Jenny and Jesus (Proof that Jesus Exists 100%)

Sometimes in life, you get shown something in a way that speaks to your soul. It speaks so loudly that there is no doubting it for the rest of your life. In fact, it changes you for the rest of your life, and that is exactly what happened to me when I was 13 years old. When I was 8, my little sister, Janette Louise, was born. This was in the early 80's, and when she was born she had heart birth defects that would plague her health for years to come. She had several surgeries and preventive care type of measures done to her. They seemed to be putting off the inevitable as long as possible because they knew they would eventually have to preform open heart surgery on this tiny blonde haired, blue eyed, little doll of a girl. Jenny was a spunky tiny girl, pug nose, a few freckles, cotton top white hair, and those blue eyes; wow, those blue eyes. I was her step-sister, we had the same mom. She was my world and I was hers. Our parents left us alone a lot in the next five years and so to me, Jenny was more like my little shadow, or a daughter than a little sis, and that was fine by me. She use to joke that she wanted to be just like me when she grew up. The laughable part was that she wanted to be a cheerleader and play the saxophone like me, like that was some big thing. I would chuckle silently when she'd go on and on. She was the only one in my world that thought I was special. All she had to do to be special in my eyes was to exist. I loved/love her so much. She on the other hand was the "sickly" child, spoiled rotten by our parents. She got what she wanted, when she wanted it and that was all there was to that. She only got disciplined one time in her entire life and it was when she picked the heads off of about 15-20 of my mom's prize winning yellow tulips. That was a day she and I never forgot. Though Jen was my everything I will say, to help you all understand this story, she was not a religious child. I had never heard her say the word Jesus, or God, or anything of the like. She was just a typical little girl who played with her cabbage patch doll named Becky, which was really a cross of a Strawberry Shortcake doll and a homemade Cabbage Patch doll, that my Aunt Wanda had made her, but to her Becky was amazing and went everywhere with her. She also loved her Carebears, her Muppets, her Seseme Street, and her Weebles. I loved playing dolls with her. So roughly around a month after her fifth birthday her little abdomen started swelling up. I was only 13 at the time, so I am not sure on the medical reasoning but whatever was going on made the heart doctors very concerned and they said that it was time for her surgery. So we gathered our things and headed to Wichita, Kansas to Wesley Medical Center. At the time it was one of the best hospitals we could have taken her to, especially in Kansas. My parents actually lied to get me to stay on the floor with her, as I think you had to be 14 or so to stay on the floor, 14 or 15, I can't remember, but anyway, I spent the night in a hard green recliner by her bed. The nurse had been in and turned the lights off at a certain time and my folks had retired to go to the Ronald McDonald House that was close to the hospital for a quick night's rest before her surgery in the morning. Anyway, as I was saying, the hospital room was now dimly lit by the t.v. that was over-head on the wall. We were watching Johnny Carson. It was funny and we were enjoying the show with lots of giggles. Then all of the sudden I heard Jenny talking. She was right beside me in her bed, I in the recliner, I'm looking at her and she is making manerisms like she is talking to someone in the corner of the room; someone I cannot see but clearly she can. I witness Jenny starting and stopping a conversation with someone, she pauses now nad then and answers questions someone is asking her. I hear her say, "Yeah, but my belly hurts and I can't run and play." Then I hear her pause, and shake her head yes, and then say it again but in a different way, "I just can't run and play anymore." Then she pauses again, shakes her head yes as she says, "Okay." In a matter of fact, okay kind of matter like it was no big deal and turns back to look at the t.v. again. Now, keep in mind, this entire time, my sister has not acted alarmed, or scared, or shocked, or even suprised that this person that I cannot see has walked into her room and started talking to her. I finally get up the nerve and say to her, "Who were you talking to?" She looks at me like I was the stupidest person in the world and says, "Jesus!" And looks back at the t.v. You could have pushed me over with a feather. I honestly didn't know what to say. I had never heard her say his name or pray, let alone have a conversation with him with her clearly seeing him as clearly as she sees me. "What did he say?" I asked. "He said he was going to take my pain away and then take care of me." Again in a matter of fact tone. I just sat there, motionless, it was like I was afraid to say anything else. I just sat there. I didn't know what else to say. Now, of course later, I thought of a hundred questions I could have asked but perhaps Jesus had a hand in just giving me peace in what she said and letting me fall asleep. Because honestly, I don't know how I could have fallen asleep after that without some kind of help. The next day, she woke up for her surgery and saw her dad, my step dad walking into her room. She sat straight up and said, "Daddy, daddy, guess who I talked to last night? Jesus daddy! Jesus!" Her Dad was in the middle of talking to a nurse so he didn't get the full impact of what she was talking about and just said, "Fine, fine honey, that's nice." And kinda waved her off. I sat there looking at her and then looking at him like no, you don't understand Dad, she REALLY talked to Jesus last night. But before I could say a word I was rushed out of the room so they could prep her for surgery. That was the first day of my life that I actually prayed unselfishly for the first time. I prayed all day that God would in fact take her pain away and take care of her, I did add, that if that meant she could come home with me GREAT but if that meant she had to go home to Heaven, that I understood. I just wanted her pain to go away and her to be taken care of by Jesus. She was in surgery for 14 total hours because they nearly had to do two open heart surgeries because as they were closing her from the first, her valve stopped working in her heart and they had to open her back up. :( She died the next morning. I did see her, later that same day. And no, I had never seen a ghost before... and I haven't seen her since that day but she made her presence known to me several times that day. Once I saw her standing at the end oft the hallway in front of her bedroom door. She was wearing a white nightgown with a yellow carebear on the front and she was holding Becky the doll. I could see the wood grain of the door through her. She just stood there gently smiling, and then I blinked and she was gone. Then later that evening, I saw her swinging around and around a pole of my neighbors carport, still in the same outfit. Then she was gone again. Then, I went to bed, and I don't know if I was asleep for this one or not, but I closed my eyes and opened them, and a white light came from my closet (it was her room I was sleeping in that I now wanted to be mine so I could feel close to her). She walks out of the light, still in the same white nightgown. She walks right up beside my bed and does not move her mouth but talks to me with her mind I guess. She says, "Daddy isn't ready to say good-bye yet... but there are so many flowers! And you can pick as many as you want!" Then she turned, and walked back into the light and poof, was gone. I KNEW THAT was a REAL message from my sister cause only she and I had known about her only time getting in trouble was over flowers. LOL It brings me peace that she is in Heaven picking as many as she wants! I will join her someday, and I know Jesus will one day walk into my room and welcome me home just as he did Jenny. :) Please know, that Jesus Christ died for all of your sins, no matter how great! He was the final blood sacrifice! All you have to do is repent of your sins and accept him as your personal Saviour! Ask him into your heart! YOU ARE SAVED! Then... try hard to live a holy life as Christdid... read his Word, be baptized, read ONLY God's Word KJV or earlier Bibles - nothing newer cause they have taken things out of context, taken complete verses out etc. So stick with the older versions. ASK him to help you, and he will!!!!! God bless you! See you in Heaven!

Secret Knowledge of a Homeschool Mom! "What every homeschool mom wants to say to the world of public school."

Hello Again, (no time to edit so I don't wanna hear about type errors, I know they are there!) LOL

I hope this day finds you doing well & enjoying the gorgeous weather! The topic today is homeschooling & raising children :) Chances are, you will not agree with this article... and that's okay. I don't care. That is the beauty of us all on our own paths, we are all struggling for our own truths in our lives. What I hope you get out of it is an ounce of conviction and a pound of surrender equalling a better you loving your kids.

This is a VERY hot topic if you get any group of women together, it is almost as hot of a topic as stay at home moms versus working moms. Why? Because a lot of toes and pride quickly gets stepped on. (And you have to ask yourself why? Why would someone's PRIDE be stepped on about NOT being a full time parent? They will pick on that word, FULL TIME, parent... they will dissect this topic a hundred different ways. Everyone wants to be considered full time no matter if they only spend 5 hrs a day with their kids while other moms spend 24 hours a day. Though if we were speaking of a job outside the home, anything under 40 hours would be considered part-time!) Hmm?

The facts are in and across the board homeschooled kids are scoring higher than their public schooled peers. That and the facts that they do not have to compete for attention and get all the one on one they need, starts to tip the scale. The old argument, no matter how ignorant it was, that homeschool kids couldn't possibly get as socialized as public school kids is like saying you aren't socialized. I actually laugh about this one because you see, I can see this topic from both perspectives because one of my children is public schooled and five are home schooled. And I would choose how my homeschooled kids are socialized 100 times over how my public school child is socialized. It's the difference between night and day. And I chose the light!

I have seen the effects of public school and it is horrible. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly and public schools are not a place for thriving kids. This old argument is now one of the past as cities' recreation departments and churches are rising up and offering the homeschooled kids football, baseball, soccer, theater, drama, cheerleading, arts,activities and teams! So if the homeschooled kids are now involved in more extra-curricular activities than their peers, scoring higher in nationwide testing and usually expressing a more calm demeanor along with more general respect, a love for God, a love of country, and of family... the public schools are obviously on the losing side now, and therefore forcing some scofferes to take a second look.

It's just like the argument of whether we should ship the kids off to daycare or raise them ourselves? I'm sorry folks, I think this one is a no brainer. Actually, I think all these topics are no brainers but I can say that because I've been through the fire and I've lived the good, the bad, and the ugly with experiences from one extreme to the other. I was the popular kid in school, the head cheerleader, the homecoming queen, the good student in public school and guess what? I still hated it and if I was treated the way some people were treated I might have snapped and grab a gun like some of these so called troubled teens have. I'm no better than anyone on this planet, but the difference between me and a lot of folks is that I have completely surrendered to God.

So what does that mean? That means that I get it, I get it that I am nothing without God. I see the mistakes I have made. Does it hurt my pride? OH YES but it isn't about me anymore, it is about my Lord and Savior. My old pride is now used to shape me into the woman God wants me to become. If that means he has convicted my heart enough to make it clear to me that I have to suck it up and actually teach my own children, then so be it. If it means I have to straighten up my life and be a reflection of how I want them to become, so be it. If it means I have to raise my children and not just HOPE that a stranger will do it as good as I can, so be it. If it means I have to get off my butt - turn off the t.v. and be a parent, so be it! If it means I will surrender to God of how many children I will have and the lifestyle we will lead, so be it. I COMPLETELY surrender my everything to God: my money, my children, my husband, my life.

So when these topics of daycare verses mom and dads raising their kids and homeschool versus public school, the list goes on and on. Come on folks, that voice in the back of your head or in your heart, that's God telling you what is right and what is not. Can kids survive public school, obviously, but should kids at such a young age be exposed to sex of all kinds, horrible language, sexual harassment, drugs, alcohol... NO! It is a sewer of neglect. If you don't see it, then don't yell at me that I smell the odor and you don't, it doesn't mean the stink AIN'T THERE>

I personally have taught in the public schools and have seen the ugly for myself. Does that mean all the teachers are horrible NO!!! There are lots of fantastic wonderful teachers are in the mix - but there are also horrible ones ripping your children's self-esteem, abusing them, allowing things to happen that you would never allow at home! You know the ones I am talking about because you have met that kind of person, you have just never thought about it perhaps? You know, that kind of person that treats your children differently behind closed doors when the parents aren't around; I've seen this first hand. I've seen the opposite as well where the parents were NOT fit to take care of their own children, and it was heartbreaking to see the children go home at the end of the day. That too broke my heart. SO I DO SEE THINGS BOTH WAYS. But if the parent is competent and loving, and able, they should be teaching and caring for their own children.

You may say, well what about single parents. Well, communities and families should take care of those who say they HAVE TO WORK. The communities and families should take care of those women/men just as they take care of the orphans and widows just as the Bible instructs us to do. Because raising the kids is the most important role we have to do outside of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've seen the ugly side of schools & life...I've been molested and even raped twice my senior year. I've seen my own child, in fourth grade, get off the school bus shaking, after hearing older boys talk about what they were going to do to a girl, in detail, of how they were going to TAKE her. I've heard first hand of my children getting yelled at by faculty for praying silently before they eat. I've heard first hand of how severe bullying goes to the extreme and when a child FINALLY defends himself, he is the one to get in trouble. I've seen the parents who mean well. I've seen the parents who use the schools as a glorified daycare. I've seen the good parents agonize over whether to keep their kids in the public schools or not. I've seen the parents fight over which is better. I've been those parents. I've been in that fire and I'm glad I found the light... the way out.

Are all parents in the place I am in and can see everything I have seen, no, and I get that. We will not all agree but let's raise our kids and be plugged in to what in the world is going on as well as taking our parental blinders off!! We can no longer HOPE everything is okay or say well our school is different. NO it is NOT. Kids are kids and they are mean when left to fend for themselves! Without parental guidance they will run wild period and they will prey on the other kids at school. Buses for one, if people have to use them, should have at least 3 adults riding on them, with authority to yell and discipline in some way, to control the behaviors which are flat out crude, rude, violent, and mean! I've witnessed 4th graders using four letter words and worse, older students talking filthy in front of the kindergarteners and even junior high and high schoolers having oral sex on the bus!

Home Schooling has been around thousands of years and most of our ancestors were upstanding wonderful people. Public schools have only been around a short time in the whole history timeline. No where else in our culture do we herd people together segregating them in age groups and hoping they will turn out okay. When was the last time all the 35 yr olds were herded together and told they have to all be taught the same thing every day or they were going to be punished? Not to mention, the slow kid in class better learn at the same rate as the honor student or he or she will be labeled for the rest of their lives as stupid... whether said out loud or not, they will always feel the stares of their peers and the rip of their self-esteems. All of that would be insane and so is this topic. It isn't a topic it is a choice of whether you are going to raise your own kids. It is a choice of whether or not you are going to teach your children in the way they should go. One public school teacher in junior high told me,"If the parents knew half of what goes on behind closed doors they would never let their children attend our school." G.W.

RAISING KIDS IS LIKE A RECIPE, THE OUTCOME IS WHAT YOU'VE THROWN INTO THE MIX!! And if they are in public school, you have no idea what has been thrown in to the mix because you are not with that child anywhere from 35 to 60 hours a week depending on sports and extra-curricular activities!


I'm tired of explaining myself. Tired of explaining why I teach my children. When did teaching our children become NOT the norm? I don't come into people's lives and question why they ship off their kids every day. So it really ticks me off to hear the ignorant question time and time again of why mine stay at home being by me. My kids are for a fact being taught with love, respect, compassion, and knowledge! They are NOT being bullied, I can say that with 100 percent accuracy, they are not holding onto their childhoods with both hands because I am their protector from this evil world until they are ready to handle it as adults. So people can raise their children however they wish (hopefully with love and respect but quit asking us homeschool moms why we teach our own children! That's like asking you why they love theirs! Because it's our God given job!)

Being a momma of 6 kids: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

A friend had asked me why I have two anniversaries :)Well it's kinda cute and dorky but you see, we still celebrate our DATING ANNIVERSARY because we think a good marriage is one in which we never stop DATING each other. So June 13th, 1986 is our dating anniversary origin:) LOL So every year on June 13th we celebrate our dating anniversary :) This year will be 24 years. June 29th is our Wedding Anniversary and so this year will be 19 years married. And I can honestly say I am head over heals in love, more so today than on my wedding day! :) I give all praise & glory of it all to God my Heavenly Father because without I have nothing. In 1991, the year we got married, June 13th didn't roll on a weekend LOL So we had to pick a different date. It would have made it easier if it would have but oh well, now we have two special days in June just for us :))) AND with 6 kids, it's nice to have 2 dates for us that we don't have to share with the kids :) LOL As your kids get older you will find yourself FINDING time to be with your hubby, excuses to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE together hahaa and just sneak off and do anything even if it is garage saling or shopping or out to eat or just parking by the road up the drive-way, far enough where the kids can't see you, LOLOLOLOL SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! It's weird in the place I am in right now. I have 2 little ones and that reminds me of course of how it was when all of them were little; the pros and cons of it all. THEN I have the view of them MID GROWN LOL in Junior High ages and then I have the view of them grown in upper High School and 18. WOW>> no wonder my brain scrambles sometimes LOL LOL But seriously, I can stand back and see alllll the pros and cons. Like, I LOVE SNUGGLING with my little men... the smiles, tickles, bed time stories, tents, giggles, late night cookie sneaks... The cartoons, the complete joy of chubby cheeks and grins and just holding them and feeling the joy of their spirits :))) They want complete independence but don't want me more than 2 ft away LOL Now, jump to Junior High age.... no more snuggling in bed. From them, I get an a few hugs unless it is Meg, she hugs me allllll the time. They want a different kind of attention, one of more.... "TAKE ME TO A FRIEND'S HOUSE" hahah or church event and I take a side seat and watch them starting to grow into their own "person" own interests in an independent way. I adore watching them from afar when they are sharing laughs with a good friend. Kinda of like snap shots of time... the time of their lives unfolding right before your eyes. Still at the age where I can squint and see them 4 yrs old in pig tails or in their little muddy over-hauls with kool-aid grins. Now jump to HIGH SCHOOL! Now it's a hug maybe once a day if I'm lucky. Now it is COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE and yet they want all my money and want me to be about 10 miles away at all times because somebody MIGHT FIND OUT THEY HAVE A MOTHER!!! OMGOSH!!! LOL Actually their friends like me but you know what I mean. They want me to praise them NONSTOP like they are the only ones in the world, to which I do :)) but sometimes there is these moments that I HATE and yet I know as a good mom I am the only one on the planet that has to RATTLE THEIR CAGE occassionally and REMIND THEM THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD AND THEY NEED NOT BE SELF-CENTERED, RUDE,CRUDE, OR MEAN TO OTHERS OR JUST COME TO ME FOR MONEY MONEY MONEY. There comes a point where I feel like they treat the house like a hotel, grocery store and laundry mat ALL FOR FREE and not want to participate in family activities. THATS THE SUCKY part of raising teens. It flat out hurts. THEY are trying to pull away, we understand that, but want them to do it in a respectful Christian polite way. THEY are nice for the most part LOL but sometimes they still like to sharpen their teeth on their parents when we LEAST expect it (kinda like wild wolves LOL) then comes those moments that change time when the older ones rebel a bit breaking my heart over something when really it's the apron strings snapping one by one... and nothing is quite the same again. I will always love them but there is that moment that I get it that I am nearly READY for them TO LEAVE. TO WHICH I NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS COULD HAVE guessed I would ever feel when they were JackRyan and Jacob's ages (so cute and chubby and adorable snuggling with me, eating cookies and milk while watching Marvel movies). I LOVE THE GOOD MOMENTS... those are priceless and I CHERISH THOSE. Those are the moments to which God allows me to see what they will be like as adults. And so far, I love what I see. I, now in the back seat of their lives, watch them from afar and my heart swells with pride and love for what they are accomplishing and who they are becoming. Some days are so sweet I want to freeze frame that moment, the last moments of their youth. Like seeing my daughter put on her graduation cap and gown, time STOOD STILL, after all, it was yesterday that was her Daddy and me? How can she be 18 if I am still 18? LOL Time moves on... Now that I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly...; and the SOOOO SWEET side of it all from ages 0 to 18. I think ALL of US MOMS need a gold medal by the time we raise any child to 18. I know each phase only lasts but a blue moon and a blink of an eye, so in the bad phases I hold my breath knowing THIS TOO SHALL PASS & keep praisin God but in the good moments, I of course keep thanking God, but I HOLDDDD THOSE MOMENTS and try soo so hard not to blink because I know they won't last long. I nearly tear up just writing that. So, with JackRyan and Jacob I HOLD THEM EXTRA TIGHT and cherish those moments an extra lot.> AND if they want to climb into my bed now and then and watch a movie or stay up late eating bowls of ice cream or popcorn, then that is JUST FINE because I only have those moments for a little season. :)))) Good momma's know this :))) and we cherish this!!! :))) I may not be a lot of things but I know I am a good momma:)))) We may not be millionaires but we know what LOVE IS :) We know how to hold a child's hand & make them feel ever so safe. We know how to wave mommy magic over an owie or boo-boo with a kiss and a bandaid. We know how to embrace and scoop up our children when they need us most. And when it comes time we know when to let go :) even though our hearts feel like jumping out of our souls. Then it seems, life starts all over again in a different phase. And someday, that phase will be grandchildren and then it will repeat all over again :)It's like the directions on a shampoo bottle: Wash, Rinse, Repeat LOL There is a season for everything and then it seems to start all over again... I call it life. Sorry to get so deep but I am very passionate so I laugh hard,cry hard, and live hard :)))) I want to LIVE every day of my life and not let life LIVE me. :) LOL And in the end, I want to be all of me God intended me to be :))) Until next time :) Hugs, Melanie ***It's almost like a Back to the Future type of movie, in a flash, it is now 2022! By the end of next year, both of my BABY BOYS, Jackryan and Jacob, will be 18 years old! Where did the time go? Wow! My kids currently are 16 3/4, 17 3/4, 24, 27, 29, and 30 years old! I have four more kids, my in-law kids, as well as 10 grandbabies ages 8 months to nearly 12 years old! It is insane how things have changed over the past 12 years. 14 new family members! Becky, my oldest got married to Justin. They divorced years later and she found the love of her life, a handsome man named James. Becky and James now raise five sons! Peyton, Hunter, Michael, Tristan, and Liam. She is an RN to which I am very proud of her. Adam married a woman named Danielle. They now have 2 amazing kidos named Lily Rose and George Thomas. Adam's graduation is next month and he will be a police officer to which I know he will be fantastic. Megan married a man named Justin R. and they have 3 adorabe boys ages 8 mo to 5 years old: Oliver, Luke, and Wyatt. Megan graduted college with a Bachelor in Criminal Justice and now helps counsel children with anxiety problems. John Austin married Sami just this last month. The honeymooners live in town and are doing great. John got a promotion at work this year and I am so proud of him. Jackryan is turning 18 in February, and is thinking of joining the military. It is really all he talks about so I will be shocked if he doesn't go in. He works a part time job and has completed most of the credits for his Senior Year, so graduating is in the bag for him. He's amazing. Jacob turns 17 next month and is also in his Senior year. He's doing fantastic at school and at a part time job. He is outstanding at pretty much anything he does. Tom and I remarried this past summer with a vow renewal ceremony. We celebrated 30 years married and 35 together. How are we old enough for this? It is mind blowing to us, we still feel 30 at the most, just with more stiffness and aches. I must go but I will update again soon.

HOME IS WHERE OUR STORY BEGINS

HOME IS WHERE OUR STORY BEGINS

Well, if you ever wanted some excitement and drama you are in the right place! I am a mother of six kids ages 4, 5, 12, 14, 16, and 18! No need for cable at our house! LOL There is something always going on. My husbands name is Tom and I'm Melanie and this is our story :) So, start your journey with us and stop in from time to time or every day :) Enjoy our story :) share in our ups and downs and everything inbetween! There will be no perfection here, only hilarious moments & real life drama I'm sure. We are a Christian family with a big big heart :) I'm an author, motivational speaker, home school teacher, public school sub, artist, momma, wife, & Christ follower :) My hubby works in the world but isn't of it :) Okay, gotta run! I may be helping with church tonight, the guy didn't call me back but my yes is yes so I've gotta run! Go MAKE a beautiful evening!