Growing Family, Etc.

I have more news to share.  I am now 24 weeks pregnant with a little girl.  She is healthy and growing on track.  Owen is now 22 months old and he is the smartest most precious little boy in the world.  :)  Our journey in Austin ended, and we are glad.  Bryan got a job in Tyler that is a Godsend and we are so glad to be back in East Texas.  We didn't realize how much we loved the pine trees.  Our little girl is due in May and I will become a mostly full time stay at home mom.  The company I work for is so gracious and wonderful and will be letting me work a few hours per week from home.

We are so loved

We love the Hill's.  This picture is a little old but I found it this morning and thought it was an appropriate picture for Eden's birthday.

3 Years

I'm not sure if anyone is still following me, seeing how I have gotten very lazy when it comes to blogging.  Or maybe it's because I am just so busy with a 1.5 year old.  :) Yeah, we will go with the latter.

Today, Eden would be 3 years old.  I picture him having a really happy birthday party with his little brother next to his side.  Someday, I do believe we will see that happen......in Heaven.

There are so many things that God has placed on my heart lately and so many things that I am still being taught.  Thank the Lord for Grace.  I promise I will share those things soon.

Please join me in praying for the world and for the good message of truth that is in the Bible to be heard around the world.  There are so many that need HIM.

"Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always" Psalm 105:4

PKD walk

Here is the link to my page if you would like to donate to the PKD walk

http://sanantoniowalk.kintera.org/pkdcure/carriealbee

Thank you, in advance. 

Owen Parker is 15 weeks old

Hello!!  I've been away for some time.  Been a little busy and loving every minute of it.  Owen Parker was born on April 9, 2012 at 4:18pm.  He weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces.  He is a perfect little boy.  He is now 15 weeks and weighs 15 pounds.  Lot's of changes in our lives.

Bryan got an job offer in Austin that we just couldn't pass up.  We prayed for months prior that God would lead us in the direction he wanted us and we would listen to Him and not US.  Every piece of the job offer down to us finding a place to live and actually getting to Austin fell into place.  It could have been a disaster to uproot our lives with a 6 week old.  We are loving it here and can't wait for the next step in our lives. 

I am registering for a Polycystic Kidney Disease Walk in San Antonio in September in honor of Eden.  I will post a link shortly in case you would like to donate/sponsor me.  More to come on that. 

Thank you for continuing to follow my story.  

32 Weeks

I am 32 weeks pregnant now and everything is going as well as it possibly can up to this point.  We still feel so blessed by the number of people that tell us they are still praying for us.  This journey has been so humbling.  We are at such peace most days.  As the big day gets closer, we have our moments of panic but we are so excited. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:  ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Moving right along

I will be 26 weeks on Saturday.  Things are moving right along.  We went to the doctor yesterday and our little boy weighs about 2 pounds and he measures perfectly.  My fluid is also perfect.  Praise the Lord!  I started really feeling him moving around on December 17.  We could actually see his movement.  My due date is April 14.....we'll see if I make it that long. 

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us faithfully.  God is so good and has been so gracious!

Big News!

I have been a HORRIBLE blogger.....mostly because I had a secret and knew that if I blogged, I'd want to tell.  I will be 19 weeks pregnant on Saturday.  We went to the specialist in Dallas this past Friday and received wonderful news.  We have a healthy baby boy growing right on track.  This has been a fairly simple pregnancy.  I didn't have a lot of sickness other than some nausea when I didn't eat enough and some sciatic nerve pain.  It has been a wonderful example and reminder of how God can work.  There have been moments where I had feelings of being scared but I AM human.  98% of the time both Bryan and I have been completely at peace and have been able to rest in His hands.  We feel very blessed to be at this point in our lives. 

So, we now have "perspective".  It's a wonderful thing because things that used to make me so nervous and things that I tried to control no longer haunt me.  That being said, perspective can be tricky.  I find myself judging others when they get upset about things that really don't matter.  So, it's a constant battle. 

I'll try to be better at updating the blog more frequently now. 

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8:12 NLT)

I don't really feel like I have anything clever to say today but it's been way too long since I've updated the blog.  Bryan and I had some life changing events occur over the past year, obviously.   It caused us to take a look at our lives and re-evaluate what was important.  We kept hearing, "SIMPLIFY".  We decided last October that we needed to sell our house.  We listed it For Sale By Owner and didn't get a ton of action.  There were at least 9 other homes on our street that were for sale.  That was scary, to say the least.  Some of those homes had been on the market for 2+ years at that point.  We knew the market wasn't good but we also knew that God was leading us down this path and if it was His plan, it was going to sell.  Nothing happened for several months until a realtor called us and asked us if she could talk to us about listing it.  We ended up hiring her and she sold it in 92 days.  That's a miracle in this market if you ask me.  The family that bought the home was looking for our exact home, everything about it was what they wanted. 
We are now living in a townhouse that we love.  We decided not to jump into buying another house, only having 2 weeks to pick one.  We want to take our time and really find the home we are supposed to be in.  Things are falling into place for us.  Bryan enjoys photography and has been offered the opportunity to take photos of houses for a local realtor.  It's been a huge blessing. 
More to come soon!!!!  

Happy Birthday baby boy!

Eden would be 1 year old today.  I can't believe it's been a year.  Bryan and I have learned so much and have become completely different people.  It's amazing how differently we see things.  All because of this special, precious baby.

Happy Birthday!  We love you so much!

Springtime and other stuff

I have never in my life been so excited about Spring!!!  This is the first time in my life that I feel like I've actually "stopped and smelled the roses".  It's almost a child-like excitement!!  The trees budding and the flowers popping seem to have some strong significance this year.  I guess it's probably natural to be affected by the weather and the different beautiful colors coming alive.   It's amazing how many different flowers and plants there are in this world.

I decided to leave my job as the Business Development Manager where I was working here in town.  There were so many wonderful people that I met while working there; employees and patients.  I know that God put me there so I could tell my story in the public eye.  I think I could have gotten into a very bad place if I weren't 'forced' to go somewhere every day.  It was a consistency I needed so that I didn't get consumed with my selfishness and self pity. For personal reasons, I decided to leave and have NO doubt that I made the right decision.

God blessed me with a job that I can do from home.  I couldn't ask for a better situation.  It's such a HUGE blessing and I will never take it for granted.  Bryan and I have been praying since last summer for God to lead us and let us know when and if we should start trying to have a family again.  Now that I am at a point that I can go to doctor's appointments when I need to and put my health first, we feel very confident that God is speaking to us.

In preparing to try to get pregnant again, I've begun consulting with a nutritionist with Nature's Sunshine.  I'll tell the story later on about how I came to find her.  It's an awesome story but I'm saving it for another time.  I've done some cleanses and started eating all organic fruits and veggies and hormone free meats.  It's been an overhaul of our refrigerator and pantry.  I have also completed P90X and am starting it over again, along with running and biking.  I have never been a fan of exercise, in fact I used to LOATHE it.  It has now become a part of my life and I look forward to it.  The more I exercise the more I want to eat things that are grown on trees or from the ground.  If you've never done research on Organic vs. Non-organic, you really should do yourself the favor and stop pumping yourself full of pesticides and hormones.  It's a lot like lead paint and second hand smoke.  If you think about it, when lead paint came out, they had no idea how bad it was until years later.  Second hand smoke was the same way, we find out 20 years later all the bad side effects.  Have you ever noticed little girls starting to develop way younger than they used to????  It's because there are hormones being pumped into chickens to make the chickens grow faster.  Then we eat them.....put two and two together.  I also believe that the pesticides that we ingest correlate with all the cancer that seems to be invading so many people.  I'm no doctor but it just makes sense.  It's been an exciting past few months of getting my body in tip top shape.  Now, being patient for God to do His thing is the next step.

I will keep you all posted!!!

Precious Friends

Sweet Ella Kate

One of my good friends, Tracy, that I met shortly after we moved to Tyler, was pregnant at the same time I was.  We had due dates very close to each other.  This is her sweet little girl, Ella Kate.  They visited The Children's Park in Tyler to take some pictures.  The caption that Tracy sent said, "We took Ella Kate's 6 month pictures a couple of weeks ago and she wanted me to share one with you.  She took a picture with her special friend who I just know would have been her very best friend!"


Tracy has no idea how special it is to me that she constantly tells me that Ella Kate will know all about her friend, Eden.  When you lose a child, your biggest fear is that no one will remember him or her.  Thank you, Tracy.  This made my year!!!

Thank God for the Fleas!!!

I love my church!  The teaching we receive is so rich and helpful for growth.  Do you feel like that?  If not, you are missing something.  Not that church is the only way to grow close to our God, but it's definitely something we are told to do.

Matthew 18:20

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

This week, Luke preached from Hebrews about finding the joy through suffering.  While that is usually VERY difficult on our own,  we should learn to teach ourselves to trust God through those sufferings.  When you do, you will find much joy in horrible, awful things.  Sounds a little twisted but it's so true.  Just try it.......

After church I went over to my parents' house to spend the afternoon there while Bryan was at a meeting.  I was telling my mom about what we learned at church and she remembered a story that she had read.  The story was from the book, "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom.

'Corrie was taken to a prison in Scheveningen, along with her father, her sister Betsie and her brother Willem. Corrie's beloved father died in prison ten days after his arrest. Corrie spent the following months of prison life sustaining herself with the words of life she found in her tiny Bible, secretly given to her by a friendly nurse during an examination. In June of 1944, Corrie and her sister Betsie were moved to Vught, a labor camp in southern Holland. Conditions at the labor camp were awful, but Corrie was thankful that they had not been sent to Germany. She was also thankful that she was able to be with her sister and around people rather than in solitary confinement as she had been in Scheveningen. Two months after arriving at Vught, Corrie was transferred to her worst nightmare: the notoriously infamous German concentration camp: Ravensbruck. If what Corrie and Betsie had faced before was in any way challenging, it was nothing compared to what they would go through at Ravensbruck. Corrie's one thought was how she could smuggle her Bible into the camp. She prayed that God would somehow make her invisible when it came her turn to be searched. Corrie would later relate with a shining face how God answered her prayer with a miracle! She was able to walk right by the guards without being touched.

Corrie was put into a cell with her sister Betsie. Her worry now was that the guards would see the Bible and take it away from them, the two sister's only source of hope and comfort. The place was so infested with fleas that the sisters could not move without instantly being covered with the bugs. Betsie told Corrie that they should thank God for the fleas, Corrie wasn't sure she could do this, but she and Betsie bowed their heads and thanked God for even the fleas. Weeks later, Corrie was struck by the blessing that came for her obedience to thank God in all circumstances; Betsie had heard a supervisor say she wouldn't step through the door of their cell because of all the fleas, and neither would the guards. It was because of the fleas that Corrie and Betsie were able to continue to keep their Bible without the guards finding it.

Corrie endured all the cruelties inflicted upon her bravely, the ones she could not bear were the ones inflicted on her already weak sister. Betsie greeted each day and each trial with the same sweet smile, rejoicing in the fact that she could share Jesus' love with her fellow prisoners. Corrie did everything in her power to help her dying sister, but the horrible conditions, rampant filth and piercing cold overtook her. Before she died, Betsie said something to Corrie that would stay with her for the rest of her life "[we]...must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here."

Betsie was not ever able to leave the camp and tell people, but her words still made it to the world through her sister Corrie.

Two days after her sister died, Corrie was released. She would later discover that her release was an "administrative error". One week after her release all of the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers. Only Corrie knew that there was no error, God makes no errors.'

Bryan works for a hospital in IT.  Hospitals never close and as we all know, computers tend to have a mind of their own and will shut down at the most inconvenient times.  He got a call last night at about 8:00PM that one of his servers was not coming back up during a routine systems check.  So, he made his way to the hospital thinking it was a simple reboot command.  Wouldn't it be nice if it was that easy???  I told him to "Thank God for the Fleas".  No one likes to be called into work unexpectedly, unless they are just a glutton for punishment.  Bryan was a little upset but he said that he was praying on the way to the hospital and thanking Him.  When he got there he found it was actually a bad hard drive and not a reboot issue.  If someone hadn't been doing a routine check and had trouble rebooting, Bryan would have found out the hard way that the hard drive was bad.  All 30 something of the hospitals would have been shut down.  That's not something you want to happen.....EVER.  And it usually takes a lot longer than the 6-7 hours that it took last night.  It would have been a small crisis.

So, last night we both saw that you need to thank God for the fleas!!!! 

Watercolor for Eden

My mom has ALWAYS said that she really wanted to learn to paint.  A few weeks ago she drew a picture that made me cry tears of joy.  She said it was just something that came to her head.  I never knew she could draw so well.  She never gives herself enough credit.  She is so talented at so many things.  I love her sooooo much!!  So I told her I wanted her to paint the drawing for me so she decided that she would take a class at Hobby Lobby to learn the basic techniques.  She also spent many hours watching videos online.  This is the beautiful picture she painted for me.

I know it's been quite some time since I've posted.  I've been praying for God to give me the words to write that would glorify him.  So, after several weeks of praying and hearing the gentle nudge from Him, this is what I've heard.  First, I wanted to put a couple of pictures of Eden on the blog.  A few people have asked to see pictures but I understand that it must be difficult to know how to ask a person a question like that.  Will they be upset or happy that I asked????  Well, I'm at a point now that I love to show off my son!

Several people have asked Bryan and me when I was going to post something new.  So this is what has been placed on my heart.  In several of my posts I have written about how God is blessing us and what he is teaching me.  Many of our friends and family have told me that they are glad that I have something to hold onto (referring to God) to get through this tough time in our lives.  I would like to clarify something, God is NOT a crutch or sign of weakness.  Once you fully commit yourself and your life to HIM as HIS, you will never look back.  I can whole-heartedly tell you all without a shadow of a doubt that Bryan and I are not the same people we were a year ago.  That's a wonderful thing!!!!  We haven't given up anything, we've only been blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed.  I want to scream at the top of my lungs to share the good news of Jesus Christ our Savior.  Do you know him?  Have you ever thought about it but don't know how to get to know him?  Jesus said,  "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
Want to know the answer....... THIS IS IT, and it's THIS SIMPLE!!!! You should say these words to GOD:  

Dear God,
I know that I am a sinner and need forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and died for my sin. I am willing to turn from sin. I invite Christ into my heart and life as my personal Saviour.


These are the steps to Salvation: 


1. Acknowledge in your heart that Jesus is Lord. 

2. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.


3. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised three days later.


4. Repent of your sins and get baptized in the name of Jesus.

Your life here on this earth will never be the same once you take these steps.  Not only will your life here on earth be changed, you will live an eternity in Heaven with our LORD.  Doesn't that sound great????  It does to me.  

If you have any questions about getting to know God, please reach out to me.  If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does.  You see I'm not an expert on the bible or am I the model Christian, but I do love Jesus and I want to share HIS love and HIS promise with you!!!  

Sincerely, 

The Albee's 

4:6 (NIV)

This poem was written by a 13 year old boy who died of a brain tumor that he had battled for four years. He died on December 14, 1997. He gave this to his mom before he died. His name was Ben.

My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless
Christmas trees
around the world below
With tiny lights, like Heaven's stars,
reflecting on the snow
The sight is so spectacular,
please wipe away the tear
For I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year.
I hear the many Christmas songs
that people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can't compare
with the Christmas choir up here.
I have no words to tell you,
the joy their voices bring,
For it is beyond description,
to hear the angels sing.
I know how much you miss me,
I see the pain inside your heart.
But I am not so far away,
We really aren't apart.
So be happy for me, dear ones,
You know I hold you dear.
And be glad I'm spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.
I sent you each a special gift,
from my heavenly home above.
I sent you each a memory
of my undying love.
After all, love is a gift more precious
than pure gold.
was always most important
the stories Jesus told.
Please love and keep each other,
my Father said to do.
I can't count the blessing or love
he has for each of you.
So have a Merry Christmas and
Wipe away that tear
Remember, I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year

If you haven't read the book called CRAZY LOVE, you should.  This is a link to one of the videos that really got me thinking.  http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html

Several weeks ago I heard a sermon that was about the old testament and the traditions that they used to follow.  One of the questions that the preacher asked was, "how would you feel if your son were going to be crucified?"  My first thought was, I know exactly how it feels.  Now, I didn't lose my son in the same cruel way but I do know how it feels.  How sad that I never really related or felt the pain until it happened to me.  God watched his son be beaten to death.  How horrible!!!!!  I've always gone to church since I can remember but the stories that I heard from the bible were simply that.....stories.  I hate to even admit this but they were almost like fairy tales.  I believed that they really happened but I never really fully whole-heartedly connected them to present day.  The closer I get to God, the more I realize how unworthy I am of his generous unmatchable gift.
GBC recently had a Fall Festival on October 30th.  We dressed up and had games and food and candy.  I think there were probably 200 folks that came in the door to participate in the festivities.  It was wonderful.  Bryan and I put together a photo booth with scarecrows, hay, pumpkins and fall leaves.  Bryan loves technology and gadgets so he recently purchased a professional lighting kit for taking photographs.  This is the second year that we have done the photo booth and it was a huge hit last year so we decided that we would continue with it every year.  So, we might as well make it as good as we can.  We took photos of families and printed them out while they were enjoying the other activities.  We would tell them to stop by our table on the way out to pick up their photo.  I can't tell you how many people looked at me and asked, "Is it free", or "It's really free"?  It was a look of shock and astonishment.  That evening when I got home I couldn't stop thinking about that question.  People were so excited about a free picture.  I guess I related it to me telling others about God and their salvation being FREE.  Hello!!!  I need to get as excited to whip out my bible and tell them what God is ready to give them for free.  I think about it a lot and I worry that I will offend people.  I'm ready to forget about offending people.  I need to tell them about GOD so they won't be mad at me when they are in hell wishing I would have told them.
Bryan and I have gone through radical changes over the past year.  We've gotten closer to God than we ever dreamed.  We've still got a long way to go.  And I hear people ask me how much worse could things get in their life? I truly believe that they can always be worse.  And the closer we get to God, the more Satan is going to tempt us and try to get us to believe his evil lies.  I'm more excited than I've ever been about going to church and learning more about our creator.
I'm positive that I wouldn't be where I am if Eden didn't come into our lives and change our hearts 180 degrees.  You see, not only did God's son save my life, my own son is changing my life every day.

Children's Park

Our amazing church donated money to have a stone engraved at the Children's Park in Tyler with Eden's name. (the picture is sideways because I'm not sure how to change it) The Children's Park is a park that was started by a mother who lost her little boy about 11 years ago. The sidewalks are lined with stones with children's names that have passed away. It's a beautiful park.
What a wonderful way to honor these angel babies. 

There was a ceremony this past saturday at the park that involved music and a roll call.  When they call the name of your child you are supposed to take a little angel ornament and put it on a tree.  At the end they let 230 butterflies go.  I'm sure it would have been a wonderful thing to attend but once we got there, we both realized we were NOT ready for that.  So, we went to Starbucks with my best friend and her sister and mom.  It ended up being a great day!!! 

Prayer answered

Bryan has suffered from epilepsy for about 7 years now. He would have grand mal seizures about 1/month. When we first moved to Tyler he started seeing his 5th or 6th neurologist. That Dr. had him start a new med that had less side effects. Unfortunately, the med didn't work well for Bryan. It actually increased his threshold and was causing him to have 3-4 seizures in a day about 3 times per month. It started getting very scary. That was in August and September of 2009. I had my appendix out in November of 2008 by a wonderful surgeon that I had become friends with over the past several months through my previous job selling surgical devices. He was one of the few surgeons that treated me like a human being. It was a God thing that he was the surgeon on call the night that I went to the ER. At my final post op appointment he asked us if we needed anything else. We asked him if he knew of a neurologist. Without hesitation he sent us directly to Dr. George Plotkin. He is world renowned and somehow ended up in Tyler, TX. My surgeon was able to pull a few strings and get us in to see Dr. Plotkin. It took about 6 months but we finally got to see him in September 09. Bryan and I were both in tears in his office. Not a single neurologist has spent so much time with Bryan trying to find out what was going on with his brain. He told us, "We will stop the seizures". It was simply amazing!! Bryan had his last seizure on October 23, 2009. He has now been seizure free for 1 year!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! We know that the whole thing was a God thing, no doubt. He is always watching out for us. Bryan will stay on the meds he is on for 5 years total. If he has no seizures during those 5 years, they will take him off his meds and consider his brain healed. The brain takes so long to heal but if you can keep from having seizures, it allows it to heal. Every seizure you have sets you back a little. What a blessing Dr. Plotkin and Dr. McGovern have been to us.

Random Thoughts

Lately, I can't seem to stop thinking about the last time I saw Eden. When Bryan and I finally decided that little Eden's body was starting to show the signs that his soul was gone, we made the call to the nurse that it was time to take him. He was wearing an infant onesie that completely sucked him up. The little sleeves were rolled up a few times (which reminded me a lot of Bryan when he wears long sleeved dress shirts) and he had a little white cotton hat on his wrinkled head. The hat kept falling off his head because it was way too big and like any mom would do, I kept putting it back on, as if he were cold. Once we made the call, I started to panic because I knew that once the nurse took him away, we'd never see our baby again until we see him in heaven. It was a very surreal moment when she knocked on the door. Her sweet face smiled at us as she asked us if we were ready. That is not a question that you can ever be prepared to answer. Bryan and I gave Eden one last kiss on his bright red lips. When the nurse cradled him, I couldn't see his face anymore. I'm so thankful that she didn't hang around much longer because I probably would have had a heart attack. It was also a good thing that I was still hooked to monitors and IV's because my first instinct was to run after her. How could they be taking my little baby to the morgue? He would be all alone. I was supposed to take care of him. I literally felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and carried away and I wasn't sure if I'd ever get it back. Bryan and I just hugged each other and cried for what seemed like forever. I slept about an hour that entire night.At about 4am I just started to bawl. My mom was 'sleeping' on the couch in the room so I was trying my hardest to cry quietly so I wouldn't wake her up. She sweetly rolled over and just smiled at me. There was really nothing to say. Bryan had gone home a couple of hours earlier to let our dog out and feed her since it had been 12 hours since we had been home. It was so hard to lay there and know that my son's body was in that hospital all by himself. I know that he was already having fun playing with golden blocks on Jesus' lap, but the mommy in me selfishly wanted the hold him and play with him. I read about something called empty arm syndrome and I learned very quickly that it is a real thing.
My point to writing all of this is to say this.....I thought that I may not get my heart back, but I am here to tell you that I not only have my heart back, it's much bigger. I feel an overwhelming love for every child I see. I work in a doctor's office that has the best pediatric ophthalmologist in the world as far as I am concerned. He sees children from hundreds of miles away. A lot of these children have terrible debilitating syndromes. I smile every day that I see them. God has a purpose for every single one of them and their parents. WE should all remember that every single human being is special.
This is from an interview with Rick Warren:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life?

And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is 'my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD.."

And the devil sure is good at being the devil.  When you are trying extra hard to be a good witness he will put up road blocks to make it even more difficult.  Just remember JOB.  :)