Reflections from the past week...

I am going to do my best to give a weekly updated on individual family members... asside from the ramblings of my mind!! Welcome to the first edition from this past week. Enjoy!!


It is amazing how fast the days seem to go by. The girls are growing up so fast now! I am so proud of them both.


Madison got her 4th six weeks report card on Thursday. She scored the highest that she could in every area. She begins the "New Believers" class at church tomorrow. I am so excited that she gets to take part in it with my niece, Kyleigh, who also just accepted Christ into her heart. Madison is exactly 3 months older than Kyleigh and they were instant best friends. Madison has finished her AWANAs workbook. She has had a blast memorizing scripture and being able to get more into God's word. One of my favorite "Maddie moments" from this week actually occured this morning... It went something like this:
We were listening to the song "Happy Day".
"Mommy. I know this song. They sing it on Oprah."
"Oh really Maddie? When have you watched Oprah?"
"Mom. It's the place where all the fat people sing!"
I then come to the realization that she is talking about the opera. I was so proud....



Little Miss Allie is all over the place, as usual! She is our independant one. She was never the baby that wanted to be rocked to sleep. Actually, it is a true struggle to get her to sleep anywhere other than her crib. Even now, she will go in her room and play by herself for hours on end. I love to listen in on the conversations she has with her stuffed animals. She sure does talk to them like she means bussiness! My favorite "Allie Moment" came on Thursday. I came home early from work due to the fact that I had a sternal wire go through my finger as we were closing a patient's chest.... I was laying on the couch and Allie came over and took my badge. She sat on the floor and would say "Momma" as she would pat my badge. She did this for several minutes. After she put my badge down we would ask her where her Momma was. Instead of coming to me, she would go and get my badge and pat it! It was too sweet, especially coming from the child that only cared about her Daddy for the first year!!!



I don't blame Allie for saying Daddy more than Momma. She has an amazing daddy. I pray on a regular basis that when the girls are older, MUCH older, they will find a man like Matt. He does so much for our family. Please be in prayer for him though. He is still in a lot of pain. We went to the neurologist this week and the neurologist decided to try him on some new medications. They will take some time to get in his system but hopefully he will soon get some relief. His neurologist also wants him to get in to physical therapy. My favorite "Matt Moment" came just a few minutes ago. I have been eyeing this piece of furniture at Matt's brother and sister-in-laws house for as long as I can remember. Well, my moment happend when I watched Matt carry that piece into our living room!!! Yes, Mark and Amy gave it to us. It was not stolen!! I love it so much. I am not sure how to describe it but it is perfect. I will put pictures up tomorrow... It is a place where I can sit and read and just escape for a while... I just love it!! Thank you Matt for dropping what you were doing to go and pick it up for me! Thank you to Mark and Amy for blessing us with this piece of furniture!! I am pretty lucky...NOT spoiled...just loved!!!



Again, I will do my best to have updates on everyone. Change is constant. Please remember to not take the ones you love for granted. Cherish it all...

Happy Birthday Christopher!!!

We are getting ready to go to my nephew's birthday party. Christopher is such a brillant young man and is truly a miracle child. I am so blessed to be his aunt and to be able to see him on a regular basis.

His party has been really hard to get to though. With me being the, not so brillant, aunt that I am, will be heading to his party for the second time in around 15 minutes.... Last Saturday, I rushed the girls and Matt to hurry and get ready to go to his party. We were five minutes away when Matt's mom called us to see what we were doing. We told her we were on the way to the party when she informed us that we were a week early! Talk about being embarassed!! Needless to say, after the test run last week, all four of us are ready to celebrate Christopher's special day with him!


Happy Birthday Christopher! We all love you so much and are very proud of the young man you are becoming...

Savior, Please

Part of my morning routine, which begins at 4:30 am, is listening to one of the local Christian stations during my 20 minute morning commute. Several weeks ago, I heard a song that totally changed how I felt inside. One of my main struggles has been dealing with the thoughts of how I have to be strong for everyone in my family. Please don't get me wrong, I am blessed to have the husband and children that I do. I just get tired sometimes. Well, this new song said everything that I had been feeling and made me realize that I was again trying to conquer this world on my own and not depending on God to help me. I listen to this song whenever I can and it still bring tears to my eyes. I hope that you all get a chance to hear it. I have the lyrics below:



Josh Wilson's "Savior, Please"

(Josh and I actually went to the same high school. He graduated the year after I did. As Madison says, "Mommy, you know someone famous!")

Savior, please take my hand
I work so hard, I live so fast
This life begins, and then it ends
And I do the best that I can, but I don't know how long I'll last

I try to be so tough
But I'm just not strong enough
I can't do this alone, God I need You to hold on to me
I try to be good enough
But I'm nothing without Your love
Savior, please keep saving me

Savior, please help me stand
I fall so hard, I fade so fast
Will You begin right where I end
And be the God of all I am because You're all I have

Hallelujah
Everything You are to me
Is everything I'll ever need
And I am learning to believe
That I don't have to prove a thing
'Cause You're the one who's saving me

"Well done, good and faithful servant!"

It is a constant worry of mine that I am not meeting my potential. I worry that I am not a good enough wife, mother, and worker. One of my greatest fears is to learn that I have failed someone that I love. I guess that it is time for me to realize and accept the fact that I am only human.

I think that I am getting closer to accepting that others don't expect 100% perfection from me. I spent today working with a heart surgeon that is know for his short temper and split-personality. We replaced our patient's mitral valve. At the end of the case, the surgeon look over to me and said that I did an amazing job and that he gave me the grade of 100. If this had happend yesterday, I would have screamed with excitment. However, as soon as I heard the words that I normally long to hear, I immediately started to think of how much I want to hear those words from God when I get to Heaven.

"His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"

*Matthew 25:21

The lightbulb finally came on for me! As long as I am truly living my life for God, everything else will fall in place. I am so excited to live the rest of my life letting God live through me. After all, it isn't my life to live but His.

The Truth Will Set You Free

Oh how I needed to hear this morning's message. God placed a certain someone in my life that I really needed to forgive. The details will remain between God, myself, and this particular someone. It has been a major struggle for me to truly forgive this person. I would tell myself, and even this certain someone that I forgave them but I realized this morning that I was lying to us both. With the words of this message, and the grace of God, I can know say that I do forgive him/her and I have given it to God. I am sure that we all have that someone that may have hurt us in the past. It may even be yourself that you need to personally forgive. It is that reason that I wanted to share this mornings notes. I hope that can bring the same peace to you that they did to me....

"How to Set Others Free"
Matthew 18:21-35
February 22, 2009

I. Ask the Holy Spirit who you need to free.
*John 16:8

"When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement"


II. Forgive. It is not an option.
*Ephesians 4:32 *Colossians 3:13

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:32)

"Just as in Christ God forgave" me... Wow! Christ forgave me to the degree of His death on a cross. All I am called to do is forgive my certain someone and to treat them with respect.

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Colossians 3:13)


III. How to forgive:
1. Acknowledge the offense.
*Luke 22:34

"Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will
deny three times that you know me."

2. Choose to keep no record of the wrong.
*1 Corinthians 13:5

"It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs."

How can we ignore God's greatest gift of love?

3. Don't punish the offender.
*Romans 12:19

"Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is
written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord."

It isn't up to me to punish/judge those who have done me wrong. It is God's responsibility to take care of. I have given Him control.

4. Don't gossip about the offender.
*Ephesians 4:29-31 *Proverbs 18:21

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is
helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit
those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and
anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."
(Ephesians 4:29-31)

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat
its fruit."
(Proverbs 18:21)

It goes back to the saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." I need to speak positive of all others, especially those who have done me wrong. In my situation, the person I had to forgive gave me one of the best gifts of my life. I will forever be grateful to this person.

5. Put the offender at the foot of the cross.
*Colossians 3:13

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one
another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

IV. Just Do It!!!
*Genesis 50:14-21 *Luke 15:20-32

Both passages are amazing stories of forgiveness.


In closing, I left church feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off of me. I pray that if anyone reading this has struggled with forgiving someone that I may have provided some help. I also pray that my paticular person has been able to forgive me in return.

Scripture was quoted out of the NIV translation. The words in bold were my personal thoughts.

Until next time....

It's been a long time!!

Wow! Where do I start? In August, my family made the big move from Lubbock to Dallas. I have an amazing job at Baylor Medical Center in downtown Dallas. I am assisting with open heart surgery and could not be happier! It is so hard not being able to see Cohen very much but I have faith that things will work out soon....


Madison is now in the first grade and doing very well. She tested into the magnet school district in Garland. She is very involved in our church activities. Her favorites are Sunday night AWANAs and Patch the Pirate club on Wednesday. In the first week in January, Matt had the privledge of leading Madison to Christ! Two weeks later, Uncle Mark (Matt's brother) baptised Madison!




Allison turned one after Christmas. She has been such a joy to us. She is walking all over the place and learning things on a daily basis. In November we found out that Allie has a small hole in her heart. It is so scary to think about but her doctors seem to have faith that it will close on its own.



Matt enjoys staying how with Allison and taking Madison to school. He has been in so much pain because of his MS. We were blessed with a good MRI earlier this week though. It showed that there were no active lesions! We pray that we continue to get good reports like these...


For those of you that have known me a for some time, know that I used to run cross-country. Well, I am now training for my first race since junior high! I will be running in a 5K run the end of March. The proceeds go towards finding a cure for MS.


That is all I can think of right now. I will make sure to do a better job in keeping everyone up to date with the Allred family!!