Good News and Bad News

I'll start with the good news: five years ago when I finished grad school, I moved back home to Brandon, MS to start my first job in the "real world". It was then that I also started attending Pinelake Church with the encouragement of my best friend, Amy. We joined a small group together and I had the opportunity to meet some great girls and get plugged in quickly. I almost felt guilty for enjoying my experience at Pinelake so much because my parents were in the middle of making the difficult decision to leave the church where we had been members for 20+ years prior. They began to search for a new church home but didn't have much luck. I invited them to Pinelake but initially they thought it was too big for them. They visited several churches in our area but never felt at home. For the past three years, they've attended Pinelake faithfully each week and I'm so excited that this past weekend they joined! They - as well as my brother - are excited about getting involved and making some new friends. This is a picture of Bart and my parents (Carla and Bruce) at Christmas.









The bad news is that I found out a couple of weeks ago that a sweet friend of mine, Cheryl, has a brain tumor. Cheryl and I work for the same company - she in Orlando and I in Atlanta. I actually met her several years ago when we worked together at a different company (sorry if that's confusing). She had surgery to remove the tumor and the pathology report confirmed that it was cancer. She will start combined chemo and radiation treatments next Tuesday, February 24th. I spoke to Cheryl Friday evening (2/13), and she was such an encouragement to me. She talked about how she was so thankful that God allowed her to have this tumor because for the first time in her life, she was living. I thought about how strong she must be to be thankful for cancer. Would I be thankful for it if I was in her position? Cheryl has a daughter my age and I just kept thinking about how often I take my parents for granted. Please keep Cheryl Gray and her family in your prayers.

My sweet Mom had surgery this morning, but my Dad called a little while ago to tell me she was in recovery and that she did great! I know she'll be glad to go home and get settled later today.

I guess that's all of my news for now. Hope you have a great day!