Prayer Request

I am completely aware of how long it has been since I last posted. Here is a quick rundown of the last month or so..... I went to camp which is one of my favorite things of the year. I loved it and am SO sad that I will miss my second week this year (due to the fact that I will be in the Philippines). I LOVED going to Bible camp growing up am so glad that I get to go every year and try to give to these kids what all of the counselors (way back in my day) did for me. If you have a child that is close to that age you should definitely send them. You can ask my mom, I was completely opposed to it when she first tried to send me and then it quickly became the highlight of my year. I have seen a few children who didn't love it but they are SO far and few in between! Before camp was VBS. We had the 1st and 2nd graders this year and they were hilarious! The rest of my month or so has been busy working, trying to raise money for my trip to the Philippines, and getting ready for the trip. I'm sure there is more but my mind is preoccupied right now so I'll have to update later.



If you know me at all, you know that I am fiercely protective (some, like Leigh, may even use the word OVER protective) of my friends and family. Believe me when I say that I am completely aware of HOW blessed I am in both of these areas. I am sure that you have wonderful friends and family, but I know for a fact that no one has any better than mine. This being said, if I had to put my life's mission in to words (and leave out the obvious, which is to go to Heaven and take as many people as I can with me) it would be to do everything in my power to keep all of "my people" from as much physical and emotional pain as is possible.



Right now one of my very best freinds and definitely some one who has been to more of my birthday parties than almost and of the rest of them (she was at my 1st and my 18th, and most in between!) is in some very serious emotional pain. To save time I am going to let you take a detour to her page to get all of the facts but here is the "Cliff Notes" version. Melissa and John met at Hrding and got married. On Novemeber 21, 2005, God blessed them with one of the most prescious angels that He has ever created, named Kayden. Kayden is beautiful, wonderful, sweet, and NO DOUBT just a small version of her mom! On April 19, 2007 Melissa was pregnant with their second child when she went for her routine ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. This is when she got the devestating news that the baby had anencephaly. This is a fatal birth defect that is caused when the neural tube doesn't close over the top of her head. This means that the baby's brain will not develop and she doesn't have a developed skull. There is no chance of a baby living with this. On August 9, 2007 Janey Hicks was born and a few minutes later left this world for The Better One. This was devestating for all who knew and love Meli and John (when you have the time you really should click on the Meli link on my page and read some of her post from around that time, it is inspiring to say the least) Between August, 2007 and February, 2008 life has not really stopped throwing curve balls at this family. They have been dodging things such as money problems and job difficulties, ect. However, they have handled things nothing short of amazingly. In February this year, they found out that they were pregnant again, due in October. Again at the "routine" ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby the Dr. found somewthing was amiss. He didn't know exactly what it was so he sent her back to Macon to see the same specialist that had seen her for Janey. It was there that they got such horrible news yesterday. The Dr said that it was one of the following three things, 1. That her kidneys are weird looking and always will be but they will function just fine. 2. That something is wrong with them and they will start to fail. Not sure what, but for sure wrong. 3. That she has polycystic kidney disease. He talked a lot about this one and I feel sure this is what he feels it is. The main point being...it doesn't look good.

Here is the point of this post, PLEASE keep this family in your prayers! Everytime you look at your healthy children, please just take a quick moment and thank God for them and their health and then pray for this pregnancy and this baby! God IS the great physician and He CAN make Brecken (the baby's name) healthy! All I can do to protect Meli, John, Kayden, and Brecken is pray and get as many people to pray as I can. So, this is my mission. Please put them on your prayer list, on your congergations prayer list, and ask any Christian you know to pray! I TRUELY believe that God is going to do great things with this!

Since I am already on the subject of your prayer lists I can't miss this opportunity to ask you to remember a few other things.

1. Little Avie Dawkins will be having surgery October 28th and continues to have complications from her cleft pallet (sp??)
2. As always, Adam's widow, Erin and their little girls. All of ou men and women in our armed forces and their families.
3. All those affected affected by these horrible storms. Ecspecially, the families of those little boy scouts.
4. Me, Daddy, NaNa, PaPa, and my cousin Julia leave on the 24th of this month to go to the Philippines. I will post more on this before I leave, hopefully. But please pray for our safety and that we will be successful in spreading God's word to as many as possible.