Good Morning World

I’m yawningly waking to a new day! A Very Happy Birthday to my daughter-in-law Sarah Nicole Prechtl. God blessed my life 20 years ago when He chose you to enrich my life with your beauty and your precious spirit. What a joy it is to love you so much!

How has your Friday, August 17, 2018 begun for you? Currently it is 6:39:32 here in the mHBOT chamber. The psi is steady at 1.3 but the external oxygen is not coming through the cannula like it should. After this dive D and I will work on getting it up and running for tomorrow.

We discovered that the zippers needed to be lubricated and thats why we were having trouble securing a sealed chamber on Wednesday. Now that D took care of these zippers, the chamber quickly responded as it was designed to do. I have discovered also that the cooling of the hoses is not enough for a pleasant experience and I remembered late last night that when I worked on hot days, I would wear a fan that directed cool air at my neck and chin. I found it and it works well. These 90 minutes will be very comfortable.

My Dr’s office manager, Tanya, is scheduling me for an intensive three days of clinical therapies in October and I am looking forward to everything progressing as I had hoped for. D and I will drive to Basalt, CO and spend three nights in a local hotel. Dr Hughes has quite a series of treatments lined up for me. YAHOO! I have waited and waited and waited. I can soon say, “This is it!”

Have you ever wanted something so badly that the waiting was extremely taxing and all of your hopes seemed to be deferred for too long? Me too! I’m reminded of a song that is resounding right now in my heart. It is speaking so sweetly to what I am feeling right now. WOW, I just I realized that it is my theme song. I will be addressing it throughout my journey here:

Blessed Assurance, Lyrics by Fanny Jane Crosby, (1820-1915), Music by Phoebe Palmer Knapp (1839-1908)

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

(The chamber is pleasantly maintaining the 1.3 psi. I have not noticed any uncomfortableness and my ears are just fine. I need to yawn now and then and that is it. Nothing uncomfortable. This is going to be a very easy and pleasant experience.)

Let’s return to my theme song. “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.”

In Hebrew “Bless” means to kneel, to bless. It is used over 300 times in the Old Testament. The Hebrew language is rich in its full meaning of words and expressions. I have enjoyed studying the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek meanings of scriptures since 1990. When you look at God’s beautiful design of the Hebrew language a beautiful picture is drawn. To be blessed means that a person does something or gives something of value to another person. Its a give and receive word. So I derive from this beginning verse that God (Elohiym) gives me a gift and I in turn acknowledge that He has given it to me.

In Hebrew “Assurance” is best translated as security, confidence, safety. What richness!

When I was an infant, at 18 days old, my Mom woke to find me near death’s door. There was an infection in the hospital’s nursery that killed six of the seven babies born that day. I was the one who was still hanging on to life. My precious young and inexperienced Mom wrapped me up and taxied me to the doctor and then to the hospital. Mom prayed for me and held me close to her heart. She cried tears that fell on my cheeks. My spirit was still very much connected to hers. I knew her love. I also knew her faith. I LIVED!

The baby book that Mom kept is something that I cherish today. Mom wrote that one of my first words spoken was Jesus. Of course it was! “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

I have known the precious gift God gave me in His Son, Jesus, through the love and prayers of a Mom who in her confidence, in her safe relationship with Him, in her rich belief that Jesus is the gift of God’s love to her life and the lives of each of her seven children lives today in me! Jesus is the comfort and peace and hope that God Himself blesses us with every day of our lives.

Thank you Mom for your love and your prayers and your godly example every day. I love you so much. I live. I live well!