Prairie Oak Homestead

Most people hit their prime in their 20's and 30's. They take life by the horns, have lots of energy, do lots of fun things, and enjoy it to the full. I never thought I'd get to experience a "prime" of my life. In my 20's and 30's, I was sick and dying. I suffered from a neuromuscular disease called Myasthenia Gravis, a connective tissue disease called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, inflammatory arthritis, severe fibromyalgia, and cancer. I was a hot mess to say the least. My diseases progressed and I was steadily declining. I was in a wheelchair often, could not swallow normal food, could not sit up for very long, in severe pain, and had heart issues and difficulty breathing. I was out of treatment options after plasmapheresis and IVIG failed and caused deathly reactions. I could not take any pain medication as I also suffered autonomic nervous system dysfunction and my body reacted negatively to them. In fact, my body rejected everything the doctors tried and...

We have the choice to walk in victory and not in defeat no matter our situation, whether we experience symptoms of sickness or not. We live in a fallen world and we are not immune to trials and tribulations such as sickness, disease or pain. There are times when we can rebuke and stand against such things and they flee, but there will be times when they will not. Our victory comes when we trust in Him anyhow, keep our eyes on Him, and don’t give satan a foothold or inroad into our life. Paul, to me, was a great example of this. He was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, was weak, harassed by a demon, and more. Yet, through all that, he had the victory. He kept his eyes on Christ, praised Him in prison, continued to spread the gospel, and kept fighting the enemy. God promises us we will be delivered. That means we have to be put in situations that require deliverance. We are not immune! We may see our deliverance here on Earth several times over in different situations. We may also see it...

It happened. I didn't want it to. I thought I was stronger than that. But, looking back, I see that I let it happen. For several months now I have not been feeling myself. I have been irritable, anxious, intolerant, angry, smug, and overwhelmed. I gave satan a foothold. I gave him an inroad. I am probably like many of you. Checking my Facebook every morning...you know, the "newspaper" we read first thing to see the latest happenings with our friends and family. Only it's not that anymore. It's become a cesspool of politics, anger, greed, self indulgence, how to fake your life for the world to see...so much is not even real anymore. It's exhausting trying to wade through it all to find some sort of truth, to find something real...Oh there is the occasional scripture I come across, but even then it is a photo of a scripture that is either taken out of context or from a translation that isn't even close to the real meaning. But, I look anyway. Everyda...

Something I've learned and I will try to put into words... I've learned that me and my body and all it's broken parts, pain, disappointments, etc is just speck in the big picture of this world. It really means absolutely nothing. I'm just a tiny part of this world and what goes on with my body is contained to what's right in front of me. What really matters is not me or what is wrong with my body, but the world, the relationships to be had, mission work to be done, people who need to hear the Word, and love that needs to be spread. Everything that goes on in my body (or doesn't) is just my package. I carry my package with me everywhere I go and it humbles me, but I have learned to not open that package anymore. But, instead to just carry it with me and continue on with life and to do His will however possible and however He equips me to do it. Everyone has a package they carry. These things just happen to be mine. God has given me such strength ...

My Rheumatologist looked so sad and said he felt helpless as a doctor. There is nothing we can do for the RA, but manage the pain. I told him I was going to take a holistic approach and he said he hopes that it will help. The main concern is chronic inflammation from the RA leads to heart disease and cancer and people with RA are at a much higher risk and especially when they can't be treated with the normal meds. It's all in God's hands anyway. :) My cardiologist feels the same way. The previous thing we just tried did not work out and caused me to feel worse and then get migraines on top of it. So he agreed to my holistic protocol and we will try it for a month and pray it works. He feels helpless that he can't do more for my condition.  I know I serve the master Physician and I am trusting that He knows what He is doing and I will find comfort in that. God has taught me so much through all my health issues. I still have much to learn. I hope to be used b...

watching someone you care about in their last stages of this life...One of our good friends, Rich, is dying. He is the dad of one of our pastors and friend. We went to see him today and it's hard to see him in so much pain and confused at times. There just seems to be a lot of heartache lately.  I would be crushed under the weight of life if it weren't for God. He is what keeps me standing. At the end of our visit today, I hugged Rich and told him I loved him. This is what he said to me. "I love you, too, Stephanie. You have such a sweet heart. Don't ever lose your sweet heart." I told him I sure would try not to. His words were an answer to prayer. My diseases can get the better of me at times. I feel in my heart that I have become a little bitter inside and that can come out at times as grouchiness or frustration. There are times where I wonder if I still had any sweetness in me. I have been praying that God would help me to not become a bitter person with m...

The question is if God will ever be able to use me as a permanent foreign missionary with how my body is right now (pain, weakness, etc). I have had a wonderful reprieve for the last 6 mos. The last 2 weeks have been difficult though. It seems no matter what I do (even giving it to God) pain is going to be a part of my life. It's just the fact. Can God still use me in my daily struggles with pain on a mission field? My fear is that no one will want me on their field... This is just what I have been struggling with the last two weeks... Follow @titus2baker

  This devotion come from Streams in the Desert. This particular day (Oct 13) has to be my favorite in all of the devotion...yet so hard to bring forth for me. Something I am working on...  No anxiety ought to be found in a believer. Great, many and varied may be our trials, our afflictions, our difficulties, and yet there should be no anxiety under any circumstances, because we have a Father in Heaven who is almighty, who loves His children as He loves His only-begotten Son, and whose very joy and delight it is to succor and help them at all times and under all circumstances. We should attend to the Word, "In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." "In everything," that is not merely when the house is on fire, not merely when the beloved wife and children are on the brink of the grave, but in the smallest matters of lif...

to my husband...He is 35 today! I am making him a peach crisp with a maple cream sauce. :) I will cook his birthday dinner Saturday. He has a meeting for Haiti tonight. He leaves next month. Here is a thought for today. It's for all you wives. When we allow God to shape us into the woman our husband needs rather than the woman we think we should be, we live out our purpose and bring glory to God. ~Darlene Schacht I have to ask myself, do I bring glory to God by being the wife *I* think I should be, or do I bring glory to Him by being the wife *my husband* needs. It's a difficult thing to di e to self. You may feel like you are sacrificing too much by becoming what he needs, like you lose a part of yourself. You may very well lose part of yourself to become what He intended you to be, but that's ok! No easy, but ok. We are to look to the interests of others and not of ourselves. In doing so, we glorify God and isn't that what it's all about? Fo...

I find myself failing to give him the first fruits of the day. I have to be VERY intentional in doing so. It saddens me when I forget to read my bible, devotion, pray etc first thing. I am working on this... We have been working with a couple whose marriage is falling apart. Last night, the husband accepted Christ at our home! It was such an honor that God allowed us to be a part of that. :) Follow @titus2baker

Hunter survived his first week of High School. He was a bit frustrated that they did not do anything academically. Starting tomorrow, though, they will be doing school lol. We have the worst luck with mowers. Our mower broke down AGAIN and we fixed it and then within minutes of me using it again to mow, something else broke on it...ugh. I only got half the yard done. It looks silly. I am hoping we can borrow a mower from someone. I am trying very hard to not become discouraged. Things like the mower, school frustrations, family frustrations, house frustration are all too common lately. My husband and I feel beat down, discouraged, exhausted, and just want to say "uncle" and go and lick our wounds.  I know when you are doing what God wants and being obedient to Him in what He is calling you to do in your life, satan can be allowed to sift us as wheat, be used to refine us in fire, and be used to see just how strong our faith really is. I have to admit, I find myself whinin...

Since I have been to the dentist... I cracked/broke a tooth (a baby molar) a couple weeks ago and now I go in today to get it fixed. Ugh. I did get complimented on how clean my teeth were for not being to a dentist in so long...Hey I only go when I need to lol. I have 4 baby teeth still that never had adult teeth. Never born with them :) They say they usually only last 20 yrs...so 36 and still going is pretty good :) So today I go in and get fixed up. Not really looking forward to it, but who really does? Hunter stayed after school yesterday to help the Biology teacher unpack and set up his room. He enjoyed that and turned out he was the only one who stayed. Tonight he is golfing with the PE teacher and looks like he may be on the golf team there at school. He will enjoy that. I have gotten our meal menu ready for the next month (Sept) so that when school starts for me I will not  have to scramble and try to come up with something to make on top of school and studying. There i...

I can't believe Hunter starts school in a little over a week. High school no less. What a big change for him, but a good one. It will help him get ready for the "real" world. Being an only child has been wonderful, but also has isolated him a bit. I think he will be challenged and learn a lot of new lessons in life in the next 4 yrs. Yesterday, he went to Six Flags with our church. He had a great time! I was so glad he got to go and have fun before school starts back up.  He and my husband are going on a mission trip this weekend to do some work over in Indiana. I am praying they have some good bonding time. God continues to work in our lives. When discouragement comes, He is there to speak through my husband with words of encouragement. He helps me refocus on what all the changes are about in our life. Changes can be hard especially when there are unexpected ones that come along. Keeping in mind that He is in control no matter the circumstance can be challenging. Why...

 Pain's furnace heat within me quivers, God's breath upon the flame doth blow; And all my heart in anguish shivers And trembles at the fiery glow; And yet I whisper, "As God will!" And in the hottest fire hold still. He comes and lays my heart, all heated, On the hard anvil, minded so Into His own fair shape to beat it With His great hammer, blow on blow; And yet I whisper, "As God will!" And at His heaviest blows hold still. He takes my softened heart and beats it; The sparks fly off at every blow; He turns it o'er and o'er and heats it, And lets it cool, and makes it glow; And yet I whisper, "As God will!" And in His mighty hand hold still. Why should I murmur? for the sorrow Thus only longer-lived would be; The end may come, and will tomorrow, When God has done His work in me; So I say trusting, "As God will!...

I just got off the phone with my doctor. I wanted to talk to her about my going back to school to be a Holistic Health Practitioner.  She said she would love to have something like that in her office. There is no such position right now, so she is going to talk with the people at DMH to see if they will create a position specifically for me working with her in her office doing holistic medicine. Wow! She said that even if they don't do that, she will still refer patients to me for nutritional/herbal consulting. Wow again! Either way, I am grateful. She said, too, that I could work per diem (as needed) as a nurse in her office if need be until I get on my feet with the new job of HHP.  Only God could have done all this. Once on the phone, the intimidation I had felt about talking to a doctor about this, left. She was very kind and sweet and excited! If she hadn't prescribe the medicine I had talked to her about, I wouldn't be feeling so well. If I hadn't suffered so...

"Watch unto prayer" (1 Peter 4:7). Go not, my friend, into the dangerous world without prayer. You kneel down at night to pray, drowsiness weighs down your eyelids; a hard day's work is a kind of excuse, and you shorten your prayer, and resign yourself softly to repose. The morning breaks; and it may be you rise late, and so your early devotions are not done, or are done with irregular haste. No watching unto prayer! Wakefulness once more omitted; and now is that reparable? We solemnly believe not. There has been that done which cannot be undone. You have given up your prayer, and you will suffer for it. Temptation is before you, and you are not ready to meet it. There is a guilty feeling on the soul, and you linger at a distance from God. It is no marvel if that day in which you suffer drowsiness to interfere with prayer be a day in which you shrink from duty. Moment...

   Prayers needed. I thank you in advance for reading this long post. :) I am going back to school to become a Holistic Health Practitioner specializing in nutrition. I will be board certified in Nutritional Wellness by the ANCB and also be certified by the board of AADP. After which, I will also reactivate my nursing license. I am excited! I am nothing short of a miracle as many of you know I have Myasthenia Gravis, RA, and Fibro. Because my doctor was open to research I took in about an experimental medication and agreed to prescribe it, I have gotten my life back. No more wheelchair! God's hand has been in the whole situation. Schooling takes anywhere from 9 mos to a year. I may possibly get through faster due to my nursing background. I ask for prayers for stamina, for financial assistance to go through, and for greater opportunities when I graduate. One great thing about this training is if we are ever called away to the mission field again, I ...

This seems to be a trend...lol. Saturday night we didn't get home to rest until 9pm. Last night we didn't get home to rest until 8pm. All that busyness was not intended. :) The good news is although I am reallyyyy tired today, I was able to function throughout the weekend and not collapse.  I am heading into church this morning to do my volunteer work. Glad I am not too tired for that. :) Please pray for a pastor friend of our's dad. He is struggling right now with his health. I have seen him age so fast the last few weeks. Most of our loved ones were taken away from us suddenly and we didn't have to see what goes with health struggles. Both of our dad's died rather suddenly. My dad was killed instantly at work and my husband's dad died of cancer in like 6 weeks after diagnosis. This man is a great guy and we look up to him and a godly figure in our life. It is hard to see him like this. Just pray for his comfort, for less pain, and peace. Also, pray for dir...

I've been a bit MIA the last few days. It's been a longggg weekend. :) (I know it's Wednesday) ;) We found an abandoned kitten on our property. Just one. We have no idea where it came from. I found it one evening this weekend when I let the dogs out. They were barking and I went to check as to what they were barking at...it was this little guy. We named him Martin (Marty). I hope to keep him alive with God's help. :) We went fishing this weekend and I quickly realized that I'm just not into that as much as I used to be. I think I will let the boys keep that one. :) Also went on a nice hike this weekend and I walked 2 miles. It's not much, but if you knew how I was over a month ago (wheelchair at times) you would know how great that was. :) I have also found a bible school online that I am currently going through and it keeps me busy. I LOVE it! It is exactly what I've been seeking. It is very intensive and so interesting. Right now I am working o...