDINGLY AND ABUNDANTLY, above all that we ask or think!!! God loves us, He is always with us, He goes before us and follows after us (Psalm 139:5)
The road isn't always easy, in fact life is hard. God never promised us it would be easy in fact He says just the opposite - taking up a cross is NOT easy. But then again if life was always easy would I trust God or just go along life's "easy" path? Would I turn to God? Would I trust Him? I must remember if I am trusting Jesus to take me to Heaven I can surely trust Him with everything else. He loves us and He knows what is best for us.
But I am very concerned about Mom's transition to an assisted living home. How will she adjust? Will the caregivers love her and take good care of her? Will she feel abandoned? Oh, the thoughts and worries!!!
I am now back home after being gone for a week to Maryland to help get my mom into an assisted living home. I can say this was one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life. But again I give God the glory for His exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could even ask or think answers to prayer. God began to work and put everything in place long before the "moving" day. The assisted living home that my dad went to look at was a 5 Star home, the best in the area, that only deals with patients who have dementia or Alzheimer's. It is a very nice facility and very easy to get to. They had TWO beds left, praise the Lord. I believe God knew mom was going to need one of those beds. As dad was doing all the paperwork and all that needed to be done before mom could move to the assisted living home he and mom had gone to the doctor, a requirement for mom, and the doctor office needed the phone number for Somerford Place (the assisted living home). Dad didn't have it but guess what....there was a lady in the waiting room that worked there and was able to give them the number, not a coincidence, again it was God doing exceedingly and abundantly!! My grandma planned to go and help Dad out when mom moved to Somerford Place, Grandma was getting everything prepared at her house in Pennsylvania, not really knowing for sure when she would be back home. She was planning on going to Maryland to be with dad the day mom moved to Somerford Place. The week before she was to go she got a postcard in the mail that said it was time for her to come in to have her eyes checked. Wow, of all times to need an eye appointment, any kind of doctor's appointments are hard to get soon. Well, Grandma called them on Thursday and explained the situation, they told her "you shouldn't have even got that card yet, you aren't due an eye check-up until December." (Okay think about this, if she hadn't got the card when she did she would have been in Maryland and not even able to get an appointment). After hearing about the situation they checked their calendar to see if they could get Grandma in, guess what??!!! someone had cancelled for Friday, the next day, at 3:00 p.m. so Grandma was able to get that appointment. After getting off the phone with the eye doctor Grandma decided to see if she could get her flu shot for that Friday too. She didn't really expect to be able to get it because last year they weren't in on Fridays. Once again give God the glory!!! They told Grandma she could come in on Friday between 1:00 and 3:00, how great is that!!!??? She had both the eye appointment and the flu shot back to back. And her new glasses....they are mailing them to Maryland!!! God is so faithful!! I arrived at Dad and Mom's Saturday night. Mom was to move to Somerford on Tuesday. None of us were looking forward to that day at all. We didn't want to move her and we didn't know how she was going to be with the move. Monday I took mom to get her hair done and we went to Chick-fila, mom's favorite place to eat. It was a really good morning. Monday evening, Greg (my brother), and I went to see the assisted living home, Somerford Place, this is the first time we were able to go and see it. Dad had already visited and had a tour. We both thought it was a very good facility. I spent the night at Greg and Tracey's Monday night, Greg and I were going in the morning to get Mom's room ready before she arrived. We made a list of the things we wanted to take for mom's room and went to Walmart to purchase a few things to make her room comfortable and look nice. One of the things we decided to take was her CD player and CD's, she loves to listen to her CD's. Well the CD player that she has is an under the cabinet player so we didn't know how we were going to make this work since there were no cabinets in her room. Greg had an idea to make a box for her CD player and we could set it on the dresser in the room. Greg found some wood he had at his house and we set to work. We didn't know the measurements of her CD player so we had to guess. Greg made it 18" and guess what the CD player was 17", it fit perfectly, EXCEEDINGLY AND ABUNDANTLY!!! Tuesday morning came and we needed to have Mom's room ready by about noon so when mom arrived she could go to lunch, we thought that may make the transition easier. Dad and mom had a doctor's appointment that morning, Melissa, the caregiver, was taking them. As soon as they left for the doctor's appointment Melissa texted me to let us know they had left. Greg and I went to Dad and Mom's and started packing things for Mom's room. We had to hurry we had until noon to get everything set up and ready. We got done at noon, almost on the button....EXCEEDINGLY AND ABUNDANTLY!!! We text Melissa to let her know we were done, we thought it best if we (Greg and me) weren't there when Mom got there. So Dad and Melissa took Mom to Somerford Place and the nurse came out and asked her if she wanted to go get something to eat, Mom said "yes" and went right with the nurse without even turning around to see if Dad was coming, amazing!!! We had told Mom about the move to Somerford Place but we didn't know if she fully understood or not, I am still not sure she understands but she is adjusting well. That afternoon Greg and I headed to Pennsylvania to get Grandma. We had a good drive and it gave us time to really talk about the whole situation, we both weren't dealing with this transition very well. We got to Grandma's about 6:00 p.m. and loaded up all of her things she wanted to take and made sure her house was ready to be empty for a while. I think we left from Grandma's about 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. It rained almost the whole way home, which didn't make a fun trip, it was dark and hard to see with all the rain BUT grass seed had just been sowed at Greg's church and they asked if he could water the grass on Tuesday (the day of the move), Greg told them he didn't know if he would be able to do it that day because it was going to be a very busy day getting Mom settled and going to get Grandma....well God took care of that too EXCEEDINGLY AND ABUNDANTLY!!!
As of today Mom has been at Somerford Place for a little over a week and she has had good days and bad days, actually as Greg would say "good minutes and bad minutes" with Alzheimer's things can change by the minute. But she is doing well and adjusting much better than any of us could even have imagined. She seems to have made a few friends and the day after she moved to Somerford a couple guys came and played music for the residents. They played a guitar and a mandolin and played Bluegrass/Country music, if any of you know my mom she LOVES music and especially Bluegrass/Country. Again EXCEEDINGLY AND ABUNDANTLY!!! Although this is still very hard, and I think I have cried more in the past week and half than I have most of my life, God is faithful and God is still God and God is still good!!!
I wrote this blog as a reminder to myself that I don't need to worry, I just need to trust God. I also wrote it to give Him all the glory in this move to Somerford Place.
"Lord Jesus, help me to trust you and not worry about tomorrow. Today has enough trouble of its own. You promised to be faithful to the end and when Satan whispers things like "it's going to be bad", "how are you going to do this?" etc. help me to remember that you, Jesus, are my father, you are my redeemer, you are my friend, and you will take care of us in the good, the bad, and the ugly. Thank you, Jesus."
