5 - Moments

Day 5: Memories - Top Five Moments in Your Life.*

1)  Salvation ~ December 27, 1990. Age 6, First Grade Christmas break, 304 Three Oaks Drive. While sitting on our couch with Mom, thinking about a Christmas sermon I can't remember now (by Bob Rutherford at Meadowood Baptist Church)... I asked Mom how she could say I had a "heart of gold" if Jesus wasn't in my heart. That led to a long talk where she walked me through several Bible verses and clearly explained what it meant to be saved, then I went into my room alone and got on my knees beside our awesome purple canopy bed and prayed with childlike faith for Jesus to be my Lord and Savior! I was excited about it, but didn't get goosebumps or have a huge emotional high or notable life change at that point -- I was a quiet six year old from a Christian family that already attended church and a Christian school -- but I understood that I needed forgiveness. My faith and my love for Christ were real (they've been tested and grown far deeper and stronger since then, but they were real), and my eternal destiny was sealed, making this the #1 moment in my life on earth, whatever else may come!!  
(The rest are in chronological order.)

2)  Homecoming ~ Spring 2002. Age 18, Senior year, CHA's brand new gym. (I feel kinda silly and shallow for putting this, but oh well.) It was a nice moment for me, mostly because it was something I'd secretly wanted but never thought would happen. Especially since most of my good friends were underclassmen, I was pretty surprised that my classmates had chosen me... and it made me feel seen and appreciated. Shopping with the girls (Mom, Rach, Holly, and Megs) was a blast, and I still think my hot pink dress was fantastic. :)  I felt loved and beautiful, and what girl doesn't love that feeling!? I also got to be part of the decorating committee, as per usual, and Mom and I made huge banners for all the attendants, so writing my own name on a massive banner was a strange experience. :) Finally, it was memorable because it was the first ceremony they ever held in CHA's long-awaited new gym, and the last Homecoming for the Class of 2002!!

3)  Florida Fireworks ~ July 2009. Age 25, State Farm Convention, Disney World. Mom had a terrible cold and Rach had a sprained ankle, and all in all, the trip just wasn't going as well as I'd hoped... not what I'd expected or built up in my head - I was just ready to get back to Tulsa and celebrate Chet Lee's 21st b-day! lol  Then on our last night there, there was a fireworks show that we could see clearly from the balcony of our room at the Yacht Club Hotel, so our whole family went outside to watch them - just the four of us - me in the middle, Mom on my right, Rach on my left, and Dad standing behind me... the fireworks were awesome, and it was just a really good "mental picture" moment of beauty and togetherness!  I seriously thought as we were standing there that if that trip had been a Wonder Years episode (I'm a big fan of that show! lol), that moment would've been the ending scene where the background music played and the narrator described how even with all the family tension and drama, things have a way of working out in the end. :)

4)  Hospital Prayer ~ December 2011. Age 28, OU Medical Center, downtown OKC. After beating cancer and surviving a major car wreck that same year, Mom contracted a staph infection in the cut on her leg (which rapidly quadrupled in size). I stayed several nights with her at the hospital (reading through the entire Hunger Games trilogy in just a few days). There were multiple rounds of debridement surgeries before the skin graft, and she had come down with bronchitis in the midst of it. It was scary for all of us. We had prayed together a few times early on, then the night before one of her final surgeries, just the two of us there, I remember her calling me over - I assumed she needed Carmex or something - but she asked if I would pray with her. I remember that Rach was newly married and pregnant with Jace at the time, and while you always hope for the best, obviously, none of us knew how things would turn out for Mom. I knew she was scared, but trying to stay strong for me, and vice versa.  But in the middle of the fear and pain, I stood beside her hospital bed and we held hands and prayed together, and God's grace and peace were very present. Maybe a weird moment to put on this list, but it was definitely meaningful to me.

5)  Birthday Countdown ~ February 2014. Age 29/30, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas! (Honestly, multiple Vegas moments came to mind, but I'm going with this one.)  In my favorite place, surrounded by my closest friends -- people who made that entire trip a blast -- friends who really know, love, and care about me.  The original plan was to watch the water show outside at midnight, but thanks to me having a tearful mini-breakdown (over things everyone in that group easily understood), we decided to go back up to the girls' hotel room and watch from our fountain-view window!  For whatever reason, they played the midnight song about 3 minutes early that night, so after watching the water show to Whitney's Star-Spangled Banner, my friends did a countdown to midnight to ring in my 30th birthday (which I have on video)! To me, the way that whole moment worked out was perfection... and the next day's birthday brunch at Mon Ami Gabi was also pretty amazing!! :)

*This was a really tall, nearly impossible order. Again, sooo many things come to mind in sorting through the great memories in my life. I tend to cherish the seemingly insignificant moments like sitting on the porch swing with Josh or decorating sugar cookies with Rach or running in the rain at SeaWorld or late night talks with people I love. I also tend to put the great moments of the people I love on my own list, like Anthony's 1st birthday or the day Jace or Kyndal was born. :) Luckily, I've probably already documented most of the good stuff in a Memory Monday or Thankful Thursday post somewhere. For this list, I tried to go with very specific happy/meaningful "moments" rather than long conversations or trips or defining seasons or things like that. :)

And now, a lovely quote:

"Everywhere you look, you can see the world as it is and the world as it could be. Winter and Spring. Old and New. Despair and Hope. Death and Life. Neither submitting to the other. The struggle for dominance lingers on. Winter looms large. It puts up one serious fight. But then all at once, out of nowhere, Spring comes bursting forth in all its glorious splendor to take its rightful place. What once lay dormant has now become vibrant. The symphony of life is in full roar... Spring wins. It always has. It always will. And that, my friends, is the very best of news." ~Ben Nockels

May Spring come soon; may Jesus come soon!!
Happy Thursday, friends!  :)