Top Twelve Highlights of 2010: Part 2 - the Next Six

     Here I am - on the verge of 2011 looking back at the highlights from this past year. Here they are:
7) My Dad's miraculous return and recovery from death. No joke here. (See my post http://halfdozengirls.blogspot.com/2010/03/big-pour-concrete-and-blood.html). I remember holding his hand in the ICU in mid-March. He was getting paler and colder. His eyes were blinking nervously as the nurses were rushing around trying to force more blood into him as quickly as they could. My sister, an ICU nurse for 17 years, was offering to help them because she could see that they were not handling his blood loss as efficiently as they shoud have been. As I held my Dad's hand, I thought, I don't want the last face for him to see before he dies to be a sad, anxious, grieving face. So I smiled at him as sweetly and bravely as I could. It was hard and it felt weird. I was trying to stay strong for my Dad. We were whisked out of the ICU rather quickly after my sister offered to help the nurses. About a 1/2 hour later we were told he was in surgery. Several hours after that he came through. He wasn't supposed to. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. God answers prayer! A week or so later, he brought the meat to our Easter dinner we held at my house. He was pale and weak, but he was there and he was alive!

My Dad and my father-in-law, Don, talking at our house on Easter

       My brother flew out to see my Dad immediately. He stayed with us and we talked quite a bit. This, too,was a miracle. After 7 years of an estrangement of sorts from him, he dropped back into our lives eager to see our Dad, reconnect with us, take a great interest in my girls, and come back into our family's fold again. I never could've antcipiated how wonderful that was. We didn't talk about past issues. No need to. We just talked and laughed. It was incredible. God performed miracles of many different kinds this past March. Simply amazing.

8)Tim switched schools in September rather suddenly. They couldn't offer him the extra jobs he needed at the school he had been at for over 20 years. So in a matter of days, he was at a new school. They have been able to offer him the high paying extra jobs our large family needs. Thank you, God and way to go, Tim!

9) I've lost 32.2 lbs. (I just had to get the .2 of a pound in. Digital scales are so affirming!) since September. The program I used Lord's Table - Setting Captives Free was far more than just a weight loss program. It was so beneficial that I renamed it "How to Love Jesus With Your Whole Heart Everyday and  Lose Weight, Too!" diet plan. It has been an answer to prayer and has brought much hope and peace to me as well as smaller clothes to my closet! I'd like to lose more weight in 2011. We'll see.
10)Reading Chuck Swindoll's Great Lives Series of books about bible characters. My favorite biographies were David and Moses. I also read about the lives of Job, Esther, Elijah, Paul, Jesus, and Joseph. I acquired so much insight and illumination into the character of God through reading about these people. God worked in awesome, incredible, bizarre, and unbelievable ways in their lives. I honeslty felt that those biblical biographies were more exciting than any Hollywood movie I had ever seen. I highly recommend them.

11)Emotional healing through caring prayer. A dear friend of mine prayed for me in early September this year regarding the trauma I had still struggled with from Julia's birth. Her prayer was passionate, powerful, and incredibly answered. Within a few weeks of her prayer, I began to realize that the painful hold of Julia's traumatic birth had lost a lot of its emotion. The post-traumatic stress disorder that I had been emotionally strangled by for over 2 years had dramatically lifted. I was so relieved and grateful! (There are still some painful issues that remain, but I'm confident that in time those, too, will abate.) I also found this helpful and healing website for women who've had traumatic birth experiences.http://www.solaceformothers.org/  . I highly recommend it for any woman who might need to process difficult details about her birth experience(s). Very supportive, helpful, and encouraging.

12)Growth and maturity in my daughters. All of my daughters have gotten bigger, smarter, cuter,etc. this past year, but my oldest two have really changed quite a bit. I won't divulge details because they are both so private ("If you put my picture on your blog you need to pay me a dollar!" and "Oh, Mom, what you wrote about me was so embarrassing!" Huh? How did it embarrass you? "I don't know! It just did! OK...OK...).Suffice it to say, the maturity, critical thinking skills, discernment, and awareness of the larger world around them has been so encouraging and hopeful to me. Maybe I haven't screwed them up after all! (I don't really think I've "screwed" them up, but we have our days where I really wonder...!) 
      I could've written more highlights, but I realized that twelve averages out to one per month. So, I'll end here. Have a happy new year!