Deanna Doss Shrodes

Yesterday was an overwhelming day. I didn't blog. Yeah, I know...that makes two days in a week. People might actually think the apocalypse is coming since I haven't blogged two days this week. It's a sign of the times, friends. Get your cans or pork and beans ready, and prepare to flee to the mountains.  Seriously, I'm blogging today at Lost Daughters, writing at my spiritual column on the site, so check me out there today . I'm talking about why adoptees don't let go of the past. The answer may be a little different than you expect. For those who are adoptees or are those who care about them, it's important information to know. One more day til' Christmas Eve!!  Help us, all Lord! Something tells me the world shouldn't be this stressed out on Your birthday. Oh for an opportunity to just get quiet and focus on You!

I tried to ease back into life in Tampa on Saturday, after the cruise. Well, there was no easing in today.  It was a busy day but an excellent one.  Hearts were healed and lives were changed. I preached today at Celebration. The message was entitled, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!" God did awesome things around the altars. There were people who were so touched, particularly one young lady. Wowwwweeee, God reallllly got ahold of her! I just wept   -- even an hour after service I was still wiping the tears before heading to Christmas show rehearsals. She was so overcome by the power of God, our young adult leaders, Mike and Sunshine, had to physically help her out as she was leaving the service. It was a day of miracles in more ways than one. Still I can think back and savor my memories of a week spent in such tranquil peace.

What a great weekend. I'm sad that it's ending but so excited to be starting another fabulous week!! Our Thanksgiving was just phenomenal. We have so much to be grateful for. I was just overwhelmed by the love of friends and family. We actually shared 3 Thanksgiving meals together. I seriously have probably gained at least 10 pounds. Not happy about that, but so grateful for all the love and laughter that was shared around dinner and dessert tables this past week. Our house and the church are both fully decorated for Christmas. It gives me a warm and happy feeling inside just to be in both atmospheres. LOVE it! The topper of the weekend was a visit from very old friends. Well, they're not old. But we've been friends a loooooooooong time. They've known me even longer than my husband has. Nancy Tallagsen Coradi grew up just a few streets over from me, when we were kids. We went to school together and sang in the choir. We've got lots of memories together. ...

Here's what's in my heart, in no particular order. Get ready for random. I'm "good and tired" tonight. Not just tired, but a good-tired. I'm so glad to be sitting here, with Max. He's the jelly on my biscuit, the gravy on my mashed potatoes, the marshmallow on my snowball. Speaking of marshmallows...I've been on a "sweet fast" for almost a month. I'd pretty much kill to have a brownie right now. With walnuts. Oh my.    After the Experience Conference, coming home and unpacking, cooking for choir lunch and then going through the Sunday schedule: Up at the crack of dawn Head for church at 7:30 AM Lead rehearsal Teach my Life Group Morning Worship Choir Luncheon Choir Rehearsal Rehearsal was over at 3:00 and I stayed at the church all day today and worked until about 6:30 PM, by myself. It had to be done. I have some more to do tonight before sleep comes again. I'm headed to California this Thursday, so ...

Today I'm blogging over at Lost Daughters .  This is my third time of blogging there as a regular contributor, and I'm loving it. If you missed my previous posts there you can find them here and here . Even more than writing there, I love being a part of the Lost Daughters community.  God is doing something big in my heart regarding reaching out to adoptees and I know it will eventually be used to help a lot of people, especially right here where I live in Tampa. I have so many dreams in my heart, and plans to get there. I just need more years to accomplish it all. I struggle at times with believing it can all be achieved in one lifetime. Thank God I know how to JUGGLE. (You knew I'd say something about JUGGLE, right? Of course.  If you haven't already gotten your copy, go here or here . And, remember, I'm giving away a coaching package next Saturday. Why not try to win?)    We're having something unique at Celebration Church today. Breakfast at chu...

The e-book release is almost here. And, Happy Sunday!  I'm exhausted and it's just starting!  I'm not complaining, simply describing my state of body and mind.  I have been going non-stop getting things ready for the release of the e-book on Tuesday. Are you ready???  All you have to do is click a button and start reading. Me on the other hand...well, I've got a lot more than that to do right now. Maybe you're wondering, "what more can she possibly have to do?" And if so, you've probably never written a book. :) My day today will be filled with rehearsals and services and loving on church folks and first time guests and all that good stuff...and then I'll come home to work on the book release again. I'm also posting on Lost Daughters again today. Have you figured out yet that I love this?  Much love,  

A friend of mine has been making a lot of these cards lately, for fun. I tried my hand at it last night and made a few. This one is one of my favorites. Enjoy it and feel free to use it. Some of my pw friends are finding it quite amusing. I'm calling this a weekend mini potpourri as opposed to my standard weekend potpourri because sharing beyond this little cartoon probably isn't best at the moment. I  have something special and fit for public consumption to share tomorrow, so be watching. Much love,

I'm on vacation. Glory. Halleluiah. And. Thank. You. Jesus. !!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so ready for some down time. So ready. I think some other people were probably ready for me to go on vacation too. I am just edgy and need to breathe. Been there? This week I think my kids have said, "Calm down, Mom" about fifty times.  Sometimes, a mom's just gotta put herself in time out!  I often use Sunday night posts to update my readers who care to read about what's happening in my world.  This week Larry, Savanna and I are on vacation. The boys couldn't get time off from work to come, so it's just us three. The boys will hold down the fort at home and take care of Max and Maddie. We aren't traveling far this time. I'm too tired, quite honestly! We're just enjoying rest and relaxation in Florida. We had a terrific day at church today! Celebration has been having a wonderful summer and today was no exception, with the hospitality room absolutely packe...

I'm on creative overload! I love it, but I'm just sayin'....................... Just thought I'd share tonight on my blog for any readers who are interested about my weekend. Friday I worked most of the entire day on writing projects. It's my day off and that's the time, when I am not spending time with my family, that I really hone in on writing projects. Right now I'm getting a book proposal completed to submit by Wednesday. I have been putting my heart and soul into this, countless hours...15 minutes here and there that I have to spare on regular days and then large chunks of time on my days off. Fingers crossed and prayers circled. Please, believe with me. This particular project will touch countless lives. I am believing for a breakthrough, that just the right publisher will respond. Maybe this will be the one. If not, don't ever think for a second that I'm giving up. I've ripped the words defeat and quit out of my dictionary! S...

So the weekend is coming to a close...my sunset bike ride is over and I'm ready to take a bath and get in my jammies and snuggle with the man. Now that's the life! Aside from church ministry and coaching, I've been spending large amounts of time putting the finishing touches on my upcoming e-book (to be released on Kindle), and a book proposal that's getting ready to go out. We had a great service at church today -- the worship team/frontline/choir was absolutely rockin' the place. For a moment there I thought we were gonna be raptured! I just couldn't be more proud of our amazing team. Larry and Dustin are prepping to take a huge chartered busload full of our Celebration Church teens to camp tomorrow.   Our youth group has absolutely exploded. This is what our youth are traveling to and from camp in this year: God has been so good to us! I can hardly wait for them to get back. If we thought we were gonna be raptured this week in service what in t...

People tend to hate this Sunday of the year because they lose an hour of sleep and are so tired at church. (Especially the worship team who come really early.) Not this year! Today was an amazing day at Celebration. We did something new called, "GET YOUR HOUR OF SLEEP BACK" SUNDAY. We started service at 11:30 AM instead of 10:30 AM. And... Our amazing team served pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage to everyone, along with coffee, tea, milk and juice. During service!  They loved it!  I am so thankful for the faithfulness of God and His people. Our team worked together to make this day an amazing hit! Speaking of amazing, tomorrow morning my husband is taking me... on a cruise to Key West and the Bahamas!  Yes, we are going on another cruise. I have a husband who is now possessed , addicted very fond of cruises. Ever since the church sent us on our first one last April for Pastor Appreciation, he has been hooked on this form of relaxation. Hey, I'm not complain...

Can feelings be turned on and off? Absolutely.  They change often with most people.  That's why we have to stand on what we KNOW to be TRUTH, not our feelings. There were good parts of today.  We had two fantastic choir practices (adult & youth) and God is up to good things.   At the same time some stressful things happened today.  More challenges happened than amazing things.  I like amazing more than I like challenging.  I'm sure most people would be in sync with me on that. My feelings today are a potpourri. I read a quote by Pastor Steven Furtick today that said, "You don't get to choose whether things in your life get shaken.  You just get to choose what you stand on."  I am reminded that my feelings may change based upon what is happening around me but I can't be led by my feelings.  Emotions are terrible leaders. Feelings are important. They can be fun and amazing or they can be painful.  I wouldn't want to li...

So last night I went with two gal pals to our favorite place to meet.  It's a little hole in the wall up north from us about 30 minutes.  We love it there because first of all the food is fab, the ambiance is so cool, and it's more private for us if we happen to be discussing sensitive matters.    One of my friends loathes having her picture taken. When I got out my phone to snap a pic I said, "don't flinch, I'm not taking your pic (at least not your face)...knowing how much she hates photos I just turned the camera downward and got a shot of all of our feet while we were sitting outside the place waiting to go in. They really wanted to go to this particular place last night because it's a favorite even though it's not on my program as far as Weight Watchers.  My solution is to order what I really want and box half of it up.  I did so, and stayed right on track.  Then I brought the rest home and threw away the sour cream from the restaurant and use...

This is such a busy weekend for us and today is a very special day because it's Savanna's 8th grade dance!  I'm so excited for her!!  Here's a photo of her that we took at the beach - one of my favs...I don't have photos yet from the dance tonight because it hasn't happened yet as of the writing of this blog but I plan to have a photo or two to share later if she'll agree to it.  (You never know with teens...she'll probably be peeved that I posted this beach photo, but forgiveness is better than permission, right?! lol)  I am excited about her event tonight.  It is basically their farewell from 8th grade.  She's done so well and has been on the high honor roll her entire time in middle school.  We finally found "the perfect dress" and shoes, and so on and so on.  I really wish we had all day to get ready for this but she also decided she doesn't want to miss out on the youth tubing trip to Rainbow River today.  So...she's going, and...

I had absolutely NO trouble going to sleep last night!  I was so tired from a very hard day's work.  It started with our monthly women's life coaching meeting at Celebration.  It was great as always and then I came home to work all day on the yard and other things at the house.  I did fit bike riding in but other than that it was down to business.  We have been getting our yard in shape because of the neighborhood standards and everything needing to be up to speed by 3/31.  (Yes, I know the date has already passed but plenty of people are still working on it especially with the tornadoes we had last Thursday.) We were also getting ready for a meeting we're having at our home tonight.  We are having all of the Celebration newcomers to our home.  There are so many of them!  I think we're going to have a full house if all of them come.  God is so good!! We have continued to grow by leaps and bounds at Celebration.  It has been the mo...

I HAVE A CHOICE ...to speak words of life, or not.  (Proverbs 18:21) ...to bring people closer to Jesus, or not. (II Corinthians 2:15) ...to take control of my toxic thoughts, or not. (II Corinthians 10:5) ...to do something about my unholy behavior or not. (I Peter 1:16) ...to receive God's empowering grace that goes beyond my natural ability, or not. (II Corinthians 12:9) ...to use all the time I'm given to make a difference for Him, or not. (Ephesians 5:16) ...to actually do something about people dying and going to hell, or not.  (Jude 1:23) ...to take these choices seriously, or not.  (Deuteronomy 30)  I have a choice ~ to obey ...or not. "Live as children of obedience to God; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires that governed you in your former ignorance when you did not know the requirements of the gospel."   I Peter 1:14 

On Sunday I spoke of having a lot to share that's been  percolating, but today I just wanted to share a potpourri of what's been happening or what I'm thinking in no particular order... The other night our entire family went to see The Social Network .  It's the first time in forever that the five of us have gone anywhere together.  The boys have been so busy with working two jobs a piece, plus school, and all their church ministries.  We do things with Dustin or Jordan, but usually not Dustin AND Jordan.  Monday night we all went to the movie and it was awesome to be together as a family of five.  We loved the movie, by the way! Last night I went out with my three of my bff's and had an amazing girls night out together of dinner and talking til' the restaurant kicked us out after closing. God smiled on me by giving me the greatest friends in my life.  I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time, and I must say it felt so good.   I'm thankful f...