Thursday, October 12, 2006, 4:59pm

Below is an e-mail that was sent to my close family and friends back in 10/06. A friend of mine just found it and forwarded it on to me a few days ago. Have you ever gone back and re-read the places God has taken you? This was a good season of blessing among our fiery trial. It was so good to re-read where I was then and what I was experiencing. Hope it encourages you.

Thursday, October 12, 2006, 4:59 PM
Hey everyone... I am sending an update on our little Abby so that everyone is caught up at one time. Everything is pretty much the same physically with Abby since the last notice. Her seizures are becoming more intense, not the amount that she has, but the longevity of them and the pain that comes with them. She has been completely weaned off of all chemical medicine and is strictly on Manatech, which is the stuff that my aunt Maral sells. We continue to pray that God uses it to heal her.Well for the latest... I've come across some news of a drug called Sabril that is not approved by the FDA here in the USA. It is used to stop seizures in other countries and was discovered in France. There are a few M.D.'s that can get it here, but only for a pre-existing condition. Abby's O.T. said that she works with little guy here in Castle Rock that had a stroke and developed Hypsymarthia and that he was given Sabril in New York by a Orrin Divensky and has not had a seizure since! I promptly hopped on line got Dr. Orrin Divensky's information and emailed him. To make a long story short, we are going to New York December 2nd through the 9th. I can say nothing more than God is so good!!! And right now He is raining down on us His mercies and love. Only He could orchestrate what has taken place thus far and ALL the glory goes to Him! I just have to share the events that have taken place so you can comprehend what He has done for us. We have been trying to get a specific stroller for Abby and were denied by our insurance company even though it was approved by her O.T. and doctor. I was bummed because I don't ant an ugly heavy wheelchair and this stroller would have benefited her until age 4! Hang tight there is a point to this part.

Information of Sabril was provided about 2 weeks ago today, so two weeks ago I emailed Dr. Devinsky to see if there was anyone here in Colorado that could do the same that he could. He referred someone here in Denver, but we could not get in until sometime after January 2007! So, the next day I called him back and left a message asking if there was anyway we could see him sooner if we flew there. He called us back the next morning at 6am sharp and said he wanted to see Abby October 16th and that his office would contact us later that day. Time wise we couldn't make it happen that quickly with flights plans, figuring out who could care or Jacob & Joey, so they offered November 27th. We planned to leave then, but trying to find two round trip tickets to NY the weekend after Thanksgiving was a no go. I called Dr. Divenskys office and they told me to get tickets when I could and they would work around our schedule! Finally, we got the 1st available seats for our frequent flyer miles on December 2nd and surprise, we had enough. The next hurdle was immediately finding someone to come with me that I could trust and that could help with Abbs. I called Heidi Seidler, Abby's 1st nurse and she instantly said, "I am there! Thank you for asking because just yesterday I was crying before the Lord asking what my purpose was because I felt I was not being used and now you call and ask for my help! Isn't God good?" On that following Tuesday I was thinking again of the stroller. I called our insurance company and asked for a letter explaining why they denied the stroller because I was going to fax a copy to the CEO of Aetna. The very next day, bright and early in the morning I got a call telling me, that our case was re-submitted and approved. I asked why and she told me that they did not want me going to the CEO. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! This should teach us all perseverance and to push a little harder!!! She also mentioned that they would pay 80% and we would have to get the remainder 20%, but then we have Medicaid so they will pick up the 20% and we get our stroller just in time for our trip!!!! Praise God!

This one just about knocked me off my feet! Feeling just in awe about all this stuff that has taken place, a week later I received a phone call from someone that knew of our situation with Abby and trying to get to NY. He said that we wouldn't have to worry about the flights because a private jet was waiting to take her to New York! NO WAITS, NO SECURITY, NO GERMS, NO UNCOMFORTABLE SEATS, AND NO 5.5 HOURS TO FLY!!!!!! They will get us there in 3 hours and we get the red carpet treatment!!!! I CRIED LIKE A BABY!!!!! I could not believe what he had offered... this kinda stuff does not happen to us! Could you ever believe it? I just kept thinking wow the Lord this is just too much, why us!

Well that is it in a nutshell! I can't say enough how good God is in both the rainy and sunny seasons! I praise Him now for all the blessings that just fell from heaven and in the times that have been dark and lonely. His love is never ending, He seizes to uphold His own, sheltering, allowing trials to come for our own good, and forever holding us close to Him. How beautiful are the trying times! They challenge us, conform us, grow us up and make us face our fears head on. They show us what we are made of when the tuff times hit hard.

Do we stand up preserver and fight?
Do we cower and run?
Do we have faith and pray without ceasing?
Do we rage in anger?
Do we trust and run to Him?
Do we hide and withdrawal?
Do we fall on our faces and admit with humility that we can't make it on our own?
Do we read the Living Word?
Do we turn our backs and stay idol?

I admit I have done them all! The neat part that I am learning is that He loves me regardless of my actions that I don't have to do good in order to gain His approval. He is not a God that loves and blesses based off performance! He sees me through the veil of Christ, stainless washed with the blood of the lamb.... There is nothing that I can do that will change this and for that I am forever grateful! I choose to seek to be Christ like, yet I fail daily and even in the midst of my failure He is right there loving me and blessing me. I must admit I have struggled with that for such a long time. It's all around us; wherever we turn we must perform to get the prize, whatever that may be! We can't earn blessings! We can't earn our salvation, it's free! We can’t earn His love... He loved us first... How can one earn something that was given first? God continues to mold me and teach me, it's just wonderfully painful. Yes, that makes perfect sense because "training" no matter the course is never a walk in the park! As we walk through valley of training through perseverance we eventually reap the beauty from the mountaintop! Once at the mountaintop my soul longs for the valleys below because it is there God draws near... and the fellowship is sweet... and the battle of spirit warring against the flesh to reflect the image of Christ in all things rages on! We must not fear the valley! It is there we become perfected in Christ!

James 1: 1-3 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of you faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Romans 5:1-3 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith in the grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in hope, of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.

Thank you all who continue to pray for little Abby! May the Lord richly bless you through her little life, her ministry!

Tamara
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
but trust Him for His grace;
behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.