The best Mother's Day EV--er!!!

Allow me to walk you through my Mother's Day - so far - with my new camera! Yippee! The best part of this day is - it's not over yet! So far it has been one of the best days of my life. Seriously. It started out early as usual with me getting all ready for church before the sun came up, then getting my family up and ready. Bobby came over at 7 am this morning to join us for Mother's Day. He took a photo of us outside the house this morning. Savanna's eyes were closed during the pic, but oh well, at least she was smiling. :-) Has anyone besides me noticed how tall my daughter is lately? She's always been tall for her age, since the day she was born, actually. But she is almost as tall as me!!! And the other day we realized she has SURPASSED me in shoe size now!!! And yikes...I'm a size 9!!! (Um, she might make the Guinness Book of World Records by the time she's done growing?)

Here's Jordan on the drums at church...

Worship with the Teeb coming to pray at the pulpit...


Here's the most sharp dressed, anointed man in Tampa! Yum, yum...I could just sop him up with a biscuit! (GRIN)


We had a great service today. I could feel God in such a mighty way in worship, I got chills. That doesn't happen to me often. I'm a person very open to the move of the Spirit, hungry for God, totally desiring more of Him. But when I am moved, it is truly moved by the power of God, not swept away by emotion. I am telling you, today was just saturated in the anointing. I could feel the power of God in such a strong way. There's days when you just KNOW it (and don't feel anything) and then again there's days where you FEEL IT. Man, today it was both. We had a Word come forth during worship and it was so on... God was so good to speak to us today in a powerful way and I know the best is yet to come! (Also we had a few re-dedications today during the prayer time at the end of service.) Also at the close of service we gave away a gift basket from Bath and Body Works to one lady through a drawing (Lorna won!) and each lady got a special bookmark that Aida had made.

Yippee! We got to eat! I mean really eat. After service I headed out through the Christian Ed. building and when he saw me, Pastor T was hopping up and down saying, "this is it! We get to eat!" I let out a whoop along with him. So excited. We went to Texas Roadhouse. Here's Pastor T and Misty, eating the first pieces of bread we ate after 50 days...SO GOOD. I'm tellin' ya! I was just moaning as I usually do when I eat something particularly good.

Here's a picture of me with our "son" Bobby. Larry and I have had many special sons and daughters that God has given us (besides our 3 natural ones) and Bobby is so special. He joined us for church and lunch. This afternoon he said to me, "ya know, Momma Shrodes, I was lookin' at you and Papa Shrodes up at the pulpit today and I thought to myself, 'Bobby, these are your closest relatives, at least here in Tampa (his Dad is in Iraq, his Mom has always lived in California). He said, "you guys are, truly, my parents." I said, "Bobby, it's a privilege to be your parents, believe me. We are honored to be your parents." While we were in the car he called his Mom in California on the cell phone and she must have asked, "where are you?" And he said, "I'm with my other Mom right now." She was happy. She seems to appreciate that he has us and considers us family. He'll be with us here all day even when we go to spend time with our other friends he'll go with us tonight - everyone knows he's part of the Shrodes family package. You get us, you get Bobby. LOL

Me and Lar at lunch today at Logan's Steakhouse. I ordered my own steak. (Sometimes Larry and I share. But not today. I was SO ready for my own steak - the whole thing. Let's just say this wasn't a weight watchers OP day! LOL) I got my own ribeye steak. Jordan says, "Momma, you're never going to eat that whole thing!" I said, "watch me." He laughed and said, "I don't think so." In a matter of about 15 minutes I had devoured the whole thing. :-) Normally I wouldn't be bragging about practically inhaling a whole steak on my own, but today I don't care. It's a special day. Tomorrow I will get back OP...seriously, this is just a major cheat day in celebration of the end of the 50 day challenge.

My three sons - (l-r) Bobby, Dustin, Jordan at lunch

There were 18 of us today at lunch. Larry made a reservation at Logan's and we didn't have to wait AT ALL, we just went right in. It was WONDERFUL. Let me tell you what I ate...(after 50 days of nothing but fruits/veggies)...2 yeast rolls with butter (yummy!), ceasar salad, ribeye steak cooked medium, baked potato with sea salt, butter and sour cream (extra sour cream!!!). Doesn't what sound like the perfect lunch? It was. The waitress enjoyed seeing us enjoy our food when we explained that we were celebrating not only Mother's Day, but all of us were breaking a fast.

Teeb preaching. We did a tag team message today called, "Where are you eating?" We both started out in chef hats and aprons. He opened up by talking about 10 famous chefs. (The message was about feasting upon the Word of God, living the Word, being saturated by the Word, and taking care to make sure we are in an environment where we do not become deceived by a lack of the Word...)

Me, preaching. I had taken off my hat and apron by this time...

A few more things...I had mentioned how wonderful it is to have spiritual sons and daughters in the Lord. I have many, but two more in particular did something special for me today. The first is a young lady at our church, Ashley, who I have helped quite a bit over these years. She gave me a card/letter today and I'm going to type out here what it said. It really touched my heart in a great way. I want to share it with you. She says:

To my "other mother"...

You did not carry me or bring me here. But thank you for loving me like you did. You opened your heart and home to me, giving me safe refuge after I'd been in the storm so long. You created a way for me to succeed but made it all right for me to fall down because I knew I'd have your help to get up again. You've loved me and held me up before the world as someone to be proud of. That is why I know a child who's loved by an "other mother" is a blessed child. I hope your Mother's day is as blessed as you made my life. I love you. Pastor Deanna, I wish you a beautiful, peaceful Mother's Day. May you be treated like a queen on this day!!!

xoxo!

Ashley

Isn't that the sweetest thing EV-er??!

Another of my very special spiritual daughters is Susan and she blessed me so much this morning. After church she said, "I have something special for you, PD" and she proceeded to give me a gift bag which had a beautiful necklace that she knows I had been admiring...and I will wear often. Also a gorgeous pair of earrings and bracelet, and...a bottle of Moonlight Path perfume. I was so excited when I opened it!!! It's one of my favorite things in the world. I have had the bath products and the body spray but not the real perfume. Now I have some...of my very own. So psyched!

This has been a fantastic Mother's Day already and the best thing is, it's not even over. In a few hours we head to our friends, the Currie's (who live in our neighborhood...they moved here to be closer to us, remember?) and we will grill out burgers and eat more... (GRIN) and talk to our heart's content. Thank you Jesus, for a most BLESSED Mother's Day.

I am blessed and highly favored. I have wonderful natural children, wonderful spiritual children. It is such a calling and an honor. I am blessed beyond measure. I love you, Jesus.