"It's a thrilling tale, I wish to do it justice."

That quote may not jump out at you but it sort of hits home for all that my Mom is going through right now with her hand. If anyone is a Harry Potter fan then you'll start to figure out where I am headed. Especially since Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince opened last Wednesday. I saw it at midnight on the 14th and let me tell you that it's much harder to wake up for work the next day after a 3 hour movie.

But I digress...If you have any of Harry Potter knowledge then this will simply be a review, if you are completely in the dark then I'll try to give you the short synopsis. In book six we find Harry and his friends on the edge of a raging war between good and evil. Dumbledore is oddly absent for most of book five and when he returns his hand is blackened and withered. Harry asks Dumbledore five different times what happened to his sickly, injured hand. Most of Dumbledore's responses are simply to brush the question aside as there are more important matters to discuss. (In the movie we never really hear the answer but pick up book six to hear part of the tale!)

Needless to say finally Dumbledore tells a brief story. Some background knowledge is necessary for all you Muggles who have not yet read the series but in order to destroy Voldermort (the most evil wizard of all) we have to find all 7 Horcrux that contain a piece of his soul. In book two Harry found and destroyed one without knowing and now in book six Dumbledore found another- a ring! The passage can be found on page 503 and is as follows:

"You are forgetting...you have already destroyed one of them. And I have destroyed another."
"You have?" said Harry eagerly.
"Yes, indeed," said Dumbledore, and he raised his blackened, burned-looking hand. "The ring, Harry. Marvolo's ring. And a terrible curse there was upon it too. Had it not been -- forgive me the lack of seemly modesty -- for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldemort's soul. The ring is no longer a Horcrux."

I think the part that I enjoy and relate too currently is - "However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Voldermort's soul."
If we stretch this analogy to my Mom's own hand I would say the same thing-"However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for the potential of possibly losing her or my Dad for good."

Sometimes I get too overwhelmed with the negatives from this occurrence in my life but to then see that the accident could have potentially taken my parents away from me for good then I say we came out okay if we are dealing with a permanently withered hand. Of course it's not my hand it's hers and it's her decision whether or not she wants to have surgery but I love that withered hand if it's a reminder that she escaped something much worse!

I think the Bible even speaks of this a little too:
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 (New International Version)
54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."[a]
55"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"[b]


And who said Harry Potter didn't have a spiritual element? Huh? That's what I thought naysayers!

Dumbledore's hand is cut off in this photo but you get the idea-see the movie if you are still struggling for a visual.

Update on My Mom

I have an update on My Mom from the orthopedic. Please pray with us as My Mom decides what to do next for her right hand. She has been wearing splints on her 3 fingers-middle, ring and pinky to straighten them out. We have seen lots of improvement on the middle finger however according to her doctor there has been only small changes to the ring and pinky and they will not get any better.

He has given my Mom the option of experimental surgery to straighten them out. The drawbacks are that my Mom would have to have yet another surgery, the surgery may not work or do anything much more, and she would have to go back to square one with her therapy.

Please pray for us as we try to decide what the best option is for her and if she is ready for another surgery. He did however give her the green light to drive so that is another prayer request for us and as the search for a new car begins.

Thank you for your prayers and I'll be doing another longer post later.

He Still Uses Us!

Today I came across a devotional that reminded me that no matter our physical impairments God still uses us. I laugh when I think about this passage below:

But Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak." But he said, "O my Lord, please send someone else." Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him.
-Exodus 4:10-16 (NRSV)


Moses didn't want to be used by God b/c he stuttered. He didn't like to speak in public, he got nervous and didn't know the right things to say. God wasn't taking no for an answer.

How many times do we hear God calling us to a place, ministry, person or even in the place we already are and we say-No please don't make me God. God just laughs and says-yeah okay good excuse Emily but I still have a plan for you. A plan that will change the course of history, a plan that will alter your life and others, a plan that will blow open the waters so that you can walk through them unscathed.

God used Moses and he parted the Red Sea. Not too shabby for a guy who stutters.


Just think what God can do with me and you. My Mom may not have full use of her arms but that doesn't mean God isn't calling her to greater things. I wonder what He is calling you to do today?