Sorry for the quiet from my end. No explanation.

The kids made it through the first week of school. I had to laugh when Jeff told me that Salina's teacher (name withheld to protect her :) )closed the door on the parents the first day of school. It is a good thing I was not there (or Karin!). I would have been crying outside the door with camera in hand. "I need pictures!!" Perhaps you should bring Starbucks, Jeff?? Does she not know who we are??!! We've been hanging out in the classroom since Kindergarten. Why stop at 7th grade?? :)

We are light years away from where we were a year ago this time. I am not going to point out all the details, and I just going to give the glory to God for getting us through it. Just know that it is much better, and next year will be much better. . .

Jeff is extremely busy at work. That is a blessing on so many fronts. Thank you Lord for providing for them. They don't need one more thing to worry about.

I was talking with Rod the other day about Joel Osteen. I get a lot of grief for liking this guy. :) I just love everything that comes out of his mouth. Yes, he can be cheesy, yes, his smile is the size of Texas. But, God's truth flows from him in an non-confronting manner. You all know who I am talking about, right? Anyway, if you do not know his story here is the shortened Bethian version:

Joel's father, John, was a pastor of a large church (6000 in attendance) in Texas. Joel was the cameraman and made it quite clear that he would not be IN FRONT of the camera, only behind it. John had a heart attack and was in the hospital recovering. John was going to miss preaching while he was in the hospital so he called his son Joel and asked him to preach. Joel, at first, told him "no" stating that that was not his area of ministry. After some thought, he went back to his father and told him he would preach, but just this once while he was in the hospital. His Dad listened to him from his hospital room. The next day, his dad died of a heart attack. Joel preached the next Sunday, and the next, and the church that his father planted now packs out every Sunday at the Compaq center. Their attendance is 47,000 and it is the largest church in the nation.

I say all that to say, sometimes, a lot of times, God brings people Home to Heaven because more will come to know Jesus in their death than had they been alive. Are you following me? If John Osteen had not died of a heart attack then his church may still be at 6,000. We will never know, but through his death God raised up his son to touch even more lives.

I believe this is the case with Karin. I have countless, I mean COUNTLESS, emails telling me how Karin's story of life and death have changed people. I have at least 40 emails from people telling me they went to the dermatologist, where 2 years ago they never even knew what a dermatologist was. I have a handful of emails from people telling me that they had a mole removed and that it was cancer. If Karin had not gone through what she went through we would not have even been checking our moles or taking stock in the important things in life. Frankly, we are not promised tomorrow. We had best not waste today. Say and do what you need to do today. We may not be here tomorrow.

Well, I think I have done enough deep thinking for today.