Surprise - I can still have thoughts of my own!

It really has been eight days since I last posted a entry on my blogspot. This seems appropriate considering I made a commitment to blog at least three times a week. Why is that life seems more challenging in the midst of our making commitments? A couple of days last week I spent in Portland helping daughter #2 finish tiling the downstairs shower. Actually, daughter #1 was the helper as daughter #2 had school and work to attend to. Saturday was spent with a friend who has found himself contained in a place where they let you have visitors only during visiting hours. It was bittersweet, his hopes were dashed this past month and he finds himself facing uncertain waters. His emotions were more visible than usual and tears filled his eyes several times during our visit. Sunday was church in the a.m. and I taught a class on Sunday evening. All the grandchildren (5) were here on Monday, Tuesday the two little boys up the street spent the afternoon with us. Wednesday Popa had a couple of epidural injections done on his back at the surgery center and today we went to see the retinal specialist in hope of finding Popa's vision was improving. His eyes have not improved, however, they have not gotten worse; it will take about a month for Popa to wean himself off of the eyedrops. In four months the specialist will scan Popa's eyes again...in the meantime, we are going to order some new eye glasses. Popa and I also started eating healthy foods this week and are engaging in an organice lifestyle...another one of the commitment things we hope works out. Oh yeah, we met a lady from China last Thursday on our way to Portland, she teachs English at a university in Beijing. It was so rewarding to hear her talk about the avenues the Lord has provided for her to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. China is strongly calling our names and we are planning on making a trip there in September of this year. I was reminded this morning that writing is something I should be doing on a daily basis. Pray for me in this venture. May your hearts be refreshed today as you reflect on the commitment Jesus has made to you.