Once again – God reminds me of His love in the most unexpected places.

I am trying not to get my hopes up too much – but I really feel that this is an answer to prayer – it HAS to be. I made my first appt. with Dr. Robinson for a week from today – Thursday the 17th at 1.20 – I will have three to four more appointments after that. I am trusting God to provide the funds for this procedure – Jared and I both feel that this is the step we are to take – it makes me feel better to know that I had another option from someone who was much less expensive and I didn’t feel that option was the one – weird – I know. The first appointment consists of taking precise measurements of my jaw and mouth. The seconda appointment – at the end of July – takes two hours and is when I have the TENS unit attached to me to determine my “correct” jaw position. The third appointment – August 19th is another TENS unit session with the device being fitted and positioned correctly. I should be back one week after that to see if it is indeed doing its job.

What I need – PRAYER – please please please pray for me – for us – it is painful to say that this is a dream I have been wanting for a long time – ‘cus what a sad thing to have to be dreaming about – but it is. Please pray that God uses this device as His healing – or just His divine healing – I will go for either one. Pray that the funds will come – which I trust that they will – I don’t usually have a peace about things – and I do about this. Although, I am trying not to get TOO excited – until I know for sure that it will work.

Thank you to those who take the time to come to my website and support my dream – both photography and TMJ – I hope that by this time next year to be a FULL-TIME photographer and momma-to-be – so you could pray about that for me too.

As a general rule – I don’t like my birthday – something always happens on my birthday that isn’t fun. Birthdays aren’t really a big deal to me. In 2005 – I was working with Jared’s cousin Alyssa. She set up a surprise for my birthday – FIRST she had a cheescake waiting in the kitchen at work with Jared and his mom there waiting for me – YAY – but I knew the surprise wasn’t over – I thought it was to go get my belly button pierced – OUCH – but I was prepared for that. We went to the mall and to Olive Garden for dinner – where Alyssa had managed to get my family and friends all together for a surprise birthday dinner! I was SHOCKED – it was a wonderful time being with those I love dearly.

That year I wanted a new lens for my camera – so much so that I threw baby fits when I would think about the fact that I didn’t have enough money to get it. Jared would get pretty frustrated with me – bless his heart. Well, at this dinner – Jared’s parents got me this lens. I didn’t react the way everyone thought I would – I didn’t scream and jump – just said OH THANK YOU! I was so surprised that they would do that for me. We had only been married 11 months at that point – and I knew and KNOW they love me – but WOW!

Fast forward to now – that lens has gotten me through a lot – weddings, the beach, basketball games, Wyoming, and so much more – I love that lens. For the past two months I have noticed that it has been slow to zoom and focus. I have been holding it together and praying it through – but when I went to use it for the parade – it gave up it’s last breath. One of our Powerkidz loves the idea of my camera insurance and would love to do nothing more than bash it to bits with a baseball bat – after a recent incident where I found that my very expensive insurance isn’t what I thought it was – he was pretty sad to know he couldn’t bash my camera. So – I took my lens to the store where it was purchased – and  OF COURSE they cannot do anything except send it away to be fixed and wait 6 to 8 weeks – I have weddings coming up – I can’t be without it that long. So – we bought another lens at Best Buy – but it turns out to be the wrong one – it does not have the macro feature that I love so much. I will be returning that lens this weekend – but I also got a Canon 40D – which I am still trying to figure out and be impressed with it. I might make the decision to exchange that too for the same make as I have already.

Either way – we came home and I let “K” take the lens apart to his desire – and of course I had to document it.

So – I wanted to say THANK YOU to my dear lens and my in-laws for getting it for me.

One of the first shots with the 40D.

“K” took advantage of having a second camera on hand to snap a few of me.

No wonder my neck hurts – look at the posture – HORRIBLE!

And Jared caught a few of me with the new one to test it out –

It amazes me how much I look like my mom – especially in that last picture.

7.4.2008

We spent the morning in the parade – I spent it taking pictures while Jared walked around in a heavy, hot dog suit – and then the afternoon at Ives Run. I laid in the sun and read a book – something I love to do – while Jared played catch.

The Ives Run Visitor Building had a special presentation we wanted to see …

Those rattles are SO LOUD – we could hear them across the room – I had no idea they were as loud as they were.

We had a fun, relaxing day. We are so blessed with a wonderful church family.

Jared plays Rovercomer …

He is NOT gentle with everyone …

me – doing what I love …

Jared and I just met with our Pastor and his wife – we needed some guidance and prayer – and I was reminded again of God’s love for us. His overwhelming, unconditional love. I always think back to the fact that God takes the time to make these flowers around my home so beautiful – of course He will take the time to care for me.

www.myotronics.com – Yesterday I met with Dr. Robinson in Lewisburg – he had some answers. Check out the Myotronics link – he thinks that I do have cartilage left in my jaw – YAY – the NTI splint that I have been using for the past year and a half has done nothing but given me more damage and a worse bite. The splint that he wants to make is one that goes along the bottom teeth that I wear 24/7/365 except eating and cleaning it. He does a few sessions with TENS unit work to relax the jaw and put it into proper alignment. He thinks – cannot guarantee – that this can and will help me. He gave me the numbers of some former patients – with their permission of course – and I spoke with them today – they say it remains to be life changing. The one woman had TMJ pain for 30 years – THIRTY YEARS – and after a week of this device she was pain-free and remains to be. There is one catch – the price tag – it is QUITE STEEP – quite a bit more than the $1000 that I was quoted in KOP – and I just made the decision to make the plunge and buy a new camera – a 40D Canon – which now might be returned to the store with this new option. I have a lot of decisions to make – in a short amount of time. I would love all your prayers – I have been praying over and over and over for a miracle. It has been a rough two years – especially the last few months and weeks and days – where it seems all I do is cry – and I can’t even begin to think that there might be an end in sight. It is overwhelming and exciting. 

7.2.2008

Baby feet – nothing like it …