My childhood....Dan Miller

No this man is not a member of my family, and I have never met him personally. But he has been the news anchor on Channel 4 in Nashville my ENTIRE LIFE! I mean, you turn on the channel 4 news and you expect to see Dan & Demetria. WOW! This news hits me kind of hard this morning. Someone you have been used to seeing every night when you watch the news, and now he is gone. He has a young daughter, and I feel for her so much, and can relate - losing my own dad at 17.

Dan is a piece of my youth, and my present, and he will be greatly missed.

Prayers lifted up for his family and co-workers, and all the people of Middle Tennessee who loved him.

Dan Miller 1941 - 2009

Therapy, Prayers, and more...

Tomorrow my best friend is having major surgery. Please lift her up in prayer and the doctors who will be working with her before during and after surgery.

Also, my friend Sandy's little boy - Cooper, has been diagnosed with Neurocutaneous Melanosis. He is 15 months old, and is undergoing chemo treatments. Please keep them in your prayers. Going back and forth to the treatments, and trying to raise both Cooper and his older sister is rough. And I know Sandy and her husband will appreciate any prayers said for them.

Tomorrow I have my first therapy session of 2009, and it is the first one since November. With Keith's job loss, no insurance, busy schedules at the therapist's office it has been a long time coming. I am afraid she is going to have to block off more than one hour for me! LOL! Or at least have to say "OK LORI YOUR TIME IS UP!!!"

Keith has started his new job and we are so excited. We became members of First Baptist Church here in town. And we are having our first "outside of church" get together with our small group on Saturday night. So exciting!!!
OH - and see that cool little "somethinghappens.org" on the right side of my blog - GO CHECK IT OUT!

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Confused???

Have you ever been confused? Truly I mean, the definition of the word confused is:

"con·fuse (kən-fyōōz')
v. con·fused, con·fus·ing, con·fus·es
v. tr.

1. A.To cause to be unable to think with clarity or act with intelligence or understanding; throw off.
B. To cause to feel embarrassment.
C. To mistake (for another): confused effusiveness with affection.
D. To make opaque; blur: "The old labels ... confuse debate instead of clarifying it" (Christopher Lasch).
E. To assemble without order or sense; jumble.

2. A. To mistake (for another): confused effusiveness with affection.
B. To make opaque; blur: "The old labels ... confuse debate instead of clarifying it" (Christopher Lasch).
C. To assemble without order or sense; jumble.

3. Archaic To bring to ruination."
from dictionary.com

Well I am CONFUSED! I am "unable to act with clarity or intelligence" right now on a couple of subjects. They overwhelm me, I am so confused. I just have the feeling that God is trying to tell me something through all this, I mean I KNOW he is, but I wish I could figure it out. Because out of this confusion is coming deep hurt on one topic. And on the other, it is making me feel uneducated. And I can "fix" the uneducated part - I can learn, I can grow, I can become educated on the topic, and I plan to do so - I am speaking about the bible. And the study of it in this instance. I never did this growing up, in the Catholic Church we did not do a lot of bible study, so since we have started attending First Family, I have started to do this; and I like it, but it does confuse me. But I will learn, it will change, and I will grow. I see what God is telling me about this. But the other thing I am confused about - I don't see it. I do not see the purpose in my hurt, and pain. I KNOW THERE IS ONE, and it will become clear to me at some point, God will reveal it, and maybe he has and I am just simply not paying attention. But this hurt and pain - this confusion: is almost too much to bear right now.

And is it true that only we can make ourselves "feel" a certain way - we are responsible for our feelings? No one else can make us feel ANYTHING? That seems like such an odd statement to me, because I feel other people can make us feel things. Perhaps it is not them making us feel, but their actions cause us to feel certain things? But why don't people see when they hurt others? A better question is why don't they CARE? I have always "felt" for other people, and would hold my own feelings and emotions in so as not to hurt others. I wouldn't get mad when I should have, or cry when I should have, or say "HEY THAT IS NOT RIGHT" when I should have, to spare another's feelings. And yes, that is my own thing to work through and deal with. But I just don't understand how some people can have ABSOLUTELY no clue they are hurting someone, I don't believe that - I think they DO KNOW, and that is the much harder question in my opinion - HOW CAN you TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THAT? Knowing that you used someone, or that they have been a much better friend to you, than you have been or ever will be to them - and it is on PURPOSE. How can you be so WRAPPED UP in your own self, in your own life, that you don't care about those who care about you??? You need them when you need them, but when you have someone or something "better" (in your eyes) on hand, who cares about that old friend, they will be there the next time you "need" them again. That is SO WRONG, so VERY wrong.

That truly makes me sad. I NEVER want to be known as someone who is hurtful to others, or uncaring, or unreliable as a friend, God please never let me be the one who is so wrapped up in herself that she cannot be a friend to someone else.. I want to continue to be the friend people come to when they need someone; the friend you can always count on no matter what time of day or night, the kind of friend that would lay down her life for you just as God has taught us to do.......and hopefully one day - I will receive that same friendship in return...

TRUE STORY - NEVER GIVE UP!

I know - everyone says "Well this happened - it really did - to my friend!" But this time it is true. My friend, Jeff - who led me to the Lethal White Aussie Rescue Group where we adopted our Mazie girl - is Jeff Middleton in the story below! Never Give Up! Miracles Happen Everyday!!!
CLICK HERE To see pics of Jonah & Patch and to read the story on the newspaper's website

Family welcomes prodigal pet
By CELIA DEWOODY
Times Staff celiad@harrisondaily.com
Published: Sunday, January 25, 2009 6:07 AM
Sometimes answers to prayers come along when you least expect them.

The Galloway family — Mike, his wife Sonya, 11-year-old Jonah, 10-year-old Alyssa and nine-year-old Noah — moved to Harrison from Opelousas, La., last August, when Mike accepted a call to be the new youth pastor at First Baptist Church. Along with them came the family’s well-loved pets — Patch, a seven-year-old, medium-sized black dog of uncertain parentage, and the family’s large and dignified cat, Taz.


One foggy summer morning, not long after they had moved into their new home on Capps Road, Sonya let Patch out into the backyard.

“The fog was so dense, you could barely see 10 or 15 feet,” Mike said. “My wife let Patch out, and he just took off.”

And he didn’t come home. The Galloways called and called, and looked and looked, and could find no sign of Patch.

“I thought for a while we might find him, maybe he would show up,” Mike said.

“We called the Humane Society and left his description, but we never heard back,” Sonya said. “We thought maybe he’d just gone off to die.”

“We live by Edwards Ranch, and there are fields for days,” Mike said. “And because we were so new to the area, we figured Patch just couldn’t find his way home.”

He said Patch still had his old tags from Louisiana, because they hadn’t had a chance to take him to a local vet.

“We thought we’d never see him again,” he said.

Alyssa said, “I was really, really sad.”

“Whenever I found out he wasn’t coming back, I was really sad, too,” Noah said.

The Galloways all grieved for their lost dog, as they prayed hard that the good Lord would lead Patch back home.

But time went by, and there was no word of Patch. In October, the family went to Harvest Fest to volunteer at the First Baptist Church booth. At another booth were dogs available for adoption.

“You get used to having a dog,” Mike said. “Our house wasn’t quite the same.”

In the rescue dog booth was a pretty beagle about a year and a half old that needed a family, so the Galloways went home happily that day with Bayou, their new dog.

Taz, the cat, who had never seen eye-to-eye with Patch, developed a cautious friendship with Bayou, who soon won all the humans’ hearts.

“She plugged right into the family, and we got comfortable,” Mike said. “We’d never heard anything about Patch, and after several months go by, we didn’t expect to hear from Patch again.”

But they never stopped missing their shaggy black friend.

• • •

Later in the year, Jeff Middleton, a member of First Baptist Church and a volunteer at the Ozark Humane Society Shelter, helped get a service project going with the church’s pre-teen group, “The Link.”

The group divided into five teams and decided that each Wednesday, one team would go out to the animal shelter with a leader.

Jonah Galloway was in the first team to go to the shelter on Jan. 14, and Middleton went along as the team’s leader. When they arrived at the shelter, he asked the kids to each choose a dog to walk.

“(Jonah) picked a medium-sized shaggy black dog — sort of a border collie, shep, Aussie-mix-looking guy — to walk. He said it reminded him of their dog that disappeared after they moved here,” Middleton said.

When Patch had gotten lost, one of his black ears had been drooping, because of a problem with ear infections on that side.

The black dog Jonah chose to walk at the shelter had two drooping ears.

Jonah said he walked the black dog for a few minutes, then sat down to rest for a minute. He said the dog reminded him so much of the lost Patch, he thought he’d try an experiment.

“I called, ‘Patch!’ and he came!” Jonah said. “Then he started licking me all over. Then I called him and he knocked me over and was standing over me, licking me.”

Middleton shared the drama from his point of view.

“I was busy with the other kids, but I looked over at Jonah a minute later and this dog was standing up with its paws on Jonah’s chest, licking him and wagging his tail,” Middleton said. “Then they sort of fell on the ground and the dog just pounced on Jonah and went into a frenzy of delight. Jonah started calling out, ‘Patch, Patch!’ and praise the Lord, it was his dog that had disappeared in August!”

Because it was after hours and the shelter office wasn’t open, Middleton said when it was time to take the kids back to the church, they had to lock Patch back up in his cage and leave him at the shelter, which was tough.

When they got back to the church, Jonah found his sister Alyssa and told her the news.

“I told her, ‘I think I found Patch,’” he said. “And Alyssa started bawling.”

Sonja said when Jonah told her and Mike that he had found Patch, it was hard to believe.

“We were very skeptical,” she said.

“Sonya and I were very guarded,” Mike said. “We weren’t sure, because we hadn’t seen him. You’re kind of in disbelief.”

Early the next morning, after the three kids had gone to school, Mike and Sonya drove out to the animal shelter.

When they drove up, they could see the black dog in the pen, and they both were sure it was Patch.

One of the shelter workers opened the pen.

“He ran out and started licking us,” Mike said. “When they pulled him out, Sonya was crying and I was crying. So we re-adopted him. The shelter did a fantastic job of taking care of him.”

“He’s a wonderful dog, very protective, very good-natured,” Mike said. “He fit right back into our family. It’s amazing. Even Bayou has taken to him. They don’t fight or anything.”

•••

Patch got lost on Aug. 20. According to Diane Ferguson, Ozark Humane Society public relations director, Harrison Animal Control picked him up at some point after that and held him as long as they could, then turned him over to the Humane Society sometime in late September.

“He had a flea allergy, so he was missing hair on his back, and he was bedraggled when he got here,” Ferguson said.

Humane Society Board member Linda Daniel said, “We had Patch neutered while he was in our care, which should eliminate the need to roam.”

And here’s something that makes Patch’s reunion with his family seem like it was orchestrated by from Above: At one point while he was at the shelter, an out-of-state family chose Patch to adopt. The shelter staff moved Patch to a cage in the front office, so that he could get used to being around people, and so they observe the way he reacted to other dogs and cats.

“Everybody loved him at the shelter,” Daniel said.

The adoption ended up falling through, but the fact that Patch was still in a cage in the front, where Jonah was able to spot him right away, played a role in his being reunited with his family.

Most animal shelters would not keep a dog for six months — if it wasn’t adopted after a certain length of time, the homeless dog would be put down. But the Ozark Humane Society does its best not to euthanize animals, except in cases of serious illness.

According to Linda Daniel, the shelter has only put down four dogs since December, 2007, and all four of those were in January 2008.

One more miracle working in Patch’s favor.

• • •

What did the Galloway children learn from their experience with their prayers being answered, by their lost dog being returned to them after so many long months?

Jonah said, “Never give up.”

Alyssa said, “Always trust God.”

Noah said, “Always keep faith.”

The only member of the Galloway family who’s not overjoyed to have Patch back home is Taz, the cat.

“The kitty’s reaction has been kind of funny,” Sonya said. “They never saw eye-to-eye, and when Patch got lost, Taz became the only animal in the house.”

The cat kind of liked being the head of the household, but soon made a grudging friendship with the newcomer beagle, Bayou. He was not thrilled, however, when the prodigal son, Patch, came home.

“Taz definitely doesn’t like having Patch back,” Sonya said.

Everyone involved in Patch’s homecoming seems to have been moved by the experience.

“This has been such a blessing,” said Kim Rosson, director of Children and Preschool Ministries at First Baptist Church. “It’s meant so much to all the kids. Every one of them has been touched by this. They realized God blesses you, no matter what you do in service.”

She said the Galloways were helping others, and “I felt like the Lord rewarded them for serving others.”

Jeff Middleton agrees.

“This boy’s faithfulness and compassion paid off,” he said.

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Marlie's growl....

Well Marlie has this infamous little growl. She does it when she is sleeping and not awake. She has done this since she was 9 weeks old and we brought her home. It is HILARIOUS if you can get her awake when she does it, because she looks like you like "OOPS, sorry mama - I'm in trouble now!" And it has never been a problem because we hear it and tell her to hush, and she does. Or if it is directed at Missie, well Missie lets her know who is REALLY BOSS! This has only recently become a problem because Mazie - our double merle - is deaf. And she cannot hear the warning growl.

I hoped Mazie would be able to sense Marlie's change in demeanour - and would learn to back off. But back in December Marlie has got a little upset & she bit Mazie, on her little lip, and Mazie cried - never heard Mazie cry since we adopted her. SOOOOOO new rule in place, when we hear the growl, Marlie goes to her doggie bed. She is in TIME OUT, and she will stay there until you tell her to get up. A month of doing this has lessened the growls to almost nothing, because she doesn't like being in our bedroom while fun is happening in the rest of the house, and also it has been short growls and nothing further than that. So we plan to keep this up. I know SLACKER that I am I should have done it before now - but honestly I thought that Mazie would learn to "sense" Marlie's uneasiness somehow.

Anyway - Saturday night we told Marlie to go get on her doggie bed, and instead she crawled into the bottom of the TV cabinet. And this is her picture. It was so funny because Mazie went over and laid down beside her and barked like "SISSIE GET OUT AND PLAY WITH ME!!!" Oh - Keith and I had to leave the room so we wouldn't laugh, but I did get to snap one picture with my phone. Oh.....they are like children.

PS - her eyes don't really look that scary - it is the flash on the phone! LOL!

Happy New Year!

We had a good Christmas full of love and family! We feel so blessed by everyone in our lives, and we hope to spend more time with you in this new year!

Check out the pictures to the right from Christmas!!!
Love to you all!