Conneaut and Jefferson, OH and East Springfield, PA

October 1-4, 2010

Packing for this trip was a bit burdensome as we were just finishing up the summer season and the previous weekend we were in Florida but we were headed to the cold north. I had worked hard the few days we were home that week to dig out the winter clothes for the kids and try to figure out who had enough clothes to sing in 3 times and were we all color coordinated each time? When we have a change of season like this it takes me 7 hours to pack for me and the kids. Once we're into the season a few weeks I've got the wardrobe down pretty good. I also had the problem of not only finding myself some winter clothes to wear but finding something that FIT! My clothes weren't fitting me right. They were too tight around the middle yet I hadn't changed any eating habits and actually tried to be careful about what I ate. Packing was a stressful job for this trip.

We drove on Friday all day to get to Conneaut, Ohio, (pr. “connie-ott”) which is in the very north east corner of the state. It's an old town, situated beautifully on Lake Erie and my kids know the town for Ms. Connie Smith, the promoter that lives there and TRAINS.

The railroad is big business there and until the town built an overpass at one end of town and an underpass at the other end, the town was used to waiting on trains. We weren't used to it and Saturday evening we sat and sat and sat as we waited to meet our friends for dinner at the Sugar Shack.

Let me back up just a bit.

As we got ready Saturday morning in our hotel room, I tried on a new blouse I bought at Cato. It was made in such a way that I thought it might disguise my large belly. All my of my britches were getting too tight around the waist and I was beginning to look “fat” and I was disgusted with myself! When I tried the blouse on and layered a sweater over it, I asked Bobby, “Do I look pregnant in this? I DO! I look pregnant in this! I'm not gonna wear this!”

Let me back up just a bit more.

In August I took a pregnancy test and it was negative so pregnancy was immediately ruled out. Our schedule allowed us to attend our own church a couple of weekends in September and when Pastor Davis gave the altar call, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to go and ask for healing...or whatever it was I needed. On Saturday, the 18^th of September I rose in the wee hours of the morning to use the bathroom as I'd been doing the past several weeks and it dawned on me that I only wake in the night like that when I'm pregnant but since I wasn't pregnant, according to the pregnancy test I decided it had to be something else in there pressing on my bladder making me have to go. Suddenly I knew...there was a foreign object growing in me. I was rather sober through most of the day, glad to go to Cornerstone that night and especially thankful that we were having communion on a night that I could be there. Pastor Davis preached about dreams and made the statement, “You can't deliver the dream until you're able to carry the baby.” Of course he was speaking metaphorically but that statement totally stood out to me. I went to the altar that night, praying alone and not telling anyone my thoughts.

The following morning was when we got stranded in Decatur. Late in the morning, Bobby was downstairs in the business center on the computer. The kids started watching a movie so I took the opportunity to leave the room and go talk to Bobby. He removed his hands from the keyboard and turned his chair toward me because he could tell that I had something important to tell him. I told him that I didn't want to worry him but that I KNEW there was something inside of me that shouldn't be there. I had complained earlier of feeling bloated but now I told him that it was far more than bloating. There was definitely something in there. I told him I wasn't scared or worried. Cancer is curable physically speaking, and I was already healed by the stripes of Jesus...IF that's what it even was. Let me just tell you if I ever did find out that I had cancer I wouldn't tell anyone. I would NEVER go through the sickening and toxic rigors of chemo and radiation. These are routine treatments that statistics have shown do NOT work. They MIGHT delay things a bit but it's not a pleasant way to handle things. In spite of the fact that my mother passed away with cancer, I never give to the American Cancer Society or St. Jude's because I've seen cancer cured over and over by natural means, but not by traditional, costly pharmaceuticals. Cancer is a huge money maker so why would they want to eradicate it? No, I would quietly seek the help of a holistic doctor on the proper nutrition and supplements to take. As a matter of fact, I did visit a local health food store and went through a sort of physical screening. One of the things we checked for was the pregnancy hormone and again, it was negative.

From that weekend on I began to speak God's healing Word over my body and take communion early in the morning in my quiet time. Finally, Bobby told me that I needed to get an ultra sound so that we could find out, if I wasn't pregnant, just exactly what WAS inside of me. I scheduled the ultra sound for Tuesday, October 5^th at 4:00 PM. I'll share the results of that ultra sound in the following post.

Back to Conneaut. I wanted to change blouses but didn't have time and as we passed by the front desk and chatted with a lady from the hotel staff a minute, she made the comment, “Oh I see you're expecting. Congratulations!” Immediately I felt bad for her and I quickly said, “I know I look pregnant, but I'm not. I'm gonna have an ultra sound this week and find out what's going on in there.”

“That's a good idea,” she said.

Bobby was singing in an all-afternoon concert with other soloists and one local group. As a matter of fact, Mitchel Jon, better known to us and our Cornerstone family as Mitch Kenitzer, former choir member, praise team singer, and former member of the group, Three Bridges. We joked with Mitch about the fact that we have to drive all the way to Lake Erie to see our church friend from Nashville.

We had a fun and even relaxing day in spite of the smaller turnout than was expected and the dreary, rainy weather. I did run back to the hotel room shortly after we arrived in order to grab my laptop and change tops. Yes, I thought I had found something to hide my large belly.

One of the soloists, Jerry Garcia, introduced himself to me, asked about Grace and began to tell me about his family. He and his wife have adopted 4 special needs children and they usually travel with him but it just so happened that they were sick that weekend so we didn't get to meet them. He told me about each one of the kids, their uniqueness, and the gifts that they were. When he told me about his second oldest, Katie, who has Cerebral Palsy and Autism, he told me about a song that he sings to her that talks about limping to heavens' gates but running on the other side. Jerry seemed regretful that he couldn't share that special song with us that day but I told him I wished he'd sing it to Grace. He was delighted to do that and Grace was delighted to be sung to.

After the concert that evening and after waiting for the train for 15 minutes, we enjoyed a nice dinner with Connie, Mitch, Jerry, and the quartet, Circle of Friends.

It was nice to get back to our little hotel room early enough to get a decent rest before heading out to Jefferson the next morning.

We sang at First Baptist Church in Jefferson on Sunday morning and Bobby and Landis had to unload the equipment in the rain. I sat in the van with the girls with my Bible and couldn't understand why I had the uncontrollable urge to cry. I'm not talking about a few tears, I'm talking about pouring tears that I couldn't stop for a few minutes and the feeling that I did NOT want to be there. I wanted to be home! I hid it from the girls behind me and finally gathered myself together enough that I got my daughters inside and parked the van.

I knew that getting with other folks and forgetting about myself, I'd be fine and I was. Also, I met the sweetest old lady! I can say “old”...she was in her mid eighties. That's old. She had a wonderful testimony of God's faithfulness in her life and she was so encouraging with her promise to pray for our family. She even gave me her contact information and said I can call her any time of the day or night if I ever needed prayer.

The church served a wonderful fellowship meal after the service and it was there that a gentleman told Bobby and I that in all the years he's been attending First Baptist, (I think he said 35 or 40 years) he's never seen the pastor have a musical guest on a Sunday morning. Now that's the hand of God working on our behalf. Thank you Lord for favor!

There were a couple of hours to rest in the hotel room and then we drove just over the Pennsylvania line to East Springfield where we sang at the Federated Church. We had no idea what Federated Church was but the pastor, Dr. Edward Huntley explained to us that years and years ago, there was a Presbyterian Church and a Christian Church in town. The two congregations decided to come together to make one larger church. When trying to come up with a new name for the church one of the members suggested that because federated means a union of more than one entity, that they ought to call themselves the Federated Church. Obviously, the name was liked and it stuck. Not only did the name stick but the spirit of unity in this body of believers has remained for so long because of those seeds planted so long ago by those who've since passed on.

After service the youth group provided some pizza and Dip-n-Dots for themselves and our family in the Family Life Center (gym) where our kids played hard for nearly an hour and I enjoyed fellowship with folks with similar life experiences to mine.

We drove home the following day which completed the first of 3 consecutive trips to Ohio.