Our Grandbabies

Getting Ready For Christmas

So Many Things

So many things I do not know of earth's philosophy;
But this I know - God sent His Son to live a life for me.
It matters not that earth's wise men o'er words and creeds have striven,
I see that Jesus marked the Way so clear from earth to heaven.
'Tis not the things I ought to know, or truths I ought to see,
But what I ought to be and do, which matters most to me.

So many things I do now know, for "Jacob's well" is deep
But this I know that Jesus died, the Shepherd for the sheep,
And if I follow as He leads, and thus requite His love,
I'll prosper in the pastures green, and dwell with Him above.
And when the gilt of earth shall fade with every transient joy,
I'll have my treasure where no thief nor rust can e'er destroy.

So many things I do not know about the stars above;
But this I know - God put them there, and at His will, they move.
The last of Adam's race will die, the gates of time be past,
Before men tell their number, or measure space so vast;
And "what is man" that such a God should of him mindful be?
And such as we should dwell with Him throughout eternity?

So many things I have not learned about this world below;
But I can trace the work of God in every place I go
I've seen Him in the tropics, and in frozen northern land,
In valley, plain, and mountain height, by lake and ocean's strand.
The wise man said, "Of making many books there is no end,"
But I love the Book of Nature more than all that men have penned.

I cannot find identical two pebbles in the brook!
Nor yet two grains of wheat as with the microscope I look!
I cannot find two quite the same among the forest trees;
Nor yet the leaves which shiver in the gentle noonday breeze!
How can each sheep in hundreds its own lamb's bleating tell?
And when it finds it by its bleat, confirms it by its smell.

The wild bird calling to its mate its answering note discerns;
The waiting wife, her spouse's step as homeward he returns.
The features are dissimilar in households of one name,
And though it scarce seems possible, no voices are the same;
Nor yet exactly like the script wherewith our names are signed,
Woe to the criminal who leaves his finger prints behind.

I do not know, and no man knows, when Christ shall come again;
'Tis not revealed to angels, much less to sons of men.
Eleven sad disciples heard upon the mountain's brow,
"This self-same Jesus comes again, just as you see Him now."
And I know He'll seek one people, and only one that day
Those doing what He told them before He went away.

I love the Book of Nature and all its precious lore;
I read God's Book - The Bible - and I love it more and more.
I glory not in what I know, nor ought that I have done;
I feel my education here has scarcely yet begun;
But in one thing, I do rejoice midst earthly sin and strife
That ever God wrote down my name within the Book of Life.

Author: W. Hughes

Kidney Problems

It has been a very long past few months, I believe they have been the longest in my life.


It has been so hard to be separated from wife and extended family due to sickness.  Being in the hospital for weeks at a time.


Back in May I started passing blood clots and body fluids. Every time I went to my doctor he would just tell me that it was a UTI ( urinary tract infection) and give me a pill to get rid of the infection. When I finished the pills it would st art all over again. I would pass large and small blood clots in my urine and it was much more painful than a kidney stone, especially when you had to pull them out yourself by hand.


Just imagine days of this: Going to the bathroom to pee and nothing coming out, but your body telling you that you have to go. Going to your bed and laying down on your side and putting a bed pad on your bed and throwing your left leg over your right leg just to urinate. Then going to the bathroom to try and pass the blood clot or clots that were blocking the flow of urine. I would scream out from the pain and sometimes I just passed a few or over thirty at a time. This continued for over many months.


My family doctor sent me as an out patient to my local hospital to have a Cat Scan.I took with me a quart fruit jar of blood clots that I had just passed that morning for them to examine and tell me what was causing the problem. They looked at them and set them aside and continued to ask me questions about what I was illergic to. Finally they took me back for the scan and administered it to me.

The next day, I was called by the technician that had administered the test. She told me that the test was clear and that I had no Kidney Stones. I tried to explain that I never had a Kidney Stone but that that was why I had brought in the quart jar of blood clots to find out where the blood clots were coming from.

A week later I got an appointment with my Nephrologist to have my Kidney checked out. After doing a blood test he said that my Kidneys were doing ok but that I should see an Urologist to find out where the blood clots were coming from. He gave me a name of his friend and I asked my family doctor for a referral to him from my Insurance. I got a referral but not for him but his partner. After making an appointment I waited for the upcoming visit.


While waiting, the pain became so unbearable that I let my wife know that I was calling 911 for an ambulance to take me to my local Hospital. (St. Francis, Bartlett). They picked me up and took me to the Emergency Room. This was October 26^th.


The next day after getting a room, they took me back for a Cat Scan and this time when they looked at it they saw the problem. My right Kidney was surrounded in Cancer and I was told that it would need to be removed.


So surgery was set for noon on Halloween Day, October 31^st.