Listening To: Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
Obsessed with this Quote: "Decide that you want it more than you're afraid of it." - Bill Cosby
Q&A Tuesday: is going to be so fun. I'm getting questions about faith, favorite movies, guys who get manicures, publishing and writing, and various funnies. Keep 'em coming!
Can y'all handle some serious cuteness? Because Tommy is a DOLL.
Do you love that he's wielding a light-saber? :) Tommy is a brave little Jedi who frequently battles some serious health issues. You can read the full story of his condition on Ashley's blog. Next Tuesday (June 19th), Tommy will have heart surgery. His parents and friends are doing some fundraisers to help offset the expenses a massive surgery like that brings about. To help raise some money for Tommy, Ashley is giving away a bunch of awesome books to someone who makes a donation. (Any donation of $5 or more gets your name in the drawing.) A signed copy of my book, Paperdoll, is in the mix along with books by snazzy authors like CJ Darlington, Liz Johnson, and Stephanie Morrill. (The books are all going to the same winner. It's a swanky prize pack!) If you'd like to read more about it, and consider donating your week's Starbucks allowance to help Tommy, you can mosey on over to Ashley's blog.
Regardless of whether or not you're able to donate, I'd hope you'll consider a couple of other things.
Consideration #1: I've set the reminder on my phone for 8AM on Tuesday Morning so I can remember to pray for Tommy. My best friend, Melanie, is also having a serious operation that same morning. Will you consider praying for Tommy and Melanie on Tuesday morning, too? I would be so grateful!
Consideration #2: Will you let me know if/how I can pray for you? Regardless of what's going on in your wacky-world, I'd love to hear about it. (As always, you are welcome to comment anonymously.)
Thanks for being so darn awesome :)
I commented over at Ashley's before I came here. Tommy is my new favorite person :) Gotta love those eyes. I did a project on Noonan's syndrome for my Connecting class last trimester and the woman who Noonan syndrome is named after is really, truly amazing. And the stories on the website? Seriously indescribable. So many different people are affected by this disorder and some doctors still have no idea it even exists. So I'm glad it's going to get some attention in the next week, and praying all goes well with Tommy AND Melanie and God does something amazing through it all.
ReplyDeleteActually, Tuesday is a huge day for me as well. At noon 14 students and staff from my youth group including myself officially begin our mission trip to Haiti. We don't leave until 4 am on Wednesday, but we're spending a week living in very close quarters AND this is my very first overseas mission trip, so I for one won't get a whole lot of sleep that night. Oh, and my last day of school is tomorrow. Prayers for my algebra final(Which I'm supposed to be studying for right now) are also appreciated...
Thanks Natalie!
Prayed for you today, Alyssa! I remember my first trip overseas. My fear far outweighed my excitement. I wasn't freaked out about flying or anything, but I'd never been around so many people in such close proximity, so I was a real Piglet about it :) Praying your trip is absolutely wonderful, that you make memories you hold against your heart forever. And I'm praying for a drama free time with your youth group. I'm so excited for you! Please let me know how it goes!!
DeleteThank you for posting, Natalie. :-) I'll be sure to pray for Melanie on Tuesday as well!
ReplyDeleteI'll be praying for Tommy and Melanie on Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteMy aunt is very sick...she has been fighting a brain tumor ever since last November. Things have been getting steadily worse, and she likely only has a few days left, if that long. Please pray for her and her husband, children, and grandkids.
~Kristin
I was so sorry to read about your aunt's passing, Kristin. :( Still praying for you and your family through this time. Love you dearly.
DeleteThanks to everyone who is and will be praying for our awesome little man, Tommy!
ReplyDeleteKristin, we will add you and your family to our prayer list also.
Alyssa, thank you for your trip to Haiti, we will pray for you and your mission team.
Thomas and Jenny (Tommy's parents)
for sure, i'll definatly be praying for tommy and melanie.
ReplyDeleteyou could pray for me as i just got news last week that the medical tests i had sent out look really bad. from what we could find it may hint at me having a fatal condition, or liver failure or something equally as awful.
tuesday is also the day of my first exam (ahhh!) so i'll actually even be up by 8am!
Praying for you, Alisha! I know your final went great. I hate that you've had to wrangle with so much physical stuff this year. Praying for your health today. And totally overwhelmed by the way you keep shining and smiling through all of it. You're so awesome!
DeleteI will pray for the two of the all week. I also cannot wait until question Tuesday, I couldn't comeup with anything good but I'm still very excited.
ReplyDeleteLF
It should be hilarious. As you can see from Cat General down below, questions will be quite varied ... :)
DeleteI'll be praying for Tommy and Melanie this week!
ReplyDeleteQ&A Tuesday question - what is the best beard you have ever seen?
ReplyDeleteHey Natalie, thanks for sharing about Tommy and Melanie. I will definitely be praying for them on Tuesday. You asked what you could pray for me for. This summer I will be working at camp as a counsellor for five weeks straight. I am looking forward to it so much and I am so ready to minister to these kids and have fun with them. I'm also a little nervous/scared though, because I'm worried that by the end of the summer I will just be too tired to invest much in the kids I have in my cabin. Camp is also an emotional time for me because of all the late nights, early mornings, being surrounded by people who care about me, and just the radically different environment. Last September my dad died, and last summer was a mix of me asking God all sorts of questions and me watching my dad get sicker and sicker. I'm a little worried that this summer when I get to camp that I will be overwhelmed by, well, I don't know what, really. Sadness, maybe. If it's not too much trouble, I would like you to pray for strength and endurance this summer, as well as wisdom to deal with the campers and lots and lots of love to give them. Also that my relationship with God would grow stronger and that I would be able to get my campers to actually understand how much God loves them and how important He is. I think that's it. It's okay if you kind of condense this, because it's kind of a lot. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteKaty
It's never too much trouble! I'm honored to pray for you this summer. What a year you've had. The fact that you're still loving so hard even while you're grieving is incredible. I'll be praying for you this summer (and praying especially that you connect with someone else close to you for when the overwhelming moments come). Will you let me know how this summer goes?
DeleteI didn't read this until after Tuesday, but I'll keep them both in my prayers! You're so sweet to ask for prayer requests. I leave for a month long mission trip to South Africa in 10 days. I've been to Africa before on a similar trip and it really bothered me that I didn't feel more compassion for the hurting people I met there. I know you can't control how you feel, but I really want to see people the way God sees people. So I'd appreciate it if you could pray that I'd really have compassion and love toward the people we're ministering to and that I'd have a servants heart toward my teammates.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much :) Yeah, absolutely. I will email you in August and tell you how it went. Or just whenever I'm home in the middle.
ReplyDeleteKaty