Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Recently (Ok - it was last month, but for me that's recent.), I went and saw Miracles From Heaven with my mother-in-law.  It was a wonderful movie.  No one told me I should have brought an entire box of Kleenex, so I recommend one for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet.  At this point, you'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray. As I was driving to worship band practice with my daughter, she asked what the movie was about.  She really wanted to know, so I told her. It was a story about a family who had moved to the country - they bought a farm in Texas so the father could start a veterinarian practice.  There were three girls - I think they were about 13, 11, and 6 years old.  The middle child developed a serious digestive disorder that required a ton of medical treatment, and the mother did everything she could to make her little girl better.  Her little belly was so bloated that she couldn't wear normal clothes.  She had to ...

Six months ago, my parents-in-law packed up and moved out of their house, ready to begin retirement.  They were told they would be able to move into their newly built house by the end of summer.  The construction company was a bit off schedule, as September, October, and November passed by and the house still wasn't finished.  Finally, the weekend before Christmas, the house was ready! We loaded up the kids and headed over to help them move in.  My dear husband made multiple trips with a U-Haul truck for four days - loading, unloading, carrying.  We were so glad, so relieved that the time had finally come!  We wanted so badly for them to be in their house before Christmas. My husband recently shared a story during one of his sermons:  Growing up as a United Methodist pastor's kid, he moved from house to house fairly frequently, his father being assigned to a different church every several years.  When they'd pack up then set up house in t...