Welcome! Gunning Family

September 7, 2010 by Admin
Filed under Meet the Families, Recent Posts, Single Mothering

My Story

I am a Believer. I know for a fact I would not have lived through this ordeal had God not been (and is continuing to) hold me through this. I cannot say I always keep the commandments, but I desperately try to live my life by His commands/commandments. I still sin and struggle, just as everyone does. When I fail, I get back up and ask God to grant me more strength to overcome, and ask Him to take the desire for sin from me and make me more like Him. So, I follow the commandments, but I fail them, because I am human. The Spirit in my life convicts me and helps me to be repulsed by my sin, and want to break free from it. That was a very long way to say – I am a follower of [Messiah], a liver-for-Him, and I am human, so I fail as well.

In July of 2002, I married my dream-man. I met him while he was majoring in pastoral ministries at the local Christian college. While I saw his flaws, I also saw a happy, passionate man who seemed to love the Lord with everything in him. He was circuit preaching through the college, doing studies full-time and working a job as well. He seemed like a good provider, a stable man, and a devoted follower of Jesus.

Things changed soon after we were married. He started becoming hostile. He walked away from college and the church. He dropped all our friends, who were lovingly calling him on sin in his life and trying to encourage him to live a pure life. He began using drugs about a year after we were married.

For the last three years of my marriage, my husband was barely ever around. He would stay out until 3 am, sleep a little and leave before I woke up. He did not provide much at all financially. He ate the food I cooked and slept in my bed, but really, he was like having a roommate. When I asked him where he was and if he was okay, he told me it was none of my business and to leave him alone. I lived like a single woman for just over 3 years while I was still married. (For the first time tonight I saw the widow-Scripture page and noted 2 Samuel 20:3 in a new way – it fit what I was living, that is for sure.) It certainly was not my choice. I did everything I could to serve him and love him, and nothing I did ever seemed to please him.

In mid-September 2009, I found out my husband had been using drugs. Again. I thought he had been clean for the last several years. It was probably the 6th time I caught him in the almost 8 years we were married. I know he used many more times than the 6 that I caught him, though. I told him he had two weeks to find a place, hopefully rehab. I told him that I was not divorcing him, that when he was clean, I would be waiting, even if it was 20 years down the road. I asked him not to make me wait that long, but I would. I made it clear that I was not tolerating the substance abuse any more.

In early October 2009, he moved out. We “parted” fairly friendly. On my daughter’s birthday in late October, we went out to the movies as a family and spent the day together. We were working towards reconciliation, I believed. Since that time, so many things have been revealed and have changed that we have since divorced.

You can read more about Jess’s struggles and victories on her blog, D.A.I.L.Y.. If you are looking for quality natural products for your home, please check out the products at Titus Keepers to see if they fit your natural needs.

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Tags: blogs, Gunning Family, home business, Meet the Family, single mom, Titus 2

Mrs. Brass and Family

April 28, 2010 by MrsBrass
Filed under Meet the Families, Recent Posts

5 Comments

My name is Denise Brass.
I am a widow.
My husbands name was George Brass IV.
My Boys are Isaac 9, Isaiah 7, Benjamin 4 and Simeon 2
Fave Scripture: Psalm 143:7-8
I do not work outside the home.

MY STORY

In July of 09 my husband started have some diarrhea. Of course he had never been sick a day in his life so he just figured that’s all it was. It went on for about 2 months, and when it became pretty painful we went into the ER. It was there they told us he had a tumor in his rectum and they could also see from the cat scan some lesions on his liver. They admitted him on October 9, 09. They ran a world of tests, and on Oct. 13 we met with the team of Dr.s that had been assigned to him. Of course it was my absolute worse nightmare come true. And even as I write this I want to just scream at the top of my voice, and honestly I still cant believe that he is gone!

He was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer which had spread to his liver. He also had some blot clots in his legs and one of them had gone up into his lung. There was really nothing they could do. They couldn’t put him on blood thinners for the clot because that could have caused him to bleed to death. They had reluctantly considered doing a colostomy but were afraid more clots would released or his other one would travel, and the same with chemo- they were afraid of bleeding out from the tumor. I felt like every door was just slammed shut, and I spent a lot of my days on my face on the floor in the hospital bathrooms pretty much begging my Father for the life of my husband, the father of our boys.

We came home after about a week of being there and his pain was not being managed so we ended back in the ER a week later and when they did another cat scan they said the cancer had also spread to his stomach and lungs. UH!!! So he asked me what i wanted to do and I said I wanted him home with me- not in the hospital- until God either healed Him or took him home. So thats what we did; we left him in God’s hands. ( that was around Oct. 27) So i spent the next days just loving him. He was pretty medicated on morphine so he would sleep a lot. I would just wake him and tell him what a great man he is and have him tell me that he loved me. I would lay my head in his neck and just smell him and just try be as close to him as I could.

He woke a few days later and his eyes were yellow and I just knew it wouldn’t be long. But still I was hanging on to Jesus, fervently praying for my husband’s life. I can see now looking back how God wrapped his life up. Everyone in his family and all those who loved him had come to visit him, sing praises to the Lord with him, pray with him and tell him they loved him. Who gets that? He went home to heaven Nov. 6, 09 at 11:20 pm. He died in my arms with me loving on him until there wasn’t a breath left in his body. I miss him greatly- we all do. Sometimes he would have a really “awake” moment even though he was on so much morphine. One time i was losing it and he called me over to him because he said he wanted to help me.

He hugged me and told me “Honey, you have to remember Jesus. You need to include him in to the situation. He is here to help us, don’t forget to include Him.”

And that’s what I do every day now and He has been faithful to help!

Contribute to Denise Brass and Family

Please support Mrs. Brass and her little guys as much as you are able. Even a few dollars helps. Every dollar helps. You can read about her journey and life at Passing Through the Valley of Weeping and join the FaceBook page in support of her family at: Can we find 100,000 people to help a widow and her 4 boys save their home??

You can share the love and promote the Brass family on your blog or website by wearing their icon, linked to this site. Just copy the code and put it into a post or on your sidebar.

<a href="http://gleaningtheharvest.com/?p=1414" target="_blank"><img src="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/GleaningtheHarvest/BrassFam/brassfam.png" border="0" alt="Brass Family Icon" /></a>

GIVING TO THE FAMILIES

Support-donation widgets are located on the sidebars. Please give any amount you are able to. Even a few dollars are a big deal to the families. No amount is too small.

You can get your own ChipIn widget to support Mrs. Brass and her Boys by clicking on the COPY button on the widget. If you would like to use the widget – located in the sidebar, you may copy the code to use on your site. If you would like to design a different size or color of widget, then when it changes, you will click on the “More Options”. This will take you to a page you can customize your widget if you would like to. You can customize the widget for your website or blog.

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Tags: boys, Brass Family, fatherless, grief, husbands, Meet the Family, single mother, sons, trusting the LORD, widows

Stephanie’s Family

February 3, 2010 by Stephanie
Filed under Fund-raising Widgets, Meet the Families, Recent Posts

9 Comments

Please welcome a new family to Gleaning the Harvest! We have gotten to know Stephanie online, and we can see the fruit in her life as she is seeking Yahuveh and living for him. We hope you will consider giving of your harvest to Stephanie and her family.

Full Name: Stephanie Bateman
Marital Status: Divorced
Children: Samantha (17), Joseph (14), Thomas (12)
Favorite Bible Verse: Proverbs 3:5-6
“ Trust in ADONAI with all your heart; do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him; then he will level your paths.” ~CJB

Personal blog: http://livinglifeonhisterms.blogspot.com

Church Affiliation: No church at the moment. Studying the scriptures at home with the children.

Favorite websites: Jimmie’s Collage: http://jimmiescollage.com, Google Books:http://books.google.com, Down To Earth:http://down—to—earth.blogspot.com), Our Plain and Simple Life:http://plainhomesteading.blogspot.com, and of course the Dixon blogs

My Story

“ Trust in ADONAI with all your heart; do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him; then he will level your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 CJB

This is the verse on my blog, and one that I have tried to live by for a year or better now. In June of 2007, my second husband and I separated. It was my decision, and not one that came lightly. He had many issues from his past that made it very hard for our relationship to work. I sought out counseling, advice from my pastor, read books, begged for things to work.

Back then I was what I call a “fair-weather” Christian. I believed and followed Yahweh when it was convenient for me. If it didn’t suit my needs, I didn’t pay attention. I was far from a perfect wife, but I truly believe that despite my lack of attention to HIM, He was working on me all along. I used to be a very short tempered mom. It was easier to yell and be harsh, than to be calm and understanding. But through the changes I went through during the last few years of my marriage, I did just that….I became calm. I no longer yelled. It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but a long, deliberate process.

When I left my husband in June of 2007, I had a job working as a Licensed Nursing Assistant. It is a job I have always loved. I worked in that field when I was in my 20’s, before I married and had children. I adore the people I take care of, and this job was amazing. Rather than working in a nursing home, I was working for a private home health agency. One that provided many of their services for free to the elderly and handicapped, through private donations and state funding. People who desperately wanted to stay home, and not have to be placed somewhere in a facility could now do that. I loved being a part of this, and my patients made me smile every day.

Just a few short months after going out on my own as a single mother again, I was hurt at work. One of my daily patients, a man who had been suffering from MS for 15 years, kicked me in the shoulder. His leg had a muscle spasm, which it did often. Through no fault of his own, or my own, I was hurt. But the full effects of how injured I was, wouldn’t show up until the next day. I finished taking care of him, and did one more patient for the day. I hurt, but kept going. The next morning I woke up, and couldn’t move my arm from waist high. I was in excruciating pain. I went to the doctor that my employer said I needed to see, and they were great. They believed I had a torn bicep, so treated me for that.

A month later I was no better, so off to the orthopedic surgeon, who specialized in shoulders. In January of 2008 (3 months after the original injury), I went in for surgery. It was found out that I had crushed the end of my collar bone when I was kicked. During the surgery they removed nearly 1 inch of the bone on the end, and cleaned up underneath the bone, to free up the tendons, nerves, and ligaments that had been compressed this whole time. I began physical therapy a few short weeks later, but continued to have the horrible pain. Only it was becoming different. It hurt to touch my arm at all. My clothes hurt. I experienced numbness in my fingers. It was all so frustrating, not knowing why the surgery didn’t work, and I was actually getting worse.

A few months later I saw a physiatrist, who has turned out to be my greatest advocate. She did more tests than I care to count, and came to the final diagnosis. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I won’t give you the big long description, but if you would like to know more, you can visit this site: www.rsds.org.

Fast forward just over two years, and I am permanently disabled. My dominate hand and arm are affected on a daily basis. But the blessing that came from this injury is that I was able to go back to homeschooling my children. My daughter stayed in public school, but both of my boys are home with me. I am still involved in my daughter’s work as if she is still home me, overseeing her assignments, guiding her, etc.

I do also believe that something very amazing happened through these last few years. Yahweh let me try it on my own, getting through losing 3 apartments in 2 years, and having to deal with the workman’s compensation mess, and eventually ending up living with my parents at the age of 43. He was never very far away, just like a parent staying behind a wobbly toddler learning to walk. Yahweh was waiting for me to reach out for the support that He knew only He could give me. And I did reach out, and have never regretted it since. I still struggle with the frustration of my disorder, but with Yahweh and my children beside me, I know I will be just fine. We are now in our own apartment again, and working to become our “own” family again.

Currently, I have my own three children living with me as well as my step-daughter Nicolle, her husband Johnny, my grandson Saske (18 mos), and our new little girl, Sonja Rose.

Please share the word about the Stephanie and Family by wearing the “supporting” icon on your website or blog! Simply highlight the text below and copy/paste onto your site.

<!--   STEPHANIE'S FAMILY ICON   --><a href="http://gleaningtheharvest.com/?p=1320"><img src="http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww91/GleaningtheHarvest/Stephanie%20Family/Stephaniesfamilyicon.png" alt="" /></a>

You can get your own ChipIn widget to support Stephanie’s Family, located in the sidebar, by clicking on the COPY button on her widget. If you would like to use the widget displayed, you may copy the code to use on your site. If you would like to design a different size or color of widget, then when it changes, you will click on the “More Options”. This will take you to a page you can customize your widget if you would like to. . You can customize the widget for your website or blog. *please let us know if you experience problems using this ChipIn*

Tags: Announcements, ChipIn, daughters, home schooling, Meet the Family, single mother, Stephanie's Family