Wow & Thank You!

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Wow,  Thank You so much for your out pouring of love, support, prayers, and gifts.  I'm truly blessed!  When I wrote my blog I really just wanted to catch you all up on what has been going on with the Glidewells.  Many things didn't get documented like the skunk story. LOL  If you don't follow us on Face book then you probably don't know the story.  Just raise your hand and maybe I'll retell it.  :-)  Thank You again for the flowers, prayers, tea, herbs, & letters of encouragement.  You are so WONDERFUL!  I was amazed how each part of my blog met people in different areas that you all are struggling with. There's a scripture verse I think in 1 Thes. that says something about encouraging our brothers in Christ and all the more as we see the day approaching.  May we all encourage one another.

My blog reached national headlines with NTM!  Yup got called into the counselor office!  Reminded my of my school days. LOL  Guess they were worried about me and wanted to make sure I wasn't mental.  Well I am! JK  Its good to know your loved.  Thanks Millers!  I was so overjoyed that I personally got to use the Kleenex box in the office too. :-)

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Ace and I had a little family conference....  When we got married we took marriage classes, when we had babies we took pregnancy classes and birthing classes and family planning classes.  As our kids grew we took parenting classes.  I guess its time to find perimenopausal (I think I can almost spell it now) classes.

1.) Pray and ask the Lord to move me to the next trial. I'm ready to learn something new.

2.) Listen to everyone's stories - find I'm not alone

3.) Listen to Family Life - menopause series Guest speaker Lois Rabey, Very good 

4.) Order Lois Rabey's book Postcards from Menopause: Wishing I Weren't Here

5.) Make Dr. appt. to just check and make sure its menopause and not depression advice from family and friends. (I guess they think I'm to young, Thanks Mom for passing the gene of no grey hair until your in your 50's!)

6.) Recognize I'm going to have a melt down, SOS friends,  jump in bed with Kleenex box and cover my head with blanket.  (On good days its nice to laugh about it all isn't it?)

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So the question is, what was God thinking when it comes to perimenopause? Or, does it fall under the category of pain in labor when Eve sinned?

Coming Back to Blog Land!

Standing at The Lowell House what we thought would be our last time ever.

 I've decided its time to blog again that is if I have anymore friends out there who will listen.  Big Smile.  Its been a roller coaster ride since I last blogged.  That is why I stopped, I was going on a ride that God is still taking me on.  We last left off with that crazy house in Lowell.  We tried selling it in summer of 2010 and gave it our all.  Then it flooded a week after the showing.  Insurance covered a huge chunk of it but there was the deductible that took every last dime we had.  No sell, No renters, No money, No Mortgage payment!  We started a road we never thought we would take and found out how nasty Mortgage company's can be.    Lots of notices in the mail, lots of long frustrated phone calls.  Our house went into foreclosure and a few days before it did a few generous givers gave us just enough money to redeem the house.  It was a hard decision to make whether we wanted to give the house to the bank and keep the funds that was given to us or did we want to redeem ourselves and keep a house that eats our income and causes us such heartache?  We choose the harder rout knowing it was what God would want us to do.

Through a FB plea we found renters who moved in a month after the foreclosure episode.  God continues to be good!  Our renters are wonderful and are a christian couple.  Praise The Lord!

Telling the kids were having a baby!

During the whole foreclosure  episode we announced to our children we were going to have a baby!!!!  :-)  This announcement was made near the end of November.  In December we delivered Gabriel Joy Glidewell (into the arms of Jesus). Dec. 17th at 20 week Gestation.  It was a very sad day.  I delivered at home and lost a lot of blood.  After going to the Dr. in Jan. my test results showed I was very close to needing a blood transfusion.  I have a very, very strong faith that God will take me home when he is ready to take me home.  I guess it wasn't my time.  Ace should have been a Dr. he was sooo wonderful during this time. He was my nurse, Dr., comforter, & took my place in the family with kids and homemaking.

Glidewell Baby #11

So here is the surprise!  In Feb,  I just wasn't getting better from my miscarriage in Dec.,  because we were pregnant!  I cried at this ultrasound watching little baby wiggle and heart-beating.  We got pregnant with this little G the week after we lost Gabriel.  We carried this baby again 20 weeks and lost him/her  we were so very, very, very sad we didn't want to tell anyone we couldn't bear it.  Because of my anemia and low blood count we scheduled a D&C.  It was so very hard for me not knowing what our little-one was going to be.  But God knows so I left Him to name him or her.

Refrigerator number 2

We went through 3 frig's during that same time of loosing Baby G. They all belong to NTMA.  The last one they had to offer us was a small family frig so we are snug.  I'm praying that God would bless us with a bigger frig so we have room to put a week's supply of food and not 3 days. 

Currently, Ang is walkin thru the Desert.

For the past year and a half I've been living in the desert with God not just in AZ. but in my spiritual life.  When I open Gods Word to read it I cry, or it's word's are meaningless to me.  Its like my ears are sealed shut.  I pray to Him and it feels like He's not there.  Have you lived in the Desert?  I have a wonderful series that I bought from Nancy Leigh Demoss on living in the Desert.  I listened to one lesson and our CD player broke.  After listening to the first CD I think of the Israelites in the desert and I wonder how long will my spiritual life be in the desert. 

I am also dealing with Perimenopause.   My Mom went through this and from my perspective it wasn't that difficult, she didn't even take drugs.  What I'm finding out is its very rough!  Lots of suicidal thoughts, tears, feelings of hate, feeling of not being loved, feeling angry.  Friends have encouraged me to take natural progesterone and drink soy milk.  I've noticed a difference, but I still have some very low times.  At the same time the three oldest are going through teen mood swings & puberty.  Lots of fun in the Glidewell home.

Siding, Gas, Electric, Heating & bathtubs are being installed these past couple of weeks.

NTMA is replacing all there trailer homes with stick homes.  We are the next family to receive the next stick house.  They have given us a  lot of freedoms to choose with boundaries.  This freedom comes with mixed emotions as its difficult to make choices that will effect others who may live in the house.  The process building has been a long one because it's based on finances and volunteer help.  We are looking forward to more space.  But, when it comes down to it we would much rather live off campus so we can have a pet.

 Something we would love to have is a small dog.  However, NTMA has a policy of No pets inside the home.  We are a pets inside family and even more when its hot outside with snakes, large birds, and coyotes who eat small pets.  We would love to move off campus so our family could enjoy a pet.  Please pray for us as this tends to be more of a need than a want.  Many times my Perimenopause emotions are set off by the need of a pet.  A missionary told me their pet brought a lot of healing to their family and I think the same would happen here in the G fam.

On the Ministry side it has been a long wait but we are seeing progress.  NTMA was organized by a committee, that committee was not working out.  Last summer we were told by NTM HQ that NTMA would be downsizing, nobody was sure what was meant by that information, so we waited, and waited, and waited.  While we waited for HQ to deal with some hard issues involving Grace and MK abuse in the 80's & 90's.  Finally, they were able to make a trip to NTMA and a NTMA Board was formed and the NTMA Committee no longer exist.  We were pleased to see most of the changes that have taken place.  During that waiting we were wondering if this was the place God had called us to be?  Ace is a gifted man and he has many former students and friends who call him up often asking him to come work at their airport.  So lots of options were available and believe me I was rooting for other options.  Its not pleasant living on a missionary income and we would love to have a pet in our home.   Ace didn't have peace about leaving NTMA  God is still calling him to stay here.  

This is just a few of  many Glidewell Adventures you've missed out on while I've not been blogging.  Hopefully, I can set a New Year Resolution to do some more Blogging!

Closing with a prayer to God

Dear God thank you so much for loving us even when we are in the desert!  Please help  any of my friends who are in the desert spiritually may they learn what they need to quickly so they can press on for your name.  If any of my friends are going through Perimemopause wrap your loving arms around them and give them a big squeeze.  Give their families wisdom on how to be there for them.  I pray that they wont do any thing stupid like commit suicide or kill anyone and I say that with all seriousness.  (I know you laughed!)  Lord PLEASE please help me to be content!  Content with our measly income, content with not having the right frig, content with not having a dinning table that can seat just our own family, content with the house we live in, content with not having a family pet.  Every time I think of my needs I think of the poor people in other countries that don't have electricity, kitchens to put their kitchen tables in and the list of all the other things they don't have that I'm so rich in.  Help everyone to remember its all about people and saving them from the awful fiery eternity.  

We Love you God!  

Amen

One Last Hurrah in MI., Florida, & Travels

     Ang's Parents are very creative and want to make memories every moment they can get.  When it came closer to our departure they kept thinking of one more thing to do.  One event that we miss out on is Homemade Chinese which is made every New Years Day.  It is an all day project with all the chopping and preparing.  So we had to make Chinese before we left.

Papa sitting at the table surrounded with all his grand babies and lots of egg-rolls

Ang's Sister thought it would be a fun summer project for the kids to tie-dye T shirts.  So while Ang was packing like crazy the kids were having some fun.

Everyone sporting their new shirts

Traveling to Florida we got a flat trailer tire it even blew off the fender of the trailer.  We were in Indiana on a piece of Highway that had a lot of tire carnage so much so, that it was impossible to drive around it.  We were not surprised that we joined the many who lost their tires.  We were thinking something must have been on the road.

We found a Wal-mart 21 miles away who had a tire and tools we could use but they wouldn't do the work.  Ace changed the tire and we were off.

Arriving in Florida we were flagged down by friends who told us the family we were going to for dinner had just been in a car accident and they are now being taken to the hospital.  Two children were thrown from the vehicle.  We immediately went into prayer mode and wondered if we arrived in time for a funeral.

The accident scene.  They rolled the car a few times and went thru two fences!

We were soooo thankful that there was no funeral and God spared all their lives.  You can read about their accident on their blog here.

Florida bugs which I DO NOT! miss

Florida was a short visit and so wish we could spend more time visiting everyone.  But I think we were at the end of our social capabilities and very anxious to get home.  You know you've traveled to long when your nesting instincts become active every time you enter someone's home.  LOL

Back on the road again Sam & Cherry camping out

We had to stop a the Biggest rest stop in Texas.  Anyone else been there?  I had to take this picture because I thought of my sister Becky who we call Bucky.  Nice bathroom facilities by the way; the only one the whole trip.

Celebrating 2 more Birthdays

      Ace and Aurora share the same Birthday.  This year Ace turned the Big 40 and I wanted to do something special with him and hoping his parents would be able to participate.  This was very hard to accomplish because I wanted it to be a surprise but Ace held the schedule to everything we were doing.  Soooo, My brother in law wanted to take the family out bowling and I took the opportunity and asked if we could make it a combined thing so we went ahead and all worked it out.

The Banner Tow Cake

Ace helping nephew Gibby with bowling

Opening all the homemade cards & gifts all the little people made.  My mom who is standing there, her love language is gift giving and she does a good job teaching her grandchildren this love language.  This year she was teaching all her grand children how to make cards not any card but Iris folded cards.  If you don't know what Iris folded cards are you can do a Google image search.

Celebrating Aurora's Birthday the next day

After cake ice cream and opening presents we went and did sparklers in the backyard these were given to us in Arizona but with it being so dry there I get so nervous doing fireworks so we brought them with us.

Cherry didn't care about the sparklers she rather try on shoes

Very smoky Sparklers

I was wondering what the neighbors were thinking about all that smoke.  We had a good time celebrating all our Birthdays and had sooo much fun.  Now this Mamma gives the clear that we can leave Michigan and head back to Arizona.  My one wish was to celebrate our birthdays with the family and my wish was granted.

Tradgedy Strikes The Lowell Home

UGH!

     Can life at the Lowell Home get any worse?  After our trip to PA. we decided to close up our home in Lowell and wait to see what the Lord had in store for it.  When Ace went to winterize our home and turn off utilities he opened the door to hear water trickling.  Not a good sound to hear.  Ace walked into the house with 2 1/2 inches water on the floor.  He spent a good deal of time cleaning it up thinking that was all that needed to be done.  However, when bringing me to the scene I told Ace there is no way we could leave and go back to Arizona and leave the house this way.  There was mold growing between the floor boards and I knew it was just going to get worse.  The damage was a lot bigger than Ace had thought.

You can see the mold seeping through the cracks that only means that there is moisture under it.

We took the end trim off and saw standing water.

After talking it over we decided to check with insurance to see if this would be covered we were pretty sure that it wouldn't be covered but we had to check.

After checking with Insurance we discovered it was covered after a $1,000 dollar deductible and that wasn't really something we had but God knew that.  

We hired our friends who helped us with prepping our home to sell it.  We figured who would better know our home and care for it like we would.  When they looked into all that needed doing we discovered what had happened.  A pipe in the bathroom wall had rusted out and gave in.  It then filled the wall with water until that gave out flooding 5 rooms.  The drywall soaked up a lot of the water.  Needless to say the damage was more than $1,000 and the insurance kicked in.

This is the bathroom where the pipe broke.  The cabinets were trashed as they were made out of particle boards.

James 1: 2-4

July 4th Weekend

We came back to Michigan to close up our home in Lowell for the winter since it didn't sell and celebrate three Birthdays with family before we headed back to Arizona.

Nana made the cousins matching 4th of July outfits.

Visited Lake Michigan which is missed dearly in the Hot state of Arizona.  I laughed when I heard my Hygienist say Arizona has a lot of lakes.  Hmmm  maybe there are some up North in AZ.

I think she liked the sand.

After wards Ice cream

 Ang's parents were overflowing with fun activities that they could do with their visit with their children and grandchildren.  One was eat dessert in the dark on their back porch for Ang's Birthday.  Set the mood with Kenny G playing on their deck speakers.  Turn on the Christmas lights on the pergola.  Serve Ice cream and cookies and enjoy each others company.

Everyone enjoying their dessert

Opening presents from my children

It was soooo nice to be with my parents for my Birthday.  It was my one request for our whole trip was to be able to be home for my Birthday.  

Thanks Family!

Jershey Shore, PA WAYUMI

We said we needed some R&R and that is just what we did at the New Tribes Wayumi retreat center.

Ace's Dad's side of the family comes from Lancaster, PA. and next door to Lancaster is Jersey Shore.  We have heard soooo much about Jersey Shore from all our instructors and the the older staff with NTM  they all have so many fond memories of their days in training there.  This is where NTMA started too.  So since it was so close to family and our desire to visit history we decided to see the place.

Did I mention to you that Jersey Shore NTM training moved to Missouri?  NTM was going to sell the property in PA.  but someone game up with a really great idea and Ace and I agree.  Its called Wayumi and its a retreat center for your church, your youth group,  your Sunday School class,  Your home group, Bible study group, Home school group you name it.  They just need a minimum of 25 participants.

 The room we stayed in.

This was the main living room with small couch, table & chairs, and two bunk beds.  This room had three bedrooms off from it each having a dresser, chair, and bunk bed.  
Bathrooms were down the hall.

Having some relaxing evening fun.

We took a hike up to Jungle Camp.

Everyone trying out a hammock up in Jungle Camp.

Some of our findings up in Jungle Camp

A birds nest in the ladies bathroom.

Was wondering which of our colleagues carved this back in the day.

Now for a nature walk, the family saw a bear but I wasn't with them so no pictures.

There was a group of teens there for a retreat and we got to see them in action.  Here they are getting the international airport experience.

After the teens had the International airport experience they got to experience  immigration.

Ace and I had so much fun just watching them that we wanted to participate too.  This place is not just for those wanting to be missionaries but for those who support missions too.