HE IS RISEN!!!!!!!!!! He is risen, indeed! He is Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and seated at the righthand of our Father on the Throne... and He is ALIVE!

I was given a new poem the other day. It may not make a lot of sense because it was a little jumbled but it was like snapshots and song clips and just tiny glimpses... Tiny Glimpses of Something Beautiful... He gave me so many glimpses - whether looking at the sky, into a little one's face, someone's tears, hearing a song, or just having one of those moments.. those ones where you KNOW that He is standing face to face with you and showing you His heart and His story and His plan. Those glimpses of what's to come and what He has in store and what He desires and ultimately just His love. I know that sounds all flowery and nice but think of it in a less romantic way for a moment. We are bombarded by all of the nasty and painful stuff every day all day long. And it gets overwhelming. Overwhelming to live here in the midst of so much blind pain and so much deception. And it hurts your heart and your spirit to see all of this and think, "God, where are you?" And then... in the middle of all this brokenness and all of the tears and all of the silent screams of people, He gives tiny glimpses of what He sees as beautiful. And beautiful it is and has been.
I tried to describe that in this new poem. I failed miserably but I am sharing it with you anyway. Go to: http://warriordawn.blogspot.com to see it.

And good news: Lindsay will be out of the hospital today and staying at the Ronald McDonald House for about 3 days until she can get stitches out and then back to Maine. :) Long road of recovery still but He is healing my baby sister and I could not be happier! :) God is sooooooo Good and has so many plans for this little one.

Update on Lindsay Mae...

Many of you already know that my baby sister was going to have yet another major brain surgery today. She needed a decompression of the brain because it was too far back in the skull placing the brain stem in the spinal cord down to the second vertebrate.
Before they attempted the decompression however, they wanted to do a traction test. This requires placing screws in her head and a halo on that will elongate the neck and pull her head up from the original position. The purpose was to check for instability in her neck. They had to put a weight on the back of the neck to check the stability or instability. What they found was that by having her head in traction, it gave her what she needed for her brain to be moved back - taking the brain stem OUT of the spinal cord, thus eliminating her arnold chiari.

So this gave the doctors a new plan. Which was God's plan all along apparently. :) Tomorrow morning at 8am, they are going to go in and do a fusion in her neck. This means that there will be two metal rods placed in her neck on either side of the spinal cord screwed in at her skull and at her 3rd or 4th vertebrate. This will limit her mobility somewhat but not severely and hopefully, she should even still be able to drive! (She just got her learner's permit so that was a bit of a superficial but real concern for her). They will also inject a fluid that will eventually grow into a bone and once it does, she will have one more surgery to remove the rods and then.... FINISHED!

So... GOD IS GOOD! :) Take heart and rejoice. I am so excited!

The group is going to Salt Lake tonight. They are spending the night at a condo and attending a free concert at Calvary Chapel (Kate, Stan, and Goat would remember this church... we went to a concert there our first year out here). And then tomorrow they are doing surveys at General Conference.

I planned to go. Up until about an hour ago. But I am not feeling well - I have that fun cough that makes you cough so hard you feel like you are bringing it up from your toes. But it is all in the chest. Enough details. Anyway... so I planned to go but I am thinking that right now... God wants a date with me - some time spent reading and sipping my green tea. And sleep sounds like an excellent option before I have to work again tomorrow afternoon.

I was listening to David Crowder sing "All that I can say" on the computer and the words were mixing with the overhead speakers which were playing "Bring the Rain" and I got lost for a bit in the idea of both songs and who knows... maybe God will give me something profound or some poetry for ya. I have a few thoughts spinning.

It is raining and snowing and cold and windy and warm and sunny all at once right now. Overcast in one area and bright blue in another. The weather literally looks like Texas when you look at the skies. It is all bipolar and crazyified but man... it is so pretty. And the glaze of ice covering everything and the ice dripping everywhere... I love it. It makes for a good excuse to press my nose to the glass of the window and stay safely indoors and just enjoy without being in it. Right now as I type it is snowing again. Small flakes. That means it will last awhile. Smaller the flakes the longer it snows. USUALLY. The bigger flakes that are heavier with moisture usually don't last long but man... they are pretty. The snow right now is the kind that you don't want to drive in. Pray for the group today.

The cafe is now orange. And we are missing a wall. I will post pictures soon. We are putting up gold paint with some kind of glaze over it on a couple of other walls. Then I will put up photos of the finished product. I am still deciding what I think about that much orange. Some days I like it and others it gets on my nerves. The paint smell though may be the cause of that.

More updates to come perhaps. OH. And email me @ felizalba@gmail.com if you would like to be involved in a ministry opportunity coming up soon. Like by April 14th soon. It is HUGE and we could use all the help we could get. Crossroads folks - I am calling Bud about it so ask him or Kate for details. :)

Some pictures of our arms on To Write Love On Her Arms Day... It was awhile ago but it took me a bit to figure out how to get them off my phone. I am not sure why I didn't take them with my camera but se la vi. Anyway... Enjoy. You can see a few more on here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015223&id=159101331&l=8e1eab6a10 - for some reason, blogger won't let me post all of them.

I have been reminded over and over that we all have a story. And the best way to connect with a person is to ask them their story and to get involved IN their story. The best way to make an impact and witness to a person of Christ's love is to make your story something that they can see and be a part of, something that they can be included in. To feel valued, to feel desired, to feel needed - to make it known that their story matters to you and to your own story.

I met this kid named "A" who ironically enough is friends with Jamie and the other guys from To Write Love on Her Arms. He was there the week that Renee went through her week-long detox with the group. He was there when the t-shirts were made and when the whole thing exploded into something huge. He is friends with the band members who were responsible for playing each night - the nights that Renee was giving up her blades and drugs. (for more of the story of Renee and TWLOHA see: www.twloha.com)

"A" made me cd's of their music. I love it. :) Not a surprise, really. We met him at a thrift store. He is nothing like the kids here - but I can't tell what's going through his mind about Christ. But... as I hear more of his story, I will learn. And then, maybe we can build enough trust that I can tell him mine.

Going to the girl's home this afternoon. I have been a few times before. I think this will become a regular thing for me. I spoke with Kim about it and I really really break for these girls. Their stories... so much brokenness. What if I can be one of the ones to tell them that the story does not have to end that way? That their broken and wounded and hidden places can be brought to light and healed by the only Perfect Healer.

Been reading about Helen Mar Kimball Smith Whitney. Talk about a mouthful on the names. I thought my real name was long. Sheesh. But her story is becoming important to me. Mainly, because she is my character and I would love nothing more than to prevent more women from sharing a story like hers. I physically feel ill when I study about her life. It sucked that much. But maybe... by telling her story and telling mine, God can rescue some of these women. Freedom.

"Open up your broken heart. There's a light inside." - Tenth Avenue North.

New song up on my other blog - fits nicely with this topic: My Words

Hello friends out there whom I assume are still reading... Update on my little sister, Lindsay. Apparently the poor kid needs yet another surgery. Scheduled for April 7th in New York at the same place as the last one. Second brain decompression within a year. This thing just keeps trying to beat her. Anyway, they are headed out there from Maine on the 3rd and will stay probably a week to two weeks at the very least to be sure that she is all taken care of. The medication that they were trying to use in order to relieve pressure caused metabolic acidosis and so they had to take her off of it immediately. Just keep praying.
I have my plane tickets to head out there for her high school graduation - June 5th. Fly out end of May and stay until the 8th or 9th, I believe.

Anyway, pray for this little one.


And I have a praise. C. She is making sooooo much progress and has been reading and studying like crazy. God is so awesome and it has been AMAZING to see Him move in her. :)

Well, LU came and went. And due to the nature of internet, it would be better to get details from the team if you want to know what we did, but suffice to say God worked this week and it was crazy and we are all exhausted and that was a fantastic team. It was a jam-packed week with after-effects that may not be fully known for awhile but will be crazy awesome.

I still need to do my Utah taxes. Opps.

It would be nice if my time tables matched a little closer with God's. I get frustrated because I always seem to want to jump ahead and He isn't finished with the here and now yet... I bet I could save myself a lot of pain that way.