Miracles happen

It always seems as though miracles were a regular occurance in the Bible - the Red Sea parted, Christ turned water into wine, he made blind men see, he raised Lazarus from the dead, and he made lame men walk. Miracles happened that were entirely impossible to ignore or deny as being the work of God. It sometimes seems as though God used to have a much more active role in the world... I know this is not true and that God is unchanging and faithful, but it's sometimes hard to see that because there aren't miracles as obvious as the Red Sea parting. When people ask me if I've seen miracles done I'm always hard-pressed to come up with them, but they do happen! God is still actively revealing himself to us through miracles.
One such miracle happened yesterday and Matthew Beimers and his family will be the first to tell you that. Madelyn Elise Martina Beimers was born yesterday - seven weeks early. Complications arose in the pregnancy and Madelyn was delivered by cesarean section on Christmas Day. Weighing a mere 2 pounds, 13 ounces, she will remain in hospital for 4-6 weeks. A miraculous birth and a miracle of life!
Please pray for Matthew Beimers and his family. He has three other beautiful daughters who had to sacrifice their Christmas with their parents, but I'm sure they are ok with that. I don't want to assume things, but I'm going to anyways... This will be a hard couple of months for their family and I'm sure they can use our continuous prayer. Please remember them and keep them in your prayers.
You can read the Beimers' amazing story at http://www.pacificgrace.blogspot.com/ . I'd recommend you have kleenex ready... It really was a Merry Christmas!!

Lazy

Today I did absolutely nothing. I woke up to find that I didn't have to paint base boards with my mother because she was at the hospital with a friend who was in labor so I just sat around all day long. It was nice/strange/almost lonely, I'd say. After spending four months with people constantly imposing on your space it wasn't as nice as I'd imagined to be home alone all day long. That may be because I am home and I want to see people and hang out and catch up and have fun... I don't know. My dad and brothers were out all day, shopping and working and playing basketball etc so I just read my book and watched some terrible television. I have not missed T.V. in the slightest... it's a waste of time. I don't mind watching movies, but T.V. shows, especially the soaps during the day, suck! I do wish we could watch more Canucks games, but alas, Edmonton depraves us. K... so I have nothing left to say. I'm just typing for the sake of typing. :)

Speaking of Gordon...

I was just looking through pictures on my computer and here's Gordon and I at the high school dance last year... (the second one's for you JB).

Home at Last

It was definitely worth having my five finals over a period of three days in order to come home early. I don't think I would trade that for... well for much I guess. I even got to have a sleepover with my sister! She drove me to the airport in the morning so I went to her house the night before and we had a little party.
Hmm... Stewart picked me up from the airport and we went to see my daddy at work. His school was having chapel so I snuck in the back and gave him a huge hug. He was just about to go up to read a story to his students so I stood at the back with Stewart and we were going to listen to him read. So my dad went up to the front and sat down and started talking about their Christmas traditions or something like that and then he stops and says, "Could you all turn and wave at my daughter. She just came back from college and came here to surprise me." So his whole school turns and waves at me and they all started clapping and I so I waved back with this huge/dumb smile on my face. Then he started reading. I love hearing my dad tell stories! He used to read to us kids all the time. He read us The Hobbit and Narnia. It's been a while since I've had the chance to listen to him and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Then we went to visit my neices at their middle school. They were also in chapel. When they realized I was there they came running at me. It was so cute! Then they both started crying when I was hugging them. Oh man, they cried for so long. It was so adorable. Aww... I missed them. They make me so happy.
After that, Stewart and I went home to have tea with my mom before venturing to Fraser Valley Christian to see my little brother and everyone else. A bunch of the kids I taught last year came and gave me hugs as well as the girls I coached on Surrey Heat. Hmm... I went to a basketball meeting and saw all the girls again.
Then Handy and I were walking down the stairs and who should be walking up them but Gordon Kelly himself. He looked a bit startled at seeing me in his domain yet again and so he barely managed to spit out a hello. Then, in the typical Gordon Kelly manner, he took two steps and turned around to join me in my walk. And that was the end of me visiting other people. When Gordon Kelly wants something he is pretty persistant and determined to get it. So I spent the next 25 minutes humoring Gordon and hearing about Toronto and his life. Trying to end the conversation and start a new one with someone else failed time and time again because Gordon is never finished. If he is anywhere near you then he has an open invitiation to talk... even if you're talking to someone else. Oh man, I missed that boy. He's quite entertaining, especially 12 hugs, 5 hand-shakes, and 3 high fives. Gordon Kelly is quite the character. After rekindling my romance with him I decided to go home...
Now I've been lazing around, visiting family, hanging out, reading... and it's been wonderful!

Congratulations Justin!!

Well... it's been a while. The week has been hectic and next week will be even more so. I'm in the process of writing four papers, completing two assignments, and studying for a lab exam... not to mention the fact that I had a floor christmas party, christmas shopping with my sister, volleyball and I'm going to the hospital to play with kids tomorrow with my volleyball team. I can't even start studying for finals until Saturday and I have my five finals over a period of three days!! The only bonus in the situation is that I get to be home on December 16th... but the next week and a half are going to be ridiculous! I just might lose my mind.
The real reason for this blog, however, was to let you all know that Fraser Valley came in 3rd at provincials. I'd say that's not bad. I heard that the team they lost to in the semi-finals, MEI, play amazingly well and definitely deserved the gold so I'm pretty proud of our boys. My little brother got a 2nd All-star! I was so proud of him! I'm not going to lie... I still am proud of him! Although I am expecting MVP out of him next year :) Anyways, I gotta get back to my philosophy paper.
Ps... I'm coming home in 9 days!

Provincials!

MY LITTLE BROTHER'S TEAM IS IN THE SEMI-FINALS AT PROVINCIALS!! I'm so excited and I wish I was there! They play MEI tomorrow so I'll let you all know how he does!