Everything happens for a reason

Hello All!  Been a long time since I have blogged for that I am sorry.  There are so many things going on in my life so I decided to get my thoughts on paper.  At the end of last year, I lost my job at the doctor's office I worked for.  Happy New Year to me, right?  While this was devastating to me since I loved what I did, it has been a tremendous blessing.  At the time that I lost my job, I had been sick for a week with the crude that everyone else in Columbia had.  Loosing my job gave me a chance to get better and spend time with my 6-year-old son who was on Christmas break from school.  What working mother wouldn't love being able to do that?  After working full time for 12 years, I am now looking for a PART TIME job due to Jamie's schedule and the extra help he requires due to his apraxia.  I am so excited about this!  I am busy looking for a job but due to it being the beginning of the year,  looking for something part time, and the economy being SLOW,  I haven't found very much.  I am very hopeful though that the right door will open and I won't have to take something just so I can say I have a job and am bringing home a paycheck. 
Another thing that I am really feeling led to do is go back to school.  Some of you are probably saying, "why do you want to go back to school? You already have a degree."  My degree is in Social Work but my last 2 work experiences in that field were so horrible and discouraging that I don't think I want to do it anymore.  For the past 4 years, I have worked as a receptionist.  While I love working with people and everything, do I really want to be a receptionist for the rest of my life?  NO I DON'T!  I, by NO MEANS, am putting down being a receptionist but I WANT MORE.  I don't want to be telling Jamie to go after his dreams, never give up, or settle for something less that what he really wants when I've done the same thing.  Sometimes when I look at a possible career,  I think "I can't do that.  I'm not qualified.  I'm not smart enough. People will laugh at me."  Today I am beginning to feel encouraged as to a possible new career. Am I scared?  YES VERY!!!  Do I think it will be very hard work?  YES but I am older now and I will take my studies more much seriously than I did when I was in my 20s.  I am not going to go into what possible career I am looking into yet.  That is another blog post for another time. 
All I need right now is PRAYERS!!!  Words of encouragement are welcome too:) 

Until next time.....

Love,
Dana

Insecurities

Hello everyone!  Well, it has been a LONG time since my last post.  I am sorry about not being more consistent with my "blogging."  I have A TON of stuff to tell whoever is reading this.  Hopefully my best friends in the world are reading this right now.  I must confess something-I am so NERVOUS about writing this blog entry.  Why?  You ask.  Well, it is because all of what I am going to write about comes from my heart. 

Last Thursday, I was having coffee with one of my best friends.  We started talking about going to this fellowship our small group was having last Friday.  I confessed to my friend that I was nervous about going.  The reason is because I get nervous around people I don't know very well.  I am afraid they will judge me, not like me, not find me interesting, think I am stupid, think I am "too loud," etc.    So I just put up a BIG wall and go into my shell.  I know that a lot of you are suprised by this since I appear so outgoing but let me tell you I DO have a shy side!  Anyways, I did A LOT of crying that day.  The funny thing is I felt SO MUCH better about getting those insecurities of mine out.  Just to let you know, I DID go to that fellowship and had a wonderful time and made some new friends.

Well, fast forward a couple of days to Sunday.  I was at church and this woman sang a BEAUTIFUL solo. I bawled my eyes out as she sang due to the song being so moving and God beginning to stir my heart.   I was also touched by Pastor Steve's sermon.  Later on that day I began to realize that many of  the insecurities that I was feeling about going to church, meeting new people, etc. were straight from Satan.  I even had insecurities about my own marriage!  How crazy is that!!  I will be the first to admit that I have fallen away from God.  I cannot tell you how long I have been away from him.  I know that God loves me and has blessed me with so much more than I deserve.  The thing is Satan has used my insecurities to keep me from God.  As I type this, it is kind of hard to express myself because a lot of what I have been feeling has been going on in my head.  The main thing I am working on is my relationship with God.  I have to realize that it DOESN'T matter what other people think about me.  The most important thing in the world to me is that GOD LOVES ME UNCONDITIONALLY!!!!  Do you know how wonderful that is?  No matter how many times I mess up or fall on my face, HE is there to pick me up and say "keep going Dana, you can do it."  When the world tells me I am ugly, HE is there telling me "my child YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"  That is all I need.  It doesn't matter how many friends I have, as long as God is on my side I can't loose.

Many of you might be asking "what does Lee think about all of this?"  Lee supports me 110%!!!  He has stuff that he needs to work on too but we are in this life TOGETHER!  God has truly blessed me with a WONDERFUL husband.  We truly want our marriage and our home to be God centered.  We want to raise Jamie to know the Lord and how much Jesus loves him. 

I know that Satan wants me to fail.  He wants me to go back to being lukewarm.  He wants me to continue feeling insecure about myself.  Well, like another one of my friends said today in her blog, I am going to say to Satan "I am keeping my eyes on Jesus. So shut up!  I don't believe your lies anymore!!!!!"  WOO HOO!!!!  FEELS SO GOOD GETTING ALL OF THIS STUFF OUT!!!  I am feel like a new person!!!!:) 

Please pray for me.

I PROMISE I WILL BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH MY BLOGGING!!!

Until next time........

Love,
Dana

Fun Times at Momo and Dado's House

Hello again! Well, this afternoon Jamie and I did our Sunday ritual of going over to my parents house for lunch. Lee worked last night so needless to say he was at home sleeping. We ate lunch and then Jamie went swimming in the baby pool they have. He had THE BEST time! He laughed so much. Hearing him laugh just warms my heart so much-I could never get tired of hearing it. No matter what kind of day I had or am having, hearing that makes my day brighter. He also went "poo poo" in the potty over there-WOO HOO:) We still have a long way to go with the potty training but at least I feel like we are beginning to make progress.
Well, that's it. I have to get ready for bed~another work week begins tomorrow:)

More to come......

Love,
Dana

Need to vent

Hello friends! Well, everything with the Clark family is going well. Jamie just finished up summer school for his speech therapy at Woodard last Thursday. It's hard to believe that he will be going back to Pre-K at Baker in a little over a month. He just LOVES school so much! I hope and pray he always does. Lee and I have just been busy working. Lee is on nights again at Essex and I must admit that I HATE when he is on nights but am so very thankful that he is working and that they are busy. My job is going well. After weeks of being kind of slow, our business is beginning to pick up since the kids who live in Maury County go back to school in a little over a month. It is so nice that we are both working again and I am very thankful for our jobs.
Well, I MUST get to why I am writing this blog today. I DESPARATELY need to vent about something. Does anyone else out there get tired of people taking out their stress or whatever on you? I am sick of it!!!!! I know that it is very stressful when you are going thru a difficult time in your life but you DO NOT have to take it out on everyone else. I know that when I am stressed out and pushed to my limits I try my hardest NOT to take it out on everyone else. I also think that there is no excuse in the world for someone to act ugly, disrespectful, talk down to other people, or be downright mean.
Another thing that I am sick of is people thinking that they can walk all over me just because I am a nice person. That's not going to fly with me. I have been walked all over many, many times before and let me tell you I am going to stand up for myself now. Well, that's it. Thanks for letting me vent and feel free to post comments:)

Will post more soon:)

Love,
Dana

BEEN A LONG TIME

Hello all! It has been a long time! I have so much to discuss! I know that I have said this before but I am HONESTLY going to do a better job of keeping everyone updated of what is going on in our lives. Jamie boy is now 3 and a half-where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home for Vanderbilt. Lee is busy with work, being a wonderful husband and father. I am busy with my job and being a wife and mom. There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I need to!
The main thing I am so frustrated with is FAKE PEOPLE! Why in the world do people act that way? I mean I was brought to treat people the way that I would want them to treat me. I just don't understand. I know what my mom would say about it-she would just say to pray for them. I don't know about you but I find it very hard to do that! Feel free to comment. Well, that is it for now......got to be going to bed. Will post more-I PROMISE!!!!!

Love,
Dana

Sorry......

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Life has been busy!!!:) Lee and I are both back in the workforce-thankfully! I will be posting more in the next few days but just wanted to touch base. MORE TO COME-I PROMISE!!!!

Life.....

Well, I know I haven't posted in a while and it was one of my New Years resolutions to begin posting more often. Well, I felt the need to post. As many of you know, Lee got laid off from his job right before Thanksgiving. We felt like it was coming since his business had been slow. Well, we made it thru the holidays and they were WONDERFUL!!! Just enjoyed being with one another and with our family and friends. After the holidays, I returned to work at FloStor. The office was closed for the holidays since many of the people I work with travel to see family. Well, I ended up getting laid off from my job January 13th. I knew that it was coming since our business has also been slow but thought they would close the office down before they laid anyone off. I honestly thought my job was safe though since I was the receptionist. I loved the people that I worked with so much!!!! Even though they drove me crazy sometimes we were like family!!! They were really good to me and I hope to find a wonderful company like that to work for again someday!
Lee and I are sticking together because that is the only way we can get thru this. I am not mad at him for anything. The economy is just so bad right now and I know we are not the only ones who are struggling. Jamie, my precious little boy, keeps me going. His laughter and smile make me smile even though I don't know what the future holds. One thing I am sure of is that God is going to get us thru this. I don't care if we have to sell everything we own to keep our house-I would gladly do it. All I need is my family.
Some friends recently gave us a gift. I am not going to mention any names but they truly showed us God's love. Lee and I know that they are struggling themselves but we were touched by their generosity. We are so blessed to have them in our lives-they have been there for us numerous times.
Well, it feels really good to get some things off my chest so I think I am going to start posting more. Continue to pray for the 3 of us and remember other people who have lost their jobs or have been laid off. If you have a job, take it from me BE GLAD THAT YOU HAVE ONE!!!! I have a temp job right now in the Cool Springs area, this week will probably be my last week. Pray that something else opens up for me and that Lee and his dad will go back to work this week!!!:)

Until next time.......