Friday Favorites

Before I get started, I just have to share some WONDERFUL news, one piece of which will be very specific, the other pretty vague, but both are wonderful, God-intervening events, and frankly, miraculous.

1. Bennett has been having some SERIOUS troubles with his ears (as most of you already know). The last time we went to the doctor, he described them both as "bulging, pussing, and glue-like" and seemed pretty certain that we were quickly approaching the need for tubes. This distressed me for several reasons. A) My brother had tubes when he was little, and though the procedure went well, I've always connected the tubes themselves with his speech problems and learning delays (even though the two are not related at all and the tubes actually helped him)
B) They cost a lot of money C) Who on earth wants their baby to go through surgery of ANY kind? Even if you know it will help and make things better, of course you'd prefer that things clear up on their own and that the surgery wouldn't even be necessary.

So here's the stinkin' awesome part. At the advice of a couple of friends (see previous Kudos to You post), I've taken Benito off of milk and dairy for a couple of weeks and have been doing a massaging technique with him to help his ears drain. Today, after two weeks of doing this, we went back to the doctor to check his progress (or lack thereof) and the doc said that there is now only a thin layer of fluid that is draining and should clear up the rest of the way by itself!! YAAAAAAY!! Praise God for caring about the small things and for caring about my baby's ears! And praise God for sending me wonderful friends to show me alternatives to antibiotics and tubes! I'm so thankful that we've avoided the mess of it all.

New favorite picture of my little buddy.

2. This is a much heavier, and also much more vague message of thanks and praise, but is so close to my heart that it affects my life, my future, my hopes, and my dreams, and the Lord God Almighty has delivered me and my family from something Satan wanted to use to destroy us all. I won't go into details, though some of you know them, many do not, and it is best and wise to leave it this way. However, I will say that WITHOUT DOUBT the Good Lord above has done a literal miracle in the hearts and lives of my family. Things that were broken beyond repair are being restored and made whole again. Things that were dark and gray have a lining of sunshine and hope that I never thought I'd see again. As I type this, the song "Everlasting God" is playing in my ears from my iPod. This song has been my theme song for the past six months. For anyone out there who feels they have no hope, or is discouraged and beat down, or sees no way out, TRUST THE LORD and ASK HIM. He will make a way. Our God is faithful when no one else is. He is mighty to save. He can redeem the unsavable and the unlovable. He moves mountains. Our Lord is living and active and His miracles are real and great. I know this better and more truthfully than I've ever known it in my entire life, and I'm not sure there will be anything else to teach me this truth more than now. Thank you THANK YOU to those of you who have been praying and loving me through all of it. Please continue to do so. We are coming out on the other side of it all, and I see the beauty of the Lord's goodness everywhere I look.


And now on to a light, bright edition of Friday Favorites!

I'm not a huge movie buff, but I have recently seen a movie that I LOVE LOVE LOVE that has inspired this post. If you haven't seen it, you need to rent it immediately. I'll be buying it soon and very soon. It's number one on the list.

1. AUGUST RUSH -- okay, I'm a little biased because music is a great passion of mine, but this movie is so well made. The actors are great (the little boy - forget his name in real life) does a phenomenal job, and Robin Williams is in it too, who I also love. It was really interesting to see him play a serious, intense role. The plot is great, and there's beautiful music in it. It all wraps up in a nice, neat, beautiful bow (yes, I'm a sap) - what more could you want?? My only regret is that I didn't see it in the actual theater. This one would've been totally worth it.

2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA -- again, a little biased. Although this is about the Japanese practice of geisha, Michael and I have a passion for the Eastern World, and China more specifically. So the culture and society about this area of the world is fascinating to me. If you can get past the fact that a geisha is pretty much a nice way of labeling a dressed up, high maintenance prostitute of sorts, you're good to go. I just love books and movies that follow a character through numerous years of their lives, building and weaving an artistic plot that really allows you to follow along in their shoes. This movie is a work of art in my opinion. Love it.

3. THE ILLUSIONIST -- I REALLY liked this movie. We rented it randomly one night and loved it. The plot was great - very interesting - and it was intriguing pretty much the whole way through. There was another movie that I heard was very similar to this one (can't remember what it was called now), but apparently this movie is lighter and a little less intense than the other one, which I'm a fan of. I don't do "intense" very well - I always end up leaving the room :)This movie gets wrapped up in a nice neat bow at the end, too.

I won't actually list it, but obviously Pride and Prejudice is also another HUGE favorite. I love both modern versions (and own both :) ): the six hour one with Colin Firth and the newer, shorter one with Kiera Knightly (although she's so unfortunately skinny and yucky looking, it's a bit distracting).


Until next week,
Jennifer