Texas A&M Boot Scoot

Tonight is the much anticipated Aggie Boot Scoot in Doha. Tickets to this event were hotter than a Hannah Montana concert. Aggies got to buy first and I was able to get us tickets. My date unfortunately had to go to Houston this week on business, but I am not going to miss it. It has been a long time since I have been with a bunch of Aggies and I know it is going to be a good time. Besides there are promises of a Texas size buffet.

Qatar Total Open

How much would you pay to see some top ranked women tennis players compete? How about $0.00!! The Qatar Total Open is happening this week and you can get tickets to the daily matches for free. I went yesterday with friend and it was so much fun. These women are amazing players. I watched two matches, but had to leave before Maria Sharapova played. Venus Williams is here, too. I saw Anna Ivanovic beat Olga somebody. It was very exciting. She fell and hurt herself with just 2 points to win the match. We were on the edge of our seats, but she was able to get up and finish the match and win. The stakes are high. The prize money is over $2 million dollars.

Doha dentist

Yesterday morning Abbey showed me a little white bump at the base of one of her loose baby teeth. Having earned my MD in the school of mommy, I diagnosed it as an abcess and made her a dentist appointment at the dentist office where Cole is getting his braces.

The appointment was a nightmare. He x-rayed the tooth and pointed out that the two permanent teeth were trying to get out, and couldn't because of the two loose baby teeth were in the way. This was causing the problem and the abcess. Everything is going well, Abbey is happy and calm and then he said he would need to pull BOTH teeth. Abbey began to get very upset. He began to rub the numbing gel on her gums and I asked about the happy gas. NO HAPPY GAS! Abbey got really upset. We were missing our wonderful Dr. Andersen back home, who talks in a sing song voice and has goofy names for all his instruments and is a firm believer in happy gas. I honestly considered that we might have to go home to get those teeth out. The Doha dentist was able to give her the necessary shot and I will not go into great detail, but to say he did get them out among much wailing and gnashing of teeth. He is lucky he got them out without losing a finger.

Abbey was too distraught to go back to school and she wanted me to make good on all the bribes and promises I made her to get through the ordeal. So, we went to the mall and ate lunch and shopped. I do believe it made it all better.

I was standing in Subway today ordering a club sandwich (turkey ham, turkey and roast beef) and in the background Kenny Rogers was crooning "You gotta know when to hold'em" on the radio. Felt like Texas for a minute!!!

Something Good to Read

This is long, but worth reading.


Beth MooreApril 20, 2005Knoxville Airport -

Waiting to board the plane: I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say that because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you.You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego...

I tried to keep from staring but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones. The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long. Clean, but strangely out of place on an old man.I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead.

So this man in the airport...an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere?....There I sat trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him. Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man. I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I've learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may be embarrassing. I immediately began to resist because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. "Oh no, God please no." I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into heaven and said, "Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please, Lord!"

...There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness, "Please don't make me witness to ! this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane." Then I heard it..."I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair." The words were so clear, my heart leapt into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No brainer. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, "God, as I live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this Lord. I'm you're girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am on him. I am going to witness to this man."Again as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. "That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair."I looked up at God and quipped, "I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane, How am I supposed to brush his hair withouta hairbrush?"

...God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God's word: "I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works." (2 Tim 3:17) I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man, and asked as demurely as possible, "Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?" He looked back at me and said, "What did you say?" "May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?" To which he responded in volume ten, "Little lady, if you expect me to hear you,you're going to have to talk louder than that. At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, "SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?" At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Longlocks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, "If you really want to." Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But God didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, "Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush." "I have one in my bag," he responded. I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted.

I don't do many things well, but I must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull. A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair. Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me. I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I for that few minutes felt a portion of the very love of God. That He had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while. The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God's.

His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's. I slipped the brush back in the bag, went around the chair to face him. I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knees, and said,"Sir, do you know my Jesus?" He said, "Yes, I do." Well, that figures, I thought. He explained, "I've known Him since I married my bride." "She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the Savior." He said,"You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself. What a mess I must be for my bride."Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I'll never forget it.

Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft. I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things toboard, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, "That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?" I said, "Do you know Jesus? ! He can be the bossiest thing!" And we got to share.

I learned something about God that day. He knows if you're exhausted because you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. He knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. He knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or He knows if you just need your hair brushed. He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need!I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way...allbecause I didn't want people to think I was strange. God didn't send me to that old man. He sent that old man to me.

John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

happy valentines!

We had a wonderful Valentines Day today. Nothing too spectacular, but a fun time together. Last night I cut out a bunch of little red hearts and sprinkled them all over my sleeping children and all over the floor. The kids thought it was fun! I picked up the kids from school and we went to Haagan Daas for ice cream. We ordered fancy ice cream deserts in fancy ice cream glasses. Tonight we ordered pizza and watched a movie together. We watched Mee Shee which we owned, but had never watched. It was cute. Bill and I are going to try to go out sometime this weekend.

Will got the sweetest valentines at school. The teacher had the students make homemade valentines and fill in this sentence, "I am glad you are in my class because....." Many of Will's friends wrote that Will was funny and that Will was happy. One little boy wrote that Will was "good at digging connecting tunnels on the playground" and a couple of them wrote that he was "my best friend".

Abbey got a funny valentine! Her teacher sent home a list of names and a note stating that if your child would like to bring cards, please bring one for everyone. I guess one of the families were not familiar with Valentines and the child brought full size cards for everyone, that had nothing to do with Valentines. Abbey's was Best Wishes on Your New Business. So cute!

Sweetness

Will is feeling a bit under the weather. Tonight he said, "Mom, I know what would make me feel a little better." I said, "A big hug from mama." He said, "No, not that, but we can try it anyway." and he let me wrap him up in a big hug.

I love little boys. They are so sweet.

Turns out what he "needed" was to watch "star wars legos" videos on Youtube.

Wedding photos

KFC's Doha outlet enters Guinness World Records

Just something funny...

Kentucky Fried Chicken at Villagio Mall in Doha distributed free pieces of chicken from a 300kg meal to enter the Guinness World Records for cooking the biggest Kentucky Fried Chicken meal. The meal consisted of 2700 pieces of chicken from a giant KFC bucket.