Piano Recital

Hey Everyone:

Another successful piano recital is under our belts. This was Stella's third recital with Ms. Elizabeth and Ashlyn's first!!! Ashlyn did fantastic. We were so excited for her!! Stella played beautifully also!!! We are already preparing for the upcoming holiday recital, but I thought you all might like to see some of the highlights of the girls' performances!!! Take care!!!!

Ashlyn

Sometimes I wish I could just crawl inside one of my blog posts where everyone is happy, and life is full of new surprises, happy occurrences, and beautiful discoveries....

We just got word from Ashlyn's eye doctor that her right eye is once again turning in and causing her vision to decrease. For those of you who don't know, Ashlyn has had two surgeries to correct this. Her alignment and vision seemed to improve tremendously following the last surgery in November and we were hopeful all this was behind us. I was scared when I thought I saw her crossing her right eye again this summer. And when she started rubbing her eyes and complaining that she was having a hard time seeing things..Well, I knew we were back in sadly familiar territory. I took her to her doctor yesterday and he confirmed what I feared...

We have the same plan of attack as before when she was first diagnosed with this problem. Ashlyn will wear a patch for six hours of the day along with a new prescription for bifocal glasses...We will go back to her doctor in eight weeks to determine if that therapy is working. She may need another surgery...I'm trying to remain hopeful, but it's hard because I feel like we are starting back @ square one...So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers...

Today was especially hard for me when we went to pick out Ashlyn's new glasses....Last year when Ashlyn got glasses for the first time she seemed excited. I think she liked having something that her brother and sister didn't have. The glasses set her apart. But this year things are a little different. Ashlyn is insecure about wearing her patch. She's worried about how people will perceive her and she's very self conscious about her glasses. She asked me earlier this afternoon why all of this was happening to her and I didn't have a good answer. The truth is, I have no idea. I'm so sorry and sad for her. I try to put things into perspective. There are families with children who have life threatening illnesses...In the grand scheme of things Ashlyn's vision problems hardly seems significant, but when your four year old asks you in so many words, "Mommy, what's wrong with me?" and you have no answer--well, it sucks. And I'm writing this now to help me get through the sadness that I feel for my little girl and to let you all know that life for me (just like you) isn't always a happy,smiley blog entry...I don't know what the lesson to be learned here is. I told Ashlyn that God only gives challenges to people He thinks can handle them and that God must think she's a really brave girl...I'm hoping that's true for both Ashlyn and me. Peace, ya'll....

Doak Family Camps---In A Tent

Hey Everyone:
I once read that camping is a really great way for a family to bond and create memories, but not for the reason some of you may think....The book is escaping me right now, but whoever it was, said that camping creates lifelong memories for families and brings them closer together because of the inevitability of a terrific disaster. Something always goes wrong on a camping trip: you get attacked by bugs, you have loud neighbors that keep you up all night, or in the case of this past weekend @ Shenandoah National Park: you get stuck in a tent with four of your closest family members in 40 degree temps...Don't get me wrong, Big Meadows was BEAUTIFUL and we had a fantastic time! (I'm always amazed @ my kids ability to adapt to any situation with fantastic ease.) BUT, it was COLD, people. When it was time to crawl into that tent and go to sleep we were not--to use the phrase quite literally--"happy campers." We layered up and still froze. Overall, despite the cold we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Breaking The Law in More Ways Than One

So, I made it over to our new church building last Monday evening and swept up a bunch of drywall dust...Not sure I helped out much, but it was exciting to see the new building really coming together. We have our first service over there on October 4th, which is quickly approaching....I spent my time sweeping and it gave me some time to think about the previous days' sermon; about how we, as church members, believers, and Christians, have a responsibility to disciple to others...So, it's Monday night and I'm sweeping, no one's around, and I'm thinking about this message from the previous day, and I have to say that I am kind of freaked out by this one!!! I mean, seriously? I was just starting to feel good about this church...I like the people, my kids had FINALLY stopped screaming when we dropped them off @ children's church, I got Baptized for ummm...goodness sake!!! I thought life was goood!!!!



I'm over at my new church building sweeping up dust, doing God's WORK people!!! Sweating, getting dirty and guess what???? It AIN'T ENOUGH!!!! NOPE...it's only HALF of what I'm supposed to be doing!!!!!!! What in the world????? Are you KIDDING me? And GET THIS......My pastor wasn't kidding and it's not some rule that my church made up (I checked to make sure)...It's God's rule!!!!!!! AND I am IGNORING it. I am walking through life thinking the golden rule is going to serve me well. I'm going to church umm religiously...., teaching my kids about Jesus, taking notes during the sermons and IT'S NOT ENOUGH...You know why? Because I am not out there telling enough (ok, ok any) people about God! I am a Christian failure. And I don't think Doug, our pastor, was telling us that to hurt our feelings, or to come off sounding like some evangelical lunatic. He was only telling us because he's a pastor and that's his job and I just happened to pick the church where the pastor actually does his job! Lucky me, right? Right, but NOW I have a responsibility that I didn't even know I had. I was going through life thinking I was doing enough and truly believing that being a good person would serve me well. And now??? Well now, I have a lot to think about....So I've been praying hard about this one and I'm asking God to help me find a way to do this: disciple. Disciple without sounding like a lunatic, without pushing people away, without people thinking I have lost my mind, and the truth is: it's hard. It's a lot for my feeble brain to handle....



And that was just the start of last week.

Wednesday turned out to be quite the crazy day. We sold our camper on Tuesday night and I promised Stella if we sold the camper we could still go camping so, I took her to Wal-Mart Wednesday afternoon to buy a tent that the ENTIRE Doak Family 5 could fit in (no easy task, for sure)....Anyway, on the way to the store I got pulled over for running a red light on Battefield Blvd. I'm not going to go into details about whether or not I was guilty, but I will say this: I was scared because I knew my license had expired back in May. The officer asked for my license and registration and I handed them over. He went back to his car and Stella says to me, "Mommy, I have a feeling you are going to get a ticket." Gee, Stella, you think? Anyway, I am sweatin' it for sure...Then the cop comes back and says, "I'm sorry mam, but you do not have a licence in the State of Virginia" So I say, "Yes, I do--I just handed it to you." (It might have been expired, but TECHNICALLY I did HAVE a Virginia state license. I sat there looking at him. I really didn't have anything further to discuss with this guy. Just give me my (two?) tickets and let me be on my merry way. Well, he explained to me very kindly-yet firmly-that driving with an expired license could technically result in MY ARREST!!!! Seriously this guy was telling me I could be ARRESTED??????? For WHAT???? Being an OVERWORKED, UNDERPAID Mom who can barely find time in her day to take a shower, much less head to the DMV and renew her license(not even mentioning that I will never take such a cute license photo...ever)?????? Again, I stared blankly at this guy. It didn't seem like I had much say in this matter. He looked into the van and saw Stella buckled in the back seat and said, "Mam, I can see you have a little girl with you so I won't take you in." REALLY? I didn't realize cops really said things like "take you in," but I'm here to tell you folks, that Chespeake's finest really do say such phrases. I glanced down @ my cup holder not sure how to respond to the officer's kindness (?) at not hauling me off in front of my seven year old daughter, and I notice the stack of Real Life Church business cards advertising my churchs' grand opening..."No way, God!" I mutter to myself. "I'm not giving this cop an invite to my church...He's going to think I'm crazy and arrest me for sure." A divine intervention? A moment to disciple? Certainly NOT!!! And so, the moment passes and he let me go (with a ticket for running the red light, but not one for driving with an expired license). And so too did my opportunity to disciple, but I thought about it which counts for something, right? I know, probably not, but I'm going to think it's a step in the right direction.



But, I did learn something this week:



I learned that the Good News isn't getting a "get out of jail free" card...it's what you do with it.