update on Stacy and other things...

Dear All,

I just got home from spending the last 24 hours at the hospital with my sister by her bedside. She's been put on Demerol today for the pain which is helping much more than the darvocet. She is having another ultrasound tomorrow and a possible tap of her stomach depending on the ultrasound results. A pain specialist will be coming in for a consult tomorrow also. Her liver is failing and weeping into her stomach. Her bowels are enlarged and enflamed. She's terminal but the doctor can't give us any time frame. The hospital wants to send her home because she has no insurance.

She hasn't eaten since the day of her fall a week ago Saturday. She can't sit or stand up on her own. She is mostly unresponsive except for when the pain is extreme. She needs someone in the room with her at all times. I spent the night last night and my sister Sherry is spending the night tonight. She appears to be going down hill fast and tells me every few hours she simply wants to die... the pain is too much. Stacy is 45, my baby sister.

Please pray if you believe... thank you...


Update on my home in Galveston:

We dumped all of the bedroom furniture, garage and other miscellaneous items yesterday after I left the hospital in the morning. Dr. Huang, my landlord, came by the home when I was inside. He said it would be a long time before he had it remodeled. He was not clear about my deposit but he gave me his e-mail address and I'm going to send him pictures and try to clarify if he's going to give me any refunds back.

Tomorrow Progressive is meeting me at the house to pick up my bike and my son and I will be finishing up the closets and bathroom and kitchen cupboards. I hope to be totally done with the whole thing by the afternoon and will be going home to shower and then get back up to the hospital.

Thank you again for all your prayers for my sister... we hope for a miracle.

Love,
Robyn

please pray for the Swartz family

From one of my Harley's Angels sisters:

Deb Swartz's son Jason died. She just called me from Iraq and is trying to get home. Evidentally he had generator running and got carbon monoxide poisoning she just found out.

a message from my friend Cathy... please forward

Hi everyone,

Many of you have called or emailed and asked what you can do to help. I greatly appreciate your concern and prayers. Here is something you can do to help. Please take a few minutes and make a donation to the American Red Cross. Even if it is only $5. I have just spent the last 3 days in Galveston down in the trenches with people who have lost everything and the American Red Cross is the only ones that seem to be offering any real assistance or aid to anyone. I have heard that the Red Cross is millions of dollars in the red so they desperately need donatiions and even this doesn't stop them. They are everywhere feeding people, providing shelters and helping search for missing loved ones. FEMA is the biggest joke I have ever seen. I met a young mother with 2 small children that had no where to go, their home was completely destroyed. She had no money and FEMA told her they couldn't help her. The Red Cross stepped up and told her they would find her a place somewhere, some way. The American Red Cross workers are staying in small travel trailers and some even in tents. FEMA employees are staying in the best hotels and condos availabe. One Condo has been rented out to FEMA for $1,000.00 dollars a night for the next 2 months. That's where our tax dollars are going! I don't know how those people can sleep at night in their luxury rooms when there are women and children and elderly people out on the streets with no where to go. It is the most abominable thing I have ever seen.

A friend of mine could not get in touch with her boyfriend who had stayed in Galveston. She called the police and the Red Cross to have someone check on him. The only person that ever showed up to check on him was from the Red Cross.

After working all day helping Cesar throw out everything he owned because his apartment was flooded, we sat down on the porch to rest and try and cool off. (Still no power at his apartment). We were hot, exhausted, hungry and feeling just about as low as you can get when down the street comes the Red Cross' mobile kitchen serving up hot meals to anyone they could find. I cannot tell you what a welcome site they were. The sweetest lady stuck her head out the window and said anybody hungry? Several of us just broke down and cried. It was so comforting to know that someone actually cared. People came out from all over. Old people, young people and babies. The food was hot and delicious. We had pasta, corn, fruit and cookies. One lady told me that the day before they served fried chicken and it was really good!

So please make a donation to this worthwhile organization. They are truly helping people in desperate need. And please forward this to everyone you know. I just hope and pray that none of you ever need their assistance but if there is a disaster, you would want the Red Cross to be there.

prayer request for Stacy

As many of you know, my younger sister Stacy was admitted to the hospital last week Saturday night after falling down the steps at her apartment complex in La Porte. With the hurricane damage, she had a difficult time navigating them in the dark. Today the doctor transferred her to ICU. After spending all day at the hospital, it doesn't look good. She's not getting better, hasn't eaten anything since she was brought in by ambulance, her platelets count is too low as her liver is failing and weeping into her stomach, distending it to the point of unbearable pain. Her ammonia count is 75 when it should be less than 13 and she is very disorientated and weak. She isn't able to get out of bed anymore.

Please keep her in your prayers...
Thank you.

Ike

Finally was able to hook up to the internet tonight thanks to Rick & Lala and Comcast.

Visited home today for the first time since leaving at 6:16 a.m. on Friday, September 12th. Hope was under water and appears totalled. My children's books are destroyed. My pictures are yet to be uncovered. I couldn't look in that closet yet. Not today...

Other than dishes and silverware and some of Joel's things, all else is lost. Here are a few pics. Heading back to Galveston tomorrow to pick up Hope and bring her home. There is extensive clean up to do.

Thank you again for all the prayers, calls and continuous support. I have it nowhere near as bad as many others on the island. I have all of my family... I have you.

Love,
Robyn

words cannot express what's in my heart and soul

To all my friends, please accept my most sincere thanks for all you have done for me. For the multitude of calls, the pooring out of support and the continuous prayers for the well being of me, my family and all of my friends. I cannot express what this has meant to me as the rebuilding begins. There are still many more people that I know that are far more worse off than me in my mind. In some ways I feel a huge sense of guilt that there are so many out there helping me and the others seem to have so few.

Please continue to pray for all who have been devastated, are still dispaced and continue to be affected by Hurricane Ike. You are my family. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life. Thank you.

With much love,
Robyn

change tomorrow by changing your today

Treat others as you wish to be treated

Letting Go

Read Luke 6:27-38

The Lord says, [My sinful people's] tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit through the mouth. They all speak friendly words to their neighbors, but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.

-Jeremiah 9:8 (NRSV)

As I walked by the nurses' station at work, I caught the ending words of a conversation among my co-workers. It was about me! What they were saying was not very favorable. What's more, it wasn't true. That really hurt. Upon seeing me, all the talkers became very quiet. During the rest of the shift, all of them either avoided me or were overly friendly. I carried a heavy heart the rest of that day.

The next day I prayed about how I should react to their behavior. How do I handle my hurt? Soon I came to realize that I am not responsible for deceit in others. I am not responsible for people who say one thing but act otherwise. I have no control over others; nor do I have the right to judge them. I am, however, responsible to God for my actions toward others, even those who hurt me. I took great comfort in this truth. So I resolved not to retaliate or hold a grudge.

Letting go of hurts is not easy, but it is possible. Jesus said, "For with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). He didn't say all things are easy. The Bible tells me not to judge others. We cannot monitor their hearts or change their behavior. That's God's job.

Sandra K. Ramirez (Ohio, USA)

Loving God, teach us to show kindness to one another and to forgive when others disappoint us. Amen.

Treat others as you wish to be treated.

Those hurt by gossip

Luke 6:27-38 (NRSV)

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

---

The scripture quotation is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright (c)1989, by the Division of Christian Education
of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.

Happy 19th Birthday Steph!

Stephanie,
You are gorgeous, talented and smart and can do anything you set your mind out to do. I am so very proud of you! Hope your special day is filled with love, laughter and living for the present. That is a gift in and of itself... this very moment -- it's all there is...

Love you!
Aunt Robyn