What the Love of God can do!

 A few months/weeks ago as I was entering Target, I overheard a young girl telling someone on the phone that she was homeless and had no money to buy food.  I felt that I should do something but I wasn't sure what exactly.  I walked into the store and I told myself that if I saw her in the store I would giv her my church's number.  I never did see her in the store.
Well...........

Today as I was putting stamps on my thank you note cards, I overheard the same sort of conversation.  I looked over and it was the same girl and in the same winter clothes!  Today it was 78 degrees!  Bless her heart!  She must have gotten embarrassed and didn't want me to hear, so she walked away.  I rushed to find something to write my church's number on and found a sticker label for  a package.  I gave her the sticker and she thanked me.  She asked me what my  name was  and she told me it was a pretty name & that I was pretty too!  How sweet of her!


I left with a heavy heart and tearful eyes. I called the church and they told me that she had called but that the call was lost. I'm praying to God that she is able to call back and that she will get the help from our Mercy Ministry that she needs so desperately. It was definitely God prompting me to do this, because if it were up to me, I would not have done this because I would have been too nervous. The love of God can do great things!

The Silent disease!

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Silent disease!

I have decided on a subject in which I would like to write about. It's something that I have struggled/lived with since 1998 when I was a freshman in college. Many people have this disease and it's known as the "silent disease". Many people go un-diognosed for years and just say they get bad headaches .

The name of this silent disease is called, TMJD.(Temporal-mandibular  joint disorder) It is considered to be a chronic disease. I'm going to give a brief overview of what tmjd means to me.

I had never dealt with any type of head ache until my freshman in college so having a headache in the back of my head scared me!  It didn't help that I was ten hours from home either.  It took the doctor's a while to figure out what was going on with me.  They tried taking out my wisdom teeth and cleaning my ears out.  Not sure how cleaning my ears out would help.

So, finally during my sophomore year I was sent to a TMJD specialist and was told that I had been grinding my teeth so badly  that my teeth were black on the bottom in the back of my mouth.  CRAZY!  I  was also told that my jaw joint was not in the correct alignment. I was told that I had T MJD and that I would need to wear a mouth splint.( I have had three different ones since then.)

I'm now 31 and still dealing with tmjd.  I deal with it in different ways then I did back in college.  I used to get headaches in the back of my head. Some days/months I will go pain free which I thank the Lord for! Then there are days, where my jaw hurts to laugh, cry, sing or just to talk. TMJD can also make my ears, nose, head, and shoulders hurt.  I have been given exercises to help with the shoulders and jaw.  I need to stick with them. I usually stop the exercises when I feel better but I need to do them even if I do feel better because I never know when the symptoms will pop up again.

About a year ago, my symptoms were the worst they had ever been.  I couldn't open my mouth to eat and I was having vertigo.  I have had vertigo  twice in the past but doctors told me it had to do with an inner ear infection. Well, after reading information on the internet, purchasing a tmjd book("Taking control of TMJD" ( "http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Control-TMJ-Temporomandibular-Fibromyalgia/dp/1572241268) and talking to two different dentist I learned that a TMJD patient can deal with vertigo symptoms.  It sounds crazy I'm sure but if you really think about where your ear canal and  tmj joint are located in relation to each other , it just makes sense.


So, I hope to write more often about this issue.  Some people have their jaw joint surgically moved into the correct position and some get their jaw joint replaced.  I haven't heard great feed back on those surgeries as of yet.

I will say that being relaxed helps with tmjd. Doing relaxing exercises , drinking peppermint tea, using a hot rag on your jaw joints, doing the tmjd stretches in the book,"Taking Control of TMJD", wearing a mouth piece at night helps with the grinding, using a nice firm pillow, and firm mattress.......  This is something that I deal with everyday.  Like I said, there are times when I'm pain free!  :)

Well it seems that I had gotten the sick bug(a nasty cold).  It started off in my head and then went to my chest which is no fun at all.  I took off from work for two days to get some rest.  Today, I'm feeling much better but still not back to my normal self.  I'm very excited because tonight Scott and I are going on a date!  Date night!!!!!  It's been a while between doing the Dave Ramsey budget and having company over for the past couple weekends. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about Thanksgiving since it is November.  Thanksgiving in our family is usually either spent with Scott's family down in TN or with my family either in NC, or MD.  This year plans have changed a few times.  We are really looking forward to getting away and having time to spend with family

I wanted to take the time to share a little bit about what I'm thankful for.  Sure, I'm thankful for a lot more but I wanted to  write about how thankful I am for my husband and my wonderful family. I never knew  how precious family could be until more recently.  There is a bond that sticks so close within family members.  I know that no matter what happens in my life, my family is going to love me.  Friends come and go but family sticks close by. Our family has been through a bit of ups and downs within the past few years but it's good to know that we can lean on each other through the hard times! I'm so thankful for my husband Scott, because when I am down and have a hard time looking up, he is right there next to me encouraging me!  He truly is my best friend! 

My first Blog entry

I have never written a blog before but am looking forward to this!  I plan on writing about every day to day adventures with my husband.  

Life sure has its ups and downs but what really makes me hopeful is God's grace! Even though I might not understand why God does what He does, He knows exactly why He is doing it.  I am grateful to be  a wife, daughter, sister, friend and a child of God.

As of right now, my husband and I are going through a Dave Ramsey financial peace class at our church.  So far it has been wonderful and we have learned so much. We have almost finished our first baby step in his book and we are so excited about that! After the first step, we will be working towards paying all debt off with the snowball affect.  If you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey, please google him and see what he is all about.  I will write more about this in blogs to come.