For Brandi

I have posted this here before, but I wanted to post it here for my best friend Brandi. Please keep her in your prayers.

She was pregnant with twins and found out last week that she lost one of the twins. Her baby, Rain, is now in heaven with her precious little girl Zoe and our son, Jacob.

Back Home

Well we are back home. The trip was wonderful! Let me clarify, the trip was so-so, being with my husband was wonderful!! We had a FABULOUS time!!

My favorite part, BY FAR, was going to Faith Life Church in Branson. It is Keith Moore's church, if you are familiar with him. I have been a big fan of Keith Moore since buying a CD of his, "Healing in His Wings" 3 days after Kaedra was born, when I went to Rhema's healing school. A few years after that I discovered that all of his resources are available online for free. While pregnant with Ethan I downloaded his "Fear" messages and listened to them over and over.

When we got there, EVERYONE was smiling! It was SUCH a smiley place, full of joy! It was the BEST worship music I have EVER heard! I am convinced that it must sound like that in heaven. I didn't know any of the songs but we felt like we knew them within a few minutes. They had a choir and it was amazing! The sound was so deep it felt like it was coming up from the earth. It is just impossible to explain. The message was awesome too. In fact, if we had to leave with just the offering message, I would have been filled up and renewed! The "real" message was even better. Michael and I had agreed beforehand that we would hear from God at the service and boy did we! My pen was on fire trying to get everything down!

If you are ever in Branson, I would 100% recommend checking out Faith Life Church. Also, you can watch it live every Sunday on the internet.

In Branson

Hello everyone! Michael and I are in Branson for our 10th Anniversary! We are staying at the same set of cabins we did last year. Different cabin this year, though.

It is raining/hailing and we are cozy in our cabin with the fireplace going. :-) It is beautiful!

I will talk to y'all later!

BIG BIG NEWS!

Last Monday Kaedra had a momentous occasion in her life! After 4 1/2 years, she got her trach out! She still has bandages on her neck (while the hole heals) but she has been without her trach this whole week! Hallelujah! God is sooo good!

Circle of Friends

When we lost Jacob we went to see a grief counselor. One of the things she told me is that everybody needs approximately 8 good friends. I laughed out loud at her at the time. I had two good friends. And one was half-a-country away. I honestly thought that I would NEVER have that many good friends. I told her I didn't have time or energy for that many good friends!

It is not that I don't have friends. I have many friends..a good chunk of my homeschool group are friends. I had friends at the church we were going to at the time. But hardly any of them were more than one-faceted friends. For instance, this friend I talk to about cooking; this friend I talk to about kids; this friend I talk to about gardening, this one crocheting, etc. They are people that I have one or two things in common with, but they don't know the "real" me.

Now, these ARE more than acquaintances. I consider an acquaintance someone I just make small talk with. We talk about the weather, the church service, how our husbands are. After 30 seconds of small talk, there is an awkward silence and you wonder how to slip away.

However, they weren't GOOD friends. Friends that I shared more than one facet with. Friends that I laughed AND cried with. Friends that could tell you my dreams or goals.

The other day, I was talking to a good friend. This good friend said something about how I always talk about the Bible. I said, "pretty much only with you." She was amazed! She said, "I figured you were like this with everyone." It got me thinking. And I came to an amazing discovery.

I have 8 good friends now.

That's phenomenal! God is so awesome! I have 8 good friends and I am not even really involved in anything at the moment! I don't have a church, I don't see my homeschool group enough, and yet I still (or maybe because of that) I have a circle of wonderful friends!

One is still half-a-country away.
One is a family member.
Several I met at my homeschool group.
I met a couple at church.
and one I know through Kaedra's special needs.
Two of them don't have any kids and aren't married while another one has 8 kids!


My friends are wonderful. I am truly blessed by them. I have NEVER had this many friends and these are all ladies that I wouldn't give up for anything. I know that even when I move, it will not change our friendship. (esp since I hardly ever SEE any of my friends!!)

The interesting thing is: I am a different Kahri with each of these ladies. Not completely different, mind you, just slightly different. I will use one of their recent analogies: Like a diamond is one diamond but has lots of different facets. Each of my friends sees a different angle of my whole. As I said, I talk to one about the Bible a LOT, one I talk to mostly about cooking and children; one I talk to about homeschooling, home improvement and our husbands; one I can be my super-silly self with, one I can be especially quirky with and share my creative side.....but all these friends know the "real" me. They all know my hopes and dreams. They can tell you quite a bit about me. They are all people I could call crying or laughing. They are all people who would help me in a quandry, pray for me, make me laugh and I would do the same for any of them!

I have been praying for years for a good (local) friend. I had a friendship that changed with time and I really missed the old friendship. I missed how it used to be. So I took it to God. and waited. and waited. and waited.

And He fulfilled all that I could ask for and more! Isn't that how He is? Abundant! More that all I could ask for or think of!


Two disclaimers....

My husband is my best friend. He knows all the sides of me and loves them all! The important thing is, he can't fill all my friendship needs. It is unfair of me to make him try. That is why I have my girl-friends.

AND I have a PERFECTLY WONDERFUL best girl friend who does know all the sides of me. I reckon that is why I call her my best friend. However, she is not local and that makes some things difficult, ie. dropping in on each other, sharing meals, kids playing together, etc. We do talk on the phone about just about everything, when we CAN talk, and we email each other several times a week. In 13 years I think we have talked about just about everything and had every kind of emotion to share. She knows I am quirky and loves that side of me and I love that side of her!

Mosaic of me

DIRECTIONS:
- Go to Google image search.
- Type in your answer to each question below.
- Choose a picture from the first three pages.
- Save the URL links for all your images. You'll need these.
- Use this website (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) to make your collage.
- Save the image for use in this note
- Post and tag 10 people plus me.

Mine is below. Enjoy.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your hometown?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. What is your favorite movie?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What is one word to describe yourself?
10. How are you feeling right now?
11. What do you love most in the world?
12. What do you want to be when you grow up?

No Other Name by Unhindered

Letting someone else do my talking

I started to read the book called "The Shack" a few months ago after one of my friends recommended it on her blog. I only read part of it before I decided that it was not biblical and it was very humanistic. I try to keep myself away from any thoughts that aren't biblical, of course, but humanistic thoughts are especially sneaky, since they sometimes mask themselves as being biblical or "the right thing to think."

I have not posted my thoughts on this because I didn't have a concise way to explain myself. I read a blog recently that had some excellent thoughts on this so I want to link to it here.

Pay it Forward

Check out this blog entry from Lion Brand Notebook. I love seeing people use their crafts to bless others!

Star Overlay Square

Made this square for some sisters on my Ravelry Secret Sister group whose parents lost everything in a fire. We are hoping to bless them with this afghan.



I got the pattern from Chris Simon's Page.

I am hoping to make one more to send to them too. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing this square.

I am going to make an afghan to commemorate my losing weight too. I think I am going to make one 12" square for every 10 lbs. I lose. I want to make a sampler, so it will give me a chance to try out lots of neat patterns. :-)

Circling my Wagons

Usually I go through a self-evaluation around the New Year. I like to evaluate my mission ("I'm on a mission from God"), my goals, values, where my time is being spent, make long lists and all that other fun stuff. I didn't do it this year in January. Michael and I were praying through some thing in January and I didn't need more on my plate! Our life has been through some big changes in the last 2 months, though, and it is time for me to start sharing some of them!

1. Not very important to y'all...but a big change for us...we have gone low-carb. Not just for a "diet" but for a "way of life." We decided that we were very much addicted to the carbs and needed to cut down on the bad ones. I have decided to go VERY low carb myself since I have so much to lose, but everyone else is doing "good carbs." I know it has made us feel very healthy and we have all had good things happen from it. One of the most surprising is: my eczema is COMPLETELY gone!! Hallelujah!! After dealing with that my whole life, I am quite surprised!

2. Kaedra is capped again (meaning she is not using her trach) and we are looking at taking her trach out around the end of the month. That date will depend on a few things, including whether we are moving in the near future or not, but Dr. Carey wanted her capped for a month and that will be the right time period.

3. Michael is trying for a Sam's Club in Columbia, South Carolina. The job "closes" tomorrow and we should hear sometime after that whether he has gotten an interview or not. Although I have never been there, it looks lovely and definitely a place I am interested in. There is also a chance we will be trying for Fayetteville, Ar. We are praying about it right now.

4. Brittany is going to Cancun in the spring with David's family. She is VERY excited and we are excited for her! What a wonderful opportunity!!! WOOHOO! We are trying very hard not to be jealous. LOL!

5. My best friend is pregnant!! This will be her 9th baby, her 8th one here on earth with her. We are overwhelmingly thrilled for them! Just wish we were closer. (and not possibly moving to the opposite coast!)

6. My parents are coming for Easter. We are looking forward to a fun time with them.

7. The biggest change by far is: we have quit our church. We are trying some other churches right now, esp churches with Saturday night services. With Michael working overnights, that works out really well with his schedule. We are excited to see where God is leading us in this.

8. I am once again "circling my wagons." I am abiding in Christ, letting Him prune me and shape me. I am trying to make better choices for every moment of my day. I am trying to be more conscious of my life and not just busy living it. It is a wonderful close time with God but also brings my failures to the light. Not that I don't need that, I do, but it is never fun. I am working to make each day better and make better and better choices daily.

9. As a purely fun thing, Michael and I are getting to go to Branson again this year! It is our 10 year anniversary!! Sherria is coming to babysit that weekend and we will be able to leave Friday afternoon all the way through Sunday night! YEAH! We are going to Eureka Springs on Saturday during the day. We are VERY excited.

That is what is happening her in our neck of the woods. Big changes. Change is hard, but so enlightening. When you change you are really forced to come out of your comfort zone and re-examine so much. In doing that, you are more mindful of your life and less on "auto-pilot." I really appreciate this time with the Lord and following His will. What a wonderful opportunity.

Hope all is well with you!
I know I haven't been checking in on blogs recently. I am sorry. I got very behind and couldn't catch up. I have decided not to try to catch up and just go from here.

Blessings and Joy to you all!