And the winner is...

The streamers are down, the refreshments picked over. Party time is over---for this year at least. We've had a great week meeting bloggers and new friends at Twitter and Facebook. We probably met new folks who had no clue what they were clicking on as Julie accidentally signed this blog up for the "not so family friendly category". Oh every party needs a goof, right?


Anyway, the cheese fries are long gone so it must be time to announce our winner of the Jan Ross & Jeanice McDade anthology: Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God. Both Julie and Maria have work included in this book, along with other writing friends. This particular giveaway, because we get awesome international hits we appreciate, is open to one winner anywhere we can deliver mail.


What a blessing, this is truly an international winner...RUBY!!!!

We're hoping to connect with Ruby for her address so she can get her copy of this book. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book either for you or for a gift, please click here.

Thanks for stopping by during the Ultimate Blog Party '09. Our hope is you'll become a regular reader we can get to know better.

Have a blessed weekend!

Utimate Blog Party '09: Virtual Cheese Fries and a Real Book Giveaway!

Come in, Come in!





It's party time!









So glad you're here!



We're the Narrow Gate Girls, otherwise known as Kim Zaksek, Maria Spencer and Julie Arduini. We live in NorthEast Ohio within minutes of each other. Last year we obeyed God's call to blog on deeper matters of faith.

None of us have the journey in Christ mastered, in fact, most of our blogging shows what we're learning, fighting, or re hashing a mistake or experience. Our party is different because we don't want to wear masks. What you see is what you get with us. And it's okay. In Jesus Christ we embrace that, and our hope is you embrace that fact about you, too.

We tend to get caught up analyzing what God is doing, so much so you might have to tap us at the buffet table and tell us to stop staring at the forks. We've gone out before thinking there might be a message from the Lord in the utencil area.

But we're fun, at least we think so! The rare times we get together we require one item:
CHEESE FRIES!!!!

So please, make yourself comfortable, grab some cheese fries, ignore us lingering over the forks, and have fun. We'd love for you to visit often. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS feed or Feedblitz. You can also follow, or both! You can learn more about each of us by reading the sidebar here, and of course, through our individual posts. Feel free to invite others to visit, virtual cheese fries for all!

To make this fun for you, we have a book giveaway!


Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God is by our friends Jan Ross and Jeanice McDade. Maria and Julie both have work included in this book. Leave a comment on this post with a way on how to contact you if you win. We'll take comments from 12:00am March 20-11:59PM March 27. On March 28 we'll randomly pick one INTERNATIONAL entry and send a copy of this book (it's in English) to you.
Enjoy!

Don't Eat the Cabbage

Granted, it was St. Patrick's Day when most wear green and talk shamrocks and leprechauns for the day. However with Italian relatives extending a dinner invite before our weary family trekked 300 miles back home, I assumed we'd be eatingItalian. All morning my mind partnered with my stomach and together they concocted a great menu: garlic bread, lasagna, salad with homemade dressing, ziti and sauce chocked with so much meat my cholesterol rose imagining the simmering pot.

I walked in their kitchen, eyes wide open and took a whiff. My gut repulsed at the smell. Cabbage. Corned beef. Not a sauce or salad in sight. My meal wasn't quite what I expected. It spoiled the rest of my day and definitely made for a long trip home!

I believe surprise menu choices aren't the only area where expectations fall. There are people we love, respect and look up to that we desperately await a serving of lasagna-type praise. Instead, the plate we find before us is filled with foul smelling cabbage.

For instance, many of us can relate to loving our parents and we're excited to share our report card. With a cursory glance and a sigh it's handed back with the bland response,

"Nice job. How come you didn't get all A+'s?"

There isn't much to savor when we're criticized or discouraged. Most people we love don't wake up and decide to dash our dreams with the curse of their words. Usually they have been served their own corned beef where the typical reaction during a dinner is to pass the plate and keep serving the food. Words like lazy, ugly, stupid, no good, ignorant, and clumsy are sadly passed around as often as salt during meal time. Worse yet, those offerings sting as much as salt on an open wound. Time doesn't help, nor does the ridiculous phrase that 'sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us.' Too many negative words tossed our way and we can leave the dinner table smelling like Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoon.

Is it possible to overcome a lifetime of meals where the menu every time was a fresh plate of discouragement? Absolutely! Grab a new plate called His Word. No matter what meal is on special at your home, school or place of work, grab the Bible and dig in. The appetizer, meal and dessert are all from the Master Chef. His words are always special. When you receive anything discouraging or negative, toss it off that new plate. As it states in 2 Corinthians 10:5:

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

As diners, we're special, beloved and heirs. Just because we've been served the corned beef and cabbage surprises of life doesn't mean we have to eat it.

May this prayer be a tasty morsel to chew on as you enjoy this day:

"Lord Jesus, continue to be my Master Chef who helps me push away the discouraging meals and instead feast on the scrumptious truth found in Your Word. Every day I'm your special of the day. Thank You Jesus for loving me. Amen."


(Scripture taken from the NIV Bible)


Photo from Flickr

March 20-27 is Five Minutes For Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 09. This is a great way for women bloggers to connect and meet new cyber friends. There are always a ton of great giveaways and The Narrow Gate Invites and The Surrendered Scribe both are going to be in on the party.
This site will be giving away one copy of Women of Passions:Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God by Jeanice McDade and Janet Ross.
Both Maria and I have works included in this book. It's a wonderful book with many stories, poems and testimonies by women you may know in the blogging world. As a reader I have to tell you I was blown away by the depth the women shared. They opened a curtain up of their lives and totally let the reader in. The book blessed me and we are excited to give it away.
So stay tuned and let folks know about the Ultimate Blog Party. It's an awesome event!


Julie Arduini is a wife, mom and surrendering writer. Her personal blog, The Surrendered Scribe, shows her writing resume. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she is also a columnist with Take Root and Write. She has a tentative story to contribute to the Jeanette Littleton book, GodSightings. Her verse for 2009 is Deuteronomy 11:11-12. She's a new columnist with the daily online newspaper, The Cypress Times.

Peace

I have been seeking this peace for quite some time.
Ever since I came to know the Lord, I have been searching.
In His word.
In His promises.
In my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
“Where is this peace?” I have asked frequently over the past four years. “Why don’t I have this peace always?”

Recently my world was rocked. Everything I thought to be true within my marriage and my life were not so true. I have had absolutely no choice but to present all of my requests to God. Actually, my entire life.
Finally.
He’s been waiting for the past four years.

I put my life in His hands—all of it. My kids, my marriage, my everything,
I now trust Him to have His way and do His will.
I have been broken into pieces, and I trust that He is putting me back together daily.
I have surrendered.
I will obey.

And guess what?

I’m finding more and more of His peace each and every day.

March 20-27 is Five Minutes For Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 09. This is a great way for women bloggers to connect and meet new cyber friends. There are always a ton of great giveaways and The Narrow Gate Invites and The Surrendered Scribe both are going to be in on the party.This site will be giving away one copy of Women of Passions:Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God by Jeanice McDade and Janet Ross.
Both Maria and I have works included in this book. It's a wonderful book with many stories, poems and testimonies by women you may know in the blogging world. As a reader I have to tell you I was blown away by the depth the women shared. They opened a curtain up of their lives and totally let the reader in. The book blessed me and we are excited to give it away.So stay tuned and let folks know about the Ultimate Blog Party. It's an awesome event!

Maria and her family reside in NE Ohio. She and her husband are the parents of two. Their daughter is a person with hemipelegic cerebral palsy.Because of her experiences, Maria provides parent-to-parent support for families involved in her local early intervention program. Her gift for writing has come directly from the Lord since her daughter’s diagnosis. She writes a monthly column entitled, “Special Parents, Special Kids” for the Mahoning Valley Parent magazine in Ohio; and has expanded into Parent magazines in parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
She is also a contributing author at http://www.mommiesmagazine.com/.Maria's first published work is in Jan Ross and Jeanice McDade's Women of Passion's anthology, "Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God". Both Kim and Maria have been selected to have their work tentatively included in Lori Wagner's upcoming book, Quilting Patches of Life, Volume 2.

The Advocate

If you've read any of my blogging, you know the last few years have been marked with health insurance issues. One of the most awesome things God ever did was give me a word that one claim (thousands of dollars) would end up in total and complete victory. That's another story that indeed in His way lead to the very thing He promised.

But the story didn't end there like I hoped. Ever since we get unusual claims that make no sense. They aren't as staggering as that first claim, but it rocks me to the core none the less. I've written before that my fear over receiving mail from insurance is so strong, I equate it to my personal kryptonite.

When I was recovering from surgery, I received a piece of mail, a bill, from a local hospital. It was a bill dated 10/2008 from a service back in 6/06. Our employer doesn't even use that insurance anymore, so I figured great, here we go again.

For awhile we did. Trying to trace the bill it appeared the insurance reversed their payment, and the hospital decided someone has to pay it, it might as well be me.

What I'm sure they didn't count on was me not giving in without a fight. Sure I had fear, a lot of it, but I called the insurance company we used to have. They had no idea what was going on so they called for a review. They were nice enough to keep in touch with me to let me know they still could not track where they took back any payment. Still, they kept investigating.

I did my part by calling the hospital to let them know where things stood. A couple weeks ago I called with a specific name, department, phone number and extension of the person working with me in case the hospital wanted proof it was truly under investigation. The person on the phone was extremely rude. She wouldn't even take any information, instead telling me to pay up now or go to collections.

Um...no.

I was scared and shaking but I said sorry, I've been screwed by claims before and I'm not handing over my checkbook until I know it's legitimate. She relented and told me to call back later.

Oh did I.

But first, I called the insurance and asked for the person who has been working with me. She was on another call but the girl who answered the phone asked if she could help? What? Another person wants to help me? I asked if it was possible for someone to call the hospital and assure them they are reviewing the claim.

She did me one better. She called the hospital, created a conference call, and pretty much made a poor guy who happened to answer the phone on behalf of the hospital billing department sweat bullets.

By the end of the call she got him to admit he didn't even have proof that the insurance ever took back payment. If that's the case, there is no need to even generate a bill. He promised he'd look for that proof and fax it right to her.

I thanked her over and over for being my advocate. She stood in the gap for me and pleaded my case.

I don't have the end of the story, at least I don't think so. The poor guy left me a message regarding the fax. I never requested the fax, insurance did. When I tried to call with the local number he gave (I believe the hospital consults out) it was a wrong number. When I tried to call the out of state number he originally called on, it just rang and rang.

I'll keep pursuing it but my gut (which I'm believing is the Holy Spirit) is this bill was dismissed. My advocate assured me during the conference call she was sure this event would be resolved immediately. I'm believing with her.

But that lady, no matter what happens, showed me in the flesh what an advocate can do. Just think about Jesus. He stands in the gap for us and pleads our case in front of Our Heavenly Father. I can't put in words how I felt knowing she was for me and on my side.

So why do we drag our feet when it comes to trusting the best Advocate of all?

March 20-27 is Five Minutes For Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 09. This is a great way for women bloggers to connect and meet new cyber friends. There are always a ton of great giveaways and The Narrow Gate Invites and The Surrendered Scribe both are going to be in on the party.
This site will be giving away one copy of Women of Passions:Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God by Jeanice McDade and Janet Ross.

Both Maria and I have works included in this book. It's a wonderful book with many stories, poems and testimonies by women you may know in the blogging world. As a reader I have to tell you I was blown away by the depth the women shared. They opened a curtain up of their lives and totally let the reader in. The book blessed me and we are excited to give it away.
So stay tuned and let folks know about the Ultimate Blog Party. It's an awesome event!

Julie Arduini is a wife, mom and surrendering writer. Her personal blog, The Surrendered Scribe, shows her writing resume. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she is also a columnist with Take Root and Write. She has a tentative story to contribute to the Jeanette Littleton book, GodSightings. Her verse for 2009 is Deuteronomy 11:11-12. She's a new columnist with the daily online newspaper, The Cypress Times.

Moving Boxes

I thought the Wii Fit would serve as a great exercise for my changing body. I never thought the Holy Spirit would use it for an exercise of my mind!

I was doing the body test and at the end is a balance exercise. One had me standing still, looking at a red circle in the middle. Suddenly moving boxes start floating. I started leaning towards the boxes and not the circle.

When the test ended, I obviously scored low for balance. It gave a tip at the end that could have knocked me flat.

"Be sure you don't follow visual cues. Keep your focus

on the middle to stay steady."

I can't let go of that sentence. Isn't it natural to sway with the front page declaring depression? Nose dive in faith after a phone call questioning your parenting? Tumble after an unexpected bill arrives?

These are the moving boxes I move to, forgetting the steady, red dot in the middle.

I'm working on focus and staying still no matter what's floating around me.

How about you?

***

March 20-27 is Five Minutes For Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 09. This is a great way for women bloggers to connect and meet new cyber friends. There are always a ton of great giveaways and The Narrow Gate Invites and The Surrendered Scribe both are going to be in on the party.

This site will be giving away one copy of Women of Passions: Ordinary Women Serving an Extraordinary God by Jeanice McDade and Janet Ross. Both Maria and I have works included in this book. It's a wonderful book with many stories, poems and testimonies by women you may know in the blogging world. As a reader I have to tell you I was blown away by the depth the women shared. They opened a curtain up of their lives and totally let the reader in. The book blessed me and we are excited to give it away.

So stay tuned and let folks know about the Ultimate Blog Party. It's an awesome event!

Julie Arduini is a wife, mom and surrendering writer. Her personal blog, The Surrendered Scribe, shows her writing resume. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she is also a columnist with Take Root and Write. She has a tentative story to contribute to the Jeanette Littleton book, GodSightings. Her verse for 2009 is Deuteronomy 11:11-12. She's a new columnist with the daily online newspaper, The Cypress Times.