oh, I DO!!!

after a few asthma attacks when i really thought i was going to die, and as i stare down the road to my 70s, i can honestly say that I always thank GOD for each new day that He gives me!!!
i'd love to get up to my 90s, but my life IS in His hands and He knows what's best for me. but, that won't stop me from asking Him to give me the opportunity to at least see my first GREAT-grandchild!!!

there's just NO comparison

Give me Audie Murphy any day!!!

it's an awesome responsibility

i'm so grateful that while they were growing up, my children were surrounded by godly people, especially my parents and my in-laws, so that now, as adults, i know that they have a personal relationship with and love the Lord and i can see that they are also "paying it forward" with their own children. 

one of the greatest joys i know i will have is to see my whole family in heaven together!!

small minds

so... we've been living here in Brooke's Point since 2017. actually, in 2017, we were here for 6+ months, from August to January 2018. then in 2018, after 6 months in the States, we returned in August and stayed until early May 2019, a total of 9 months. this year, we returned from the States in late August and will be staying until early April 2020. we will return to the States for a 9 month furlough to take care of medical issues that have been neglected since we left the States in 2017 because we couldn't get the coverage we wanted/ needed. over here, the costs are too high and the insurance company would not eliminate our pre-existing conditions, even though they lied to us when we signed up telling us that those pre-existing conditions would be covered after we paid for medical insurance for one year. so, for one whole year, we paid for health insurance that we couldn't use!!! although we couldn't use the health insurance that we had paid for, it's a good thing that we were able to get our Philippine senior citizen cards in 2018 which allowed us to at least get our maintenance meds at a 20% discount. however, paying out of pocket for our meds since 2017 was starting to add up. so, we're hoping that, in 2020, while we're in the States, when both of us will be on Medicare, we can get all our medical tests done and I can finally get my left shoulder looked at again (torn rotator cuff), as well as my knees which hopefully won't result in knee replacement surgery...

anyway... now that we've lived in Brooke's for about 24 months total, one thing that we've seen with folks who live in this backward town is how small some minds really are. for example, earlier this year, dan found a masseuse nearby. he asked her what her fee was for home service. she said "P350." so, we scheduled a massage at our apartment. when she got here, all of a sudden, the cost went up to P500!! I went ahead and had a couple sessions with her, but decided to stop because (1) she outright lied about the cost and (2) it was obvious she was all just about getting as much money as she could from us. she wasn't looking at the bigger picture--I would continued as a client for many months at P350/hour and she would have been getting a steady P350/week, maybe even more... she was pretty good at her job and I would have referred her to others which would have brought in even more income for her. but, no... she just wanted to gouge me, so she ended up losing my business... SMALL MIND!!

another example happened just the other day... on the 28th, we have to hire a van to travel to Puerto to fetch our speaker for TEMI's anniversary celebration who's arriving from manila. we know that the going rate for hiring a van -- round trip -- is P5,000. when dan went to Centro (a shuttle service) to reserve a van and driver for us, he was told that their rate was now P7,000!! we know that's too high, so we asked dan's brother to help us contact the other shuttle service. he was able to get us a van and driver from Pilandok for the 28th for P5,000. we would have used Centro for all our trips to Puerto, but because they were greedy, they just lost our business. I told Dan that they probably know we're from the States, so they think they can con us into paying a little more!! if they had just given us the going rate of P5,000, we would have remained a loyal customer. we will never go back to them... again, SMALL MINDS!!

this all has made me realize that sometimes, i, too, have a small mind and i need to be careful to look at the bigger picture instead of just concentrating on the itty bitty portion that's directly in front of me or that's currently staring me in the face. I guess it's kinda like delayed gratification. not wanting something right now but looking at what could be better down the road, if I don't give in to the temptation of the here and now.