This past weekend I went to the Women of Faith conference in Atlanta, GA with my church's womens' ministry. Honestly, I had some pretty low expectations and I was nervous about being with this group of women for the entire weekend. But God surprised me in some amazing ways. I came back refreshed and literally changed in a way I never knew was possible.
I can hardly wait to tell you all about it. I've been journaling the entire weekend with highlights of the weekend. I have yet to write everything completely out, but I plan to do this in a couple different blog posts. I'd like to write the events as chronologically as possible. But I did finish writing out my most important reflection from the weekend. It's a little late tonight and I'm incredibly tired after my day and evening workout, so I'll post more tomorrow.
Be on the look out for my blog posts in the upcoming days. And please if you read them, I'd appreciate if you'd leave a comment. Your responses and feedback are very important to me.
~*Melody*~
Showing posts with label women's ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women's ministry. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Late Night Blogging
I haven't blogged here in the entire month of May. Part of me has been longing to share my heart, but most of me said I should guard it closely. You see over the past month, life has hit me with some incredible highs and lows. I am feeling stronger now, but there are moments when I'm overwhelmed with pure emotion.
Mother's Day came and went; another special day with empty arms. Our last child was due on Mother's Day so emotion and pain hit me hard on that day. I honestly haven't cried that much since our first couple miscarriages. I don't know what came over me, but I just let the tears flow. Many people at church noticed. I'm not sure if they all knew why I was crying, but they noticed. I received two lovely cards telling me that they were thinking about me and how I should be celebrated as well on this Day. I appreciated all the kindness and support from my church family. I also opened up a bit on my Facebook statuses. I'm amazed at how many people responded back with love, prayers and *hugs*. I never realized so many people would actually care about me enough to respond back, but they did and I am so grateful for those comments and their concern.
Shortly before Mother's Day came news about future plans for my godchildren and their parents. I can't share too much yet, because nothing is finalized yet, but there's a very high possibility that my godchildren will no longer live 15 minutes from me. It's more likely they'll live about 5 hours away. My heart breaks when I think about the distance between us. I love both of those children like my own. I have loved and cared for them their entire lives and the thoughts of not having them near have brought great sadness to me. I know that God has a plan for this family and that His ways are much higher than mine. I know that I can't be selfish and expect God to keep them near me because I love them so much. I also knew that there would probably be a day when God called them away. I know these things......but it doesn't make it hurt less.
One of those highs I spoke of above came unexpectedly for my fertility. While charting my temps, I discovered that I had indeed ovulated on cycle day 14, which is perfect in terms of a normal cycle. I could hardly believe it! Seeing those little reds lines on my chart sent such hope to me. My temps were staying high and my heart raced each day at the thoughts that I may be carrying another little one. After about a week's worth of increased breast tenderness and a few other odd symptoms, I was almost certain that I'd be announcing God's miracle working power in me in the next few weeks. Cycle day 28 came and as I took my temperature that morning I was so certain that it would be high that I almost didn't even look at it. But when I did look at it, I found it was extremely low, 96.5 to be exact. My heart sank as I realized that I wasn't pregnant and this was the signal of an impending start to a cycle. Later that day I did begin spotting. Thankfully, I was with my godchildren and their mother at a doctor's appointment when I discovered the spotting. They helped me keep my mind off of things for a while. However, later that evening those all too familiar feelings creeped back in and the deep disappointment lingered.
A few days later I was able to reflect on the past cycle though. God did bless me with a miracle; the miracle of a textbook, normal cycle. I couldn't ask for a better, more balanced cycle than the last one. I know that God sent the evening primrose oil my way for a reason. I took 3000mg for the first part of my cycle (prior to ovulation) and the results prove that it helped me. I also kept taking my 5 days of soy isoflavones and used progesterone cream the last part of my cycle. I plan to go on a soy break for 2 or 3 months and continue using EPO and NPC only.
I wish I had the time to blog about more things tonight, but I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is one of those long, tiresome days at church. I should describe them as stress filled days. I don't have the time or the energy to fully describe what's going on lately. I wish I could say that the stress derived from the overwhelming amount of good or ministry that we are doing, but sadly I can't. I am very discouraged and disappointed at the lack of actual ministry being accomplished right now, particularly through the women's ministries. Being a member of the leadership, I guess I should assume some of that responsibility. And before I say anything else that I might regret, I guess I should end this here and just ask for your prayers. I need some direction right now. I have seriously considered backing out of women's leadership for various reasons. I don't like to quit anything and find it hard to say no when asked for help, but I am learning that there are times in life when one must walk away from things. I don't know if this is one of those times or not. I'm just praying about it right now.
Blessings....
~*Melody*~
Mother's Day came and went; another special day with empty arms. Our last child was due on Mother's Day so emotion and pain hit me hard on that day. I honestly haven't cried that much since our first couple miscarriages. I don't know what came over me, but I just let the tears flow. Many people at church noticed. I'm not sure if they all knew why I was crying, but they noticed. I received two lovely cards telling me that they were thinking about me and how I should be celebrated as well on this Day. I appreciated all the kindness and support from my church family. I also opened up a bit on my Facebook statuses. I'm amazed at how many people responded back with love, prayers and *hugs*. I never realized so many people would actually care about me enough to respond back, but they did and I am so grateful for those comments and their concern.
Shortly before Mother's Day came news about future plans for my godchildren and their parents. I can't share too much yet, because nothing is finalized yet, but there's a very high possibility that my godchildren will no longer live 15 minutes from me. It's more likely they'll live about 5 hours away. My heart breaks when I think about the distance between us. I love both of those children like my own. I have loved and cared for them their entire lives and the thoughts of not having them near have brought great sadness to me. I know that God has a plan for this family and that His ways are much higher than mine. I know that I can't be selfish and expect God to keep them near me because I love them so much. I also knew that there would probably be a day when God called them away. I know these things......but it doesn't make it hurt less.
One of those highs I spoke of above came unexpectedly for my fertility. While charting my temps, I discovered that I had indeed ovulated on cycle day 14, which is perfect in terms of a normal cycle. I could hardly believe it! Seeing those little reds lines on my chart sent such hope to me. My temps were staying high and my heart raced each day at the thoughts that I may be carrying another little one. After about a week's worth of increased breast tenderness and a few other odd symptoms, I was almost certain that I'd be announcing God's miracle working power in me in the next few weeks. Cycle day 28 came and as I took my temperature that morning I was so certain that it would be high that I almost didn't even look at it. But when I did look at it, I found it was extremely low, 96.5 to be exact. My heart sank as I realized that I wasn't pregnant and this was the signal of an impending start to a cycle. Later that day I did begin spotting. Thankfully, I was with my godchildren and their mother at a doctor's appointment when I discovered the spotting. They helped me keep my mind off of things for a while. However, later that evening those all too familiar feelings creeped back in and the deep disappointment lingered.
A few days later I was able to reflect on the past cycle though. God did bless me with a miracle; the miracle of a textbook, normal cycle. I couldn't ask for a better, more balanced cycle than the last one. I know that God sent the evening primrose oil my way for a reason. I took 3000mg for the first part of my cycle (prior to ovulation) and the results prove that it helped me. I also kept taking my 5 days of soy isoflavones and used progesterone cream the last part of my cycle. I plan to go on a soy break for 2 or 3 months and continue using EPO and NPC only.
I wish I had the time to blog about more things tonight, but I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is one of those long, tiresome days at church. I should describe them as stress filled days. I don't have the time or the energy to fully describe what's going on lately. I wish I could say that the stress derived from the overwhelming amount of good or ministry that we are doing, but sadly I can't. I am very discouraged and disappointed at the lack of actual ministry being accomplished right now, particularly through the women's ministries. Being a member of the leadership, I guess I should assume some of that responsibility. And before I say anything else that I might regret, I guess I should end this here and just ask for your prayers. I need some direction right now. I have seriously considered backing out of women's leadership for various reasons. I don't like to quit anything and find it hard to say no when asked for help, but I am learning that there are times in life when one must walk away from things. I don't know if this is one of those times or not. I'm just praying about it right now.
Blessings....
~*Melody*~
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Walking Teams
I thought it was time I did a post about the women's walking teams that we've recently started at church. I guess I'm the one kinda 'over' said project. I'm really excited about finally having someone to walk with. The downside is that I have to travel a bit to get to the walking track. It should be good for all of us though. There's a certain young lady in our church that I hope has a chance to walk with us. I'd like to get to know her better. She and I don't seem to have a lot in common, but for some reason I feel like I'm supposed to get to know her.
Anyway back to the walking teams. I'll be the lead person for the Tuesday morning team and our women's director will be the lead person for the Thursday evening team. I hope to get to participate with both actually. If these teams are successful, we'll be offering some actual exercise classes at our church in the future.
For my team, I'll be starting off with scripture and prayer. I want our scriptures to focus on walking with God. These scriptures have nothing to do with walking for exercise, but I think it's important to focus on our walks with God. I'll be doing a bit of a devotional from me following the scripture. I'd like to share this with you all as well. So be on the lookout for a Tuesday's walking post. I'll be sharing a more expanded version of my devotional and may even give some more scriptures to go along with it. I'll also be briefly sharing about the walk, friendships forming, distance walked and experiences.
But today I'm going to sit back and listen to a podcast while I knit. I'm still pondering that nap I posted about on my Twitter. We'll see....
~*Melody*~
Anyway back to the walking teams. I'll be the lead person for the Tuesday morning team and our women's director will be the lead person for the Thursday evening team. I hope to get to participate with both actually. If these teams are successful, we'll be offering some actual exercise classes at our church in the future.
For my team, I'll be starting off with scripture and prayer. I want our scriptures to focus on walking with God. These scriptures have nothing to do with walking for exercise, but I think it's important to focus on our walks with God. I'll be doing a bit of a devotional from me following the scripture. I'd like to share this with you all as well. So be on the lookout for a Tuesday's walking post. I'll be sharing a more expanded version of my devotional and may even give some more scriptures to go along with it. I'll also be briefly sharing about the walk, friendships forming, distance walked and experiences.
But today I'm going to sit back and listen to a podcast while I knit. I'm still pondering that nap I posted about on my Twitter. We'll see....
~*Melody*~
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