The Chijioke Life

Its Christmas Eve... a mini-mountain of beautifully wrapped gifts surround our tree -- they are the outpouring of blessings from two precious families who have adopted us in God's love and surrounded us with His presence through their sweetness, orchestrating a christmas miracle for our family. About a month ago, I sat staring at my bills and realized I couldn't fit christmas presents and birthday presents into my budget - 3 of my kiddos have christmas week birthdays and it always makes for a tight month, but, with my fluctuating work this past year our finances have been limping along and the piper was requiring payment! I did the math again and stared dismally at the numbers... then I felt the Spirit whisper, "...have you ASKED Me for help with this?" "well, no.. Lord, christmas presents seems like such a superfluous thing to PRAY about -- we truly have everything we NEED and its not like we won't survive if we have a small christmas -- we are so bles...

"Ok, are you SURE that is all we need? There is nothing else I need to grab? Because at this point, we are playing triage... If we don't have it, we don't need it!!" , this was phone call #5 from the already-crowded-at-8am-Walmart as I raced around grabbing last minute items for cookies & baked goods to make and give to the neighbors and friends for Christmas. As I did this, I was mentally going through checklists of to-dos...bills that must be paid, forms that must be faxed... I am a multi-tasking maniac (not necessarily to anyone's benefit) and this time of year, with the endless parties, "quick" runs to the stores and added pressures does not tend to bring out the best in people... For me, walking into a store from the middle of November through the end of December instantly puts me on edge, my heart beats a little faster and I start gritting my teeth... Heck, driving into the PARKING LOT makes my stomach acids start roiling!! LOL As I made my w...

Not really!! Just had a heart-stopper episode of frantic searching for a missing, deaf, 3yr old... Complete with running the block, kids searching the house, dragging the huge solar cover off the pool (wiped out on the ice with that one), searching all cars, frantic prayers, searching every closet, cupboard, bed, tossing every pile, feeling about to vomit as I called 911 after we couldn't find her ANYWHERE... Only to have my prayers answered when we found our sweet angel sound asleep in a toy box covered with a blanket..... She had hidden well!! Tears of utter relief and joy!!!! 911 operator chuckled when I started crying as I told her, "we found her and she is okay!!" #longest10minutesever #horrific #imdone #icedin #wrungout #needachiropractor #thankful #praisingGod The above was my post on my social network site yesterday.... I was babysitting my nieces & nephew and because of the ice storm we got in North Texas, ended up being alone with all 9 children (my ...