100 days!

When I do this check in deal online with Chantix, I am notified how many days since I have quit smoking. Yesterday was day 100! I am really happy about that; I feel like the poster girl for someone who is extoling the wonders of this drug but it really has been a Godsend, and I don't use that term lightly. I have wanted to quit for a long time but really felt like I was not willing to give up the "pleasure" of smoking. ( I know. That sounds horrible, but I loved to smoke and loved the stress relief I thought I felt.) What I hated was the cover-up of gum, perfume, Fabreeze to make it seem like I was not smoking. Oh, the tangled web we weave. Well, hooray for Chantix because this medication blocks the nicotine "pleasure" receptors and I have come to know I don't need cigarettes to de-stress, self medicate, etc. Is it too tacky to announce that quitting smoking is my Christmas gift to the family? :)



Really all the above is small potatoes (what a funny term!) to the bigger, better news. One of the ladies at my Grief Support table has made the big decision to get baptized along with her daughter next week at Willow. I am elated because this lady struggled deeply after the death of her son six years ago. Now she has come to see the way to get through this is with Him. How great is that? And to top it off, Monday night after Grief Support I had volunteered to pick up Denver and Maya and Isaiah from Oasis and have them stay overnight with us since there was no school Tuesday. Oasis had been teaching about forgiveness and Maya had her little book she had been given. She was reading it from the backseat and is able to read many of the words, including "ask". All of a sudden she says, "I want to ask Jesus into my heart." So as I am driving, she prays her childlike prayer, thanking God and asking to forgive any bad things she has done and asks God into her heart. Wow! What a moment. Denver had already told us he did this last year the day before his birthday. So to top it off, Isaiah has been listening to all this and says he wants to pray too but doesn't know how. Denver and Maya both say, "We'll help you." and they do. We all got into that car that night with some of us knowing we will be in heaven someday and we all got out with me knowing all of us will be in heaven someday.