Pray for our Friend!

These are our best friends, Gib and Ellie Norris.

Gib has suffered some kind of an attack almost 2 weeks ago where he lost his memory. At first they thought it was a stroke, but at this time they have ruled that out. He has been in a Cleveland Clinic Hospital since last Friday (it happened the Sunday before) and they still can not find out what the problem is. He is going to be transferred to a rehab facility in the next couple of days.

Gib is such a big hearted fellow. He would do anything for anyone. No one knows how many people he has helped. I'm sure Ellie doesn't even know because he was just like that. He never made a big deal of it. I think he would give away the last dime he had if he thought someone needed it more then he did. They have two children of their own, but have taken many more (not sure how many) into their home and raised them when they had no place else to go or were in trouble and needed help. Most people don't want the ones that are in trouble, but Gib and Ellie were up for it and did a good job. Those kids are better people now because of the years they spent with Gib and Ellie.

I say all that to say this. Gib was there for others, now he needs others to be there for him. Let's rally and stand in the gap and fill in the hedge. Let's bombard heaven on Gib's behalf. We serve a miracle working God and Gib needs a miracle right now.

Our God is able!

I wish I could be there with them, but that is not possible, so the least I can do is pray and ask others to pray also.


Please pray:

That the doctors will be able to find out what caused the problem. It is very hard not knowing what it was and if it will happen again.

That God will help him as he goes to rehab and they try to reteach him things that he needs to know to function in everyday life. At this point he doesn't even know his family (at least not their names). Also that he does not suffer depression during this time as this is a real concern. It is very difficult for him.

Pray for Ellie and the family. As you can imagine, it is very hard to stand before your husband or father and have him not know who you are. Charlie and I went to see him Saturday and experienced this ourselves and it is not easy. Someone as vital as Gib laying there pretty helpless is hard to see. And we are just friends, not family so it would be harder on them.

Pray for special strength for Ellie as she is by his side almost constantly. Although this is where she wants to be it is still tiring emotionally and physically.

Pray that God will provide for their needs. It would be hard to go from two incomes to none (Ellie is needing to be by his side right now).

I know God's ways are best and he does everything for a reason, so I don't doubt him. Ellie said this also. She is trusting God to work things out in his time.

Thank you for remembering this family and praying for them.

Wordless Wednesday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLYN!

This was taken when Carolyn and George went on a little vacation to Virginia Beach when she was on spring break. It was a break, but they about froze to death. I don't think she is celebrating becoming 27 but we can pretend.




You can see her a little better in this one. She will kill me for the first. I took pictures of her yesterday at the family birthday celebration, but my camera has disappeared. Hopefully she has it. These will have to do because I wanted to do this today.

Carolyn turned 27 years old on Friday. She said she doesn't like every year since 25 but I told her to enjoy them. She is still young.

Carolyn is finishing her 4th year in a 5 year masters program in Spanish Education at WVU. She will graduate in 2010. We are very proud of her. After a lot of starts and stops she decided what she wanted and went after it. She has done a variety of things with her life since high school. She has experience in road crew flagging. She is a dental assistant and a CNA and now works for a cleaning service in management. She studied a semester in Costa Rica, and spent a month in Venezuela. Last year she got married to George Cheriyan. George is from the country of Bahrain. His parents are from India. Bahrain is an English speaking country so he can speak very good English. That is good since Carolyn does not do well trying to speak another language (other then English or Spanish), she puts a spanish accent to everything.

Carolyn and George now live in the trailer that Charlie's Dad lived in while he was living. So she is right next door to us. She works for a company in Morgantown that does commercial and residential cleaning. She manages the residential work. So basically she goes to school full time, does student teaching 3 - 4 mornings a week and works as many hours as she can find time for. Plus taking care of George. LOL. Some days she does all of those in the same day. She is a busy girl looking forward to summer when things will slow down a little since she won't have school.

We are proud of her and look forward to seeing what the future holds for her. We love you Carolyn and hope to celebrate many more birthdays with you.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

I am most blessed. I have been married to my best friend for 31 years yesterday. I should say he has put up with me for 31 years. He is a hard worker who provides well for his family who he loves dearly. He has been a great husband, father and now grandfather.

Thank you Charlie, for 31 great years. Sometimes it seems like yesterday, the years have flown so fast. Hopefully we have many, many more. I really never thought I would be married to a Papa but that's OK, I guess that means you're married to a "Neena"! I love you!

NEW YORK CITY!!

I guess you could say "Sherry finally got out of her comfort zone." My daughters and son-in-law went to New York City back in the fall while on a weekend with George's brother in Philly. They loved it and Courtney came home saying we were all going when she had spring break. I have always said I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but did not want to go to NYC to see it. But plans proceeded and last Thursday morning I found myself on my way to New York City with Charlie, Carolyn and George, and Court and Jay'von.

We actually stayed in Manhattan right next to the United Nation and across the street from the Trump World Tower. It was an experience I will never forget. I'm not sure if I will do it again, but have to admit I am glad I went.

I had said I would not ride a subway and did not want to do the Empire State building and I did both. We used every means of transportation available (subway, taxi, city bus, and open top tour bus) except a train.

It is amazing to see and realize that what you see in movies is how these people live. The tour guide said that they stop on the way home and buy what they need for the evening meal and breakfast the next day. Then do the same tomorrow because they don't have supermarkets, just little shops. There is the bakery, the green grocer, the meat market, etc. There is only one supermarket on the island because with using public transportation you don't want to stock up on a weeks worth of groceries at a time. You couldn't get them home. It is almost like being in another world. We were sitting in a Pizza shop eating lunch by a window and I saw many people go by carrying brown paper shopping bags full of long loaves of bread. These loaves weren't wrapped in plastic and sealed with a twist tie. They were just stuck in the bag. One guy was eating on a piece that he had broken off. It was in the neighborhood of this picture.



This lady was about 4 stories up, just looking out the window at the people on the street. It just looked like something you would see in an old movie.

We did find that bakery and try some of their scones and brownies. I wanted a loaf of fresh bread, but by the time I would have gotten it home it would not have been fresh and probably would have been crushed.

This was in Greenwich Village. It is just like you would imagine. A quaint little village with row houses and those little shops I mentioned above. Courtney mentioned wanting to go to Magnolia bakery. (I guess there is something on a TV show about buying cupcakes there). We found the bakery, but also found a line around the building about 1/2 a block long. (I did say these were "little" shops) There could only be maybe 8 people in there at once and then you could hardly move around. There was a man at the door letting people in as others came out. We all bought our favorite things there. Courtney did get her cupcakes and said they were worth the wait.

We spent quite a little time in Greenwich Village. It is so unique. It is also home of John's Pizza, the place everyone told us to go for New York Pizza. Everyone loved it except Charlie. He is a deep dish man and New York Pizza is thin crust.




Carolyn, George and Courtney in front of John's Pizza in Greenwich Village.



I could go on and on about all we did, but I am not writing a book. I'll just post a few pictures of us this time and maybe next time I'll do our hotel and some of the buildings.



This is Carolyn, George, Court and Jay'v on the steps of the largest Post office in the US.




Jay'von setting on the steps looking like the little man that he is.




Carolyn and George on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.





Charlie and I on Times Square.






These are on the tour bus. They have an open top. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it but they go pretty slow and you really could see the city well.




This one is the kids with the statue of Liberty in the background. We did not go to the island because of a 3-4 hour wait. Our time was limited.

I think I have bored you enough for now. I hope you enjoyed my little tour as much as I enjoyed giving it.

Until next time.

EASTER

We had a wonderful Easter. Our services at church were such a blessing. I am so glad we serve a God that still lives. The tomb is empty, but they did not just move Him, He's still alive today. Thank God.

We celebrated Breanna's birthday with our family on Sunday also, so I will post her birthday pictures and Easter pictures.




Breanna with her Birthday cupcakes.




Breanna and C.J. all dressed up after church.




This is the best we could do for a picture of Jay'von dressed up. He was sick all weekend and just starting to feel better. He fell asleep before we left church.








Carolyn and Courtney in their Easter finery. Aren't they beautiful.

No one else wanted to be photographed, so that is it for Easter. We did have an enjoyable day and the weather was beautiful, even though a little cool.

Courtney is on spring break this week, so we will get to see them a little more. Jay'von is feeling better, but still really fussy so it is a good thing he has a few days off of daycare. Hopefully it will give his system a break from all the germs he seems to pick up there.

Now that the holiday is over, and hopefully everyone is better, I'll try to post a little more often. LOL.

Click on the comment button right below this and let me know who is visiting us. I know it is easy to just read, I do that also. But since I am blogging myself, I have started to comment on others because I now know what it is like to have 20 hits in a day and not know who is reading. Thanks. That helps my obsessive behavior that goes crazy when that happens.

Until next time.

Breanna Story

Quote of the day:

"One of my ears is longer then the other. I think it is still 7 and the other one is 8. Maybe by the time I am 9 or 10 it will catch up to the other and they will be the same length again."

Said by Breanna the other day. She says this very seriously and there is no convincing her that the ears are the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BREANNA!

Our granddaughter, Breanna, turned 8 years old last Saturday. They spent the weekend with Danielle's family in Pennsylvania (for a wedding) so we don't get to celebrate until this weekend, but I wanted to go ahead and post this so I can show it to her. I will post pictures of her with her cake later.

Breanna is such a blessing to our family. She is our mother hen. She tends to mother everyone and try to keep us all in shape. She never forgets anything and will remind you (very kindly) if you forget something. She loves her little brother and you usually never see one without the other. I had to crop this picture because I did not have one of her alone. (I'll have to remedy that)

Breanna seems at first glance to be backward, but that is just until she gets to know you. Until she had her heart surgery in August she was very laid back. Now I have a hard time keeping up with all the questions she asks and how active she is. She definitely keeps up with C.J. We just thank God every day for helping her do so well and "fixing her heart" as she says.

Breanna loves to sing and do art. She is very good at both.

Happy Birthday Breanna. We love you bunches. You're our little Princess!

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!

Have you ever felt guilty for something that you knew you had no control over and really had nothing to do with you. That is exactly how I have felt this week. There are two things involved in those feelings.

First of all is Stellan, the little 4 month that I posted about earlier this week. He is still in very serious condition. If you want details use the link I posted and read all about it. But I will say that he had to have a transfusion this morning to try to saves his life. He is just very sick.

Secondly, our little guy has had the stomach bug since last Thursday. I mean he was really sick- had the whole nine yards. It was a miserable weekend. At one point as I was praying for him to get better because of course we don't like to see them suffer I thought of Stellan. You know, we are just so ungrateful for what we have. What is a little stomach bug in light of what this family is going through.

Yes, I know, a stomach bug not treated right can cause dehydration and lots of problems, but really we aren't going to let that happen. His illness was just a bump in the road compared to what so many others are going through. I just had to stop and thank God for His blessings.

We could have been going through some of those problems ourselves. In May of last year Breanna was diagnosed with a heart condition that would require open heart surgery. This condition was found while checking her for a virus. Thank God for that virus because we were told if her problem was not taken care of while she was young she would have had major problems as she got older and could have developed a condition with a life expectancy of 25 - 30 years. She had surgery in August and is a different little girl. What we thought was just being laid back was actually lack of oxygen. We are blessed.

My nephew's son, Devin, had major heart defects at birth and had to have 3 major heart surgeries before he was 3 years old. If you were to see him now you would not know there was anything wrong with him. We are blessed.

Between my siblings and I we have 16 children and 12 grandchildren. All of them are relatively healthy at this time. (We call Devin and Breanna healthy because their problems were fixed and they are both doing great.) We are blessed beyond measure.

Do I think it is wrong to pray for a child with a stomach virus? No I don't, but this week has really made me stop and count my blessing. So next time I will pray, but with a new prospective on it. I will also thank God for ONLY a stomach virus and remember to ALSO pray for those less fortunate then we because it could be any of us. We are not immune just blessed at this time.