What I would not give to sit on the front porch of a farmhouse for an afternoon and chat with two of my writing hereos...Stormie Omartian and Ann Voskamp. I might actually have to meet with them one at a time, that two totally different writing styles and life circumstances could touch my heart in such a life changing way. As I begin typing, I realize I will probably have to blog about them separately as well.
In 1979, when I was eight years old, Stormie Omartian had looked divorce in the eye, planted her feet in the ground and told the devil, "No, you do not get to have my marriage." In 2003, I would praise God for the fact that she decided to put pen to paper back in '79, or maybe she used a Smith Corona typewriter, but whatever her means of telling her story, the fact remains that the Yankee and I are happily (not perfectly) married today because she did.
Thirteen years after The Power of the Praying Wife was gifted to me, I still wear the pages out. Thirty different chapters of thirty different topics us wives can pray over our husband's lives (husbands, she has one for you too, so don't think you are left out of this). Sometimes I think, "Oh, my husband is doing great right now, he certainly does not fit in any one of these thirty categories for me to pray over." And then I have to check my logic. Prayer. We all need it all of the time. It's life. It's breath. It's fighting things we can't even see with our earthly baby blues or browns or greens, so who are we to judge that our precious husband's do not need it.
Precious, you say? Maybe right now you are thinking your husband or wife is just about the least precious thing you have been around in quite some time. Your marriage is grueling, it's as painful as natural childbirth, it brings an agony to your life that leaves you daydreaming about days spent alone with no one to answer to, no one to hit that last raw nerve that will push you over the edge. You feel powerless. I get it. I hear your story, because I lived your story. And in 2003, 24 years after she wrote the words, Stormie Omartian said to me, "We can fight for them in prayer and not give up, because as long as we are praying, there is hope. With God, nothing is ever as dead as it seems. Not even your own feelings." Do you know what I learned? A very harsh reality....she was right.
I wish I could invite all of you onto the front porch with us, those who think, "Oh, you don't know my situation though, it is different for me." Friend, if you could sit on that porch with me I would tell you all of the things The Yankee and I survived and what you are going through now is probably on the list, I can't guarantee that, but trust me when I tell you, the odds are pretty high. I have been told I should write a book or two...or six just based on our marriage alone. And as we rock in our old squeaky rocking chairs I would tell you the outpouring of blessing in not giving up. I would tell you that there is no perfection to be reached on this side of earth, but I would paint the picture of twenty five years spent with a man I love who loves me in return. I would speak of the outpouring of blessing I watch daily pour out over our children because of our decision to stay when the world told us to split. When all we wanted was to split.
The reality is, I left the land of farmhouses and rocking chairs on front porches. We now live an hours mileage away from one of the largest, craziest cities on God's precious earth. The reality is, I have never actually met Stormie Omartian, let alone had the privilege of rocking away a summer afternoon chatting with her on the front porch.. Another reality is, marriage is hard. But you probably already knew all of that. Maybe there is a reality you don't know....marriage is worth it. Don't miss out on the opportunity right here, right now, to stop reading and pray for your spouse. It will change their life......and yours.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Sickness, Severe Adrenal Fatigue & Slim
Who am I to second guess God? Maybe He needed to knock me off my prideful
high horse when it comes to my health. I
blame my Mamaw Fields, or maybe my Aunt Joretta Jewel, or maybe my Dad, they
were never sick, or if they were, you certainly didn’t know it. Once I had my first baby, realizations began
flying at me like never before. I needed
to take better care of myself for that sweet, precious baby girl, to set an
example for her. Once I came to know
Christ, I knew I needed to step it up further for this ONE body He blessed me
with was the only one He was going to allow me to have. So step it up I did, and, like my Mamaw, my
Aunt and my Dad before me, you would be hard-pressed to find me sick over the
last seventeen years.
About seven years ago I began having some dizzy spells. One night, late in the middle of the night
when we lived in the precious barn we loved so much, our daughter K woke me up
in the middle of the night and said “Mom, I have a nosebleed”. My Momma-bear instincts woke me up
immediately. I jumped out of bed and ran
up the stairs to her bathroom to help take care of her. As I helped with her bleeding nose, the room
swirled and down I went. Was that what
fainting felt like? I had never fainted
before so it all seemed so crazy to me.
The next day the doctors diagnosed me with anemia, not, “Here take these
iron pills and you will be ok” anemia, but the type that had them saying,
“Blood transfusions for eight weeks and you will be good as new” kind of
anemia. I guess this would be a good
point to tell you that I am pretty much against modern medicine for my own
family, so I was actually grateful that what I heard was pretty much a natural
solution and I would not have to take anything.
I did ok for the next couple of years, but then had to go to
my doctor for yet another issue. I was
forty. I exercised all the time, I ate
healthier than anyone I knew, and I was gaining weight like it was THE thing to
do!!!! And I guess THIS would be a good
time to tell you, I do not think I am fat.
So I don’t want anyone reading this going, “Oh yes, we know how hard it
must be to be a size four and gain 8 pounds!”
The problem actually has nothing to do with thoughts of being fat, it
has everything to do with being 5’1.
When you are 5’1 and you gain 8 pounds, you feel it…in your back, in
your knees, everywhere. So even though
your body doesn’t outwardly present any type of obesity, my body was saying to
me, “This hurts! Can’t you get rid of
it?”
So I asked my doctor, you know, the one that diagnosed me
with anemia. The reply? “Well, you know I have some bad news for you,
you are forty now. This is your
life.” I think I have written about this
before. That was the last day I ever saw
a conventional doctor. Instead I began
running tests on myself. I eliminated
foods and reintroduced them until I could tell what was causing me to gain
weight and what wasn’t. The culprits? Wheat and sugar. I could only have them in moderation, once or
twice a week, a special occasion maybe.
This in conjunction with limiting carbs and BOOM! Eight pounds gone AND I felt like a new
person to boot! Life was good.
Fast forward to a little less than a year ago when suddenly
just thinking about exercising would exhaust me, but I pushed my way through
anyway. A few months later I noticed
there was one day a month where I literally found it almost impossible to get
out of bed. I had to redo my already
strict diet just to stay at 132 pounds.
I felt like day in and day out, all I ever could think about was what I
put in my mouth, how much I exercised, and how completely exhausted I was. Did I mention I don’t nap? My mom says I never did (lucky for her I was
a well – behaved child otherwise that whole no nap thing could have been rough
on her!). So any day that I would lay
down and sleep for twenty minutes, I would be super worried in the back of my
mind that something was wrong.
Then we moved. And a
day and a half after we moved my husband had to go back overseas. New state, new town, we only know our two
dear friends thirty minutes away. No family, no friends. Just me and the kids, day in and day out,
doing the best we could. And with each
passing day, my fatigue grew and grew and grew.
Now instead of that one day a month that it was difficult to get out of
bed, well, now I just couldn’t get out of bed that day period. When it was that time of the month, I
realized it was taking my body at least a week to recover, then I would have a
week of feeling great, and then by the next week my body was already feeling
weak again as it began to start the process all over again.
I closed my eyes, threw a dart at the listings on the
internet and randomly picked a holistic doctor to try. Ok, ok, let’s be honest,
I picked him because his competition was charging $400 an hour and he was
charging $65. I hit the jackpot! Dr. John Cassone in Old Town for any of you locals reading this! He listened to me for a half an hour and said
“Severe Adrenal Fatigue”. So let’s back
up, that anemia I had, it probably wasn’t really anemia, but the very
beginnings of my adrenal fatigue. Back
then, I probably had what was considered mild adrenal fatigue. Let’s hit rewind again..that impossible
weight gain despite the healthy eating and exercise? Moderate Adrenal Fatigue, the next step up, where your body can not handle wheat and sugar. But since it went five more years undetected,
it has now hit the Severe stage. Don’t
get me wrong, that sounds bad. Severe
Adrenal Fatigue is not serious so much as it is a royal, royal pain in the butt. It’s a daily annoyance like a mosquito
buzzing around that you just can’t find to kill. It’s the frustration of not being able to get
out of the chair when you know your house needs cleaned and dinner needs
cooked. Praise GOD that my kids are
older and can semi-take care of themselves, though I take a lot of pleasure in
doing things for them, being there mom while they are still here for me TO BE
their mom.
So Doc has me on supplements, plant based supplements. No conventional medicine for this gal. I am actually allergic to most fillers that pharmaceutical
companies put in medicines anyway, so I am more than happy to go the holistic
route. He does acupuncture every week,
and this past week, he realized I was actually much worse off than he thought,
so he mixed up the nastiest herb concoction you have EVER tasted, and I take nine
teaspoons a day with one and a half cups of bone broth. It is truly, truly nasty. A conventional pill would be easier, quicker,
less painful to my taste buds, but it would only do what modern medicine does,
treat the symptoms. Doc is treating the
cause.
I also found this great product that is apparently known for
treating adrenal fatigue (and many other issues)and all of the problems that come with it. It’s called Plexus . I researched them before I began taking them
and they seem like a fabulous Christian based company and this is holistic in
nature as well. To be fair, I had begun
Doc’s concoctions about twelve days before I began Plexus and only seen little
results each day. I am now five days
into the Plexus and for the past two days I have felt like a normal person for
the first seven hours of the day before I hit the wall I would normally hit at
9 am! It is so wonderful to feel so much
hope!!!! Don’t be fooled by the “SLIM”
on the package. I can’t stress enough
that I am NOT taking this as a weight loss product. There are multiple, multiple benefits from
taking this and I will get into all of that on future blogs! Until then, feel free to look at all the
different things they have available.
It’s a pretty interesting company and I know I feel better already. I am so excited to see what the next few
weeks bring! If it happens to bring
weight loss as a side effect, I will be thrilled with that because I would
really like to get out of my older jeans and back into fitting into my
daughters! Lol!!! But I just want to feel better, and so far this is helping more than anything!
So I will be updating you on this journey as it goes
along. Until then, I would love to hear
from any of you that have been diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue. I feel so alone on this journey, like it is
an excuse if I call someone and say “I can’t meet you today because I am too
tired to move”. I would also appreciate
your prayers, like I said, I know this isn’t a serious disease or anything, but
if you know me, you know I like to go, go, go and this has hit me like a brick
wall. My comments are hit or miss on
this page, you can try to leave one, however if it isn’t working for some
reason feel free to message me on Facebook or at missylampert@hotmail.com! I would love to hear from others suffering
from adrenal fatigue!
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Fifteen Months of Living
I feel a bit like Adele starting out this blog, “Hello….it’s
me…” Life is swift and sudden and, I
have found after all of these years, often gets in the way of my fingers
hitting the keyboard to put into words what God puts on my heart.
A year plus has slipped by now since I have written, and,
though I am pleased to report I did not just let a year slip by doing nothing
and putting my dream of writing aside, still, I wish I had not stopped for such
a long period of time, but life happened in a pretty major way over the last
fifteen months or so.
To begin with, my husband sat me down last summer while home
on leave. We were having a beautiful
dinner at Food and Friends when he looked squarely at me and
said, “Look, you talk about being a writer, you talk about saving marriages,
and you talk about having a wedding venue.
I support you no matter what you want to do, and maybe you can
eventually do all three, but right now you have to pick one and follow it.” I knew three things instantly. One, he was right (yeah, I used to have a
problem admitting that, but after twenty-five years, it comes pretty easily now,
I highly recommend trying it with your spouse!), two, my heart literally jumped
out of my chest at the phrase, “You want to save marriages”, and three, I knew
it was impossible to miss the gratitude I felt over those words, “I will
support you no matter what you want to do.”
I knew what I had to do.
The next day I applied to the Liberty University Masters in Marriage and
Family Therapy Program. I was accepted
and began my Master’s work immediately.
Blog? What blog? Did I even have a blog? Taking three Master’s courses per semester left
no time for writing simply for the sake of speaking from my own heart. There were weeks when I had to write three
papers per week and the last thing I wanted to do was grab my computer and
write even more!...so, that is part one.
Part two is probably more monumental, but I have to digress
a bit to get everyone up to date. Our
youngest child has always just felt like he belongs in California. We brought him to CA in previous years,
mainly to dissuade him from any thoughts of it.
We traveled the state from North to South so he could see the good the
bad and the ugly, including a trip where we easily could have lost our lives
when we accidentally exited the freeway in LA during rush hour in search of a
gas station. The first thing our son exclaimed from the back seat as we exited the freeway was, “Hey, I see two guys over there fighting with machetes”. Now, since this is not a common occurrence in
the Appalachian Mountains, we thought for sure that once we were back home, he would
have fully recovered his senses and see the joy in living where we were
living. Instead I noticed he seemed a
little sad one day upon returning home.
When I asked what was wrong he said, “I just wish we hadn’t come home
from vacation.” Whoa, parent fail
moment! We moved these kids to this
wonderful little town so they could experience something on the level of a Norman Rockwell childhood, but our son’s
visions of it were far from ideal. We
continued to encourage him that he could go to college wherever he wanted and
we would support his decision no matter what.
His decision? UCLA. Yikes! What if there are a lot of machete's there????
Which leads us to our daughter, the older of our two
kids. She immediately fell in love with
our little West Virginia town when we moved there from New England. We just knew she was going to be the one that
would grow up, fall in love with an awesome guy, buy a farm just outside of
town and stay there forever, she loved it THAT much. That is why her Daddy and I were so shocked
when she came to us one day during the beginning of her sophomore year and
said, “You know, I am with my brother, I think I want to go to CA for college
also.” I for one was in love with our
little town, so to think of leaving was really not much of an option, so I
began doing what I do best, planning.
West Virginia University was known to have an awesome Fashion Design
program, so I told our daughter, “Why don’t you plan on going there for your
first two years, then you and your brother travel to CA together when it is
time to go to UCLA, that way your Dad and I will feel better knowing you guys
are out there together, then we will consider whether we want to come live out
there when you guys graduate.”
West Virginia has an unexplainable way of literally becoming just as much a part of ones heart as the blood that flows through it, so I had zero desire to leave, but I knew it wasn’t
likely to happen. After four years in
LA, I imagined our kids would welcome the chance to come back to a quiet,
simple life in the mountains. But isn’t
it funny that we even plan as humans?
Am I the only one that does this? When we serve a mighty Heavenly Father who already has it all worked
out, but we just sit here on earth and plan and plan and plan like we are in
charge, digging our feet in the mud, convinced our plans are better than His! Well, I had it all figured out in my head,
but on December 14th, 2015 He would literally show us His plan and begin to teach me to let go.
Our daughter, who has the most spiritual heart of any child
I have ever met, came to me on the morning of December 14th and
said, “Mom, God told me we are supposed to go to CA now.” Now remember, this is our child who loved
where we lived! Luckily, The Yankee was
home on leave so I said to her, “Well, take Dad on your walk with you when you
walk your dog. You guys talk about it
and let’s see what comes of it.” About
thirty minutes later they returned from their walk and the Yankee called a
family meeting. “So, God told K we need
to move to CA,” he looked at our son, “What do you think of that?” Our son replied, “I wish we were already
there.” He looked at me, “Mom, what do
you think?” I replied, “I trust K’s
heart, if God told her that then He told her that for a reason and we should
probably listen, what do you think Dad?”
“I THINK WE ARE MOVING TO CALIFORNIA”, he replied. And just like that, our new life began. (Just FYI, that tends to be the way we roll!)
We have had a lot of people question our decision, but those
are thoughts for another blog. We began
the moving process on December 15th, getting our house in order in
WV, trying and failing to sell it and then God providing the PERFECT renters
for us. And on May 31st,
after help from some very dear friends loading up an excessively large moving
van, we sat off, a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies, two Jeeps, a hound dog,
and a mutt from Wyoming County, off to see what God had in store for us in our
new home outside of LA. I prayed it wasn’t
machete wielding strangers on the side of the road!
So now that we have been here for a few months, we are
getting settled in. I had to begin a new
Master’s program with a new school because California did not accept most of my
classes from my old school. My health
has failed me a bit, which will also be another upcoming blog post, hard for me
to deal with because I have always taken great pride in how healthy I have
been. But school, and move and health
aside, I am writing again, for one, because my new Master's program is a tad less stressful than my old one, so I have a bit more time on my hands. I will soon
be switching my blog format to new website because I have a new business to
promote, so many changes, it makes my heart beat faster with anticipation just
thinking of it all, but for this week anyway, we will stay parked here at Hills
of Mercy, we do still have hills here, they are just a bit different, some of them even have a beach view!!!. Thanks for being so faithful
to always read my blog!!!
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