Happy Anniversary Chappy!!!

Today is mine and Chappy's wedding anniversary. In our years of marriage, we have been through a lot. He married me in 1996, when Caleb had just turned 2. I had been in an abusive marriage, and was still a broken individual. He swooped into my life, gathered Caleb and me into his arms, and has loved us more than we could have ever imagined. In 1998, Lydia was born. Caleb had been praying for a sister "with red bows in her hair" and saving money for a long time. He told us he thought a sister would cost about $40.00 and became very resourceful in planning ways to earn money. Lydia....our little lovey. Then, in 2001, Chappy and I traveled to Russia to adopt Natalie Grace. She had been abandoned in an orphanage, and we traveled across the globe to give her a family. She wiped the dust off of her feet from the orphanage, joined in our family and has been Lydia's closest friend. In 2005, Hopey was born. At the time we had no idea what a gift Hope's extra chromosome was going to be......God used Hope to break us into a million pieces and put us back together "His Way". Then, in 2008, we adopted our red-head, Charlie, who also has Down Syndrome. In addition, in 13 years, we have been through many custody battles with Caleb, many surgeries with Hopey, have lived in 5 different homes (4 different cities), have lost all of our grandparents, Chappy has defeated Melanoma.....and the list goes on. Through it all, our we have grown closer and our love has grown stronger. Our marriage......the blessing of my life. Thank you Chappy!!! I love you!!!

Now, more of the story:

"Since my standard is perfection, and man cannot be perfect until he is in total surrender to me, a big problem is created.....the penalty to that problem is death, also established as part of my irreversible plan. Big decision: obey me through two simple commands of loving Me and loving others and have eternal life OR disobey me through choosing selfishness and deceit and die."

Father pointed up to the space above them and continued:

"Look to the heavens with me".

As the twelve looked up, knowledge poured out as they watched the sky transform into a type of ultra high definition screen before them.....with Father, they reclined back and watched the spectacle before them......thousands of animals led to slaughter, rivers of blood flowing from the sacrificial altars.....a vivid, real-life picture of the brutality of sin's substitution. The twelve were now able to comprehend: sin = death; blood required to cover sin.......

"I became sin's substitution once and for all for mankind. No more slaying of animals, no more blood needed, no more guilt. It all ended with my sacrifice, forever. Enemy will never see it coming. In his obsessive, tunnel-vision quest for power, he forgets I am the creator of all things....including death. Enemy, he has no creative power at all, so it is easy for him to forget about that kind of power. Enemy begins to believe that death can actually finish me; then, three days after the cross, when I conquer death and rise up from the grave, Enemy realizes it is his end that is drawing near.....not mine."

The picture in the sky closed as Father sat up and brought His hands together. He stood and told the fire to stop burning. The twelve stood with Him.

"I am showing you these things, because you need to have a glimpse of what is ahead of you. The battle you are entering will not be an easy one. Each of you will be responsible for preparing your warriors....developing battle plans to fight Enemy and his demons. Enemy wants to take as many of my children down with him as he possibly can. Prayer will be one of your most useful weapons when it is used. When a believer chooses to pray, my power will literally enter into both you and the believer to accomplish extraordinary purposes that are in line with My plan. But I have another secret weapon too, and I want to show you an example of how it works......c'mon, let's take one more trip. This time we are going to visit the year 2009.....a little town called Franklin, TN......