I Am Blessed

Close on the heels of a great Christian Women's Retreat I attended with my daughter last month was a chest cold. Mine that is. So we're talking major life adjustments here...staying at home, utilizing every cold remedy known to man for at least a three-week stretch. My pulmonary condition demands extra measures that I have cultivated over the years that keeps this a stay-out-of-the-hospital event for me.

My home becomes a quasi-hospital with my own nebulizer for breathing treatments, along with all the medicines that have proven most successful for keeping my colds from turning into major bronchial/pneumonia episodes.

Fortunately, this time was no exception. I have recovered enough to finally return to church services, and even managed to sing with the choir this weekend. I have also returned to my bread ministry, experiencing not only the pulmonary exercise I get from kneading four loaves of bread, but the joy of seeing people enjoy the fruits of my labor.

For instance, when I called my next-door neighbor and asked if she could send one of her kids over to get another loaf of bread, there was a knock at my door, even before I hung up the phone! Then, when I delivered another loaf to a friend of mine, she indulged in two slices of the bread while we visited. She kept apologizing for eating in front of me, but I reassured her I had already had lunch. It was fun watching the obvious pleasure she got from eating my bread.

Just when I feel like my caregiving days are over now that my husband's gone, I get reminded that perhaps I still have something left to give to others. This knowledge is what keeps all caregivers going. And if you have tended to forget, just know that you do make a difference, and whether you always see it or not, that difference is often in you. Giving of any kind is a blessing to the giver.

Women Makeovers

Don't know how I made it through the month of October without blogging here, but as these autumn months sneak up on us, they are quick to "leave" (pun intended).

Only other excuse I might have for this negligence is busyness with my bread ministry. I have given away over a hundred loaves these last three months, but the Lord blesses this outreach with just enough donations to purchase the ingredients and keep it going.

My biggest event for the month though has to be the Kansas-Nebraska S.D.A. Women's Retreat in Grand Island, Nebraska. It was made even sweeter with the addition of my daughter attending with me. We drove there together and stayed in a room all to ourselves. We enjoyed great speakers, delicious food, and endless women to visit with and establish bonds of friendship.

But our greatest Friend we came home with was the Lord Jesus Himself. The closer we are to Him, the closer we are to each other. So, I can't think of any way a mother and daughter could bond in a greater way than to experience the wonderful weekend of a Christian women's retreat like we just had this past weekend.

I am quickly seeing that with my caregiving days having lapsed for my husband, I have entered another cycle of loving care...that of my daughter taking care of me. And that's OK.