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deaf/blind wheelchair user braves Arkansas mountains. Accessibility,sickness,animals,... |
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novel first draft How is you faith these days? I hope and pray for you that it is of the strength of the best warriors of the heavens for Heavenly Father. Would you believe God has a plan for you, me, and all people? These questions I pondered for years and didn’t exactly have answers much less know what I was going to do about them. For years I roamed from church and searched and searched. Many places I visited seemed to me to be so similar that I decided why bother. When I was old enough I decided no more church for me. Years passed and still I hadn’t set foot or any other part of my body near or inside a church. The one day a friend of my fathers who happened to be working to help out with my parents business, asked me if I wanted to go to church. I agreed and he was very surprised at how quickly this happened. “That was easy” he said with amazement. We went to church which wasn’t any big deal, however I stuck with this routine for a while. There was no other church that I knew of that was different, so I continued to attend church figuring that eventually something else would materialize and I would be able to explore the next place presented to me. I don’t have any other details to share for the years between this event and whatever happened, because right now I would need to think back and now is not the time for this exercise. Now that I’ve had a bit of time to think about the years between my second venture into church, I do not recall any other churches for quite a while until I met a person who liked horses and dogs. Eventually I stumbled upon another church because a friend invited me to go with her. This church was different. It was non denominational. I liked the idea just because this maybe would be different to sone degree. If not possibly better in many degrees. With hope and curiosity I ventured forth to see what I would find. To my surprise I found a completely different church experience. The format was surely something I could wrap my head around and actually pay attention to especially what was being said. The members seemed nice. Service wasn’t too long, and the message seemed to make sense as well as be delivered from a completely different point of view. It wasn’t like the spoon feeding experiences I had in other churches. The best thing was the the congregation was encouraged to read scripture. There was no spoon feeding of what we should believe and how we should believe and I was actually able to build on the information I learned from the other church experiences and teachings. Several years after attending this church I had a life style change which caused major issues, so going to church became a challenge. Although I very much enjoyed church medically it was an arduous trial and torment to try to go out and attend services.. Not just church. Getting through life was a horrible challenging experience. Fear of falling and many medical issues plagued me and soon I found myself using s wheelchair. One positive about using a wheelchair was that at least I did not need to worry about falling. And, if I did fall at least now I was closer to the ground and did not have as long a way down to go. This at least allowed me to manage my l;ife activities much better in that, at least I was able to go to church, get around, and enjoy spending time with my pets and plants. I had to adjust but when I considered the alternative, I made peace with being a whee;chair user rather than winding up maybe having a worse situation like quadriplegia for example, or being on a ventilator or well, Lets just move on to other things and I’ll continue to be very grateful for the life style I have rather then spending valuable time considering things which are best left alone. I am very glad and thankful that Heavenly Father has gifted to me my mobility as it is and allowed me to have many interests and hobbies which I am able to enjoy.. This synopsis should help you understand a bit about the rest of this story. I have always loved Heavenly Father (God), Jesus, and Holy Ghost, however this was in my heart and not through out my entire being. I had a long way to go. The straight and narrow path still was something I needed to find and get on, than stay on and follow no matter what else may happen in my life. Considering the years I hadn’t been to church and other times I was in church and didn’t want to be there, I had made progress. Now it was time for me to advance and figure out how I was going to further my journey of becoming closer to Heavenly Father, Jesus, and Holy Ghost. I had not idea what to do, so figured I’d keep doing what I was doing until something else happened. Even though I knew stuff from and about things in the scriptures, apparently I was not yet putting this stuff into practice as I should and probably was not making the right connections with what scripture was teaching A few years later I guess people got tired or burned out with taking me to church because my transportation dired up and there wasn’t anything I could do about it that I knew of so I again didn’t bother seeking another church. This time was different because I had more desire for attending church services, growing and having a closer relationship with Heavenly Father, and finding another church where I would have transportation and be able to attend serviced regularly After being disconnected from church for a year or longer, I was invited to go to yet another church by a new frind. I accepted the invitation and started rolling out of the house each Sunday as long as I had a ride. This church was not exactly like the similar ones I had attended as a child and young adult. And It was not non denominational, but it was different in other ways and fortunately I way the scripture was taught did catch my interest and keep my attention. This lasted for a few years, then transportation died or dried up and The church visits stopped. Not to worry, God is everywhere, so I went about my life and waited to see what would happen. Just because I did not have rides to church did not mean I was disconnected from Heavenly Father. Having had the opportunity to visit many different churches I had learned that even with differences in teaching, in beliefs, and in the different versions of the bible that were used, basically there was some truth every where I went. I write some truth because scripture is very vast and deep, so it take a huge amount of study, prayer, and digging for the truth. I think that even if people lived for several hundreds of years much of the truth of and in scripture still would need to be discovered. By this time in my life I knew and understood enough to give me the strength a gift from Heavenly Father which I appreciate very much, to keep praying and seeking for the truth because I did not want to be deceived. I had been spiritually fed by many churches and to a great extent this was a very good thing to have happened. Another aspect of this situation was that some how Heavenly Father was not going to allow me to be long away from going to church. He knew all about my hearts desires and the seeking for truth, so He went above and beyond in my opinion, the call of duty and actually brought church to me. Then something very unusual and extraordinary occurred. I wound up face to face with two young men who asked me if I would be interested in learning about God, Jesus, and Holy Ghost. I thought not again, common here we go. Usually these kind of visits were not awful, but sometimes depending on the people were and their teachings or belief systems were it was difficult once they got going to let them know that I was not going to pellmell join just any ole church or follow any ole belief system. I believe whole heartedly that there is some truth in every church to some degree, but finding the right church that strictly follows scripture teachings without humankind meddling and bringing into the mix human things which are not supposed to be there is a challenge. Even in the best of circumstances, learning about and studying, and praying about not being deceived is a major issue when it comes to uncovering the teachings of scripture. I agreed anyway even though I thought it would be the same ole same ole stuff. One of the first questions they asked me was if I believed there was a prophet on the earth today. My response which was almost immediate, was, “I believe this may be possible.” I didn’t have any idea if there was or wasn’t a prophet on the earth, but I did know that with God any thing could be possible. After we talked a while they asked if it would be ok for them to visit again next week. It was fine with me, so we made a time and date agreement. Actually I almost considered asking them to leave, but something or someone, or some how I felt that this shouldn’t happen. I wasn’t afraid of what they were saying, however it certainly was extremely different from what I had usually heard and was accustomed to hearing. When they were gone I actually was relieved, no idea why it was just something that I felt. Also I wasn’t exactly excited about them returning next week. Strangely though, I also felt that it was supposed to be that they were supposed to be here and return. I didn’t know what to think about any of this. We visited for about two more weeks, then nothing. They completely disappeared. I was relieved and at the same time wondering what was going to happen next and how I was going to figure out what this was all about. Months passed. I have no idea how many by this time because many years jumped in between the beginning of their visit and when the next new set of missionaries arrived. The details about the second set of missionaries are even more sketchy than the first set. They visited one time and then never returned agin. How strange these visitations and then no more for long periods of time. Now we are at the third or fourth set of missionaries. Maybe the third, not sure now. When they showed up, I thought, “here we go again” and we did. This time they kept visiting. Month after month we worked on lessons, shared thoughts about the lessons, beliefs, and many other related topics. Astounded, I actually began to be interested in what they had to tell me. As time passed, eventually I began to read The Book Of Mormon, then pearl Of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants. The book Of Mormon was a major eye opener. It helped me understand many things written about in the bible. This for me was incredible because from my earlier knowledge I thought that this book was some kind of made up stuff that some fellow created out of his head and somehow got people to believe and follow for some strange reason. There was ne place where this Noah fellow was depicted as far as I knew totally wrong. Well, guess who was wrong and totally misunderstood the book? Me, my friend had read this part out of context from the writing and of course we both were in horror at the words written. It turns out that this Noah was a king and not the Noah of the Old Testament. Amazing how people can be misunderstood when there is not enough information for proper understanding. That certainly was an eye opener. Usually after our visit the missionaries would ask me if I had any questions. So far before starting to read The Book Of Mormon, I didn’t have any questions. While reading the book of Mormon I didn’t have any questions. It wasn’t until I had completely read The Book Of Mormon that I started the formulation of many questions. By that time ,they stated asking me about a date for baptism. “I’ve just started asking questions and you expect me to be baptized?” After explaining my situation and what was going on in my head, they eventually agreed to leave the baptism thing drop for a while. I would have dug in my heels and perhaps sent them away but I truly believe that they realized it would be better to wait and not press the baptism stuff. We continued our lessons and I kept asking questions and doing internet research and of course seeking for the truth of everything. I was very, very determined to make certain that I would not be caught up in another church situation that was the same ole some ole or worse. I wanted to make absolutely certain as much as possibly that indeed and in all other ways this church was not a seem good thing and then fell apart later after they got you hooked and deeply intrenched into the church stuff. I wanted to finally not be in search mode. My main concern was to actually find a church that was all about God, Jesus, and holy Ghose without spoon feeding the members, deceiving anyone, or giving the usual almost written in stone sermons word from word that have circulated around for centuries. I did not want to be deceived, nor did I want to wind up in a church which just went through the motions while everyone or almost everyone could not wait to get it over with and go home to their lives so that they could do what they wanted to do. I want a church that was completely honest and forth right with their scripture teachings. I wanted a church that knew how to properly do baptisms. I wanted a church where I had no doubt this was where I was supposed to be. As I began to understand the doctrine, have my questions answered, and finally get conformation that this was indeed and with God’s blessings the place I should be I finally set a date to be baptized. I was baptized into the church on October twenty seventh, two thousand eleven. The following day, October twenty eighth. Two thousand eleven I was confirmed a member of the church. Amazingly enough the last set of missionaries were steadfast in their commitment to help me find my way into the church. They didn’t force, push, or do anything which would have caused me to back away. I know I was a very difficult person to deal with during this process. It wasn’t because I wanted to get rid of them or because I didn’t want to get involved. It was absolutely because I had to know for certain and needed to make absolutely sure that this was the church I had been looking for all of my life. To my surprise as it turned out this was the exact, very church I had been seeking for as far back as I can remember. I could feel in my spirit, my heart, and every fiber of my being that my search was over and God confirmed to me absolutely positively that The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter day Saints was exactly my church home and the very place or right church where I surely was supposed to be. I was thrilled my search was over, I had a super wonderful church family, and There was no conflict with the doctrine. Even having rides to church were working our very, very well. I’ve been in the church for five years and still have rides to church. Church is actually interesting. It is wonderfully peaceful. Sometimes it is so peaceful people have drifted off to a nice very relaxed sleep. Even I had an experience where I was praying and then someone tapped me gently and said “heres the bread.” That was an embarrassing moment. However, I have prayed about this and have not had a repeat of the moment. After that experience I regularly ask Heavenly Father to please don’t let me fall asleep in church. Having a nice and peaceful place to worship does make it easy for falling asleep. People have confessed that it has happened to them, so I suspect the eventually this may occur to me again, hope not, for me, or other church members. I know my writing about church and seeking the church a didn’t know where it was or what it was but I did know that the churches I had visited and tried out didn’t seem to be places I should attend. Oh, I did leave out one part of this part of the story which I feel is very important. I attended one other church before being baptized in The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. This church was ok. My friend who I met because of being in a thrift shop while she was checking out saw my service dog and started telling me about her dogs. Not long after we met she invited me to go to where she was going to church,. Sure, why not try another church, can’t hurt and it might help. These were my thoughts although I never told her that. Besides, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Anyway, we met at church and after service went upstairs to socialize and have a beverage and bagel snack or two. It was fun before the service and after. The service was very similar to other services I had attended so, I figured for some reason I should stick this out until something better comes along. For over a year I attended this church and eventually was attending this church and The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Some of the sermons were nice which I could say also about the non denominational church. Actually, I felt like I had been liberated. I couldn’t get enough of attending both churches. I would get up very early each Sunday and got to the first church, via provided transportation, and then arrive home after the service transfer from the one car to the other, then off I would go to the other church. Sometimes if there was enough time in between rides, I would go into the house and wait. Then if time allowed I would be able to grab a bit of something to sustain me until I returned home in the evening. For me, there was nothing like spending the day in church and being up close and personal with Heavenly Father (God). Sundays were wonderful and marvelous precious days for me. Then and the time is really not that important. However I believe I attended the one church for a year or two, not certain, but it turned out that my transportation fizzled again because the kind and generous folks who were gifting rides to me decided to go to the non denominal church I had attended years ago. Oh well, stuff happens, then you move onto what ever God has in mind for you and your future. So, now this leaves The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter day saints. No longer in search mode and thoroughly enjoying the doctrine and fellowship, I attend this church right now. There have been times when I have needed to remain at home because of medical issues and challenges, but, I’m certain God knows about this and completely understands. Over the years my understanding, relationship with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and Holy Ghost has grown and become much closer. Gladly I’ve been baptized, confirmed, attended the temple and participated in the activities and intend to attend the temple again very soon. I’ve been so excited about explaining and sharing my joy and happiness about finding my permanent church home and having the very best relationship with God, Jesus, Holy Ghost and church members, that I neglected to give information so that you would be able to understand more about my medical issues and situation. If you are squeamish maybe you should consider scanning down until you fine a different topic. Of course you’re welcome to investigate this written description but beware I am a detail person and will usually share as much as possible about a subject. I was born six weeks premature. In this day and time, it would not be a big deal, but back in the fifties it was a very, very huge deal. Sometimes babies didn’t survive because back then what is known about what to do for premature infants was not know many, many years ago. Some babies had different medical issues which were not well known, such as mobility problems, hearing problems, and manual dexterity problems because so many babies wound up either totally blind or having very, very limited vision. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I found out about the other disabilities which resulted from placing a premature baby in to an incubator. Because of the high oxygen content in the incubator environment, the system which distributed oxygen was fooled in to believing there was too much oxygen in certain areas of the body and so would shut down or reduce the amount of oxygen going to the certain parts of the body. My situation was such that fortunately my mother visited me every day which got me out of the incubator for a while. This meant that at times my body distributed oxygen every where properly. Instead of bing completely blind which happened to many innocent babies, I was very, very fortunate to have some useable vision. This seems to be a contradiction, yet my system being fooled into thinking there was too much oxygen actually created an environment where there wasn’t enough oxygen. For this reason, my retinas were oxygen starved. When I was old enough to understand what happened my mother explained all of this to me and, I give my mother humble thanks for visiting me and getting me out of the incubator. And as a matter of fact, I was the first baby to survive. I think I had three to five other siblings who either were still born, miscarried, or at least one I know about had the umbilical chord wrapped around his or her neck. My heart seems to be close to them even if I didn’t have the opportunity to meet and get to know them on this earth. I know that they are with Heavenly Father in heaven and that some day I will get to meet them. Eventually I was allowed to go home and the rest is for later either in another book, or in another part of this book. Meanwhile back to my walk with God which has in one way or other continued from birth until this very day. Slowly as I matured and learned more about life, Heavenly Father, and society, my sense grew and my understanding and appreciation for Heavenly Father (God)and for the blessings (gifts from God) which fell from heaven showed me that I could rely on God or other wise Heavenly Father to be aware of me and looking out for my best interest provided I was on the straight and narrow path and doing my best. This at least is how I feel about the circumstances of life and my experiences thus far. This is important and actually is the pivital reasons for the recent events which started me writing this novel for the NaNoWriMo event this November. Seriously I could not believe I was doing this really, was I out of my mind? I guess so because my mind is smaller than my body. God knows what He is doing, so several hours ago most likely November seven, two thousand sixteen, I signed up as in created what I needed to write this novel and get the software I required for participating in this years NaNo. I started writing this novel sometime between 12:00AM and maybe about 3:30AM. I know this is Heavenly Fathers idea because things happened unannounced and unawares that Heavenly Father is helping me with this project. He does not start something and quit. He will not, unless asked to leave, abandon anyone who is willing and wanting Him in their lives. I know He is helping me write this story and will give me what I need to reach my goal. I expect to be successful, then as a bonus be able to edit this manuscript soon after NaNo is completed. This is the first step to sharing with you my adventure. After the first draft, I will work through the word art and do more tweaking, editing, and adding to information as needed. There is a huge amount of things to share with you, however I’m almost falling asleep, so will stop writing and get some sleep and then return later. Now that I’ve had some sleep I will be able to continue telling my story about my adventure this summer. So far I’ve been able to add quite a bit of information in to this book. This has been a challenge however Heavenly Father is helping me conquest this project step by step, letter by letter, word by word, and so forth so that at the end of this month November I will successfully be a NaNoWriMo winner. For me the idea of winning is nice however, it is more important to share the events in my life with you. NaNo is the catelist for giving me a deadline for completing this project and then when I go to the editing process I will be able to rely on the NaNo information on their website to guide me and get this manuscript ready for publication. One of the best ways to accomplish something you would want to achieve is to tell people that you want to do whatever it is within a certain amount of time. This helps to hold you or me or someone accountable for their actions or inactions and give a reason for getting the job done on time. I’m making progress which is very, very good because furthering my writing is a major reason why I came to Arkansas. There is a great likelihood that had I stayed in Maryland that I would not have entered this years NaNoWriMo challenge. Until the seventh of this month I had nothing I knew of to write about so did not even entertain the idea of entering this years nano competition challenge. It is amazing how Heavenly Father works in our lives and how by being aware of the Holy Ghost and the promptings, we can be directed to act in certain ways so that we progress and accomplish things which are for our benefit. I have learned a lot about my capabilities and one not so obvious fact is that since November seventh two thousand sixteen to November ten two thousand sixteen, I have written almost twenty thousand words for the NaNo challenge. All day I was not able to do any writing for this project because I had medical activities to attend to, took care of my animal family members, and needed to spend time doing some activities of daily living for myself. Having done nothing to forward this project until tonight whatever time it may be, I will need to type away and get as much information recorded electronically as precisely and quickly as possible. My motivation is: I do not want to fail at this attempt, there is an opportunity to get Scrivner at fifty per cent off the regular price, and this is a major incentive for me to be successful. I also want as much of this information written before it becomes a faded memory. Also, I know I have the ability to do this because Heavenly Father is assisting me as I make the attempt. So, there is no excuse nor reason for me to fail. I will be very successful at writing this NaNo novel. Because of readers and the fact that I am able to share helpful information while telling my story of my huge move, I have to focus on doing the best possible job for the delight of everyone who reads this book. I strive to write with might from Heavenly Father, for readers delight and also informative and useful information which would brighten their days and help them through challenges and events that happen in their lives. New thoughts have entered my mind so it is time to elaborate upon them. During the month I was packing I did no writing and very, very little art work. For several months actually I hardly wrote anything or even was active on the writing.com web site. My portfolio is located at this internet address: http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/vpbanjo You are welcome to join me by signing up at: http://www.Writing.Com?rfrid=vpbanjo It is important for this to be known because now that I’m here and settled reasonably well, as far as I can remember, I have managed to write a little bit or a lot each day which is dependent on other necessary activities. I would call this a very successful success! The writing process seems to be getting easier for me and my knowledge is growing because of my effort to remember all the big and little details of this adventure and the events leading up to this major life changing decision. I did a review today and actually went into some technical issues about the word art so that the writer would be aware of how the situation affected me. This has made everything I did and had to accomplish for the trip well worth every effort. As long as I learn and grow and then am able to use these experiences and knowledge to help people whatever I do is well worth every effort. Amazing and wonderful is the work of the Lord who I’m absolutely certain is helping and giving this opportunity to me so that I can be aware of my potential as a writer. I very much enjoy writing for Him and sharing my heart felt thoughts and emotions for Him and about Him. This is a wonderful part of my relationship with Him and a great way to honor and share with readers everything I know and understand about Heavenly Father, Jesus, Holy Ghost and scripture. I know this is often from my interpretation from feelings and experiences, however I also know that the influence of the Holy Ghost and his guidance will show other people things which I am unable to share with them. This way it is a nice mix of some of my influence and that of the Holy Ghost. Wow, being here certainly has caused me to see things a lot differently. My purpose for making a mention of my paain medication pump is to be very thankful to Him, and give thanks to my Heavenly Father and to mention that I feel ok and things are fine. I do not hear any beeping. Last night I talked with a friend who is a nurse, although she is retired, yet she still has her license, who told me I should use the therapeutic essential oils I have, which would help with relaxation. She said that she would call me tomorrow with more information about what oils I could use and to see how I was doing. Fortunately I did ask her what the symptoms were for withdraw and she explained them to me. Now that I know what to look for I feel that I will be able to sooner rather than later realize what is happening which would give me an advantage or advanced opportunity to react and do something should I have a need for medical help. I have belief and faith that my Heavenly Father is and will take care of me. There have been many times when He has sent the help I needed when I was unaware of this need, which was a major surprise and relief, which I very much appreciate. Fortunately it is now Sunday, November twentieth two thousand sixteen and Aside from getting a cold I am doing very nicely. Another issue however which I should mention is that I have more bacteria in my bladder than I should, so am going to need to irrigate with sterol water and food grade hydrogen peroxide. I will not go into the details about this now but perhaps may consider sharing the story about how I started using this for UTI’s at another time and place. I just spent about fifteen to twenty minutes outside with Bella enjoying the warmth of the sun and allowing her to lay in the sunlight to enjoy warming her bones and relax. While I was watching her and looking around at the scenery it occurred to me, that there was more of a view of the mountain range that I was not able to see weeks before. Enough of the leaves have fallen to expose more scenery and uncover the slope of the mountain. It is for me a very, very beautiful sight. The trees and bushes as well as other growth have shed their green outfits which have left them almost naked and showing all the details of patterns of their limbs and trunks. The leaves which remain hanging limp, shriveled and lifeless are painted with red, yellow, brown, and variegated versions of these colors. Very little green is visible which makes it evident that fall is here and winter will soon be on it’s way. Fortunately for me because the evenings are getting much cooler I have some electric heaters to help keep the inside temperature at a reasonable degree of comfortable living experience. At night it has been getting cold enough for me to shiver when I need to take Bella out for her last time before we go to bed. During the day it is a nice some where in the upper sixties or lower seventies and at night it has gone as low as the upper thirties and lower forties. I do not know what the temperatures are in Maryland and really it does not matter. It is more of a curiosity and wanting to compare the differences between both places. The storms in this area, are interesting to me and I have been trying to take in every detail of what I experience here and remember my experiences in Maryland so that I can present the differences by doing a kind of side by side comparison. One of the biggest differences which I noticed almost immediately was that to me the thunder seemed extremely and unusually different. When it would thunder, it seemed to have a very different approach from what it did in Maryland. More than likely it has something to do with the fact that living here I am at a much higher elevation. Another factor is being surrounded by mountains, the lack of major population, and because there are fewer people around here, there is fewer stores which leaves plenty of room for a vast amount of trees. There are a mega huge amount of beautiful magnificent trees all over the place. Much of the natural environment has not been disturbed and many of the people respect the blessings given to them here on this earth so do not choose to deface our precious planet. Another possibility is having many bodies of water which are more like streams and rivers, ponds, and other waters. … my pump just beeped…it is later afternoon on Friday November eleventh two thousand and sixteen… small rivers and ponds, compared to larger bodies. One more consideration may be having this area farther away from huge bodies of water like the Chesapeake Bay, atlantic ocean, and other water ways. The lay of the land may also have much to do with the way sound transmits from one direction to another. Some or all of these situations may be a reason or reasons for storms here to be different. I mentioned my pump while in the middle of a sentence because although I have been told about the situation, I need a record of the events. It seems like the right thing to do for now. In Maryland where I live the land is more flat and there are much more fewer trees, shrubbery, and other natural things of nature. Major roads and streets along with beltways criss cross the area and leave little to no buffers to change the way sounds are delivered during a storm. The water ways are of very different shapes sizes and even have been changed so that they do not any more follow their natural courses. Where I lived in Maryland it was at a much lower elevation and actually I needed to travel for about over an hour in order to get into the mountains. I think I was living very close to sea level. The mountains are much farther away, and there is a very huge population which has decided that we require and need many, strip mall stores and shopping centers not to mention the huge malls which are scattered all around through out Annapolis to baltimore, and then Washington DC to areas far north until maybe Hegirs town or further. There are some trees but sadly many have been cut down in the false belief that the shopping areas and business offices are much more important than having fresh unpolluted air and water. I’m very unhappy about how extensively the natural environment has been disturbed, rearranged, and desecrated. I know that it may also be possible for the artificial lighting and pollution to effect the way nature behaves. Also because of the drastic differences in the environments between the two places I needed to find a place where much of the Maryland environment did not exist and where the life styles were more relaxed and inviting. The rush, rush of rural and city life was no longer something I wanted to experience or be a part of anymore. When I hear the thunder it may seem different to me because of my hearing loss, however I have had hearing loss for many, many years so it seems to me that this may very well be a moot point. The thunder is to me much louder, deep and roaring as it rolls across the sky. It can start from very far away and by the time it reacher over head it has rumbled for a much longer time than the Maryland thunder seems to do, and it still has not trailed off yet. It is almost like it has many voices and more different voices than the thunder produced in Maryland. It is also much closer and sometimes feels like it is trying to sit on my head like a hat. When the sun rises in the morning around here it is as if the sky lights up like a back lighting effect and then starts changing colors, and very gradually it lifts it’s head over the mountain top trying to sneak up on me. When it is fully in view it is as if the sun is sitting across a table staring at me as we enjoy the beginning of our day. In Maryland for me it is like the sun rises but it is on stage and is almost a matter of seeing it on stage than being lifted high to shine upon the earth. Her in Arkansas the sun is much closer or I am much higher and it is almost like I could reach out and touch the sun. I guess the different view points from location to location make a major difference in how things appear. Actually nothing against the Maryland views of nature, however I thoroughly much better enjoy the marvelous and fantastic view I have here. This observation has been during the late summer and fall months, so I will need to closely observe the sunrise now and share the differences I find with you. The clouds here seem to be of a different density and nature. Their shapes and formations are to me very different. Although they can be gentle in their appearance as so too the clouds in Maryland, the Arkansas clouds are closer fluffier and denser looking in my opinion. Perhaps being at a higher elevation I am able to see more details or may be they are actually different. The whiteness here in the clouds seems to be more vivid and whiter than white compared to the more off white appearance of the clouds in Maryland. Perhaps the amount of pollution in Maryland is effecting the true colors of the clouds and the sky. When there are storm clouds, these clouds seem much more huge here than they were back in Maryland. The thickness and massive spread are something to behold. Even the various shapes and clusters are as far as I can see different. They are or seem, closer thicker, or more dense, more vast, and more full of various shapes and different colors than I’ve ever seen in Maryland. They seem more like they are alive and dancing around putting on a show for any one who may be watching their performance. Oh, one thing which has just now come to my mind about the clouds and the sun setting around here and while I am writing about clouds I though I will add this bit of information into this paragraph. When the sun sets often it paints beautiful hues of pink orange and a mixture of these colors onto the clouds. I have witnessed this in Maryland but here it is much more vibrant and spectacular. The hues seem to me to be more vivid or more like an oil painting rather than a water color painting. The way the atmosphere and air is around seems to be is, much more cleaner, clear, and alive. It for me, feels much lighter. In Maryland it often felt thick and seemed more depressed and heavy. The fog was so thick it seemed you could cut it with a knife. Around Arkansas the fog is thick but it may also be that it is actually cloud cover because the clouds can become so close to the mountains that it seems like fog rather than the cloud cover. I need to try to be aware of the difference between the two so that I know what is what and actually what to call the event. Observing the weather and comparing the differences makes it clear to me that I made the right choice to change my location in a huge way and change my life style in search of better health and financial freedom. The trees, bushes, and other green plants and grasses, and weeds even are varied yet different from what grows in Maryland. Some of what is growing in Maryland also grows here. However, with the difference in environment these distinct differences in the growing season and what enjoys growing here creates an environment where other species of plant life grown here which may not grow in Maryland. My understanding is that the growing season is much longer here. Because we have a longer spring, summer, and fall the amount of storms and how the weather shows the change of season is a bit different. For a long time if the leaves were not falling of the trees, it would not have for me been easy to know that fall was in the air. It still seemed like late summer to me. I am looking forward to a longer growing season here and having my gardens for almost all year. We had more rain this year during the summer so it will be interesting to find out what happens next year. Somehow I think the kinds of trees and bushes have an effect on how the storms travel across this area. There are so many trees which I think and believe is a very good thing that we have a much better and cleaner environment. The storms seem to help clean up the areas much better than back east. Truthfully I still do not miss Maryland at all. I do wish my friends were here with me and that my sister was here so we could be able to enjoy each others company and have a wonderful time in this better environment, but I do not feel home sick at all nor do I wish to return to Maryland. Even though I occasionally think about visiting with my sister and friends I really do not want to have to return to Maryland to see them. I much, much more prefer having them come out here for a visit or better still having them move out here with me. Another observation about the weather and when it rains which may be just for this season or perhaps the difference in Maryland and Arkansas weather is that when it rains it can really pour down buckets of water. The sounds of the rain on the roof tops sounded like someone was pounding to try to get inside. This has I know a lot ot do with the way the roofs are constructed however it still seemed to be dramatically different. Our roads are not paved so when we have a torrential down pour the water runs down the gully’s and sometimes over flows the roads making them almost impossible to use. We had enough rain for the gullies to have running high streams, which almost over flowed and in some areas did over flow. Sometimes the rain was so heavy you could not see across the street. I guess it was like having a blizzard but is was actually only because of severely heavy rain fall. A scary situation after the storm, was that this single lane bridge with just enough room for a car to pass over had been washed out on one side enough to see some of the foundation. When it was being repaired they had to put in a conduit so that if severe rains came again this might prevent this from happening again. Hopefully this bridge will have some guard rails in the near future. As far as I know it never has had them. This for me is a serious danger to whoever uses this bridge. My friend told me about a similar bridge where two people were killed because there was no guard rail to protect them. I do know that provided the driver is careful when transitioning from the gravel onto the cement surface of the bridge, that it is reasonably safe to travel. I had no idea that these types of bridges existed. It does look like a quaint bridge and for a bridge may even be cute. A huge difference around here is as far as I can find out the hospitals are of a much greater distances away, than they are in Maryland. In my situation, it would be wonderful having a hospital closer. I wish there was at least one hospital nearer than about an hour away. I am and will trust Heavenly Father for my health and safety as well as having in place a plan for me and anyone who may have a need for medical help. Back east the stores are very, very plentiful and it seemed to me never ending with having more stores than we actually need. Very sad situation for Maryland and places like New York for example or California are that there is so much crowding, building, stores, and things which we as a people think and believe we need that we are destroying our planet which is a precious gift form Heavenly Father. As we either blatantly or unknowingly destroy our planet earth we are causing ourselves huge and major problems which include pollution and illness. The original plans for us, as I understand it, were for us to have a carefree and sickness free life or almost by taking care of this planet as we should, and taking care of each other. Unfortunately things changed and now we have a mess. This was until the fall of man which sadly began all of these challenging issues and problems. I am happy to be as far away from all of these troublesome and horrible things but sad because we have allowed this to happen. What are we supposed to do when it becomes so polluted and corrupt around here, I know not except that prayer is powerful. I have no ideas yet, however I hope Heavenly Father shares with me and everyone what it is we should do and then that we all take heed and start repairing all of the damages. On the bright side is that I have a wonderful place where I am able to enjoy nature, write and do my art work, and most importantly which should have been listed first, spend time with Heavenly Father and enlarge and build my relationship with Him. It is peaceful and mostly quiet unless someone is driving off or onto the mountain. Then you are able to hear the tires rolling along the stone and dirt road. Other sounds which I hear are the domestic and wild animals as they communicate to one another. Very rarely do I hear a plane over head or any flying machine. In Maryland it seemed that about every fifteen minutes at the least a plane, helicopter, private plane, or some other flying machine was flying through the air either taking off, landing, or searching for someone or something. I do not miss the flying machines noises and actually do not think of them however the idea of them came to my mind I guess because I was trying to think of noises I was being bombarded with when I was on the east coast. There are transformers her and there in the area, but they are far enough away that I am unaware of them. Compared to the constant traffic of cars, trucks, busses, and other machinery it is as quiet as a church around here. We are not on top of one another either. From my front door I can not see any thing but the trees and bushes with the mountain range afar off in the background creating a breath taking scene. Listening to the crickets and frogs at night serenading the night with their songs is relaxing and even reassuring because I know that if they are so close then I have plenty of room between me and my neighbors to enjoy what I came her for and yet am close enough that if necessity of some sort, or need arises for helping one another we are able to arrive quickly to each others places and lend assistance. When I took Bella out a few minutes ago, I noticed it was starting to cool down which means that the sun is low enough to not keep the roof and walls of my cabin warm. Thank you Heavenly Father for the electric heaters. I hope in the near future to be able to acquire a wood stove or a propane heat source. I would prefer a stove that is able to burn a multi medium fuel source materials, but more importantly I believe and think that very best heat source is a masonry heater. I think it is one of the most efficient and best means of producing heat and depending on the design it is possible to cook and bake with these structures. It is a thick structure with tubing or some kind of channels running through the interior which allows heat to make it’s way through out the brick or appropriate materials such as stone, very warm. This radiant heat source will last for seven to ten hours and even in some cases over night and into part of the day, according to the information I read last night. Hopefully I will have help building one of these structures and very soon have a marvelous source for producing heat. When this heat source is built properly it will last for centuries and is also a wonderful tool for cooking and heating food and drink. Another perk about this item is that it is possible to heat water and have hot water available when ever it is needed but I do not know the details yet. Another tool I would like to have in place as soon as possible is solar electricity. This would be wonderful however I need to decide if it should be independent of the grid, or if it should be both. If I have part of the solar system as a back up system it would solve the problem of power outages. Having on grid solar system would enable me to sell back to the electric company the electricity I do not use which would shrink my electric bill. One way I could reduce my electricity usage is by getting enough solar power to run the items such as refrigerator dryer, and freezer, that use about fifty per cent of electricity in our homes. Air conditioning and heat now that I think of it eat up fifty per cent or more electricity. So, my hope and plans are to step by step acquire the solar panels and accessories I need to start my solar electricity generating self contained process. Bella is in need of a huge fenced in ares so I have spread the word and am waiting for the fence to arrive. It has been difficult for her, my friend and me because Bella has become used to roaming freely. A little while ago, she hurt herself because of a dog fight she went to investigate. The next day she wondered too far away from home and one of the neighbors started shooting to run her off. I know this because of what my next door neighbor told my friend. So, now I am allowing her out side on a cable and my friend is visiting at least once a day to take her for a walk. It is a major blessing having the help of my friend. She has done so much for me. I hope very, very soon my power wheelchair that is still at my friends will be driven up here so that I can find out if it is useable for taking Bella for walks. The area is rocky however I think if I am careful about where I roll around I should be able to enjoy a walk with my service dog. I am blessed with new freedom because I now have my power wheelchair and am indeed thrilled to report that I am able to take Bella for walks. Another fantastic event is being able to see more of my property. There are places where the view around is spectacular. A few days ago one of the people from church brought the well pipe I need so that I can have running water. I expect and have hope that the water tank and pump will be installed very, very soon. This will be a wonderful gift and miracle from my Heavenly Father. Another project I hope at the very latest to complete before or by the time spring arrives is to cover over the landings or turn arounds and the ramps. When we have rainy weather or ice, or anything which I would rather not have to be in any more than absolutely necessary, it would be wonderful for these areas to be covered with a clear roof of some kind. Eventually I would like to have a wrap around porch for my cabin. Have you noticed I have not mentioned the television? I enjoy watching certain programs especially true life and educational programs, however for me having access to a television is not a necessity. The only reason I am interested in having a television is so that I can watch Deadliest Catch, Dog Whisperer, NCIS, BYU channel, and a few dvd’s which I very much enjoy. Other wise I could care less about having a television. My time is more enjoyable when I am reading, writing, spending time with my animal family, and spending time with my friends. Studying scripture and reading related books is awesome and a joy and happiness to my heart and entire being. I like the idea that Heavenly Father is available all day and all night. Spending time outside enjoying all that nature has to offer is better than going to a concert or sporting event. Having my computer and internet access is a marvelous and wonderful gift and tool from Heavenly Father. It allows me to communicate with many people all over the Uniter States and through out the world. I can do research, write, read, and even enjoy creating art and novels. This is one blessing that I use the most around here. The internet service is not the same here as it is in Maryland. In Maryland I had fios. Here the only service available is DSL. Unfortunately because of my remote location it is a bit more expensive for having a phone and internet access. I am very, very grateful for the phone also because I can stay in touch with everyone back east. Another perk for having a phone is being able to get help when help is required. My friend and I are able to chat and plan our day so that we have an idea about what to expect and the approximate time line for getting together and taking care of whatever I need or sometimes something she may need. Occasionally there are things I am able to do to help my friends which is nice because often I am the one receiving the help. It would be very nice for me to be able to do more to help people. I am very happy to be here. And especially now because things are getting better and improving by leaps and bounds, so that I can be and have more independence. It takes some very special and sometimes arduous work to have an environment that allows a person who lives with a disABILITY to be as independent as possible. For everything the church has done for me to get me closer to this independence, I am truly thankful. I did not know that I did not know so I did not know to ask, or consider the different situations that were awaiting me here. Having been in the mountains in Maryland while able to visit with a friend I thought it would be similar out there. Where she lives the roads are paved or at least covered with something that makes them non dirt roads. Here the roads are rocky and dirt which is bumpy to roll on but that is ok. Living in this rural environment is well worth it for me. Actually I enjoy the idea that the roads areas close to nature as possible. Because of my multiple disABILITY situation, it is much more complicated than for someone who has a disABILITY. When I need to for example travel, I must pack for me, my service dog Bella, my visual disABILITY, my hearing loss disABILITY, and most importantly my mobility disABILITY. Certainly I know that many people see someone who has something different like disABILITY, or that seems to be leaving them more of a drain on society as a problem or someone who is worthless, but in the eyes of Heavenly Father everyone matters and has worth. It is true that in some cases it seems that there is no reason for a severly disABLED person to live however, I saw such a person many times and they do often passively bring something special to the lives of other people with whom they are involved with and close to because they show how the simpliest things like enjoying the warmth of the sun can make life worth living. When they smile and have joy because someone is paying attention to them it is a precious and joyful event which can touch the heart of even the most hard boiled person on this earth. Other people who are more able to interact can bring to life and a persons heart pure love as too the person who passively enjoys what nature and life has to offer. I hope and pray that society does not loose connection with nature, spirit (God), and the fact that we all have value and worth. If I had been placed in an institution which was recommended when I was an infant, I would not have achieved and successfully accomplished the things which are considered productive activities. Fortunately Heavenly Father has blessed we with the ability to write this book which should benefit as many people as possible who enjoy reading. My ability to play music and therefore having an interest in piano tuning caused me to act upon the knowledge of the school in Vancouver Washington, and enjoying art was the catalyst for me dabbling with all kinds of mediums and creating different artistic works. I know that if given the chance many people who are living with disABILITY are able to contribute to life and society, by helping to keep this planet running smoothly, as we work together, because this place is all we have. Most importantly consider how you would feel if you were disABLED and then people saw you in a different manner. As far as Heavenly Father is concerned all life is precious. We should take care of each other and help each other rather than fight with each other. Life is short and we need to do our best to be as Jesus asked us to be for one another, for Him, and for the sake of our salvation. When things seem bleak go outside and enjoy nature. Take in the beauty of things and allow the sun to give you a warm hug. You and everyone has worth and matters to Heavenly Father, me, and many other people. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Take one step at a time and do not quiet. Sometimes is helps to talk with someone. For me usually I am upbeat and have a sense of adventure, however there are times when I come unglued, or get seriously mega upset, but I work at not allowing life to push me around and push me down. There is too much to enjoy and share with friends. I hold onto the iron rod of scripture, trust Heavenly Father, have a mini short term pity party when absolutely necessary, fly off at the handle only for venting purposes and working through the issues, and then, give myself time to calm down and ponder what to do and how to straighten out the dilemma. Sometimes I talk with friends and sometimes I fuss using the written words, but after doing these things I know that it is worth taking in each breath and embracing this life and nature with full intent to prosper and thrive so that I can reach out to someone and help them gain the strength and stamina they need to renew their faith and efforts for enjoying life and being fully engaged with their favorite activities. Being here very, very close to nature allowes me to much more easily accomplish being happy and full of joy. For these blessings I am truly grateful and appreciate all that I have. Being able to do the simplest things is a reason to celebrate life a precious gift from Heavenly Father. I have learned more of this and had the opportunity to strengthen my faith muscles because of the challenges of moving and trying to get things situated so that I have as much mobility and independence as possible. When I think about all the possibilities and enjoyable activities and adventures I can have out here, it is for me like having one wonderful holiday celebration after another. Day by day I look forward to each and every improvement which gets me closer and closer to having my environment set up just the way I need it and this is a blessing for more and more independence. I am now seeing my friend not every day which is good from an independence point of view, however, I still enjoy our visits. Being more independent is great especially because I know that being self reliant and having the ability to rely on myself is reassuring and the way Heavenly Father wants every person to be able to become. Helping people is something I enjoy doing but it seems to me that far more people have helped me than I have helped them. I could get upset and depressed about this but I choose not to do so because eventually everything evens out and works out no matter if it is here on earth or in heaven. I know that no matter what happens Heavenly Father is aware of everything. Although He is always with me, sometimes I get lost and when God seems far away I am the one who moved. Most of the time it is because of getting distracted and not focusing on the things of Heavenly Father and heaven which are other reasons why I am here. I want to have a good and close relation with Heavenly Father. Recently I was able to spend time with some friends I met at church. They have invested a lot of time helping me get things at the cabin straightened out so that I can have as independence as possible. Also we had the chance to discuss the book and other thing she was working on and to view her blog author website. Althohough this was a good start I could tell that there were places and things which could greatly be improved.. As we checked out each section, we discussed the good points and the points which needed to be edited added to or completely rewritten. She asked me how much I would charge to help with the website and I told her that I believe in the barter system. Because she was already helping me and now that I had a way to help her together we would be able to help each other. As of now I need to send information which she is waiting for and then we will be able to go to the next step. She is looking for her information for the website and after finds it, we will be able to work on her website together I knew that Heavenly Father wanted me to be here to help and this is absolute proof that I am where I am supposed to be doing what I am supposed to be doing. As more is revealed about my mountain adventure and what ways that Heavenly Father reveals things that I am supposed to do, I would like to share them with you. When this book is finished there is a possibility that I may write another so that this story is continued and the information may lift up peoples spirits, help them with information they seek so they have knowledge which is of great benefit to them, and have a get a way through reading and enjoying whatever their imagination brings to them. More adventures are revealed regularly. Today for example, I had to take Bella outside so that she could relieve herself. Normally this would not be a big deal especially now that I have my power wheelchair, or another name for this durable medical equipment is electric wheelchair. Some people say electric chair at which point, I in a bit of a joking manner remind them that I had committed no such crime that would justify me being executed by electric chair. They usually respond by an “oh, or some similar statement. It is proper to refer to this equipment as power wheelchair or electric wheelchair, much better and much preferred. It took much longer for Bella and I to be ready to go outside because it was raining by the bucket full. Fortunately by the time we were ready to take our walk, the rain had subsided enough that we would get damp rather then wet. Fortunately I had a jacket available which seems to repel rain decently enough, and I had my rain pants which are very, very valuable to me because when sitting the lap is the part of the body which will get the wettest most of the time. Even with a rain coat my lap is often wet by the time I would be able to get inside. It is much better to have some kind of lap cover for people who use wheelchairs for mobility. A rain coat is good but a large poncho is better because these items usually also cover the lap. Another option is for someone to have a rain coat and rain pants. For me to get into rain pants it takes a lot of time and effort, so I usually put my legs in and then use the butt side up over my lap. Basically it is to my advantage to put my rain pants on backwards. When ever possible I try to think outside the box so that I can figure out how to get something accomplished even if it means doing extremely different from the way most people would do things. With the weather going from warm these past few days of about a week, and now another cold front is venturing into our area, I will have to manage to keep enough heat until I can find a viable solution for this winter. I’ve thought about propane and although it is a way for me to cook and keep warm, I still think that a wood stove which allows for cooking, and or a masonry heater would ultimately be my best options. True I would need to rely on someone to get fire wood for me, but with basically a small area of maybe six hundred to eight hundred square feet, I would not need a big wood stove or a big masonry heater. I prefer the masonry heater given the opportunity to acquire or simply put, get one. Hopefully another possibility would be the solar heat box which would help along with the electric heater I am using right now. Today is Friday November eighteenth I think and so I will keep track of the amount of time it takes me to get another heat source. I could get an oil filled radiator which is around sixty dollars but it still is not exactly the best option because of the possibility of electric outages. It has become cold again and windy to add to the chill. When I returned from taking Bella out for her last trip before going to bed, the wind seemed similar to wind during a blizzard but not with the major force. Being on top of the mountain has advantages and disadvantages yet with everything, I am glad to have this opportunity and be able to honor and glorify Heavenly Father from whom everything is come and this especially includes our blessings. Most of the things that went into storage are still in storage because the work on the cabin has not been completed. My understanding is that the church members plan to finish doing the ceiling with white paneling and I hope also to caulk and seal the seams of the dry wall. Then I should be able to get my stuff out of the storage place. I do really appreciate everything that they have done for me. For sure they have gone above and beyond the call of duty. May Heavenly Father richly bless them. Our walk was short and fortunately Bella did what she needed to do. The only way I could figure out how to withstand the wind and cold was to layer with what I had available. My friend loaned a sweat shirt hoodie to me, I have a shell like nylon very, very thing jacket and the thing is a very light weight either wind breaker, or some kind of rain jacket. With these three things on I felt the cold but it was not too bad. A challenge for people who have poor circulation especially in their lower extremities is managing to keep their legs and feet warm. The only thing I can think of right now is to manage to get two pair of pants on and then, maybe this may be more trouble then it is worth because it means trying to get them off while inside. There is a sack like thing which is very, very expensive but would be well worth trying to get because it is designed for people who use wheelchairs. It would solve the problem of keeping the legs and feet warm in very, very cold situations. All I remember about these things is that they are in the Rolly Moden catalog. It is also beginning to be very, very clear and important for me to find a non electric and non propane means of having heat. I should find out about getting propane and find out about getting a wood stove or preferably a masonry heater. Either way or maybe both ways this is going to take money and I prefer to not need to go into debt because in the long run it increases the price of the product immensely, and it also is something that can get any person into bondage because of the way debt is structured. Debt is designed to keep a person poor or at least struggling to pay the bills. In scripture we are warned against getting into debt. Although I have heard this many times said in many different ways, it did not sink in like it did today while I was reading. Today being Friday November eighteenth is the day when I finally after all of these years understand in a special way never before that debt is the enemy of financial freedom and maybe freedom in general. I want to be financially independent and being in debt is creating the opposite of what I want, so my plans are to spend as little as possible, live within my means, not focus on the things of this world, and as soon as possible pay down my debt. When I do these things I will not need to worry about how I am supposed to pay the bills. Another part of my plan is to the best ability possibly make certain that I am very, very careful with the financial blessings given to me from and by Heavenly Father. Another important part of financial freedom for me is tithing. I know that Heavenly Father does not need my money or rather the money He has gifted to me. I do know that it is not actually mine as far as I am concerned. It is indeed the property of Heavenly Father so I need to be careful with His money. By following the commandments and ordinances, tithing, and being the missionary that I should be I will be able to enjoy my life given to me from Heavenly Father to the fullest. Now, this does not mean that I will not have challenges, problems, and difficulties, these things are a part of life. What it does mean is that I will have my treasures waiting for me in heaven. The most wonderful and precious treasure is to be in Heaven with God my Heavenly Father, Jesus, and all of those who already are in heaven. Everyone will have eternal life, the question is where are you going to spend eternity? I believe that scripture is the best guide for managing life on this earth and for finding our way back to Heavenly Father. I know that everyone does not believe the same things, yet I need to share these things because in every fiber of my being, I feel and know for my self that God, my heavenly Father is real and that He is able to do all things. This is one of the reasons I decided to venture to this wonderful place. I know there is a purpose for me being here besides enjoying all of nature and writing and the other activities I enjoy. Self reliance is a great thing to be able to have and it is a huge blessing, yet I know that this is a gift from Heavenly Father to me and that without Him I would be able to do nothing or at best much far less then I am able to do now. As my relationship with Heavenly Father has developed and grown, I have learned that the closer I to get to Heavenly Father by following the prompting of the spirit, the better things are not because of the lack of challenges, but more because through all challenges I am better able to withstand the troubles that come with them. I have less stress, worries, and instead of these have more peace, joy, happiness, and strength, to do what it is I should do for Heavenly Father. * For many years especially when I understood what a cabin and a mountain was, I dreamed of having my own cabin on my own mountain. I had no idea how this was going to happen however, I held onto this idea. For years my idea would flit in and around my head then go quiet and rest a while. Then the memory would return and I would indulge in speculation and dreaming about how things would be when I got my cabin on the mountain. Such are the dreams of a child who has a sense of adventure. Another dream was being a professional musician which partly came true. I was able to make pocket money playing drums on the weekend. Sometimes I played bass guitar but usually this was rare and actually,I preferred the drums. Heavenly Father has allowed me to have meny dreams come true. I figured as I slowly got closer and closer to my cabin on a mountain I would materialize in His timing. Eventually I was able to buy a house and it was kinda on a hill, so I figured this was most likely the closest I was going to get to having my own private mountain with a cabin. I wanted to own and have all of the mountain to myself. Now, how selfish can anyone manage to be? I suspected that Heavenly Father was not saying no to my cabin or my mountain. He was waiting for me to come to my senses. Eventually more wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and some other necessities gave way so that I would change my intensions and plans for my cabin and my mountain. As these changes occurred and I became more humble and more willing to share my mountain…hey who’se mountain is it anyway? Why I thought I would own anything which ultimately belongs to God I’ll never know and will not be able to explain nor replace as He had created. When I got the house there were many changes which were needed because I was now a wheelchair user and required ramps and wider doors and many things. Oh, well, it is what it is and I would need to research everything. Step by step renovations were made mostly voluntarily because of people from church helping, and my friends as well as an organization or two. The house wasn’t perfect but it was livable and had plenty of potential. One year there were major remodeling activities happening. This allowed for wider doors, ramps which I would be able to use by myself, A new roof meant no more leaks and the floor plan was changed so that I had as easy as possible negotiating space for using my wheelchair for mobility. My cabin on the mountain was much better even though it wasn’t actually a cabin on a mountain. I was content and happy to be where I was and for many years had no problem doing activities each day and being grateful to heavenly Father for His plans for me. By this time my pain was more than through the roof and I needed a lot of help. Fortunately I had services from two different organizations which did not force me to be placed in a nursing home. My belief was strong and so my faith grew and strengthened also. Many times I had reasons for being humbly grateful and thankful. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father, my friends, and even strangers were making it possible for me to be in this house in that particular neighborhood. This may seem a bit strange, but I was below the poverty level and yet I was richer than the richest billionaire because of what Heavenly Father had done for me. The house had been renovated from top to bottom and front to back, and side to side. My programs gave me the medical supplies, equipment, and other related necessities which I would definitely need to survive independently or interdependently at home. My joy was over flowing and my happiness was completely full within me. I had no reason to complain and tried to be thankful and full of gratitude every day and every second of every day. Sometimes I would get frustrated or upset over something, then after calming down realized that I needed to be aware of how I reacted and responded to something or someone. I’m still trying to improve on these things. You know that saying, when to going gets tough the tough get going. I made up my mind I would work harder and pray more for me to know and have help becoming more like Jesus. Eventually I realized that all I needed to do was pray, keep the steam from coming out of me, and rely on Heavenly Father. This was fine, the challenge was trusting that Heavenly Father would do what He promised He would do in scripture. Again, I held onto my belief, my faith grew, and my learning to trust Heavenly Father took giant steps in the right direction. Unfamiliar at this time with having a testimony I consider that progress I made to be remarkable even with Heavenly Father guiding my through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. One event I should elaborate on before I get into more of this story is when I was baptized at my friends church. My friend M and another friend A were very, very concerned and worried about my soul and eternal life situation. They regularly asked me about being baptized, and even offered scripture about this to me for me to study. I studied as much as possible and fart as I could. As time passed they become more filled with urgency and because of this their actions and statements caused me to feel much pressure to be baptized. I told them I was going as fast as I could and understood how important this is but I had already been baptized as a baby. Actually I was sprinkled. Baptism comes from baptizo which means to dip, dunk, or submerge. Sprinkling doesn’t count and more importantly is it unnecessary actually no need to have an infant baptized. This I learned before LDS, and becoming a member of the church. Why in the world would anyone get to thinking an infant needed to be baptized? Because often people do not understand that the age of accountability is eight years old. Children have not the understanding about being accountable for their actions. Plus these years are needed for teaching and guiding children in the way they should go as much as the parents have of scripture and know about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had been in church most of my life and was just now gaining this understanding step by step line by line here and there as Heavenly Father saw fit to reveal things to me and especially things of this nature to me. Eventually the time came for me to express my thoughts bluntly so that my friends would understand where I was in the process and also know that they needed to turn down the urgency a bit. I told them that God knows me heart, He has a plan, and even if things do not go as we think they should, god is ultimately in control. They understood and allowed me to work through the process as I needed to and get ready for being baptized. Another issue was the fear of my drowning because I was supposed to have use of the pool at the community college. I was willing to die if that was what it would take for me to be baptized. If I had to drown in order to washed clean of all of my sins and take on the name of Jesus becoming a member of His family and hair to the kingdom of heaven, I was more than willing to be baptized. Please do not miss understand my position. I had no desire to complete sueside, nor was I thinking about not wanting to be where I was. I was content, had peace, and also enjoyed life to the fullest according to my abilities. More importantly to me was my eternal life for all time and all eternity. If this was the way I was to be brought home to heaven and be with my Heavenly Father forever more, then so be it! If on the other hand I survived being baptized I was equally thrilled. I guess by now you are wondering what all of this has to do with the title of this novel. My faith has been strengthened through all of the events I have mentioned and more which will eventually bring us back to the present time about my faith by the acre. I felt it was important to explain where and how my faith played a major belief and belief is important in my future plans. Without belief we can not strengthen faith, so I needed certain experiences to show me how belief and faith work and how I can build up my belief and strengthen my faith. The faith and desire for belief or rather the faith of a mustard seed and desire to believe are most important and precious gifts from Heavenly Father which I hold to and cling to with the joy and happiness of someone who has received a most wonderful and spectacular gift. Even if you’re not certain about what I’m writing right now, then perhaps having a desire for these things will make a huge difference when you ask Heavenly Father (God) if what I write is true, and how or whet you can do to learn more and have a relationship with HIm. The prompting or nudging, or whispering of the Holy Ghost may also give you an answer to these questions as you pray and seek the truth. I understand and can relate to where you are and imagine what you are experiencing. There was a time when I was at these cross roads and needed to have conformation of the absolute truth of the matters. The nest advice I am able to offer is to read scripture, pray, and allow your heart and mind to be open to what Heavenly Father shares with you. Ask for protection from the enemy and seek diligently the things of heaven, Jesus, and Holy Ghost. I was successfully baptized and absolutely wouldn’t have drown if I had tried to do so. The swimming pool had a life to get me into the water and my friend, a church pastor, and college life guard were available for my safety. Also the suit I had on trapped air inside it and therefore helped hold me above water. It’s nice when Heavenly Father has a plan that we know nothing about and He surprises us with that plan. These events very much helped my belief and faith become more mature and grow. After being in the pool and dunked we all went our separate ways. I was able to get washed and into fresh dry clothes and then my friend and I I think celebrated by doing something fun. I know for sure that we all were very much relieved and thankful that I had been baptized, did not drown, and everything went smoothly. For me I was certain this was it and that there would be no other baptisms. After all when we are baptized there is no need for another, right? Well, there are circumstances where a person is rebaptized. I don’t remember the details, just that I heard about this somewhere. While I’m still on this subject and to keep things some what organized, I should mention that being baptized for the third time was not something I anticipated and did not expect. As I progressed closer the the day for my baptism in The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, I realized that for a baptism to be correct and right, certain criteria had to be met. There had to proper authority and the person needed to repent and have the will and determination to not return to their sins. We all make mistakes and there is repentance and forgiveness. The key is to completely repent which means wanting nothing to do with the sin, doing everything possible to stay away from the sin, and when there is a mistake as soon as it is recognized having a complete change of heart and mind so that the sin does not continue. Repentance is a process and I know for myself that this is something which Heavenly Father has gifted to us because He knows that we being fully human will make mistakes and will need to takes steps to repentance and eventually complete and everlasting repentance to never return to this sin again. We learn line by line, precept by precept, here a little and there a little so is it with repentance. Now that I have this understanding and much more which I’ve learned through the years being with the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, I have a deeper, stronger, and more faithful relationship with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Ghost. This is a process which is still growing and expanding. The more I learn, the more I realize I need to know. I am a child of God and He is going to help me as much as possible to successfully return to Him in heaven and be with him forever. I truly believe this and intend to continue striving and working toward a better relationship as well as sharing the gospel, and helping people whenever the opportunity is presented. There are times when I seek these opportunities, and there are times when I wait to see what Heavenly Father has in mind and how he has planned each day especially for me. These writings are necessary because they allow you to better understand me and the motivation for which I made the decisions I will explain soon with in this novel. Although it is based on truth and there is no fiction, I consider this to be a novel based on the word count. As my relationship with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and holy Ghost strengthen It will make a huge difference upon my actions and reactions to stimuli in this world. My decisions now are much different than they would have been years earlier. Uncertainty, fear, being unsure and a host of other things would have I am certain derailed many activities I recently engaged in. My trust in my Heavenly Father is what I cling to holding onto my knowledge as it is and knowing that being HIs child He will care about me and take care of me every step of the way. This does not mean there will be no challenges, disappointment, or other unpleasant events in my life. It means to me that He is with me through everything. Holy Ghost guidance will be mine as long as I am attuned to that still small voice. Even when I make a mistake there is hope and help for recovering from and changing the mistake into something positive. Attitude and faith are something which effect each other. With the right faith and attitude I will be able to follow Gods lead even when I uncertain about where I’m going and what I’m supposed to be doing. There have been meant time when I had no idea what to do, so did nothing except listen for and look for signs and directions from Heavenly Father. Using many methods He has helped me through all kinds of challenges. It happened very, very quickly that I decided I should become active in NaNo writing this book even though a week had already passed. I felt as if Heavenly Father absolutely wanted me to write these words and do it quickly through the NaNo program. I’m happy and thrilled to do this for Him and will continue to work towards my goal of completing this task. When NaNo is over then the important editing begins and perhaps I will be adding more information to this work. All I know right now is that this is what I am supposed to be doing and that Heavenly Father will make a way for me to do it successfully. To God the glory. This is a situation where I am typing and Heavenly Father is giving me the words to put into this book. The more I write this the more I am getting excited about this project. My spirit is uplifted and I am thankful for these words. I am thankful for the equipment which allows me to write, and very thankful for deciding to sign up for this years NaNo. Going back a bit into my child hood. I enjoyed writing while in school which started when I was in elementary school. I can remember trying to write in junior high school, and then do not remember writing in high school. For some reason, Heavenly father didn’t want to have me writing. My guess was the timing and fact that I was not all at all good at writing in those days. There were other things I was supposed to be doing and so the writing needed to wait until much later in my life. Now is the time for me to write because the writing process is much more fluent and my skills have dramatically improved with more room for wonderful and glorious improvement. My art activities also stopped in a similar way but not until after I graduated from high school. My writing started to emerge about five or six years ago and the art was starting to gain speed and impetus about a year to year and a half ago. Now I’m combining them and doing some of each regularly. I hope to use my art abilities and writing abilities to create word art and digital art, or other art so that pictures and drawings along with words can be submitted fir publication. I just submitted several poems and a short story or two last week. These are reasons why I’m where I am doing what I am doing and enjoying all that nature nd Heavenly Father are sharing with me. Eventually I have hope for finding an agent who will help me find ways to achieve becoming a published author. Meanwhile I will continue telling this story giving details as needed of past events. And the bringing to the forefront the relevent events of the recent times. An amazing event or thought which recently occurred to me was that for years, I thought about the what if scenario. Oh, my what if I lost this or that, or whatever. This fear was one of the things which prevented me from making some of the life style changes I very much longed for. When I think back to where I was and my state of mind, I wonder how in the world I allowed myself to stay stuck in this fearful and crippling mindset. Totally unaware at the time, I managed to put myself in prison and throw away the key. This was something for someone who had committed a crime, not for a law abiding citizen, however there I was completely stuck and concerned about what I would loose if. Now that things have drastically changed and I am removed from the situations I dreaded being without, I find that there is much freedom which I did not even realize I had lost. I am astounded that I was able to break away from this situation and allow myself to change and exchange my self made prison for my new situation and freedom. It is almost unbelievable to realize that when I made the decision to change location, I also was willingly giving up a huge amount of help which for me is a very, very priceless commodity. The best way I can try to describe the way it seems for me is to write that I feel like I threw away millions of dollars in order to change my life in a huge and wonderful way, giving me the opportunity for a better quality of life potential, and an opportunity to make improvements which as time and work move forward will result in having as good or much better situation. These are my hopes and dreams which I put at the top of my list while giving up possessions, friendships, property, housing, help for many sources, and security. Do I believe and think it is well worth taking this risk and believe that everything will work out well, yes certainly this is so as far as I am concerned. I know that none of this would have happened if Heavenly Father was not the author of this program or project. He gave me the information, offered the opportunity, allowed me to decide for myself what I was going to do and then helped me do what was necessary for these things to happen. I have no doubts and no regrets. Sure there are a few things that haven’t gone smoothly however this does not mean that mistakes have been made. It means to me that sometimes we are tested so that we can learn how to deal with what life throws at us and so that we can be aware of our reacting. I still ofter all these years struggle with attitude and reactions to actions that displease me or upset me. Recently I have ben more aware of this and am more consciously making an effort to change me reactions to certain stimuli. This is a work in progress, I hope soon I will be better at dealing with this stuff. My relationship with Heavenly Father has strengthened and grown which will help me make the necessary changes I need to improve my life and become more like Jesus. I find myself bringing Heavenly Father Jesus, and Holy Ghose into my writing more and writing more details about our relationships and how I feel, and many other topics as they pop into my head and give me an uplifted and wonderful feeling. This in turn had helped me mature and grow in the spiritual things while I then was having less focus on the material things of this world. For example I was not thrilled about all the things I had to leave behind, however as time passed I have very slowly started to get over it and focus on the fact that I would not be able to take them with me to heaven. As a result this has brought to my mind more vividly than ever before that the scripture statement about where your treasures are so will your heart be. I want my heart to be with Heavenly Father, Jesus, Holy Ghost and the things of heaven. This world is temporary and the things in this worked will not last but all time and all eternity will last. My treasures are in heaven and will be mine when it is time for me to leave this place. I am certain that if I hadn’t made this major life style change that I would not have any thing close to this knowledge in this way with this understanding. It is a precious gift for my Heavenly Father to me. This move is well worth these blessings and I am positive that my spiritual journey would not be as fruitful if I had remained where I was. My writing was just interrupted by the phone ringing which I now know was by diving appointment. My friend who I miss and who is close friends with two other friends I miss called. I told her about the situation with my pain medication indwelling pump. She suggested a few things I could which may help. I know this is from Heavenly Father through my friend. Also, I know she will tell my other and that they will pray about this situation on my behalf. I have peaceful joy because I know that these things are working together for my benefit. I am grateful for everything Heavenly Father is doing for me. I have used the oils recommended and now have the hope and the faith that things will work out. An added blessing is it is likely that my friends will pray for my friend who had faithfully been helping because she has an upset stomach. Prayer is powerful. This brings to my mind that when I was not certain about what I should do, through comments and information which found it’s way to me through various means was Heavenly Fathers road signs pointing in the direction in which I should go. At first I did not recognize this for what it was but as I gained more experience and knowledge pertaining to the situation, it became clear that it was what and where I should prepare to go. Whenever I was not sure about something I would research and as I did this I would ask Heavenly Father questions and wait for answers from whatever source or means He choose to deliver the message. Every step and whenever an idea or information came my way I was checking with Heavenly Father and testing to know if I was doing the right thing and if it was actually of and from Him. As much as potable, I did not want to make any mistakes and miss anything of importance. After all this trip was a very huge undertaking which I had never done in my life time thus far and so wanted it to be as free to problems glitches, and mistakes as humanly possible. I felt in fear or apprehension about making this move which told me that I was on the right track and later, because after praying and pondering about this, I felt peace and the sensation of being drawn to this place and therefore, should proceed all though be it with the guidance of my Heavenly Father. All through each step I took during the preparation for the move I regularly checked to make certain that the adversary nor I was getting in the way. As long as I was certain it was of and with Heavenly Father, I was a rearing to go full steam ahead. As I made preporations for this adventure, my fear or apprehension began to lift off me until it disappeared. It is amazing how Heavenly Father is able to nudge someone in the right direction when they are open to and listening to the promptings of the holy Ghost. Even though I was shocked to have come to the realization that I should move, after all for many, many years I would periodically test the idea of moving, it was a major shock and beyond belief in the first few minutes. All I could do is look toward heaven and say “really? Really? Really? Are you certain about this” I even wondered if this was more about me wishing rather than Heavenly Father guiding me in the direction I should go. The other thought which quickly followed as part of my testing process was that idea that perhaps the enemy of God, Heavenly Father, may be trying to trick me. I have full trust in the ability of Heavenly Father to do everything and I figured that as long as it was not something I was doing, or something which the enemy of God, Heavenly Father, was using, then it had to be the prompting of the Holy Ghost which was absolutely from God, Heavenly Father. I tested this situation. I prayed about this and searched my heart and challenged myself to test to make certain above and beyond any doubt that it was for certain with no doubt Heavenly Father offering my life long dream to me provided I was willing to step outside my comfort zone and take the steps through the wide open doors and down the red carpet leading the way to my future. Now this is the turning point which would be forever my best opportunity, or my lost opportunity. Would I be able to uproot myself and go forth to a strange place, knowing no one, having no idea about the situation and circumstances except what I could find out about online by doing internet searches, and also from what my friends who were already where I was about to go? If indeed according to the bible Heavenly Father asked many people to go forth and they knew not where they were going nor why, is this exactly my situation and would I be able to do also what has been done many years ago? After a little while even though I was still getting over the shock and amazement and everything else, I finally told my friend that I was decided about Arkansas. I would go to this place some how and this was strictly and only because I believed that it was the path I should take as Heavenly Father has directed. She was I believe as shocked and surprised as I was. However, because of the suddenness of my decision and because I explained how and why I made this decision, she let it be known that this was all my trip and that she would not get involved. I had no trouble with this because I understood her meaning. She did not want to interfear with whatever Heavenly had planned. The only way she would say anything would be if she felt that it was something of and from God, and that it was of great importance. I was absolutely fine with that situation. Our next steps were because it was not extremely late to tell our friends that we were coming to Arkansas. Yeah! My friend decided to accompany me to this new place. She had been talking for years about traveling through out the country but so far when she attempted to do this something happened to prevent her from traveling. Many times I either was witness to or told about her attempts to travel around the country and then the vehicle would not start and required a major repair which was expensive, or she was supposed to be able to go a certain place for a certain amount of time and things happened to drastically change those plans, or she was ready to go and someone wound up with a serious situation and she felt that it was necessary for her to stay in the area to help whom ever had the challenging situation. No matter what she tried to do about traveling around the country, it was thwarted. To be honest, I was happy that she was in the area, however, I could feel and understand her disappointment because her plans to travel were regularly tossed aside and thwarted. As much as possible I tried to give my support and a shoulder to lean on during these challenging and sad times. I know if this were what I wanted to do and it did not happen for me I would be beyond disappointed. There was not much I was able to do except stand by as a friend and give as much support as possible. One possible reason for these events that occurred to me was that perhaps she was supposed to stay where she was for a specific reason that she nor I knew about. All I did was suggest that there was most likely a very good reason for her being where she was and that whatever it was eventually perhaps we would find out. As it turned out there were two reasons. Her daughter needed help, and I had finally made the decision to go to Arkansas. She did what she could to help her daughter and we did what we could to get ready to make this long trip. Day by day we consulted about this adventure and how we were supposed to accomplish the tasks a head of us. I often reminder her that all of this is of and from Heavenly Father because it certainly was not my idea. Part of the preparation was being handled according to what we discovered through our online searches and also from the information we gleaned from our friends. As we put together a picture of what should be where we were going this helped us know what our next steps would be and how we should tackle the tasks. I knew from what my friends said that there was land available for purchase. I searched for this land and was not able to find it, so then asked for contact information so that I could get in touch with the people who were selling the land. Finally I was able to get them on the phone and we talked for quite sometime. I wanted to make certain that the property which I purchased would be as close as possible to where my friends lived. As it turned out I was not exactly next door but I would be very close. There was a property in between us but that was the extent of our separation. Not bad especially when most of the property was about ten acres. I told the sellers that I definitely as interested in buying property and that the area was most important to me because I wanted to be close to my friends. There were a few other pieces of property available but the price was much higher than I could afford, so I opted for the property on top of the mountain which was exactly where I wanted to be any way. My friends sent a map of the ares and it looked wonderful. I did not know at this time how the land mass around was elevated with it’s ups and downs. All I knew was that the ten plus acres were close to my friends and the price was right. The roads were not paved which was not the best possible situation, however, when I moved into my house the road to get to my place was not paved, so for I figured oh well! It was what I had in mind as far as living with nature and being in a cabin on the mountain. This cabin is not exactly like a log cabin, and it is small, but it is shelter adequate enough for my needs. ALso, because of the small size I do not need a huge cooling or heating source. As time moved forward and we continued to make preparations, I waited for the precious documents to arrive so that I could take possession of the land and not need to be concerned about someone else purchasing it before I had a chance to grab it. Why this was rolling around in my head, I could not explain except that I must had become distracted and allowed the enemy to play around with my faith. This I should never have done because that means I was not focused on my Heavenly Father. Finally they arrived and this gave me the greatest uplifting spirit for the day. At least for a little while. As my friend and I worked out way through the document, we found some statements which were cause for great unease and concern. My joyful spirit took a nose dive, but not so severely thet I was willing to allow it to keep going. Usually when this kind of thing happens, my immediate reaction sometimes needs quick checking and revamping so that I stay focused with the direction and guidance from Heavenly Father. I was not deterred and so called to find out what the items in question were all about and explained my views and understandings to them. Wen we finished the conversation, I still was disappointed about not being able to seal the deal at the moment, however I knew it was a matter of waiting for the new version of the paper work to arrive and then we could proceed. As the days went by and we continued to prepare for our trip, I continued to pray and test to make certain as much as I possibly could within my means and understanding that I was doing the correct thing and my friend also was on track. Eventually the new paper work arrived and we looked over all of the details and then had a real-estate person check it to make certain that we fully understood what was written. I followed the directions and then sent it back with the down payment. This was quite a major relief because at least they knew I was serious about purchasing the ten plus acres and would not sell it to someone else. I was beginning to get more and more attached to the area and especially my new acquired property and cabin. The longing to be there in person was building and I was feeling like I should already have been there and the waiting was starting to make me feel antsy. I could not wait until I was in Arkansas but had to wait because there were still many tasks to be completed before we would be able to depart on our trip. As my friends learned that I was moving to Arkansas, they shocked and then sad because they would miss me. Many of them although they wanted what would be best for me understood my need to go make a new life for myself especially when I explained about all the details of how this came about. I knew I also would miss my friends but aside from them and my sister there was nothing and no reason to stay in Maryland. I had more reasons for leaving and going to a place which would be much better for me and my financial and health situation. Thankfully we have options for communication and perhaps we would be able to figure out a way to visit and enjoy each others company. I know many of my friends would really enjoy being up close and viewing the magnificent scenery of nature. I hope a few friends will eventually be able to visit. It will be very,very nice to see them face to face. Yeah, I miss the times I spent with my friends, but actually do not miss anything else. My sister is in my heart and I miss being close to her. Hopefully we will be in contact more often. Now that it is getting cold I am on the hunt for ways to keep warm. Today I contacted a person about a masonry heater and also am waiting to find out if the wood stoves I was told about are available. Hopefully I will have answers soon. I’m doing ok, thankfully I have two electric heaters going. It is warmer than last night when one heater was running. I just do not like being solely dependent on electricity for my heat source. Solar energy is my next step for finding out information for around this area. * My many talents and gifts from Heavenly Father were many and I was thrilled and very thankful for them. Also I had many interests and activities which I very, very much enjoyed. Being home much of the time was not an issue nor did I feel alone. I had my animal friends, Heavenly Father, Jesus, Holy Ghost, and occsionally visits from friends. Going to church was important however when I had no transportation I believed that for a season, Heavenly Father had a plan and that I needed to wait until things changed. The change which was having transportation did change when I joined The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. I have steadily have had transportation for about five years now and I believe this will continue for as long as it is needed. Now there is a necessity for confession time because I actually at one point in time was relieved to not be going to church. I guess it was because where I was going was not the place I should be attending and receiving faith building information and fellowship. Many f the churches I attended were fine and had much truth and scripture teachings but there seemed to be something major missing. What this was I did not know. All I knew was that for a while I would need to wait until I was again able to go to church. I had peace about this situation and also eventually realized that worry and doubt did nothing for my physical, mental, and spiritual health and well being. So as it turned out eventually I started going to church again and continued with my life as usual. My relationship with my animal friends and fanily was wonderful and we enjoyed each other’s company as well as interacting together. It was fun watching the birds do their birdie things and the cats doing their feline things. My service dog Bella was a clown an enjoyed varied doggie activities when she and I were home. I was very, very much attached to my family, so when it came to the realization that I for real and actually going to up root myself from Maryland, it meant figuring out what to do about getting everyone to Arkansas with me. Bella was no problem because she would easily fit on the floor of the vehicle in front of me and ride quietly either sleeping or just hanging out. We would stop periodically and do whatever we needed to do as well as allow Bella a walk and food and drink. The cats and birds were another matter. At first, my friend thought we would be able to place the cats in cat crates and have the crates strapped securely in the back seat. This seemed to be a workable situation. The birds would also need to be placed into carriers a and secured so that the would not shift about or be tossed to the floor. Fortunately I had a small animal carrier which would hold a very small cat. This would be ideal for Holly my Congo African Grey Parrot. She was larger than Bonnie my Blueheaded Pionus. Bonnie would fit well into the bird carrier which was made of clear plastic with air holes and a black bottom with a perch attached. Unfortunately I was n not able to figure out how to place a pitch inside Holly’s carte. However, she managed to purch on the side of a small box which I gave to her to chew up if she needed something to keep her mind and body busy during the trip. Bonnie was the kind of bird who just wanted to hang out and be with you while you scratched her head or under her wing and talked to her. Often all she wanted to do was sit on my hand and enjoy being with me. Both birds had supervised time outside their cages but during this trip, they would need to adjust to not having an opportunity for out side the cage time. Hopefully they would be ok and able to adjust to this new and maybe scary situation. Thinking that we had solved the transportation situation for my animal family members, we went on to other pressing things and activities. It wasn’t long before we realized that things were going to have to change in order for everything to work well for me and my medical situation. Instead of me riding with my friend in her truck we needed a u0haul truck. This meant that my friend would need to find someone to drive her truck and tow the car. Then we would need to rethink how we were going to get the animals transported. I investigated and researched seeking information about transporting animals long distances and found some options, however these options were extremely expensive and I did not have the money needed for these expenses which I think are over priced. After talking about this dilemma for a while we decided that if my friends son was willing to drive his mothers truck, then she could drive the u-haul. We could put the cats and birds in the truck as already planned. Then we could get a tow caddy and have him tow her car behind the truck. Boy were we in for some surprises. By now I had contacted many moving companies and discovered that arranging to have my stuff moved was not as easy as it was depicted in the content on the websites. They used square footage as well as weight to determine the price for …oh and milage plus tols for deciding price for moving my stuff. By the time came for making a decision, I had talked with so many companies I would not be sad if I did not ever talk with a moving company ever again. Finally I decided to go with a company and made certain everything was accounted for and the price was exactly what I expected from start to finish. This was not exactly how things turned out.These companies have sneaky and unique ways of managing to keep loop holes open. I understand that they need to make money however, they should not start with one price at one end loading up a persons belongings and then when they agree to deliver at a certain date, change the price. I know for the experience a friend on mind had with a moving company. She was quoted a price and then when she arrived at her destination and the moving truck arrived they more than doubled the price and told her if she did not pay they would keep her belongings. All of her stuff was on the truck, so she paid them to be able to have a place to sleep and so that she could have what belonged to her. I hope these moving companies will eventually be held accountable for their under handed business practices. I’m ahead of the events yet I feel it is important to write that this company which I hired to move my stuff did the same thing to me. Fortunately my bed and some medical stuff was on the u-haul truck so that I was not completely at the moving companies mercy or rather lack of mercy. I know these moving companies need to make a living but really do they have to blatantly rob people in order to line their pockets with as money as they can get their grubby thieving hand on as soon as possibly at the expense to their customers? I would not want to face Heavenly Father and have to explain myself and my actions. So far we were making progress with figuring how to get the truck and car across several states and the packing was progressing, however time was still out running me. At one point in this time frame, I was so completely exhausted and beginning to feel sick, that I had to stop my activities and spend more time than I wanted in bed. I seem to remember it was a day or two. This caused me to become more behind than I had planned or wanted so, I needed to work extra hard and longer hours as soon as I was able to continue the packing process. Day after day when I returned to my what was now normal daily activities I packed and sorted, and sorted and packed, and then did it all over again the next day, and the next, and the next. I am not complaining, just explaining how we managed to get from Maryland to Arkansas in about a month on very, very short notice. Actually I am very much amazed that things went as well as they did because we were basically doing this by the seat of our pants. Moving definitely was not one of my talents nor was I any where close to having the knowledge I needed so that this move would work out as a success story. All I had in my favor was my belief, faith, and close relationship with my Heavenly Father. Because I knew for myself and in my entire being and spirit that this was all Heavenly Fathers idea and plan I was willing to follow His lead and go where He wanted me to go and on His time frame. Every little decision and every step of the way I was checking to make as certain as possible that I was doing the right thing in the right way with in the right time frame. I didn’t want to make any mistakes be they very minor or catastrophic. Especially the huge catastrophic kinds of mistakes which would completely derail this entire adventure. As I asked questions of Heavenly Father and prayer and asked some more and listened seeking answers, my spirit was completely at a wonderful state of peace and I felt like I very much still was headed in the right direction. Best of all was that things seemed to fall into place quickly and easily. There were two glitches like the hospital bed situation and the getting three vehicles through several states to Arkansas which seemed to resolve well and as if the solutions were diving miracles. I know, it seems like it is all my wishful thinking and my absolutely determined self creating all these ind ideas and making things seem like it was all God. Well, it absolutely was all every step of the way inch by inch Heavenly Father (god). I know in my spirit and every fiber of my being that everything happened the way it happened because Heavenly Father allowed and guided these events so that they would happen as He wanted them to happen and in the time frame that wanted then to happen in so that I would know beyond a doubt that all of this was of Him, by Him and for Him. Of this I completely do not doubt and because of this I am in a better situation for many reasons. Yes I drastically down sized but it has been worth it and I know I will be much better off with all the positive things in this ares. Sometimes you need to trade of some things for some thing or things which are much better for you even when it seems that this is the opposite of the situation. Looking at what is in front of you as I could have done would have resulted in me not seeing and understanding the big picture. I was very, very fortunate because I did consider the pros and cons of staying in Maryland compared to moving to Arkansas. When I finished considering and researching Maryland and Arkansas finding the good and bad issues, I found for me I would be better in Arkansas. There is much much less pollution in Arkansas where I am right now compared to the crowded situation of people and vehicles in Maryland. I like the air quality better and I like the water because it is so much like drinking fresh pure spring water. There are more reasons why I decided to make this huge major move but these are just a few examples of reasons why I decided to take this leap of faith and go where I had never been before knowing only what I was able to gather from internet content about this area. Eventually the time was closing in on our efforts to get ready to drive toward Arkansas so I needed to work much harder and much longer. It was becoming evident that there was going to be a huge amount of things which would not be able to go with the movers nor fit onto the u-haul truck. I was a bit disappointed but decided that perhaps there was a heavenly reason for this happening in this way. Actually I recall a time when my friends asked me of she arrived at my house and said we need to go right now, would I go with her? My response was that I really did not know what I would do exactly until I was facing this situation in real life reality. All I could guess was depending on the urgency and reasons for leaving everything behind, I would hope that I would be able to do this should the time ever arrive to act quickly and leave the area. She was not exactly thrilled with my answer but she at least felt better because I explained that I would think about this and if this actually happened and if it were were life or death I would have sense to leave things behind in order to save my life. With this resolved as far as I could take it and with not actually having had this experience, I suppose that I will only know when the situation arises. I would hope that if needed < it will be able to go as fast as I can and have the hel I need in order to get as far away as possible. Hopefully this will never be an issue and everything will be fine. Although we know not the future, so can rely heavily upon Heavenly Father for all of our needs and situations. This is exactly what I’m going with. He is my only hope and strength. One thing which is of major importance and on my mind as I write this book. I have an ind=welling pain medication pump. For over a month, I have been trying to get answers about what to do because my alarm date is 11/10/16 and I am out of state over 1100 miles away from the doctor who usually take care of this situation. Financially and physically it is impossible for me ton return to my pain management doctor. The doctor who might have been able to help insists that I return to my original pain management doctor. Neither of these are a solution to my current emergency situation. Having talked with both doctors and even having talked with the manufacturer, I still am waiting on someone to give me direction on and about any possible solutions for solving this problem. Weeks ago I even suggested that taking oral medicine and having saline solution placed into my pump may be am option and no one was interested. Just today the person I was talking to finally suggested the very option I mentioned weeks ago as if it were a light bulb moment. Why in the world did my suggestion go unheeded and yet because it was this persons idea it was wonderful? Oh well! Now I’m still trying to find a workable solution. This is one situation where I am trusting Heavenly Father for His help and guidance and finding the right people to provide what I need to resolve this dilemma. Fortunately I am on a very low dose of medication, however when it runs out, I do not know what will happen. I cling to the protection of Heavenly Father knowing He is the great physician and I am a child of God. Now that I’ve written this into the book and because it is part of this story even though it is out of place and not within the correct time line, at least it has been recorded and is a record of events which may give some one else a help should they have a similar situation. Ok, back to whatever I was writing earlier. Oh, yeah, about leaving things behind in a major emergency and a matter of life or death. This is something that I sort of can relate to because of my medication pump situation. I know this is serious and respect that I should not take this lightly, however all I can do right now is rely on heavenly Father, hope for the very best, trust everything will work out nicely, and pray for the people, the medical people and anyone who can help me to be available and have the knowledge, wisdom, strength and courage they need. Such is life and adventures in more ways than one. My faith trust and hope in Heavenly has been something which guided me this far and brought me to Arkansas. As I grew up to adulthood and added years to my life experiencing all which Heavenly Father choose to allow and give unto me, I also enlarged my belief, grew my faith, and made a huge leap in growing and cultivating my relationship with my Heavenly Father. There have been times when I was in dire straights and yet had a peace within my heart and soul which was extraordinarily unlike anything I had ever experienced. Because of these things and having so many events closely related to this incredible move, I know that this is my Heavenly Fathers plan for me and the people involved with my life. My friends miss me which I can appreciate and can also tell them I very much miss them. What I do not miss is Maryland, the pollution, the crowdedness, and all the strife and political stuff permeating the area. I mis the convenience of having the stores close by and having a huge variety of stores near by, but with this comes people on top of people. I am so thrilled to be where there is at least 10= between me and my neighbors. Not than I have anything against my neighbors, it’s just that I don’t want to feel like I am packed in a sardine can any more. I want my space. To tie all of this together so that everything makes sense, I will explain why I wrote these words. My pain pump is something I hoped would be something I would not need after this move. So far although I have some pain especially my right wrist and this pain goes into my hand a bit, the rest which is arthritis, and my back which is about as bad as my write, I feel that in time my pain will reduce and eventually I will be very close to pain free as much as possible. Having physical and mental improved health are some of the other reasons I made this decision to move. Being away from all the stress, pollution, political stress and strain, and not feeling like a sardine in a sardine can, and wanting to devote as much time as possible to my writing and art so that I can combine these precious gifts from Heavenly Father into creating books and other writing items of interest to readers. There are some other reasons however these are at the top of my list. I feel that this is the very best place for me to be even with the challenges I face with my pain pump and getting settled. When a person needs to rely on volunteer help, it is a matter of being calm, patient, and waiting. This I have have done all of my life. As my understanding of the ways of my Heavenly Father have multiplied and my experiences have taught me about life here on earth, scripture, and the things imparted to my through divine intervention and Holy Ghost, I am convinced and believe that even when we think we are in the worst situation it or the best situation it is because it is part of our learning experience. For example, how can we know the difference between light and dark if we do not experience both? Also even though I would not volunteer to have some events happen if they do it is because it what we need to realize and learn something which Heavenly Father is trying to teach us. These things have given me the courage, strength, and knowledge plus the feelings from or of the Holy Ghost that let me know that I an supposed to move to Arkansas in a particular area at a particular time and with the people and things which made this trip. Therefore although I am still getting over having to leave things behind I am content to work through this and finally be at peace with the way Heavenly Father orchestrated these events especially for me. Having been here for a while it is evident to me that my health has improved and that as time passes there should be more improvement. Drinking water although I still need to have an awareness that I need to consume more wanter than I do now, Is a much better situation for than it was in Maryland. Having an indwelling catheter means keeping things flowing well and making certain that as little as possible bacteria is present in my urinary system especially my kidneys and bladder. I take measures to keep the bacteria count as low as possible and with the better quality of water this is much easier. So far I have found more advantages to being out here. So far the weather has been much milder but the summers as far as I understand are hotter than Maryland, however having insulation, the air conditioner should be able to keep the temperature many degrees cooler. For me it is worth everything I invested into this move just to have as much nature as close as possible, the beautiful scenery with a mountain view, plenty of room, and a fresh start. It also is evident to me that I have made great strides with my writing. So far I have submitted several pieces of poetry and some prose pieces. It is significant because until coming here, I had not yet submitted anything for consideration to publish.. My art work is slowly becoming part of my life again and I have been working on a piece using color pencils. I expect to illustrate some of the things I have written and eventually have them published. As soon as the house settlement is completed I expect to make more progress. This will be a wonderful event because I know the person buying the house needs the disability assets which were such a huge blessing to me. Hopefully she will derive a blessing from the ramps wheelchair accessible shower, and other emanates. The only things I really miss about Maryland are my friends and my sister. Fortunately we can communicate with email, the phone, and snail mail. It is not the same as being able to visit in person, yet I am very thankful for the means we have to communicate and stay in touch with each other. As for the conveniences they would be nice but they are not necessary. So to wrap this up into a nice neat package there was not much holding me to staying in Maryland. I am not even certain if I would want to visit. The reasons for visiting are to be with my friends and to be able to spend time with my sister. I am enjoying my place so much that aside from being mindful of my friends and my sister Maryland really is not part of my thoughts. Usually I do not even realize that I was in Maryland for a huge part of my life. Because I feel as if I have lived here all of my life. Maybe had I known what I know now about this ares, I would have moved here a lot sooner and yet I know that this would not have happened because the timing would have not been right. So even knowing sooner about here, other things, people, and situations would not be in place which would have allowed me to make this huge and marvelous change earlier. I am positive that if I were still in Maryland that my activities would not have changed and I would still be in a rut doing the same thing the same way. The problem with this was that I was not doing much with my writing. This month in particular, I have written more, edited more, reviewed, more, and proformed writing related activities more than in the past five to nine months. I am very happy, joyful, and excited to be writing again. A huge mile stone which happened last week was that I sent in several poems and some pros works for consideration for submission. Back in Maryland I did not have the nerve or faith to do something like this. Now I am waiting to find out what the results and perhaps will submit more word art for consideration for publishing. * While this is on my mind I want to explain about my feelings when we started our trip. For weeks I was very excited about starting this adventure and felt an imparitive to get the our destination as quickly as possible. When Friday finally arrived I knew that it was major crunch time and there was a rush to finish up as much packing and loading as possible. By the time it was dark we were still getting things together. This was ok because we were waiting for my friends son who had to drive from I think Virginia or maybe west Virginia to his home, drive his wife to the grocery store, then drive to my place and get ready to pull out of the driveway as soon as possible. It was very late by the time he arrived. I think about somewhere between eleven thirty and twelve o’clock. As he worked to hook the car onto the car caddy my friend watched and waited. This took a while because of the attachments needing to be secured properly and docking the car so that it was evenly distributed and balanced. After a few tried he was finally satisfied that everything was as it should be and that we could roll down the road. In the U-haul we took the lead and he followed. This was it! We finally at long last were on our way south and then going to head west. The excitement, awe, and wonder felt like I was at a carnival having the time of my life. I also felt like something was being ripped out of my hands and knew that this was my friends and sister who would remain in Maryland. I invited them to come with me, however they were unable to do this for varied reasons. Amazingly I was not at all sleepy and this was a mircle because for the past few days I hardly got any sleep. Most of that time I stayed awake working on various stages of preparation for our trip. One thing I have neglected to mention until now is that when I asked my friend if she wanted to go to Arkansas with me, she was all for it and excited to accompany me on this trip. I was elated and thrilled to have her coming with me. It wasn’t long before we noticed that something was wrong with this fairly new u-haul truck. Going up slight grades compared to hills was causing the truck to struggle. My friend thought perhaps there was too much cargo for the truck to haul. This caused me to be concerned and wonder why this may be happening. My concerned got more acute as we went further because it seemed to be getting worse. I started to wonder if we were going to be able to continue. After my friend assessed the situation, she discovered that this truck had a tow package. Had we been towing the car this would have been a very good thing for us, however we were not towing anything. Eventually she finally figured how to make the necessary changes so that the u-haul truck was not in tow mode. A huge relief went through out all of my being and I was very thankful for this quick and easy fix. Now going up any grades was find and all seemed to be going well. Oh, one more thing, we had a glitch just before we left. Just shortly before we departed for Arkansas, I realized that some of the things I had hoped to have with my in front of the u_haul truck accidentally wound up in the back of the truck somewhere in parts completely and for the duration of the were unknown. This was a great and major disappointment. I felt like I was not exactly completely dressed. Oh, well, I’ll get over it eventually. I guess there was a reason for this to have happened. We need to back up a few paces because I forgot about mentioning our loading procedure. One of the last items which was going onto the u_haul truck was my power wheelchair because it has what is called an elevator. This is a function which allows mechanical devices to elevate the wheelchair seat about six or so inches higher so that the wheelchair user can be closer to face to face with someone standing, be able to reach things on higher shelves, and do other activities which requires and higher vantage point. For me this is a wonderful function of this wheelchair because it allows me to elevate high enough to be able to transfer using a transfer board from my wheelchairs to any high vehicle. For vehicles that are of a lower hight I simply slide from my wheelchair across the transfer board and then on the the passenger seat. As my friend was helping me get situated and transfer into the u_haul truck, my service dog, Bella tried to get into the front of the u-haul truck with me. Usually this is fine because this is the way she rides under normal circumstances. However, because of the way this truck was designed there was absolutely no room for Bella to ride on the floor of the ruck in front of me. After I was safely inside the cab of the truck and the seat belt was fashioned, I had my friend take Bella to the drivers side of the truck so that we could work with her to show her where she was supposed to go for the trip. Unfortunately dogs are creatures of habit and Bella had aded to this her devotion and loyalty as my helper and companion. She was totally confused and concerned because in her mind being on the drivers side of the u-haul truck was being separated from me. She could be on one side of a door and me on the other side of a closed door and even when we were this close becasue she could not see me and could not get to me to help me, she would become anxious, concerned, fearful, stressed and a major stress this would be, and absolutely come unglued. With some gentle guidance coaxing, and placing her in a position so that she needed to go forward in order to be in the truck, Bella finally understood that laying behind my friend and behind to my left was where I wanted her be. As she attempted to jump inside my friend helped her by lifting her rear end. She was reliever to be nearer to me and I appreciated being able to reach her and give her a gentle encouraging pat or two. Within a minute or two she settled down and curled up then went to sleep. Once our towe package situation was resolved and we were able to relax our conversation turned to the things in the back of the u-haul truck. One of my friends concerns was how we were going to pay for the gas if my wallet was in the back of the u-haul truck. Praise and thanks be to Heavenly Father because I happened to get the gas money out of my wallet so that it was easily accessible from my pocket. I reasoned that reaching into my pocket was much easier than trying to fumble with my wallet. My wallet was safely locked away so we did not worry about it. I knew for a certainty thai I had my wallet with me but just not on my person. As the miles rolled by Bella slept or relaxed quietly which we talked and enjoyed the ride. One more point about my situation with this trip of over one thousand one hundreds miles was that my power wheelchair was loaded into the back of the u-haul which mean t that I would be in the u-haul truck for the entire trip until we arrived at our destination. I we prepared and willing to do this in order to have my almost life long dream come true. We planned to make stops for rest, gas, food, and other necessities. It would be imperative for us to stop for the animals so that they could be taken care of regularly. I expected to have very swollen ankles and feet and probably legs by the time we had completed this very, very long trip. This meant I would as soon as possible need to elevate my legs and feet for so long as possible as high as possible. Eventually it was time for our first stop for gas, but where was the gas station? Not far down the road we found one and filled up. Bella was able to stretch her legs and get relief and my friend and her son did what they had to do while I waited in the u-haul truck. My friends truck which her soon was driving had the animals some of our stuff, a bit of refreshments, and his oldest son came along for the ride and for some father and son bonding. When it was time for us to leave, my friend returned bearing gifts. She got some flavoring for my water and a snake, of which, I can not recall exactly what it was. Refreshed and settled we were off again with the knowledge that for every hour we were rolling it meant we were making progress to being closer to our destination. I felt like “are we there yet?” but knew it would take a while for us to travel this very, very long distance. It seemed that time was passing slower than usual which has been typical for me when we were going any where. On the return trip it seemed we got home a lot faster. This time we were headed out to Arkansas with no return trip in our plans, at least that was what we had in mind. A while later we made another stop which turned out to be a major adventure. Somehow and this is a bit foggy because of time passing, we got into this neighborhoods and wound around a few roads then ended at a dead end.My friend managed to get the u-haul truck turned around, but trying to turn the suburban and car which was being towed around was entirely another matter. With the clock ticking and very narrow roads the struggle to get back out of this place became a nightmare. I know we must have lost about half an hours travel time. My friends son had to take the car off the car dolly turn the truck around and get the car back onto the car dolly. This took finding a place where there was enough room to maneuver both vehicles while they were tethered together, Making sure the car was in a place where the truck and car dolly could be positioned in such a way that the car could be unloaded, the truck turned around then positioned so the car could be loaded, and then the car reloaded into the car dolly resulting in the vehicles feathered together again could be driven back the same way we came. By the time this operation was completed her son was beyond frustrated and upset. It was a huge and monumental task which was being preformed in very dark conditions in a residential neighborhood while people were sleeping in the middle of the night or early morning before the sun started to rise. For our first leg of the trip it was a rather rocky start at best, yet, no one wanted to or felt that we should turn back. I think we were either close to the Maryland and Virginia boarder maybe, no, yes, I do not know now. All I know is that we left a little after twelve midnight and several hours needed to get gas which was when all of these events took place. After driving for a few more hours we stopped to take a break, take care of the animals, and get some things ofr ourselves. After I spent time with each of my animal family members and made certain they had their water, the crates were clean and dry, and they had an opportunity to eat, we were off again working our way in a southernly direction either toward or starting to go through Virginia. Bella was doing well behind my friend and enjoyed when I would reach out to her and give her a pat. Usually she had no trouble falling asleep especially after going for a walk and having the opportunity to get relief. I believe that Bella and the other animals got a lot more sleep than the humans during this awesomely wonderful trip. Because this trip is possible with Heavenly Father guiding us along the way, and because He wanted us to move I consider this to be positively awesome, yet there were the challenges, which for certain Heavenly helped us figure out and solve, so we are back to awesomely marvelous and wonderful trip. Not too many hours later, the sun started lighting the sky. It was interesting watching the slightest hint of light appear, then more light crossed the sky and was brighter, then still more illumination which by then was bright enough for the blue to be visible, then there was a gradual hue of light gold, and soon the gold became more visible and more brilliant golden color. Then there was the start of the form of the sun creeping over the horizon. Usually I would not see this because of my location and also because I usually was still asleep during the breaking of the sun into the day light hours. It was a marvelous show presented for our joy of having a new day gifted to us, and something I can still picture in my minds eye. Because of stepping out in faith and trusting Heavenly Father I saw His art work in progress and by the time it was fully manifest I had witnessed a wonderful show from nature. Most of the time I suspect that people do not recognize the thrilling events of the rising of the sun bringing in a brand new day for everyone. Hopefully many more people will be able to appreciate each gift to the day which is a blessing. It was very wonderful and nice to have day light. Traveling at night was ok, especially because it meant ti would be cooler for my friends son, his son, and the animals. The truck did not have working air conditioning. I was thrilled to be in the u-haul but concerned about the people traveling in the other truck. With frequent stops along the way, sometimes cloudy conditions, and periodic quick checks on everybody, along with faith in Heavenly Fathers ability to take care of everyone, I felt peace and calm about the circumstances. Most of that day we traveled through Virginia up and down the mountains and through thunderstorms. When we hit the major pour downs which were far and wide covering a massive amount of territory, the rain was pouring down in tub loads of water. Friends of my friend had left many hours before us pulling her camper and hauling the bird cages in the bed of their pickup truck. The blessing was that with this mega super heavy duty rain, the bird cages would get a power washing and be clean enough to almost eat off of them. I certainly was extremely happy about this. With so many microscopic places for debris to cling this power wash would flush out all the teeniest and tinniest particles within reach of the torrents of waters. A few hours after day break we decided to stop for breakfast and take care of all the other necessities that needed our attention. My friend went to find out what was available for breakfast and eventually returned with some of the most mouth watering smells which caused me to want food immediately. My stomach growled and so I was more than ready to sink my teeth into whatever it was that she had brought to me. One of my favorite breakfast foods is a home cooked biscuit. If it happens to have meat or egg, or both that is ok, but if it is a naked biscuit that is wonderful to me. My breakfast turned out to be sausage and egg on a biscuit, yummy, I was thrilled and thankful. Heavenly Father gifted to me a most marvelous and wonderful breakfast. After eating breakfast we took care of the animals and then headed onto the highway working our way closer to our destination. As the miles flew by and time ticktocked we found ourselves face to face with a wall of rain which we needed to go through. The sky was darker than I had ever whitnessed that I can remember in my life, the clouds were low, thick, and looked menacing, and we were being pelter with one heavy hit of water after the other. It was so severely and extremely intense that I thought that we would have to pull off to the side of the road and stop until the mega storm let up enough for us to be able to proceed toward out Arkansas destination. There was just enough visibility for my friend to be able to drive safely. Having the protection of Heavenly Father is a wonderful way to travel. Because of faith in His ability to take care of every and make certain we would be ok, I was not as concerned about the storm and getting through it safely. It is November fifteenth and indwelling pump had just sounded off a different tone. I am not ignoring this situation, however, after trying everything I could think of, my friend could think of, my pain management doctor could think of, and taking with the manufacturer, and the pain medication doctor here, there apparently are no other options available for except to trust in heavenly Father and wait to see what happens. I’ve been told that the catheter would close off when the chamber in the medication pump is empty. I certainly hope this is what will happen. The other issue of concern is what is going to happen when my medication is completely depleted. The emergency room is not interested in helping me. My friends car does not start. The only other option that I can think of to do is to call nine one one if this is needed. After that and a lot of research into looking for answers and options, I do not have any idea of anything else I can do. I have to admit that I do not understand why the people who are so very concerned about my situation refuse to do anything to help me. All that is needed is to fill the pump reservoir with selene solution and give me some oral medication, than turn off the pump alarm. Well, apparently this is way too much to ask of any one. I know that if I had what I needed to get the resivoir filled for someone and that they needed my help, I would do what I could to help them. Ok, back to my journey and the events that took place as we traveled by faith into a new life. After more stormy was traversed here and there, and some storms were viewed from afar off we were pleasantly surprised by having a marvelous and wonderful visit by the sun. The sky was a bright and cheery blue, and there were pillows of fluffy white clouds to greet us. I’m not certain of the time because I had not had a watch for so many months I lost track of how many months the watch band was broken. I remember that some time in the afternoon we crossed the Tennessee boarder line. This was good news because it seemed that Virginia went on and on with no end in sight. We made our usual routine stops for the sake of the animals and occasionally stopped for everyone. I knew from looking at the map that Tennessee was a long state going from east to west, but, really! I was beginning to feel like we were either not moving or going backward. Now that I am thinking of this, I may be putting the thunderstorms and torrential rains out of order. Or perhaps we had some storms in Tennessee also. Either way it was as if Tennessee kept going and going and going like the ever ready battery bunny. Finally we arrived at the boarder line which was very, very early in the morning. As we were getting closer to the Mississippi river I had hope that we would cross the bridge during day light, but unfortunately we crossed in darkness which was disappointing. Oh well, I guess we were supposed to be there at a particular time and so day light was not a part of the plan. By this time it was very early Sunday morning. I need to regress a bit because some events have just come to my mind which I was not thinking of or about earlier. We did stop occasionally for sleep but sleeping in the suburban and the u0haul truck were far from the ideal places to get nice restful sleep. Everyone was by now tired so we would stop in a truck stop of some sort, or something like a truck side of the road stop place that had room for trucks to line up in rows off the highway. Some of the truck stops were huge mammoth parking lots filled with weigh stations, a place to get food, fuel, and other things. Depending on where you were at the time and the circumstances it felt like being parked in between monsters that were ready to squish you. It was strange being so small around all of these huge eighteen wheeler trucks. I guess if you are accustomed to being in truck stops this is no big deal, yet for me it was my first experience in this way. In my earlier years I had been in some smaller truck stope but not in these huge mega capacity truck stops. Eventually the sky started to begin to light and I was at the point where I could not wait to arrive home. I was by now very aware that my feet and legs were at least three times the normal size. Because I needed to stay in the u-haul for the entire trip, I expected this would happen. Time seemed to drag now. It was quite a relief to finally be in the state of Arkansas, but we still had quite a long way to travel before we arrived at our friends place. I was very much looking forward to letting them know that we were fine and visiting for a short while than eventually going to my cabin and getting some sleep. Everyone was severely seriously exhausted. My friend was so tried that she told me it was my job to keep her awake. At that I suggested that we should pull over and she should get some sleep. Her response was that we were with in only several hours of arriving where we wanted to be that she was determined to continue driving. As displeased with this situation, I had to do my very best to keep her awake. She was the one behind the steering wheel and who had the license to drive. All I could do was to keep talking to her in a way the required her to answer and try to keep her engaged with the conversation. This seemed to work ok at the moment so we kept going as I was praying for her not to fall asleep. A while later I could tell that she was starting to fade so again suggested that she try to get some sleep, which she refused to do, so I had no choice but to think outside the box and come up with other ways to keep her awake. Now this required starting to physically shake her arm or shoulder which helped but I was not convinced that this would work for the rest of our trip. Eventually I needed to start slapping her firmly but gently as a means of working through the necessity to have to strive to get and keep her attention. Well, we continued to progress closer to our destination and my friend continued to get more and more tired and more and more sleepy. As things got progressively the slapping and shaking were not arousing her as easily and thoroughly as during the earlier attempts to keep my friend awake and focused. My reasoning figured into this mix the idea that it would be better to be more forceful in my attempts to keep her awake than for us to wind in trouble because she fell asleep. We had come this far and she was determined to get into our friends property as soon as possible, so she was not going to stop driving. Then something kicked into gear and I actually with open hand gave her more of a hit than a sl[ap. This worked well and lasted for a while. I apologized and explained that she was really fading. She said that was ok, and if need be to do this again. I was not happy at all to need to hit my friend, however in the interest of determination on her part and on safety from my part and her part, I did what I needed to do. I truly believe this saved our lives, got us safely to our destination, and allowed her son to have enough time to return to Mary land in time to go to work. What a relief to have arived. My friend took a wrong turn which was going up toward my place. I did not mind because I felt that I was closer to the land by having traveled in that direction. We turned around and then took the correct road to their place, pulled into their drive way and were at least I was very relieved to have finally arrived. What a relief this was to be here at long last. After about a half hour when everything got settled and I was inside their place, the people from The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Later Day Saints started to arrive. They were going to help me get moved into my cabin. This was a very, very exciting time for me. I was thrilled and anxious to get home and relax. I knew that the mobil home had not been delivered yet because of having to work out details for timing, set up, and making certain that everything was situated for me to bring this wonderful dwelling onto the top of the mountain. It would be wonderful having the cabin as my office and work place and the mobile home for my living quarters to share with my animal friends who also were my family. A lot of the people from church went to the cabin and I stayed at my friends place. Somewhere during the arrival and the visit of the church members, I was told that some cleaning needed to be done and a ramp needed to be built. As of the last thing I understood about the situation which was days to a week ago, the ramp was supposed to be built and ready by the time I arrived and the cabin was supposed to have been cleaned. Unfortunately this had not happened. I was so very disappointed. A bit later I was told about cleaning that needed to be accomplished and so they worked to get my belongings into storage. I was not thrilled because of the extra expense that I did not know was in the future but there was no other solution. I figured, ok, one week would not be all that horrible. Well, was I in for a shock. Many times I had told people that things happen in Heavenly Fathers timing. I knew that God had HIs timing and He had His plan, so I needed to get over the disappointment as quickly as possible and focus on what was possible. It definitely was the time for me to focus and count my blessings. There was absolutely no doubt that Heavenly Fathe had watched over us and taken very good care of us. Considering how my friend many times almost fell asleep while driving, I had no doubt that this was a major super big blessing. Eventually I found out that the cabin was beyond needing cleaning. It needed some major mega house cleaning. How long It would to do the cleaning I had no idea. When and how the ramp would be built, I did not know either. At the moment all I knew was that I was totally beyond exhaustion. Even though I slept it was not restful and it was not fpr any length of time. Usually we would grab about one and a half hours sleep to three hours sleep approximately and then continue to drive down the road towards Arkansas. By this time I was in my power wheelchair and I had my legs elevated so that I could work on getting the massive swelling down. It didn’t take too long before I was out cold. As it turned out my friend wound out cold shortly after I left consciousness. For about ten hour give or take any discrepancies, the world did not exist and as it is when we sleep, I did not exist. When my friend and I woke up, we were much better rested. The time that went by was astounding, I had no idea that I had slept for about ten hours. I think my friend was awake a bit earlier but still, this goes to show how little sleep we got while on the trip. Soon reality set in and unfortunately it was apparent that it would be quite a while before I would be able to go home to my cabin. At least for the first three to five weeks I expected to get the mobile home which would solve a lot of challenging problems. The I was told no and then it again changed to yes, then eventually it was no. Oh well, I’m disappointed but know that perhaps Heavenly Father has something much better in mind. I’ll just need to patiently wait and see what developes on my behalf. When my friends went to the cabin about two or three dsay later, they discovered there was more of a problem than we thought. For starters there were a mega amount of invaders that absolutely had to be exterminated and run out on as much of a permanent basis as possible. These horrible critters were every where and into everything. The people who had been living in the dwelling a while ago left the place in chuch a unbelievable state that it is enough to gag a maggot. Actually from what I was told it was worse than that and they could not believe that someone would choose to live like that in those kind of conditions. Just writing about this right now is starting to turn my stomach, so I will move on to another part of this story. I am extremely grateful and thankful for all the work that my friends did to help me because the clean up job I am certain was something that even with being paid many people would refuse to do this particular job. The amount of days they invested into cleaning I do not know exactly, so I will take a stab at this and guess it was about a week. More or less maybe, however what ever the amount of time, I can not thank them enough. As a thank you to them I plan to give them a copy of this book. As the days went by I figured I was getting closer and closer to being able to live in my cabin. Dream on and wait was all I could do. Then, the subject of the ramp came up and after a lengthy discussion, we found out that the ramp was going to be more complicated and very much more costly than we had anticipated. With all of the moving expenses and still needing to pay the moving company, I was facing a huge dilema. Where was the money going to come from for the materials for the ramp. This project went from a simple under one hundred dollars project that would take only a few hours to mammoth endeavor that would take several days. I know my friends were well aware of me having multiple medical challenges and that I used a wheelchair for my mobility, but they really did not fully understand until we started talking about the details of my needs based on my medical problems. For me to successfully negotiate going up a ramp, it needed to be on a scale of at least for every foot of height the slant should be of sixteen inches long. This means for example if the height is five inches you would need a ramp that is sixty inches long. I do not exactly remember the height of the cabin from the ground to the access to the door, but it seemed to be something around twenty eight inches. When you multiply this by each foot of ramp needed, the ramp becomes a monster. Another challenging situation was that because of where the cabin was built, it was very close to the edge of the mountain drop off which was extremely steep. So this meant that the ramp would need to have a landing outside the door, then the ramp along the side of the building, then another turn around, and then more ramp. This was going to take a lot of material to create what would work well for me and my environmental situation. Because of the need for more material to build the ramp and turn arounds, it meant having to spend a lot more money. At the moment this was a huge problem. Already I had spent a lot of money for the move, went into debt for the rest of the move such as the u-haul truck, and still had all of the bills to pay plus the added bills to pay for my property cabin, storage, and items I did not know earlier would be needed. And after all the reattach, we still got surprised by the unexpected events and things that were now causing a huge amount of stress, frustration, and concern because this was not only effecting me, but it was rippling out toward my friend who drove out here, my friends who told us about this area, and the church which was trying to help. Then there is the future of involving more people because it seems that the simple small things were growing totally out of proportion and getting bigger by the revelation of the full truth of what the actuall situation was that needed to be resolved as soon as possible. Well, the challenge was before me and everyone who was involved with our arrival. So now it was time to think and plan the next steps. What could we do with what we had to work with? My friends a few days found a company who said they could build a ramp for me at the cost of five hundred dollars. That was a lot more money than I had in my pocket. Fortunately they were willing to accept two hundred and fifty but again it was more than I had available. I only had one hundred and fifty dollars. The nice thing about the situation with these people was that we could not get the materials for that price much less add in building of the ramp. Now that I think about this, I wonder if the materials were what we thought they may be. Anyway the short version of this was that after we informed the company about what I had, we never got a response. A while later I did have the full two hundred and fifty dollars which we told them but again we never got a response. As time passed we thought about options, I spent many, many hours at McDonalds because this was the only way I had internet access, and even with everyones help we had no other options. My only choice was to use my credit card which was strictly for a specific store. This store was about an hour drive away. The other challenge was that unfortunately the communications got mixed up between me and my friends so that he thought that my useable amount on my credit card was only five hundred dollars. Not knowing this was his understanding for quite some time he spent more time trying to work out a way for the ramp expenses to be no more than five hundred dollars. We had a few other communication mix ups along the way toward finding a way to get the ramp materials and get the ramp built, yet we did not quit. After about a month of being in their home which was awesomely wonderful of them to gift to us, everyone was getting desperate over the situation. I may not be exactly positively correct on the time frame for these events however I know that I am close. Finally he understood about my credit card, we picked a plan and time for getting the materials, and when the day came to ride all the way to the store for the materials we were fortunate to be able to get there with barely enough time to place the order and make certain that everything which was needed would be on the order form. I was able to place this stuff on my credit card and this was a great relief. One thing I did not mention yet was that one of the reasons we needed to go to the store instead of ordering everything o line was because of the delivery distance from the store. It was so far away that there was not only no free delivery,t the regular delivery charge was not enough and so they were charging a lot more extra costs for delivering and not only that somethings were not able to be ordered by online ordering. My friends car was starting to seriously limp along by this time, so we took a lot longer getting home that night. Before we all left I offered to by my friends dinner and gave them what would cover the entire family. I figured it was the best way to thank them for their help. And when we work together to help each other things are better for everyone. Their help has been priceless. Slowly we drove toward out destination, but because we were hungry by this time, and the car was starting to seriously complain, we decided to stop at McDonalds and allow the car to cool off. Being able to get food and something to drink for me was a treat. I did not want to burden my friend about going inside so we had a picnic in the car and were very thankful for our burgers and sodas. Bella was relaxing in front of me on the floor underneath the dash like she always did. Needing more time to cool off for the car my friend decided to take Bella for a walk and give her a chance to do whatever she needed to do and well as stretch her legs. When they returned, we settled in to wait a while longer. Thrilled because we had the book my friend was reading to me, she does a marvelously excellent job of reading, we dove into the story for several pages to pass the time. Eventually we limped along and somewhere around midnight or maybe after we arrived home and as quietly as possible entered their place and then went to bed. The next step to this project was finding the way to have the ramp built. My friend had to work, and he could not build the ramp totally by himself because of the time constraints. Fortunately two other people for whom I am very grateful to know and have had help me are willing to help with this project. I was feeling much better about this situation. By this time although I really enjoyed being with my friends, and loved fellowshipping with them, I really wanted to be in my cabin. My friend who came out here with me had a short while ago showed me the area and I was thrilled because it was nice to actually finally be on my property. I did not get out of the car because it takes a lot of effort to get my manual wheelchair out of the trunk or back of a car and then I need to have my transfer board so I can slide from the car seat to my wheelchair. Then we need to do this all over again in reverse when we are finished. Using a manual wheelchair to get around on top of a mountain is almost impossible unless someone is struggling with you pushing from behind as you try to roll the large wheels with the push rims. Even when being pulled backwards is extremely difficult. She showed me as much as possible from the car vantage point and I was so happy because at least I was able to know a little bit more about where I longed to live. Although it was exciting and wonderful to see as much as she could show me, I still only got small pieces of the property and cabin. Because of being in the car for which I was grateful because having a car that worked is precious around here, I saw mostly from the front and this veiw was limited by the windshield ares available for me to look through. Looking through the side window was not easy because I can only turn my neck so very, very slightly and carefully unless I wast to cause extreme dizziness and nausea. Most of what I saw was the bottoms of the trees some of the road, and the end of the cabin.Sometimes depending on location and situation I could see higher into the trees and almost the height of the cabin. I had a song on my heart for this place as if it were softly calling me and wanting to connect with me. Slowly it seemed, the days passed and the closer our departure day came the more strongly I felt I was being pulled toward Arkansas. The only challenge was that the people I was leaving behind would be far away soon and that would mean not seeing they on regular basis, or perhaps very rarely. Hope fully, although I do not want to return to Maryland I will eventually get to visit with my friends. I can not say that I am home sick because this does not exactly fit the situation. It is more like being friend sick. For reasons I mentioned earlier, I really do not want to go back. * Everything was working out nicely and going smoothly so there was no reason to expect any dramatic changes. My cousin had been staying with me for about three years and so I figured this was the way it was until one of us decided to make a change, or something arrived to cause a change. I figured on average people stuck around for anywhere from two to five years and my cousin would be part of this usual situation. Oh Boy, was I so very, very wrong about my assumptions or whatever this should be called. I had two aids who were helpful, plenty of activities I enjoyed, and everything seemed status quo. Then my friend who was also my aid started sharing with me thing she was learning about on the internet and through a group of her friends. Some of this stuff I really didn’t want to know about and yet, it was of such great importance that I had to know. Mixed in with this news was something I thought was very nice but something which wasn’t for me to get involved with so listened and responded then did it all over again many times as new information came my way. My friend told me about what a group of friends were planning to do. Hey wanted to get together and help each other with the challenges of life such as for example if you needed a barn, or fence, or something repaired then who ever was knowledgable and whoever was able to do the work would gather together and work until the job was completed. The sharing of resources would be part of the survival plan as well as figuring out how to have an income. As I understood it, they wanted their privacy and to be able to quietly enjoy their surroundings and enjoy life. The ares was definitely not wheelchair friendly so I figured it was best for me to remain where I was. Even though my friend asked me years ago if she found a wonderful place to hang out and enjoy nature and the extremely rural, rural country life, would I go with her. As usual my reply was something to the effect of it’s not wheelchair friendly, I’m settled here with friends, church family, and the help I need so I didn’t see any reason to go off to some strange place and have to start all over again. Actually this exchange went on for several years until recently when I learned about the news information and an eare which sounded like having a piece of heaven on earth. My biggest concern was having to rely upon people for help. I didn’t want to cause undue pressure and burdens upon other people any more than I had to even when they were willing to accept this responsibility. Plus I didn’t want to cause movement to be inhibited because they would need to take me along. I wanted them to be able to do what they wanted with as much ease as possible. As long as I was not involved with their plans they were free to do things easier, quicker, and more efficiently, so why neither would I want to impede any progress they may want in in act with in the the group and living situation. I was still telling my friend that it would be much better for everyone if I remained where I was and allowed everyone to do their thing. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with my decision but after many lengthy talks she began to understand my point of view and see why I thought this would be best for me and everyone. We still talked about the current events, what her friends were thinking about and planning to do, and other topics of interest. Very slowly and subtly I began to realize that things may not be as they seem and that I may have misunderstood what she was trying to tell me. Eventually I began to understand that indeed things were not exactly the way I thought they were and that I had misunderstood some of the information which came me way. As the light in my head got brighter and brighter and I realized that maybe it would be possible for me to actually go with my friend, I become more alert and interested to the information she was sharing with me. As time and information made things clearer and clearer I started getting a bit excited about the possibilities. Then without any warning and without any fanfare, I felt as if I were being directed or being nudged, or being mostly pulled in a direction I had not considered at all for any reason. More and more these feelings magnified and I started to consider the possibility of making some huge changes in my life. For many years probably high school until just recently, I occasionally would think about being able to go anywhere I wanted within the United States and then ponder about where this would be waiting for an answer. I now have more than just an answer, I have been given a play by and from Heavenly Father. I believe this is all His Idea and that He has a purpose for these things happening as well as having a job for me to do. I do not know any thing about this job or even what it is but I do know that as time draws near and it is time for me to start my work for Him, he will reveal to me what it is that I am supposed to do for Him. Sometimes we know not what we are to do only because the timing is not right yet. Other times it is a matter of we are not ready yet. Still other times perhaps other people or things are not ready yet. Then again, it may be that the situation is not ready yet. Sometimes even with the best of intentions, things need to wait a while because Heavenly Father is waiting on someone to decide to do what is needed. This is why we get “wait” for an answer. Waiting is difficult and I was anxious to get to Arkansas but I knew it would happen in the time frame that was correct and that Heavenly Father knew would be the best possible situation for everyone. During my many years of being on this earth I have learned through varied circumstances, events, and even through experiences of other people and myself that Heavenly Father does all He possibly can for use to have happiness and joy as well as success. Time and time again He has demonstrated to me that His timing and purpose is for my best interest as well as for all of His children. When I trust Him and allow Him to lead I have more Joy and Happiness as well as a better chance to have the very, very best things in life. As my belief, faith, and trust are strengthened I find that I feel more secure, have less fearful thoughts, and much more peace of mind and peaceful spirit and heart. Whenever I am aware of being distracted and finding my focus on something that I’ve given completely to heavenly Father, I discover that this has allowed fear and lack of faith to wage war against me and my relationship with Heavenly Father. When I focus and trust heavenly Father, I have peace and often know what it is I should do in a certain situation. This is a huge relief and a great gift from Him. As soon as I realized that it was in my best interest to consider relocating I started doing research, finding the least expensive means for shipping thing, figuring out how to efficiently pack, and how to successfully have a yard sale. Even though I investigated as thoroughly as possible there were glitches because of events which I was totally unaware of that had a huge impact on the future of my plans. His didn’t mean that I was supposed to cancel my activities and efforts to relocate. It meant to me that in spirit and 99% of this scenario all was well, and whatever needed to be resolve would be in Heavenly Fathers timing. My friend was totally surprised and shocked when I announced that I wanted to move to Arkansas in the area where we had friends and there was little population. She expected that I was going to stay in the house and just wait for whatever came along then try to deal with it. I knew that if my friend went out of state and accepted her invitation, she would be way too far away to help me and I would need to manage without her or find another aid. Because I felt in every fiber of my being that I was now supposed to be in Arkansas it was then time to go into a full fleged race for being ready to go as quickly as possible to the intended destination.. I don’t know why but leaving in July seemed imperative and essential to the timing of our transition. This put a huge amount of pressure on me to get packed and have everything in order. All I could do is rely on Heavenly Father and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. The only other possibility was to find help so that I would not have to do this all alone by myself. Quickly I spread the word asking for help and waited to see if anyone was willing and able to lend a helping hand. Fortunately a few people dedicated some of their time to me for which I was very, very happy and grateful. Without this help much more packing would have not been in time for our departure date which all through the events leading up to the day of our move I felt should not and could not be changed. Some other people arrived to help and were able to get some of the larger things situated so that they could be packed or out of the way while the packing process continued. I had many categories arranged for things for the yard sale, things to keep and pack, things to give away, things to throw away, and things that were being decided about. At least I managed to this organized which made the ensuing days easier to manage. One challenging problem was having to move something or several somethings every time or it seemed, every time I needed to get to something or go from one part of the house to another. It was turning out to be an organized chaotic mess. As much as I wanted to have some semblance of order and organization, some how, this unwanted and unexpected mess appeared all over the house. I have to admit that this move was much like on the job training. Most of the time even after doing gobs of research, I was flying by the seat of my pants and relying on Heavenly Father for strength, knowledge, and guidance. I tend to try to think out of the box or at least figure out a way to get the greatest amount of items packed while taking up the least amount of space. As it turned out, God gave me the idea via spiritual Holy Ghost suggestion which was like having a thought come out of what seems to be nowhere, or like hearing a voice speaking an idea that is so quiet you almost do not notice, that suggested I take my cd’s and dvd’s out of their more bulky cases, and fit them into media sleeves which only take the room needed for the dvd or cd. I was able to pack a huge amount of these cd and dvd items into a relatively small box instead of having to place them into many larger boxes. This would save a huge amount of room and make it possible to get more things into the u-haul truck. The down side to this activity is that it takes considerable time to transfer everything and then got it packed into a box. Little did I know that the time required to get things packed was very, very fleeting and that being only one person, would no way be able to come close to successfully completing this job. After all the research I did into moving and the companies, I still had no idea that they would start out with one price and then finagle another price when you arrived at the destination. It is kinda like a bate and switch situation. This created financial strain that was frustrating because I was not able to do anything about this situation. They had come up with a reason for the increase and it seemed that from a legal stand point I was over a barrel. Either I had to pay the cost or they were going to refuse to deliver my belongings. After the fact I have learned that this is in many situations standard operating procedure. Personally, I think and believe it is a horrible thing to do to people, however, by the time a person would go to court and have the court fees and expenses it really does not pay to start legal action. I would like to do something about this yet, I will not because I know that Heavenly Father is well aware of what happened and I also believe that He eventually in His timing take care of this issue. Sooner or later whoever is responsible for these actions and activities, they will be held accountable for what have done. As the packing process progressed it became apparent that I was going to have to make some very hard and difficult choices. Through out the many years that I have been living in my house, I have been richly blessed with pants, shirts, and socks which were either purchased from thrift shops, or given to me by friends. My challenge was that a lot of these items I really liked and enjoyed, however, Because of the expensive costs for moving, I needed to drastically cut back on how much I was intending to take with me. I thought about leaving the majority of clothes for some in Maryland who needed them but then the flip side of the coin was my mobility issues which would be a challenge because of dealing with the terrain on the mountain. So, this meant that getting replacement clothes might be more problematic at the other end of this adventure. I decided that I would take what was the very, very most important things and if there was enough room, grab whatever else was next most important. I knew that at the higher elevation it would be colder, so winter cold weather apparel was a must. Also because the hot weather would be soon out of the picture because of seasonal changing I decided to take less spring and summer clothes with me. One of the things I did not consider was food preparation. My friend grabbed eating utensils and some kitchen stuff, however I barely gave food preparation much thought. I was focused on what in my mind were the most very, very important things like my art supplies, cd’s, dvd’s, books, computer, some personal care stuff, medical stuff, precious odds and ends. Yes, to some degree I packed backwards yet at the time I did not realize that I should have done things differently because I thought there would be more room than there actually was. Also before people came to help move the boxes and totes to the u-haul I had no idea the truck was going to be packed in such a way that it was not full when I was told it was full and there was no more room. These challenging circumstances caused a huge difference in what actually wound up being transported here. Another issue was that some things which were not supposed to be loaded onto the u-haul truck were placed onto the u-haul truck, and some things that were very important were left behind in Maryland which I was completely unaware of because of all the rushing and racing around trying to get things done and because I was not able to be in several places at one time. Now I can only hope that with help from friends back in Maryland that somethings have been rescued and possibly sent to me when I am able to afford the cost of shipping. I know that Heavenly Father is acutely aware of my situation and that there is a need for some of my thing to be here, so am waiting for the right timing for these items to be shipped. As soon as they arrive I will be so relieved and thankful not to mention grateful and happy, and joyful for these blessings. Eventually I hope to have my frying pan and a few other cooking items because it will make preparing meals much easier and it is better to have use of item for which I am accustom to using. I do not want to rush time however it would be very, very nice to have these things available to me sooner rather than later. Life would be easier, not that this is a complaint it is rather an observation which I am sharing with you. As soon as things are settled than I will be able to finally pay off the debt for moving which will be a heavy load off my shoulders. My gratitude is full because it is a miracle that this will happen. I did not know that the housing market took another down hill slide. Perhaps this is good because other wise I may have decided to remain in Maryland which would have been something that would have disappointed my Heavenly Father and possibly that I would not have the health improvement like the arthritis stiffness just about completely gone. I have hope and faith the there will be more healthier improvements for me in the future. Today November twelfth, two thousand sixteen, I was richly blessed by a visit from my friend, food form the food pantry, and the arrival of my almost brand new power wheelchair. Now that I have this very valuable and awesome piece of durable medical equipment. I am able to view more of my property, take Bella for a nice long walk, and meet my friend in my driveway to help her carry inside any items that she is bring to me, as well as burn papers and small wood whenever needed. There are many other things I will be able to do but these are some of the main ones which will make a huge difference for me, my dos, and my friend. Having this added freedom is like getting out of jail. It is the only way I can think of at the moment to explain the feeling of being able to actually go somewhere and explore where ever it is safe for me and my chair to see the beauty of nature from many different directions and aklso, share pictures of the area mare than what I was able to take from the ramp turn arounds. I’ve been thrilled and exceedingly happy and joyous being here, this is just added blessings which I celebrate and cherish. Another wonderful event today was having a visit from my other friends who just got a new puppy. He is very yound, I think about six weeks old but he looks like he is maybe ten to twelve weeks old. This guy is going to be a big boy. Right he is very cute, soft, and a nice warm bundle of fur. Oh, and one more thing was when my friend brought the food from the food pantry these events really made my day. As I count my blessings gratitude and happiness and joy fill my heart, spirit, and soul. I can not say enough about the wonderful kindness and caring of my Heavenly Father. At night it is starting to get quite cool so I will have to make a concerted effort this coming week to find another heat source which is absolutely safe for inside and economical for my budget. For many days I researched many different possibilities and have found that some are wonderful bit very expensive and others are inexpensive but not safe for indoor use. Using electric heaters is fine except they may not be able to keep up with the greater dip in temperature at night and they are being ad major drain on my electricity consumption. This means a higher electric bill which is better than no heat, yet I know there are much less expensive means for acquiring the necessary heat with the right equipment that will be able to keep up with the night time temperature drop. Getting the fence is very important however it is less of a stressful situation for me because now I have the power wheelchair. My power wheelchair is wonderful. The challenging part of using it around here is that the roads are sand dirt and rocks and gravel. Personally I would love to have paved roads because it would be easier to get around and there would be less stress and strain on my power wheelchair and on me. One question about getting around which still needs to be figured out is if I can drive my power wheelchair up the hill toward my place from my friends place. I know I have enough fuel in the batteries, but with the hill being so very, very steep at one place for quite a long distance I do not know if the motors have the power to roll the power wheelchair up that immense hill. Hopefully my power wheelchair will be able to do this which will make a huge difference in my ability to be more independent. I have been thinking and considering what any alternatives may be available for me, but so far have not figured out a viable solution. One possibility which I thought about was some hoe getting a all terrain vehicle but I still need to research this possibility. An all terrain vehicle may be something beneficial for me and even my friend for running around on the mountain but it would not help me get to any other places. And, then there is the cost of getting something like the all terrain vehicle which I am certain is rather expensive. Oh, well! I know that Heavenly Father has a wonderful plan so I will just wait to see what He had in mind and then follow His lead with great Happiness and joy. Another possible solution I have considered is getting a mule. The difference in having an all terrain vehicle and a mule is that the all terrain vehicle needs gas, oil, and maintainance. The mule needs food, maintenance, and is a living breathing animal who can not be left day after day to fend for it’s self, but an all terrain vehicle can sit in the driveway for days and weeks with no need for any special daily care. The mule needs to have it’s feet cared for and the all terrain vehicle needs tires. So basically these two possibilities require some kind of financial out lay and some degree of daily care. Then there is the cost of the gas compared to the cost of the feed and hay. The cost of the mechanic compared to the cost of the vet. I apparently still have a huge amount of research to do about these possibilities as well as looking for other possible means of mobility. Right now my plans are to wait until after the major winter season is nearing an end before I try to get something unless I find a bargain that is so wonderful that I can not pass it up no matter what. I spent a huge amount of time trying about the Masonry heater I finally found out about and this software mysteriously erased the entire content about this item. I’m so ticked that I could blow it to smithereens because now I have no other choice but to try to recreate what I’ve written, not to mention the fact that my times is extremely important and has been utterly wasted. The masonry heater is much like but not exactly a fire place. It can be absolutely a huge and humungous structure or if it is only needed for smaller areas which need to have heat it can be about the size of a small fire place or stove grill type of construction. Basically the idea is to get as much heat from the smallest amount of fuel burned by making the walls thicker than usual and within these walls have tubes or conduits for the heat to follow toward the top of the masonry heater. As needed the front an sides are inside or if it is placed far away from the wall of the structure it has all of the thick walls inside. After the fire extinguishes the heat still radiates for about eight to fourteen hours depending on the size of the masonry heater. Whenever I am able to get one which requires having help from someone who would have enough knowledge and know how to carefully and safely build one of these things I would start the process from underneath the cabin even digging a foot or two below ground so that the radiant heat would start beneath the floor and radiate out ward through the area. Having this kind of passive heat from below would make the floor nice and toasty warm. Then with the rest of the structure being as heavy as about two or three times the weight of a regular fire place, it would be very stable and be able to bear all of the weight. The main important issue would be making certain that the foundation slab was thick and level so that there would be little chance of shifting or sinking to cause problems with breakage or cracking within the structure. After the foundation is completed then the walls are erected with room for tubing or some kind of pathway for the heat to follow to the top. As the fire burns it get so hot that there is little to no smoke or other particulates to contaminate or foul the atmospheres which makes this a very clean and green means for obtaining heat for the winter months. I’m excited about this because the masonry heater seems to be the safest way from a safety and environmental way to burn wood. It very much more efficient than a wood stove according to the information I’ve read, and it seems to be versatile enough to fit into many carried and different situations, sizes, and configurations of living spaces. When there is a need for hot water this masonry heater is just the most wonderful means by which it is possible to obtain hot water. I do not know all the details about how the masonry heater is designed for heating water, however, I understand that it is also very, very efficient when doing this kind of task. Another awesome and wonderful advantage for having one of these masonry heaters is because it is possible to heat food and drink as well as cook food similarly to the way you would cook your food using a grill or stone oven. Usually some kind of metal surface is placed on top which can be removed for various reasons like maintaining the masonry heater, or loading fuel, or changing in my way of thinking, cook top for something that would allow a person to have an additional means of adding heat to the room.thinking, The most challenging issue with managing for me to get one of these masonry heaters is that they are very, very expensive. One added advantage even with the expense is not needing as much wood to produce the heat and the fact that the masonry heater is capable of producing passive heat for as long as six to fourteen hours depending on the size and physical build of this structure. For me I would need a smaller sized structure for my cabin because it is less than one thousand square feet. The size is absolutely just fine for me because I do not have as much area to try to keep clean and to try to cool or heat depending on the needs for the seasons. At night there is no need for placing wood into the burn box to start a fire because of the long duration of producing poassive heat. I’m certain this will work the same way for me even with me eventually having a smaller masonry heater only because of the smaller space I would need to heat. My friends have some of this information which I sent to them and so should be able to give me a better idea about who could possibly help me and them be able to have one of these masonry heaters. I trust Heavenly Father for HIs guideance and that He will make a way for me to be able to use this method for heating my cabin or even when I get my mobile home to heat the mobile home. The material gradually through out the day and night will hold the heat for a long time which is great! Another possibility which I was thinking about and considering was having someone help me with building a passive solar heat collector. Because this does not require any fuel it would be the very, very best alternative for me. By having one or two of these devices I would not need to rely upon people to provide the wood necessary for a masonry heater. The passive solar heater bos can be built of scrap materials and when necessary with items purchased usually from the hardware store. After some observations I figured out where south is and by doing this I now know where this passive solar heating device should be mounted. It will need to go onto the back side of my cabin which is super awesomely wonderful because it will be out of sight. When they are built carefully and with materials that work well together especitally they do not look too horrible. The box that is created is only several inches deep so would not stick out too far. Inside the materials are painted black so probably would not be too much of an eye sore. I would conjecture that unless the passive solar heat source was built with stuff that was absolutely horrible and crafted sloppily that it would look ok and most likely operate efficiently. Some of the other sources for having heat will not work well for me because they are either very, very expensive, or are too big or too small or very inefficient. So far the electric heater is keeping this place reasonably warm and until I can make a change like possible considering getting an oil filled electric heater I will need to work with the heat source I have. I know that Heavenly Father has plans for me so will continue by faith and His strength more than my own strength to wait upon Him to show me what it is that I should do. As soon as my friends are able to help with the well pump and water tank which they have, I should be able to use my well. I hope to eventually have a hand pump so that whenever there is a power interruption I can still access water from my well. I know there are the pump kind of well pumps but seem to remember seeing or hearing about a pump which can be used by turning like peddling a device which would bring up the water. Having some kind of crank device I believe would be best for me to operate the well pump with the least amount of effort. Another challenging project is figuring out what to do about my mail box. Around these parts of the state at least it seems everyones mail box is located in the same area. That’s mountain living for ya. Under the normal circumstances of being around these parts most people deal with this and go about their business. But, for me it is a very challenging and trough situation to resolve because the place where the mail boxes are gathered is about a quarter of a mile away or maybe more or less, but it seems to be far enough because of the steepness of the hill,that the mail box might as well be on mars. After weeks of inquiring and asking for help to get the form I need so that I can get permission to relocate my mail box somewhere closer to my cabin, I still do not have this form. I do not know the name of this form and have asked for the name but again no one has found out what that is so my mail is now being returned to it’s original sender. This is aggravating and I think mean because I have permission for my mail to be placed into my friends mail box. I’m doing everything I can to get the form and when I have the permission I need to locate my mail box near my cabin, I will then get a mail box. So now I guess I will turn this completely over to Heavenly Father now that I have told this mini story about my mail box challenges. Hopefully this person who is in my opinion being very unreasonable does not have this come back on them. I would hope they are doing this because they do not understand the situation and are supposedly trying to follow the rules. I am very thankful for having the ability to check on my accounts and pay the bills because if I had to rely on the mail, I would be in a huge amount of trouble I was fortunate enough to manage to be able to finally get into my account for my electricity and pay that bill today. So far all of my bills have been paid and that is a major blessing from Heavenly Father. I know if these things were happening and I was still in Maryland I would not be as relaxed and calm about these events. For this I am much relieved and thankful. I think and believe that being in a cleaner environment and having all the natural things of nature is exceeding wonderful, uplifting, and very, very helpful to me. I can feel the difference each day even with my pump beeping and the medication slowing down, that my medical situation is stable and I have great hope for a much more healthier situation. I know that Heavenly Father is the great physician and so with Him I will be just fine and prosper. Because of the trials and challenges if I were back east I would not have managed to accomplish the tasks I have accomplished. Here I have made great strides with my writing and finding out bout the resources I need to further this activity. Also, I have found a huge amount of resources for making things much,much better for my living situation in my cabin, improving my property, and having some of the necessities I need. Since the last day of July, a huge amount of progress has happened for which I am exceeding thankful and grateful to Heavenly Father. I need to mention here that my friends back east have done a marvelous and wonderful job gifting to me what I need to get things straightened and cared for so the house is ready for settlement and my stuff is sent to me. All of this is absolutely so very, very wonderful, and comforting. It’s like having a group hug from everyone. While It is on my mind I need to mention that I have considered the floor and given it some thought. The one thing I would like to do is place some insulation between the base floor and the final cover floor material so that the cold is kept out and heat in during the winter months and the heat out and the cold in during hot months. One of the people from church gave me this idea. I’m not certain what materials to use exactly but eventually I will research about this and figure out what may work well. Another challenging issue for this place is getting as much sun light as possible to illuminate the interior of my cabin. Some ideas which seem to work well are using mirrors or mirrors tiles. The mirrors are expensive and the tiles are pricey but because of needing so many tiles, and considering the weight of these items they might not be the best choice. The use of white and light gray paint has been recommended as a means of better illumination but again, it is costly and I am not certain about how well this will work. I have been told by one of the people from church that they would like to use white paneling which is just fine with me. I am going to wait and see how this works before deciding on if there is any thing I need to do to increase the amount of inside light. Oh, there is one more important thing about around here. The sun is more intense around here, so my plants which are inside now are doing very, very nicely. A friend is kind and thoughtful and willing to send some of my plants to me which she managed to rescue from outside a while ago. I ma looking forward to having them with me. I am glad for the plants that I have and seriously miss the others which very, very unfortunately I had to leave behind, however I have hope that many of them somehow will be sent to me eventually. Either way, as long as they are taken care of and cared for vey well I will be ok and happy for them to survive and thrive. The one thing which roams through my head occasionally is the fact that I worked diligently to get things situated so that I had everything necessary to enjoy my plants, cd’s. Dvd’s. Writing, animals,. Art, and friends, church, other activities and visit with friends and with church family members, and even was getting the environment so that I had much more independence then ever before. Then God presented this golden and wonderful opportunity. I just could not refuse Heavenly Father. He has something for me to do or some reason for me to be here and so I needed to go and follow His lead. There were years off and on where occasionally I would consider wether I could leave everything and go somewhere at the drop of a hat. Well, I did not exactly do this but, I came very, very close to doing exactly this and had things been slightly different, I would have probably had to leave everything and just go. I think I passed this test and have now different challenges and testings yet, I know all will be well with Heavenly Father. I did in fact and in physical and mental ways give up a mega huge amount of things. My friends are now farther than they have ever been in my life and theirs, the house was almost one thousand seven hundred square feet of living space and now I have less than half of that space, there is a huge amount of work to be done to get even half way to where things were at my Maryland place, my sister is far away, the convenience of shopping is no where near as close or convenient or good as it was back east, and my support for help because of my medical challenges is completely gone at the moment. On the positive side of this scenario is I feel much better and have more energy, the environment is much cleaner and healthier which I believe is something which has made a huge difference in my health situation, although it is not as convenient or easy to get to store because they are so very far away it is worth this inconvenience because the cost of living with something is much cheeper, and I have my dream come true, and Heavenly Father is everywhere so He is here also, and all of nature is up close and personal for me to enjoy and benefit from each day. I have friends here and am finding new friends. My friend is here and helping me which is awesome because I enjoy her company and she has a sense of being courteous and respectful about how she does things. There are opportunities which I hope to be able to partake of in the near future such as visiting some places which are not at all around where I used to live. I hope to visit the crystal mines and see all the different crystals around the area. Another place I would like to is to some of the areas where there are opportunities for enjoying out door activities. For the moment I am very, very content and at peace having this wonderful place available for my use and for being able to concentrate on my writing and my art. I really believe that if I were still in Maryland I would not be writing this book nor would I be participating in NaNoWriMo. I do not know if I will do this next year or if I will be engaged in something else. One thing for certain is that I am enjoying writing and am grateful for being to do this and have the opportunity to share my thoughts about this adventure with you. As things progress I hope be fore this book is completed I will be able to add them to the chapters here, or perhaps I may write another book and continue sharing with you the adventures I am having in this part of the country. Just as for writers, I have discovered that because I have pushed through continuing to add to this book, when I was having a slow down of writing and not a block, when I continued to write even when I needed to drag out each word as if I were trying to pull a stubborn imbedded tooth, I was able to get words written and after a few days, I am back to producing several thousand words relatively easily again. This discovery would not have happened if I and not been in this situation and I would not have been in this situation I am certain if I were still in Maryland. I thank Heavenly Father for the prompting of Holy Ghost for with out these I would not have these words written in the amount for which they exist right now. It is wonderful for me to be writing well again and for this I also thank you who are going to read this book because I am writing these words so to share with you my thoughts, thoughts about this adventure, and the details of this adventure. As much as possible I want to show you what happened and how it happened. I want you to experience this adventure with me. Who knows, maybe we will find other adventures to enjoy together. One thing for certain at this moment I plan on continuing to write as much as possible and share my word art. For me writing is like creating pictures with words. As soon as I can get this book finished I look forward to sharing it with many readers. And as I work on completing this effort I will add information as interest and information allow. When NaNoWriMo is completed then most of this book will be finished except for the editing process and a few additions. I am grateful and thankful to be able to write again after having a major cold and UTI sap much of my energy. I am still a bit tired but this day being a marvelous gift from Heavenly Father and also Thanksgiving, it is well worth it to me to be writing and sharing with you some of the things for which I am thankful for today. I appreciate all of you who have taken an interest in my adventures in Arkansas. You are precious and wonderful friends who I hope I will eventually meet. You never know when such a meeting will happen. Won’t we be surprised to suddenly have gifted to us to opportunity to spend time together. What a marvelous ad venture we can have sharing our lives with each other and life experiences with each other. Hopefully we will be able to meet sometime soon. * As time went by extremely quickly which seemed like it had been pushed forward by a rocket, I had to admit that there was something going on which was strongly propelling me into areas and situations I knew nothing or very little about. I felt like a piece of metal being pulled by a strong magnet. I couldn’t shake the idea that I should do some serious research about Arkansas and particularly the area called Caddo Gap. Even the name spoke strongly to me as if it were already a part of me. So, I kept listening to what my friend was sharing with me, stated doing research on Caddo Gap, and definitely did some very, very super serious praying. Very slowly I came a bit familiar with the area, the life style, geography, environment, cost of living, medical facilities, programs available, and other points of interest. Oh, my did I put my foot into this. Actually I did more than that. I began to be infiltrated with the essence of this area. It seemed as if it and I were becoming acquainted on more than a superficial level. Wow! Is this actually what I’m supposed to be investing all this time and effort in and for what reasons and why? As I asked questions of my Heavenly Father and continued to pray, There was a amazingly super strong feeling that I should seriously consider and look into finding a place in Arkansas. By this time weeks had passed and my friend had talked for hour after hour day after day. I found out about a property which was available very near my friends place. My friend had been invited to stay with them and so all I needed to do is make arrangements to acquire my own situation where I could live. Amazingly I felt over whelming peace, excitement, enthusiasm, and the need to leave my home. For the very first time in all of my life after checking periodically for any signs or nudges to relocate, I had been given the green for go to move somewhere else. I knew this was possible any given year or month, but until now nothing had happened like this or anything remotely kinda like this. So far I understood that it was time to not only make a change but to make a change of huge proportions. This for was a gigantic major huge leap of faith. I had no idea about when, where, why, how or even who would be involved with this amazing and wonderful project. I write these words because I had no doubt that everything remotely or closely connected with these changes were of and from Heavenly Father. My adventure of a life time happened in what seemed only seconds. First I expected to live out the rest of my life in my house in MD, then everything was changed in a major huge way. It seemed just like that sentence. My mind started spinning with all kinds of thoughts and even tried to second guess God and all of my research and understanding thus far though I tried to focus on the things of the spirit. Prayer was helping me figure out each very, very small step hour by hour and day by day. I had belief and trust in Heavenly Fathers ability to help me, and also knew that friends, and my church family would do what they were able. And, there was the fact that I knew I needed to make a change or else stagnate and wind up in serious difficulties and troubles which seemed to be dogging me more and more as I remained where I was and did nothing. I had to act and do this as quickly as possible if not quicker. As the feeling of time running came over me, and the urge to do something drastic grew I finally made my decision. Somehow and someway I was leaving Maryland. Actually there was nothing holding me anywhere except my friends and my sister. As much as I love my sister and care about her, I needed to act for and on my won behalf so that I would have a better life situation with improved health and financial situations. The longer I stayed in Maryland and did what I usually did the worse things were and would become. The expenses in Caddo Gap were much less according to my computer research. Because of the milder winters and summers which were more mild, at least that’s what I found according to the statistics, it seemed to me that I would have a chance for a better healthier medical situation. The areas near where I was considering settling were full of many, many trees, the air was cleaner, and there was much less industrialization as well. So far it seemed like a win, win situation. With this very positive information and the fact that I was willing and could follow God’s lead I knew another thing needing my attention was finding a place to live which would work for me. My friends and my friends friends told us about this family who was selling property and so I got in contact with them through my friends to find out what was available. Some property was out of my financial range, so I asked about something near a particular road and near my friends. The only property available at that time was on top of the mountain. It was 10.02 acres. The excitement rose and my spirit soared because I had since a teenager wanted acreage. Being a love of horses was the driving force as well as enjoying and loving what nature had to offer. My almost life long dream was to have a cabin o top of a muntain and actually own the entire mountain. True I didn’t realize this was being selfish, however, it was my dream and so I revisited this thought periodically through out my life. Now it was actually happening. After talking with the property owners, I told them I was very interested in that top of the mountain piece. We made arrangements for purchase and so I as quickly as possible asked my friends to please check out this place. I didn’t want to be chasing a ghost dream. I wanted to be certain that what I understood was exactly as explained and actually existed. A day or two later I was thrilled to see pictures of the property. My friends were kind enought to take pictures and send them to me. What a most wonderful gift! This isn’t a dream, it is actually happening. Wow, finally I was going to have my cabin on a mountain after all of these years. Sometimes we are asked to wait rather than getting an immediate yes. I have found that it is indeed well worth waiting for things I think I need immediately. Ofter when I wait I get something much better than I could have obtained on my own. God is good all the time, even when we think things are not going the way they should be and in the time frame we expect. So, when we are willing to let Heavenly Father do what He knows is best for us, and are thankful for our blessings in spite of disappointment and other challenges, things will work out much, much better than our wildest dreams could imagine. I know for experience that whenI try to do something on my own which is not what Heavenly Father knows is the very best for me, it does not work out will, if it works out at all. For sure, He will not over ride out free agency, but He will make every effort to prevent us form make horrible mistakes as long as we are willing to listen to His counsel and abide by His ways of caring for us and taking care of us. As for me, I’ve had to learn this lesson over and over again. I believe this was because it prepared me for much of what has happened a few years ago and for what is happening now. While waiting for the paper work to arrive, I continued to research the area and property which I was purchasing. The more I learned about this ares and place, the more I felt an urgency to get going to this place, and the sooner , the better. This was happening so very quickly it made my head spin and I had almost no time to tell my sister and my friends. Telling all of them seemed to be at the last minuet which is was but not on purpose and not by design. It was simply because everything was going at brake neck speed and happening faster than I could ever have created by myself. This absolutely had to be of and from Heavenly father ofthis I had absolutely no doubt. Where was the paper work and how long would it take to get everything together properly and as completely as possible I had no idea. All I knew was that I had to pack and get ready for Arkansas. As soon as I knew this was where I was going, I started packing and getting my things in order as much as possible. I moved a few times in my life. One time we moved from our small house on our large piece of property to the newly constructed house nexxt door. This was no problem because my parents owned the entire property and had decided that we needed a larger place to live. They arranged for the house to be built and then we moved in after waiting for the construction to be completed. Moving took a lot of time but we had plenty because our family owned both houses. The next move that I can remember was from one town to another which was a little more challenging but because it wasn’t far it was manageable. I do not remember the details, so will not go into these events and also because they most likely will not impact or effect this details of events written about in this book. Then we moved again, however, I was studying piano technology so was in Vancouver Washington, USA when my family moved to yet another location. Basically I knew absolutely nothing about moving especially one of such gigantic proportions as this move which would require traveling over 1100 miles through the mountains of Virginia and other states. This is one reason I spent hours and hours researching ways to move while causing the least amount of expense and creating the best possible savings. I knew that professional movers were expensive, but I also knew that I didn’t drive and that finding someone to drive for me would be very, very difficult if not impossible. A u-haul truck was less expensive but required someone to drive. Pods or similar company was an option, but again there was the costly expense and loading. Using a fright company was ok, but this meant loading everything and also there was the situation of maybe having the stuff at the very back of the truck with other peoples stuff in the way which meant waiting for quite a long time for your stuff to arrive. I decided that shipping by rail wasn’t an option because unless people were willing to get my stuff to the stating and other people in the other state were willing to pick it up and deliver it to my home, it wouldn’t work out well at all. Using the postal service was the most reasonable but the sending to the post ofice and picking it up at the other end required volunteer helpers. So, after all the rearch I could do and knew about, I decided to have a moving company transport my stuff. Everything had been settled and so all I had to do was pack my stuff. Wait a minute! This was a revelation which happened close to departure time. I realized that if my stuff was going with the movers, that I wouldn’t have my bed for the last night in Maryland. Because of my medical situation, I use a hospital bed, I am unable to use anything else. So, I needed to figure out a way to have that bed for that night, and surprise needed it for when I arrived in Arkansas. Now, how in the world was I going to accomplish this? I mentioned this to my friend and unbenounst to me she told her brother. He was extremely kind enough to loan the needed money to me so that I could take my medical equipment along for the ride with me. He offered to rent a u-haul truck so that we could get my necessities to Arkansas in away I could have my bed at both ends of this adventure. I was very, very thankful and grateful for his Generosity. Actually this helped me and my friend because she was able to pack some of the things onto the u-haul truck also. With this problem solved, I focused once again on packing my things because time was running out and it would be sooner rather than later that we were supposed to depart and make out way through 1100 plus miles of the United States. I’m positive that this entire thing has been Heavenly Fathers idea and something He wants me to do. My friend was totally shocked when I announced that I planned to uproot myself and move to Caddo Gap, Arkansas. Actually this was a major and complete surprise to me because I did not see this coming. I had no clue this was going to happen because moving was the farthest thing from my mind. I figured I was going to live here for the rest of my life. Also, I knew with the cost of housing in the ares that if I left, I would not be able to afford to return. Now, this is strictly from a human perspective, but I also believe that if Heavenly Father wants me back in Maryland for some reason He will make this happen. This gave me no doubts that Heavenly Father wanted me to move to Arkansas. Aside from a minor glitch or two which was quickly and easily resolved, everything was so sommoth sailing it seemed as if the ship had wings and was greesed so it woyld sail effortlessly from point A to point B and all I had to do is go with the flow. I knew that in the beginning things would be challenging but also that because Heavenly Father was the conductor of this adventure everything in His timing would be worked out and we would be ok. Some other things which worked out very, very well were that my friend originally thought she would drive her truck and tow the camper with me riding with her and the moving truck would take my stuff to our new location. This turned out to not be the case. When my friends friend forund out she was going for the very first time tow her camper this very, very long distance, they volunteered to tow her camper behind their truck. Her son was expecting his fourth child, so she offered to him the truck if her would tow her car behind the truck using a tow caddy. He agreed and so the u-haul, tow caddy , and hand truck were rented for our trip. A glorious gift from Heavenly Father was graciously presented to us and we accepted with thanks, humility and gratitude. Another project which was a successful failure was the yard sale which we tried to get together as quickly as possible. With help from my friend who was also my aid, a friend from church, and some volunteers from church the yard sale opened on time. Somethings sold but not the way I expected. There was a lot of items that no one was interested in and besides. I had no idea that other people within the church were trying to sell their stuff either. They had similar results to mine and so that was that. I know there was a reason for these things to happen. All I could do id trust In heavenly Father and move on to the next step. Sure I was disappointed, however, I got over it quickly because of the other things I needed to do. As I gathered things to pack I also made a donate and a throw away place for items which I would not be able to take with me. This was difficult because there were many items which I enjoyed and that were of a sentimental value, however, I had to make certain that I had necessities for physical and mental health, my animal family members, and for life in general which would make a building a home where a person could manage to do the things in life they needed to do to survive. My focus was on what was most important in order of necessity, medical need, durability, practical and useful for daily live in, and sentimental value, as well as hopeful that some other stuff may be fit into the u-haul truck eventually. Unfortunately a huge amount of stuff had to be left behind. There wasn’t enough time for me to try to give it away and even though I thought I had enough time to pack everything, time ran out and so even that stuff was still in the house when we left. I was very unhappy about this. Moving creates this kind of situation for many people and this actually was the first up close and real taste of having this experience. As sad as it was to leave my possessions which were dear and valuable I realized that I would live without them and survive. Also, in time I would be able to replace them. Sadly and unfortunately there was still boxes and piles of things which I wish had fit onto the truck. But, worse was the fact that someone else would need to clear out the house because I had made this very, very huge mistake of under estimating the time needed and the space required for this kind of move. There wasn’t enough time for finding organizations to pick up a lot of things either which I hadn’t thought of until after the fact. Needless to say I don’t like this part of the moving experience and feel bad that saome very, very close and dedicated friends worked for weeks tirelessly to got the house cleared out. By the grace of God and their love and loyalty to me they have save a huge amount of my things with the idea of eventually shipping them to me as I am able to pay the shipping expenses. I am absolutely and truly very, very thankful, grateful, and over joyed for their help and generosity fir storing my stuff. Because of this I am looking forward to having some of my winter cloths and other things which means care packages will show up here and there. It’s like looking forward to having Christmas about every month. Thank you my friends and thank you church family. I can not thank you enough for everything you have done for me over the years and for all your help with this move which I credit Heavenly Father with making possible. It is His plan and I am still thrilled with being here. There are a few thing I wish were not happening, like some neighbors having challenges, but I pray and hope these will be resolved very soon. All I can write is thank you, thank you. I do appreciate everything and am glad and thankful for everyone. God is good all the ti=me and with him, my heavenly Father I will be ok. Today November fourteenth is a wonderful day because I was able to take Bella for several long walks and enjoy the scenery, fresh air, and all which nature has to offer. Having the opportunity at long last to enjoy more of my property and have different views of the trees, land scape, mountains, hills and valleys, as well as actually rolling down the road gave me a sense of freedom which I had not had for many weeks. I am not complaining. I am trying to convey my happiness and joy for these new and glorious changes which Heavenly Father has gifted to me through my friends because they were kind enough to find a way to get my power wheelchair to me. Since august the leaves have turned color and fallen around giving me a better view of the mountain range which surround where I live. I hope to take some pictures of the area so that I can share them with my friends. This is going to be a very enjoyable activity because now, I can roll around where ever the unpaved road goes in search of interesting things to shoot and even if I change directions and experiment with distances and angles I can find more unusual and interesting views to share. Ny friend called me today and let me know that there is a chance for her to manage to get her car fixed. Hopefully this will happen very soon because we have some opportunities which are very beneficial that we do not want to miss. As soon as she is able to drive into town I hope we can get some supplies and maybe I will be able to find a more economical way of keeping the cabin warmer for the winter. I also would like to find a better way to cool the cabin in the summer months. I’ve been doing some research for figuring out how to acquire solar energy with out having to spend an enormous amount of money. Finding a heat source has been a success however I need help getting it build and it is the same with getting all the projects of necessity completed around here. The other challenge is the financial considerations. A very nice event which has happened over the past few weeks is that I have a few folks who know me enough that I feel that if need be I could ask for help. I am trying not to bother them because the church has done a huge amount of volunteer work for already which I very, very much appreciate and am over joyed with and if I could would have wanted to gift back something as a thank you, however I am unable to do any more than offer a thank you card. I know Heavenly Father is happy for what I have done and so I will be content with these circumstances. I’m glad to have had a thank you card given to me that I could use to write my thank you message on and then give to the people who so kindly gave of their time, talent, and energy to help me. A friend of mine from the east coast gave me the gift of paying for some of my house plants to be sent to me. One of the packages arrived today and this was absolutely marvelous. She has such a kind giving heart. May Heavenly richly bless her and her husband. I was absolutely ecstatic when I finally with help managed to get the package open. It was very, very uplifting to fine some of my precious house plant friends here alive and very healthy. I thought for quite some time these plants would be long gone and that I would not ever see them again. I have been richly blessed over and over because of this package. There were about seven to nine or so house plants which had been very lovingly wrapped so that their roots would be kept nice and moist and then the ups store carefully placed peanuts and I think wrapped all of the plants in a protective plastic wrap which would also help keep the humidity up so that they would experience much less stress. One of the boxes is still at the post office, so I hope it will be delivered tomorrow. Saturday November eighteenth is crucial because of they are not able to arrive here by this time, then they will need to sit in the post office until Monday November the twentieth. I hope to have this package of plants by tomorrow. By the time my friend was able to walk the box of house plants to me because her car will not start, it was very late and not long before it became dark. Although she was tired and wanted to return home as soon as possible she decided to relax a bit and then leave. I enjoy her company and as it turned out needed her help opening the package, so it was a very good thing that she did not come and go in a major hurry. After we got the box opened and all the house plants unpacked, I started looking around to find containers to plant them in. This was a bit of a challenge because unfortunately the few plant pots I have are already occupied. Recently I have been planting my house plants in cans, Styrofoam containers, plastic containers and what ever else of all shapes and sizes that will work for the plants. As the money and opportunity is available perhaps I will be able to manage to get a few house plant pots. Another possibility is to put the word out that I am looking for house plant pots. Either way hopefully I should be able to find what I am looking for for my house plants. It is so very, very nice for them to be here now. Some of these house plants I have had for well over ten or more years. Another blessing is that I still have some potting soil which has made it possible for me to enjoy thoroughly planting my beloved house plants. I will need to rearrange my environment so that I can have all of my house plants situated so that taking care of them is a very easy task. As soon as possible hopefully I will have the connectors for my she;ves and this will allow me to put the shelves together, and arrange the shelves so that my house plants are safely accommodated. Another reason for wanting the shelves to be put together is because there is a collection of things which would fit extremely well on these shelves there by saving room for maneuvering around the cabin and giving me space for the things that are supposed to be on the floor. All things are in Heavenly Fathers time frame so I will need to wait and be grateful for my blessings and those which are on their way to me. Back to the house plants, I should tell you about how I see the difference in them and how it is amazing the way they have grown. I was astounded to find that one of my succulents had it seems to me added another five or seven inches, maybe more to its’ height. Another of my house plants which I thought would never be seen again was in the package. It is well and healthy. The Clivia seems to have grown some but the most wonderful part about this plant is the gentle way it was handled. Clivia plants have very tended and delicate roots which it seems break even when all you may be doing is looking at the root ball. Transplanting Clivia is a challenge because usually no matter how hard you try to be careful and very gentle, They break very, very easily. This house plant as far as I can tell had the roots trimmed which is very difficult for the plant but the best option for safely shipping this house plant by bare root. That’s one thing which can be done with many house plants is to very carefully unpot the house plant clean the soil from the roots and then place the root ball in damp paper towels and warp them in newspaper and slight plastic. As long as the rootball stays moist and is not broken or other wise damaged, the house plant or house plants should survive the trip. One good way to ship house plants is to use united parcel service, or the post office which is where you can get the necessary materials to pack the house plants. United parcel and may be the post office might for a fee package the house plants for you. When tomorrow arrives and my other package arrives with my house plants, I will be so relieved because then I will be able to take care of them and have them around to enjoy. Although shipping is expensive these days, it was well worth doing this because trying to find the house plants I have at the size they are is difficult and when you do eventually find them, they are major expensive. Even if you find them online, the price may be reasonable but then you need to get them shipped to where ever you live. I can not thank my friend and the other friends who have worked so hard to save as many of my house plants as they possibly can because even if I find a way to replace them it still is not the same some how. I guess there is something to say for sentimental value. And, If you have ever found a house plant that you just absolutely had to have because it was either irritable, or something unusual or unique, or for the sake of a friend gave it as a gift, then you would understand why it is very, very extremely difficult to try to replace a house plant for the one you had no choice but to leave behind. I guess it is kinda like having to leave a child or loved one of the family knowing you may not ever see then again. For me at least, my plants are much like family and whenever possible it is something I try to act upon by figuring out ways to either take them with me, which at the time was not possible, or somehow have them sent ahead, which again was not possible at the time, or eventually have them sent because someone a good friend or family member was able amd willing to make certain that they arrived safe and sound and have them shipped. I do not know how my friend did it but she not only saved my house plants for me, she managed to actually do things that helped them thrive excellently well. For example the Euphorbia that I had in my living room window has grown at least five or more inches taller than it was when I last saw it, amazing! I am very, very thankful to my wonderful friend for her loving kindness to me and everything she has done for me through our years of friendship. My other friends have also gone above and beyond the call of duty by helping me for many, many years, especially with the house back east. A huge amount of work had to be done and they volunteered from deep within their hearts to reach out to me by investing their precious time, energy, and physical selves to gift to me what was needed for me to be able to have this most wonderful life here in Arkansas. For all that they have done saving some things which did not make it out here yet, saving my house plants, and helping with getting things straightened out at the house I am truly thankful.Happy Thanksgiving to you my friends. Safe travels and many blessings to you all. * Speaking of or writing of my animal friends, I want to explain how I have a family of animal members. This is very much an important part of this story because of the way things happened. They happened very quickly and my animal family members friends were a huge part of the events. I have my service dog, Bella who is severn years old now. She was found by friends who eventually happened to tell a friends about Bella’s story as far as they knew it and so my friend passed on this information to me. I agreed to meet her and see if she might make a good service dog. I was not looking for an American Pit Bull Terrier. Because I was in between service dogs, I was looking for a labrador golden retriever pit mix, a labrador golden mix, or lab, or a golden. One thing I knew for certain that I wanted was a service dog who had a short coat which requires very maintenance. Eventually when we get the fence erected which we do not have yet, Bella will have a huge area for her to enjoy each day while being kept very safe. She is important to me and I want to have her around for a very long time. Another reason for definitely wanting to have the property fenced in is that if by accident the cats should escape to the outside, they would be stopped from going too far provided the fence was made of small enough weaved or webbed materials that they could not get through and if it were high enough with a top that was angled over so that it acted like a barrier preventing them from climbing top the top and slinking over to the other side into some other persons property. My cats were rescued from various situations and circumstances. Smokey was extremely loved by his person, however because of circumstances beyond his persons control it turned out to be better for Smokey to have a different home. Luna was found by my cousin in the middle of the road crying with no place to go and so she found her home with me also. Gatita arrived at my door and was determined to enter my place, so I eventually gave in and she is part of our family. Orchid was misunderstood so her person re homed her with me. My birds Holly and Bonnie were in need of new homes and so I took them in and gave them what they needed. This is he short version and if you are interested in the longer version, let me know by sending an email to: vpbanjo@yahoo.com and I will send a link to more information. Now that we have knowledge of basically how I found myself with a large family of animal members, It’s time to change the subject and move onto the beginning of a wild adventure I did not see coming. As part of this story it is necessary to regress back a little bit so that the events leading up to the main event can be exlained and shared with you. I have been content to live in my house preferable without any room mates but because of financial considerations and other circumstances, wanting the house so that I could help people, I actually had the nerve to beg Heavenly for the house. That’s how badly I wanted the house and how little I understood about prayer and communicating with God so that His will was my will and not the other way around. To my best knowledge and ability I prayed, begged, and did whatever thoughts gave for action so that I would be able to have the house. I stuck with my word and tried many times to help people because I was able to offer shelter to them. This was a matter of helping them and myself at the same time. They helped me pay the bills and I helped them with utilities, shelter, and a safe place. I longed to have the house to myself because for many. Many years I went away to school. Or, I was sharing pace with family, or I was sharing space helping people by allowing them to live in the house. Fortunately there were short periods of time when I had the house to myself until someone else moved in. From these years fast forward to a few years ago when I first heard about my cousin. My sister told me about her. I had the house to myself, thank you Heavenly Father, and was quite happy about this arrangement. Hearing about my cousin was a big surprise because I had no idea she even existed. She was my cousin by marriage but still, I considered her family even though I had not yet met her. I was told she lost her home in December and was staying at a church and then moving on to another church so they, my sister and her husband did not know exactly where she was. I decided then and there that I was going to try to fine her. The one church I attended was holding a winter relief session for a week for people who were homeless in February, so I made arrangement to visit at this time. Heavenly Father also was making arrangements because a friend invited me to attend a session with some musicians that week because they were going ot play bluegrass music for the homeless event. This was going to work out real well for my quest to find my cousin. After we were finished playing music, I asked around to find out who would know if my cousin was at the shelter hosted by the church. One of the staff members checked and told me my cousin would be right out in a moment. I already knew what I was going to ask and how. I asked her if she knew Banjo, excitedly she said you mean so and so. Yes! I them asked if she knew my sister and she said you mean so and so? It was evident that the person is was seeking, my cousin was standing before me. I then told her I was my sisters sister and she smiled a huge smile and gave me a hug. I offered a place for her to stay but she felt that she should remain in the shelter system. Oh well, I tried. Now we need to fast forward to a few months after my initial contact with my cousin, and the next events. One day I receive a phone call and who should be on the other end of the line, you’re right it was my cousin. I know Heavenly Father had all of this planned because my aid was right next to me so I was able to ask her if she would be willing to pick up my cousin because winter relief was over for that year. She agreed to go get her and I started to prepare for her arrival. As time passed and I waited it occurred to me that perhaps this might or night not be the best resolution for either of us, however for now and until we figure out another option this would have to do. I managed to get most of the situation settled for her arrival just a minute or so before my aid and cousin came through the door. I figured that she would be in a better situation here with me rather than somewhere in the outdoors with who knows wondering about during the night. Actually I was looking forward to getting to know her. When she arrived we talked and got things settled so that she could have a place to hang out and put her stuff. I had hope for things going well, after all, this was the work of Heavenly Father. What I expected was for some help in exchange for giving shelter, friendship. She did help some, which was nice. We got along unless, as it is with people sharing the same roof, we had a misunderstanding or disagreement. Stuff happens, and so you have to do the best you can to manage to keep things as peaceful and calm as possible. I understood she has a learning disability and so took that into consideration. Even with this challenge I could see that she was a survivor and that there was something special about her. I know that heavenly Father was near and drear to her heart and that she was a walking and talking scripture treasury. She could talk about God and scripture endlessly and get so excited as she shared her knowledge. Hugs to you cousin. Eventually we got into a routine which for my cousin I’m certain was a blessing. Ofter she would have her plans and spend her time initiating each step of her plans without any deviation. If something caused her plans to have to change this would very much upset her. Well, those were the times when I felt like ducking and running for cover. Aside for these incidents we got along reasonable well and even managed to have some fun and enjoy each others company. Usually like clock work she would tell me about her day and how things were or were not exactly wonderful. Being a piece maker at heart when something started to get out of hand she would try to calm down the people involved so that peace would rain supreme again. This is one thing I sincerely liked about my cousin and had hope that she would carry forth when at my place with me. We did ok and days, weeks, and months went by as we watched the seasons change and endeavored to help each other survive. When the time came for our departure my cousin took it well on the surface but I suspect she was ffeling the change and perhaps would miss me and the good time we had together. I am glad we were able to meat and have those years to enjoy each others company. After about three years give or take several months I wound up with two new aids one of which was my friend form 1995 and the other I had never met. I was thrilled to have my friend be my aid because she knew me and about my medical issues and needs. The other aid however, needed to learn all of these things which would take time. My friend was very nice about working around the new aids time frame requirements. This meant that I would see my friend Thursday night through Sunday afternoon or eventing. My new aid would be with me for Monday through Thursday afternoon. For me that works well because I enjoyed seeing my friend on a regular bases. I figured the new aid and I would eventually get to know each other and things would become easier as we learned each others methods and techniques. My new aid shared with me some awesomely and wonderful information which I had no idea existed. As we explored the content and presentations, we learned a huge amount of useful things which we could implement into our daily living. For example I didn’t know that if you squatted when getting bathroom relief, that you were creating a straight line from point A to point B which made it easier to get rid of what needed evacuating. Finally I had the help I needed from the people with whom I was able to communicate and work very well with each day. This was quite and relief and helped me feel like I did not have to struggle as much plus the stresses and frustrationd of the past would be definitely behind me. It was nice to have help again with tasks for daily living. Cooking is something I am able to do as ling as it is simple and doesn’t take a huge amount of preparation and a lot of time. Other things which I can do not necessarily on a regular bases are some easy and simple cleaning tasks, handling hot beverages, getting washed up kinda like taking a bird bath, and dressing from the waste up. For more detailed tasks and doing things lower than my waste it is best for me to have help especially because balance may be an issue depending on what king of day I was having.Showering requires help and so does most daily living tasks. These situations will now be no problem, thank you heavenly Father. However when I relocated this caused major challenges because only one of my aids was coming with me. The other aid although she was invited, and she had considered going with us, wanted to be near her children so she declined our offer. We are still in touch with each other occasionally. It was fun while it lasted. And, I very much enjoyed the activities we did together especially the computer research. One thing I remember well was when I had to respond to her statement about all the changes being made in the house. She said something about me doing this stuff that seemed as if I were moving. I had to tell her actually that I had been thanking about it and than that actually I was. She thought at first I was kidding with her but, I made it very clear this was no joke. Stunned and taken a back she finally was able to ask me what the schedule was. We discussed everything and then started taking care of all the things which needed to be done for the day. As each day arrived and she watched the progress it dawned on her that she should find another job or client. We worked together on some of my packing and rearranging activities as well so other care tasks which usually took most of the day, then we were able to do a few things I enjoyed that was more like hobby related and fun for me. When ever I had this opportunity it felt more like having a normal life style. This is how my aid stuff relates to my trip. I am able to manage enough on my own for a while especially in emergency situations such as when there is a major snow storm and no one is able to go any where. This is why it was so very nice for my cousin to be with me every day. When an aid is not able to work usually that means the client has to manage as best as they can and deal with the situation. There were times when my friend who also was my aid was spending the night when the other person wasn’t able to get to the job. It was a great relief for me to have this happen. My cousin helped me as much as she could but there were things which needed to be done from a medical point and she was very nervous unsure and insecure about helping me. That was ok, I understood the situation. Fortunately there were neighbors near by who would be able to help me. A very good friend happens to have had a career as a nurse so this was a huge blessing. A few other friends were willing to help also. Another friend also had a nursing career but had to retire because of injuring her back. Having this kind of back up in case of emergencies is w wonderful and marvelous blessing. Right now in my very rural situation, I have only one person upon which I can rely. I hope soon this will change for the better. Getting everything organized and situated and connected takes time and finding what is needed sometimes is like looking for a needle in a hay stack, so I will patiently wait and hope for the best knowing that Heavenly Father knows the situation. This trade off for things which are of great importance and knowing that Heavenly Father has given this opportunity to me which I accepted because I believe that He has an important job for me is worth having to almost start all over again. Starting all over again is different now because I have a lot of experience and knowledge to draw from which I did not have in the past years. Often it was only by the grace of Heavenly Father that I found about the groups and organizations which were available to help me. Now I know about many of these fine groups and wonderful people wanting to help. The challenge now id finding their locations and contact information. Then there is the paper work followed by the waiting for approval. Here we go again, but that is the way of life. I grateful to have these folks and group organizations around and the help they offer. Another huge difference is the weather around here compared to the weather in Maryland. The storms are closer because we are living in the mountains. Even the sunrise is different and the cloud cover is different. I think the sky seems different even though it is still blue like unto the way it looked from my view point in Mary land. The blue sky seems to be very much brighter and closer like it was across from the table from me. Or much like viewing a table with the sky sitting on top so that you could reach out and though it. I know it is high enough to not be touched, but it is some how different in ways that are subtle and difficult for me to explain. When we have storms it is like having an up close warning. The smells of humidity and what it may carry with it are more intense to me. Clouds when they are around because of a storm have different patterns, or because of being closer to them, I am aware more of the details and there fore the differences. The storm noises are more detailed and intense as far as I can tell. I believe that even with my hearing loss it is easier for me to hear more of the sounds. When it rains it is sometimes like having buckets dumped on you. I have watched a storm and once it really was in full swing it was very difficult to see across the road if not impossible. Depending on the construction of the building a person happened to be in when a storm hit, the sounds were very, very different from for example a metal roof compared to a wooden and shingle roof. My cabin has a metal roof and when it rains it is very much louder than a wood and shingle roof. The last few storms were not as bad as some of the others because those did a huge amount of damage in the area. The road which leads to my place was so washed out that it was very difficult to drive up hill without seriously bottoming out the vehicle. Some vehicles were not able to get up the hill to my place. In one spot along the main road where there is a gigantic huge pipe going across the road, the water flowed so extremely fast that the road flooded and unless you were driving a vehicle which was higher than the usual car height, you would be taking a major chance with safely going through that rushing water. Some of the smaller and lighter vehicles most likely would not be able to get through this place without flooding the engine or being swept into the ditch. About a month or so after the major storm which caused so much major damage, the front loader for the state came through and graded the roads. This is a super great help because it makes them much more smooth and when the road is horribly washed out sometimes it can create a better and smoother accessibility for who ever is driving. I was richly blessed because my neighbors were very, very kind enough to get the attention of the driver of the equipment and explain how the road was being washed out. The one neighbor below me on the street which is the main access to the neighborhood supervised the grading of that area, while the other neighbor who lives next door to me supervised the grading of the road along his property and along my property. I am very, very thankful and grateful to both of them for everything they did to make certain that the roads were graded properly and this makes it better when it storms So far when it has rained the roads seem to be stable and very much passible. I hope that during the winter the roads will remain safe for everyone, because although around here there is not a huge amount of snow, there is ice. I’ve been told that the ice usually only lasts for a day or two at the most. Because the hill is so extremely steep I hope we do not have ice or ice for long. Also, I hope that eventually there may be a way to fix the road so that the hill can be graded so that it is very much less steep. This would allow me to be able to use my power chair to go visit my friends, get my mail, and take Bella for very long walks. Now that I have my newest power wheelchair here, I am able to take Bella for walks close to the cabin. This is absolutely a major and thrilling blessing and wonderful activity we both enjoy imeansly. Eventually I still want to have as much of the property fenced in as possible. This way Bella can run and when she has company, she can enjoy running and playing with her best friend, Mai. Mai is a german shepherd mis who very much enjoys playing with Bella. Oh, this is another reason I may these major changes because where we were in Mary land we were in between two major roads. One was a major highway with two lanes north and two lanes south. The other was a twisting winding road that had no shoulder and the visibility in some sections was almost nill. Totally by accident, Bella has been able to get through the gate because someone left it open and I did not see this until my service dog had left the property. She would be gone for about five to fifteen minutes, however I would not know where she was, if she wasa safe, and if she had crossed any of these major roads. For me this was extremely scary even though I have faith that my Heavenly Father would protect her. Another issue to complicate things was that animal control sometimes was in the area and if they found Bella running at large they probably would try to get her, which would keep her safe, or follow her to see where she lived. If they got her and put her in the truck I’m not certain if this would be good she is safe or oh no, please have mercy and help me. Because Bella is an American Pit Bull Terrier and my understanding is they have a policy of killing these wonderful dog, I am not certain how something like her winding at animal control would have turned out. Plus, there are leash laws and both of us would have been in very serious trouble. Having the roads as a danger and having the animal control officers roaming around as a possible danger made it a place that for Bella’s sake I did not want to live in and so was glad to find out about this area. Another possible danger was all the parking lots that were down the grassy hill near us. These places were very near the huge big major highway. It is possible that someone could take Bella with them and zi would not have ever seen her again. All I can explain is that I am absolutely and completely thrilled, happy, and full of joy because we no longer have to be concerned about these issues. Some of the dangers around here for Bella are that there are wild canines and felines plus other creatures. Sometimes neighbors because they do not want any dogs or other animals of domestication on their property they will shoot a beebee gun under very low power to scare the animal. Other times if the offending animal has been on their property many times, they will shoot to kill. I do not agree with this unofficial policy however, this is that way of living in the mountains. Dangers like getting into a fight with another animal wild or domestic abound and even situations where an animal alone and unaware of the many dangers may become prey and food for a wild animal doing what is natural in nature. For these reasons as much as I would love to allow Bella to run, I an going to keep her close to me where I can do my very, very optimum best to protect her and take care of her rather taking a chance that something could happen and there would be nothing I could do to help her. She is too precious to me, my family member and very close friend, and a one of a kind marvelous dog that is well worth keeping as safe as possible. I have a major concern about and for the cats. I do everything I possibly can to make certain that they do not ever escape to the out doors because there are far too many dangers out there. It is dangerous for Bella at her size and she I think weighs about sixty seven pounds, however for cats that weigh between eight to eighteen pounds it is even more treacherous for them. Especially my oldest cat Orchid. She is nineteen years old and actually she is nineteen and a half years old. That would to me be like allowing an ancient very old person to go into the wilderness and expect them to survive. My next oldest cat Smokey is about four years, and luna is about three years old and last but not least is Gatita who showed up at my door a few months ago who is about a year old or so. I certainly would not want to risk their lives by having them outside and eventually having them wander off somewhere. Luna and Smokey accidentally escaped to the outside and fortunately they did not go too far for too long. One time however, Smokey was outside over night. When it was very late, I heard an animal screen that sounded like a cat in vey serious trouble which caused me to feel apprehension and fear for his safety even though I was praying and keeping as much faith as I possibly could that Smokey would be safe and return without any injuries or problems. Thankfully the nest morning her meowed at the door and I immediately rushed to let him inside. Now whenever I go out side I place some cat food in each cat crate for my feline friends and lock them inside their crates so that they do not escape. Orchid needs medication by the diffusion method, so she has a huge dog crate which is big enough for a grate dane to be comfortably secured for many hours. It takes more time and effort however I believe and think that it is very well worth investing this time and effort into keeping my very precious family member friends safely in side. One of the reasons the cats have been able to accidentally escape is because I need to pop a wheelie in order to get over the threshold and through the door and then, I need to turn around in order to be able to reach and grasp the door some where so that I can cause it to gradually shut because of the pressure of pulling it towards me. When I’m finally able to get hold of the door lever I can close the door and make certain it is securely latched. Eventually I hope to be able to have the floors level with the door threshold because I need to insulate them and I get them covered with something that will withstand the rigors of a power wheelchair and animal activities and so that what ever I use is as easy as possible to maintain and keep clean. As soon as I have the money to make the upgrade changes that are necessary for me to be as fully independent as possible, I will make a major huge effort to make certain these things are finally completed. I am looking forward to these blessings from my gracious and loving Heavenly Father. Some of the other things which are very much needed and would be major and wonderful blessings from my Heavenly Father are two composting barrels which I would use for creating compost for my house plants and gardening, some red wigglers which are composting worms, having my shelves put together so that some of the things which are scattered here and there can be organized and put in order for easy access, a passive heat source which would help with heating my mountain cabin because it would keep it warmer in here without using a lot of electricity, saw dust would help with gardening projects and keeping things nice for the animals when they use their places for relief as well as if I get a mule it would work well in the stall, solar elctricity off grid for emergency bck up when there is a power outage and for on grid other times when the electricity is available, and a solar water heating system which would work passively for every need each day. I know there are other things which I have not mentioned and will eventually add these to this book, however this gives you an idea of some of the work which is still in progress. The very good news is I have the well pipe and hope to have water from the well very, very soon. I also am hopeful that I will be able to get a hand pump for the well just in case it is needed. See, I told you I would add other things, as I remember them they will be written about. I have researched composting toilets and discovered that they are extremely out of control very, very expensive. I sort of expected this would be the case, but had hope that perhaps there would be something decent for a reasonable price. Because this is well highly beyond my financial ability right now, I decided to take a look and see if there was a way I could find a do it yourself composting toilet construction article or video. I was very fortunate to find several resources that had exactly the information that I was looking for. There are several designs which are nice. Eventually I hope to have help building a composting toilet which would be user friendly for me and anyone visiting. Depending on the design and parts I use it may be posable for me to construct a composting toilet that would be height adjustable in a very easy manner so that I could have easy access to it and when company needed to use it the hight could be lowered a bit so that they would not need to sit on a toilet which was higher than they were custom to using. Building the passive heat exchanged is something for which I would need help and so hope to find someone willing to give this project a try. Eventually I would like to have a mobile home or something like that because it would allow me to have the room I need for my art work and writing separately from my living areas. It would be nice to either be home or be at work. If I had another dwelling that actually could accommodate having some over night visitors, room for a full kitchen, and room for all of my medical stuff, I would be absolutely ecstatic and over joyed with major and complete happiness. Month ago I was assured that the mobile home which was available was mine and that it would be placed on the property, however because of either miscommunications or misunderstandings the mobile home was given to another person. It will also be nice for having a living space where I can enjoy entertaining my company and holding church activities such as bible studies and small gatherings for fellowship. One thing for sure that I can tell you without any doubt is that I know that Heavenly Father knows me needs and will help me find ways to take care of these needs. He will absolutely and assuredly provide. Speaking of Heavenly Father, I was disappointed because my friends car would not start and with the car being in the middle of my driveway, it would have been very, very difficult for me and my friends to get me to the car so that I could go to church. Because of this situation I called and asked them if this was something they wanted to work on or if they felt that it would be too difficult? They were very, very willing to work to get me to their car so that I could go to church for which I was ecstatic and elated, but I was very concerned about someone getting injured because of maybe pulling a muscle or something while trying to roll me through the stones which were loose and that my front castors sunk into deeply causing rolling to be almost impossible and often absolutely impossible. Even when pulling me backwards so that the big wheels on my manual wheel chair were blazing the path was very, very difficult. I thought about my power wheelchair and decided that although it would very, very easily get me to the car, it would be dangerous for someone who had not ever driven a power wheelchair to try to do this when time was of the essence because of wanting to be on time for church, Father explaining all of this to them, I decided to ask if I could call them tomorrow and then we could make a definite decision. Then just before we hung up, I felt like I should tell them it would be better for them to not struggle with getting me to their car and that I would be with them in spirit and try to go to church next week. Somehow and I had no idea why this seemed to be the only sensible course of action. When I work up the next morning the sun was shining very brightly and so I was curious about the what time it was. It turned out to be within a few minutes of nine o’clock. Wow, Heavenly Father definitely knew to through the Holy Ghost give me the impression that I should not go to church because by waking up at nine o’clock this meant I would be a half hour late approximately for going to church. I am glad I did not ask my friends to come all the way up on the mountain to pick me up because either I would have to tall them I was not able to go to church or that they would need to wait for about half an hour or so fro me to be ready to go to church. I had no idea that I was going to over sleep, but Heavenly Father knew this and made sure that everything was going to work out for the best for everyone. I guess I was more tired than I expected and needed that extra sleep. I am very, very thankful for the promptings of the Holy Ghost because when I am focused and being open to guidance I can have little nudges which allow me to figure out what my best course of action should be or I am guided to a decision which decided totally on my own would be the wrong decision. Having this kind of hep is very, very reassuring and priceless. For this connection with Heavenly Father I am so grateful and thankful. As I work my way through life challenges I find that my faith and belief and strengthened daily by the experiences each day brings. I also know that when we are obedient to the promptings of the Holy Ghost many marvelous and wonderful things are our blessings and make our days full and complete in our relationship with Heavenly Father. Because of these things I have realized that even when there are trials and troubles Heavenly Father is with me and that when I am willing to allow Him to mold me and shape so that I can become more and more like Him it is far better for me. As I learn and grow becoming closer and more like Him during the challenges and trials for this move is something I can enjoy even though things are not going the way I expected or expect them to go. When it is tough it is easier to focus and rely on Heavenly for strength, wisdom, discernment, and all other needs we may have. Still even with the delays and changes which had to be made I am elated and happy and full of joy to be here. There are something I am not thrilled about but for the most part everything is wonderfully glorious and is going to improve. My faith and hope in being taken care of and being A child of God is precious and what will sustain me through everything as long as I stay on the straight and narrow path, follow the commandments and do my best every day to be more like Jesus and when I miss the mark and make a mistake to not quit. It is of great importance to keep trying and doing my very best and eventually I will successfully learn the lessons for I am here on this earth to learn. Meanwhile Heavenly father has gifted to me a wonderful place to live and enjoy each day. Praise be to Heavenly father. Having a church family is wonderful because either I do not know where my family members are located, or many of them have moved on to be in heaven with Heavenly Father. When I first arrived here that Sunday many people from church showed up to help. For this I am absolutely thankful and appreciate everything they did that day and have done through the weeks and months which have passed by as I have tried to get settled here. A very nice thing about attending church is that somehow even though Heavenly Father is always with you and me, it seems that He is much closer when I am in church. It is so relaxing and peaceful and serean that if I am tired I have to make certain that I do not fall asleep. I remember one time years ago I was praying and boom, somehow I fell alseep. Luckily I was awakened quietly and managed to stay awake for the rest of church. I’ve been told that we all do it, sp I guess there is something very special about going to church. My health is better and I expect that Heavenly Father will continue to guide me in how and what I should to be able to improve my situation and my health. So far my need for Nexium has completely gone away. For this I am very pleased and happy. I thank my Heavenly Father for helping me in this way. Being away from all the stresses which I left back on the east coast I’m certain made a great difference. As soon as I can I plan to create a better situation for Bella so that she has the fenced in area to run around and enjoy the outdoors. We go for walks however, I feel that she is missing her runing time. As much as I would love for her to be able to run, it is much safer for her to be on a leash and for me to take her for several walks each day. Another change or addition I would like to add to my situation is the passive heat collection box and eventually the masonry heater. For cooling I do not know what will work well yet. When my friends from church arrive to finish the work on the cabin, I will ask them about the possibilities for making these items. Doing this research is something I need to continue so that I can share it with people and know what would work out well for my situation. I’ve thought of tying to figure out a way to have solar hot water but so far this requires having help and I do not want to over extend the kindness and helpfulness of the people who have invested many hours of their time and been away from their families so that they can help me. Eventually I hope to resolve many of the challenges and then once this is completed I will be more independent then I have ever been in a long time. Living in the mountains may not be for every body but for some people it is the very best life style ever imagined and created. For me although there are more challenges than the average person would have, it is still wonderfully magnificent and a precious gift to be able to enjoy nature. As soon as there changes are accomplished, it will be even much more wonderful. My gratitude goes out to the many wonderful and caring people who have made my dream of mountain life in a cabin what it today. If they had not worked so hard and diligently, I would not be living here because there would be no way I would be able to get into or out of my cabin. The ramp is of a value beyond measure because of the helping hands that built it. Having a home while many things were being figured out and worked on step by step made it possible to me to have hope of being on top of the mountain in my cabin. I am very, very thankful for everything that every one has done for me and are continuing to do for me. I am absolutely positive that I would not be as far along and have progressed as much with my writing if I had not endeavored to come out here with the help and direction and prodding of Heavenly Father, my friends back east, and the many prayers that were said. For certain, I would not be writing this book. I do sincerely and completely appreciate everything everyone has done for me and to make this adventure possible. My heartfelt thanks goes to my friends back east as well as to my new friends here in Arkansas. Without the help and encouragement which was and is loving lavished upon me I would not be here writing and doing my art. I am eternally grateful for this precious opportunity. One of my new friends reminded me that it takes a village to help someone which as it turns out is absolutely true. We all should join together as a village and help one another so that our struggles and challenges are medigated by the helping hands of other people. It is much easier to accomplish success with someone helping rather than trying to do something alone. Today Thursday November twenty fourth is Thanksgiving Day and I am very, very thankful for my village of friends who have helped me along my way through the pathways and byways of life as the years have moved all of us into the future on this planet earth. I am very fortunate and blessed to have met and known each and everyone of my wonderful friends. You are very precious to me. Thank you again for everything you have done on my behalf to help me every step of the way to accomplish finding my new way of life here in Arkansas. Friends are precious gifts from Heavenly Father who in my opinion are a cherished and special people within my circle of people I know. They have value beyond measure and are well worth more than all the gems, diamonds, gold, and silver which we so esteem these days. Hugs to each and everyone of you and a Happy Thanks giving for this year of two thousand sixteen. Yes readers, for me friends are very, very precious souls who actually in many ways are family for me and to me. I have some family members scattered around the east coast but know not exactly where they are nor do I have contact information for them. Hopefully they are well and having a nice Thanksgiving. I wish all Readers a Happy Thanks giving and many blessings and thank you for reading about my adventure. So far Thanksgiving has been restful and quiet which is fine with me. Because I managed to catch a cold I was not able to gather enough strength to do much writing until today which is a marvelous Thanksgiving blessing. I am glad to have some energy to be able to write on this wonderful day. Each day gifted to me is precious for I know that there is no guarantee we will have another day. No matter the weather even though I may wish for something other than the weather we may be having, I am thankful for each precious day which is gifted to me from my Heavenly Father. My thankfulness goes further toward my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with the ability to do so many things and have such of a joyful life with much happiness. He gifts to me much treasures through church, friendships, and many opportunities to share with people my life ventures and adventures. I am thankful for the opportunity to share this book writing adventure with readers. Everyone has worth and is precious in the sight of Heavenly Father. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Safe travels and many blessings. * Today November twenty fourth two thousand sixteen, has been a most wonderful day for me because my sister called me while I was writing about this day. For me it was more like Christmas hearing from my sister. My spirit was up lifted in a major way. It was a relief to know that she had received for certain my letter and that she and her husband were doing very well. I wished them safe travels and many blessings because I know that they have a favorite place they enjoy going to on Thanksgiving Day. Usually on their return trip home, they would stop by to visit with me and bring Thanksgiving Dinner to me which I will miss much this year. However, on the bright side I know they are fine, I am doing well, and Thanksgiving dinner will find me here at the right time because my friends has been invited to have dinner with mutual friends and they will send a plate to me. My friends car does not work at the moment and also there is no way that I would be able to get into their place to attend Thanksgiving dinners around here. Thankfully I am content to write and enjoy my blessings of this day and know that company will arrive with a scrumptious meal. Oh my! My mouth is beginning to water. Hearing from my sister was such a huge and marvelous blessing. Sis, much love and many blessings to you. Another reason I am thankful is for my animal friends and family members. We all have a warm and cozy roof over our heads which is thankfully because of the work gifted to me by many church members. I have a wonderful view outside my front door. I am blessed with many friends. I am able to write this book and have the opportunity to share it with many readers. My health is stable and I am able to do many things. Most importantly to me is having contentment. Being content with my situation is a very, very precious gift to me. I do not feel as if I need to keep up with the joneses or try to have or do something better than the next door neighbor. This for me is ture freedom. My spirit is free and I feel like I am free from this kind of bondage. Of course this does not mean that I have no dreams. I dream of things, yet I know that these dreams are just dreams. If and when they come true it is up to in my way of thinking Heavenly Father. If some dreams do not happen on this earth for me, then I hold onto the idea that perhaps they were not the best possible situation for me. Yes, there is disappointment, however, I do not allow the disappointment to run my life and get in the way of my other dreams. I deal with the situation and then move on to whatever is awaiting me in my next adventure in life. I just took a mini break from typing and glanced out the door window to see that the sun was shining, the mountain range, and all the vastness and beauty of nature. This truely is a wonderful Thanksgiving. I was not going to enter this situation into the story of my adventure on the mountain, however, it may be of great benefit to someone, so I will write about Monday evening through Friday evening which is from November twenty first through November twenty fifth. I know now that some people are squeamish about medical stuff, so beware that the following paragraphs will be mostly about medical stuff. Monday evening I started with the jumpies which is what my doctor calls the uncontrollable shakes. As long as I get my brain thinking about something usually the shakes go away. This time it is not working as well. Unfortunately the medication I need is something I do not have at the moment. I have figured out that if I take a certain medication at a very low dose and use another med, so far the shakes are at a nothing or at a dull amount. If I miss that timing of these medications then I have to endure the uncontrollable shakes until the medications kick in again. All I need to for now is make it through until Monday and then try to get transportation to a clinic or some how find someone who would be able to write a prescription for the medication I need. So far Heavenly Father has gifted to me a shake less day for the most part. So for me Saturday has been extra special. One of the reasons I am in this situation is because I have an indwelling medication pump which is situated beneath my skin. It did the job of helping me get away from the cycle of increasing pain, but now it is the source of trouble because the dr I contacted refused to see me unless I returned to my original pain management doctor. Physically and financially this is an impossibility. I explained this to this doctor or at least to the person I spoke to and it did not matter. So, I was left with no recourse but to wait and hope for the best. I am positive that my pain medication pump is empty and this means for right now I am basically medication free. This is ok, the challenging part is that I hope what I was told about the catheter filling in on it’s own is the truth. I was also told that the pump could sit under my skin for an indefinite period of time as long as it did not bother me. If indeed these things are true, I should have nothing to worry about. I really do not want to go through surgery to get rid of this pump which needs to be replaced very soon anyway but I feel it may be in my best interest to get rid pf the pump and if absolutely necessary go back to oral medications. This pain medication pump served it’s purpose well and did the job, however, I have discovered that some people have had serious issues with this particular pain medication pump. So, my suggestion is for anyone considering getting an indwelling pain medication pump, that they thoroughly investigate and research everything they can find about the various pain medication pumps available on the market. As this day is wounding down to night fall I am praying that I will have a good nights uninterrupted sleep. Not getting proper rest because of these shakes is causing me to be extremely tired which has I believe slowed down my getting over the cold I have had since Tuesday. I have been taking vitamin C and some cold relief medication so at least I have not needed to blow my nose as much. The challenge with my situation is that when I get sick it usually drags me down quite a bit. I am usually well and able to do many things or when sick have major struggles trying to do the simplest things. So far I have been able to care for my animal family and do enough for myself that I am surviving. When Monday arrives hopefully one of the clinics or some place near by will see me and help me with my situation. Otherwise, I will need to travel many miles to get help. I am not looking forward to traveling a long distance for medical help. Hopefully, this will not be necessary. Today, November twenty seventh seems to be for me a bit of a break through. Although I am extremely tired the shakes are not as bad for which I am very, very thankful. I would like to write more however it is a challenge which is draining and my strength is at t’s last bit of existence, so I will retire to bed for the night and hopefully be able to write more tomorrow. Today, November twenty seventh seems to be for me a bit of a break through. Although I am extremely tired the shakes are not as bad for which I am very, very thankful. I would like to write more however it is a challenge which is draining and my strength is at t’s last bit of existence, so I will retire to bed for the night and hopefully be able to write more tomorrow. November twenty eight two thousand sixteen is a day for celebration because I feel much better. I’m still tired and need a little more time to get over the sneezing, coughing, and drippy nose part of this medical issue, but fortunately I’m on the mend. The jumpies/shakes are down to a very, very dull roar and I believe since nothing has happened for hours may be gone. My energy is slowly building and so soon I expect to be back to my usual self. God is good all the time. November twenty ninth two thousand sixteen is a beautiful sunny day with bright blue sky and the beauty of fall all around. My energy is stable and I feel like I am certainly on the mend, however my friend is now seriously sick. Follow the leader in bering sick is not exactly what I wanted to happen. I hope and playfully ask of Heavenly Father that she feels better and gets well very, very soon. For the first time in a littler over a week I was able to take Bella for our usual walk again. It is nice to feel the warm caresses of the sun and have a nice bright day. Hopefully this will cheer my friend and assist her spirits so that she is able to conquer the bug plaguing her digestive system. Last night was an adventure which I have had before but not very often at all. I have an indwelling catheter which happened to manage to slither out. Fortunately my friend was able to assist me in returning it to it’s proper place. Having limited vision, manual dexterity that sometimes leaves something to be desired, and needing more than two hands, it is helpful when my friend aims the catheter in the right place and then I am able to do the rest of the procedure. Now that I’ve had some rest I am able ton add more information to this adventure. Getting sick was not my intention, nor should I have but because of circumstances beyond my control and needing to take care of business I was forced to go out in the rain into town about a week ago. This caused me to catch a cold from somewhere or someone and that took my ability to properly continue documenting the events of living on the mountain properly. Today I have managed to stay up for short periods of time and then get some bed rest followed by being up again and so it would go through out the day. For me this is a very positive thing because it tells me I’m slowly gaining strength and also getting better. So far I’ve been able to take care of my animal friends/family which I would do to my very, very best ability because they are devoted family members who have been with me for some nineteen years and counting and for one several months. I would expend every effort on their behalf because they are so precious to me and well worth everything possible from me. Bella especially has been a very devoted and loyal service dog. I am very, very fortunate to have my friend with me here however I am concerned about her because she is struggling with being sick and it is not possible for me to be able to help her as she has helped me. I am sincerely and truly thankful for everything she has done for me over these many years. She has given so much of her devoted and dedicated friendship and help it is priceless to me. My friends back in Maryland have gifted and given more to me than I could ever repay even if I had one hundred years in which to do so. They have been selfless as to my friend who is currently sick, and other people I have known. My church family back east has also given unconditionally above and beyond the call of duty for which I held precious in my mind their gifts to me. I thank everyone with whom I have been acquainted. Everyone has been exceedingly awesome and more. My new friends and family members from the community and church here are bravely taking up the torch for me and gifting to me necessities without measure. Heavenly Father has richly blessed me through them and gifted through them the many things needed for me to be able to have a better life, better health situation, and financial freedom of which I would not have had it not been for their welcoming arms os love and assistance. Yes I am living out my childhood dream however this is not the reason I ventured out to the mountains in Arkansas. I was led here by Heavenly Father for the above reasons stated as well as to do His work in this area. To my very best ability I will soldger forth until I am called home to heaven and then will dwell with all heavenly beings for all time and all eternity. I was severely tested this past week because I got very sick. This was enough to cause me to spend a mega huge amount of time in m bed. Fortunately I was able to gather enough strength to take care of my animal family and barely take care of myself. A huge blessing was having fifty k words written by the 20th which was just before I got sick. It was a huge blessing to be declared a NaNoWriMo winner so that the struggle to write was not held over me . I still managed at least a sentence for NaNo. Today is the last NaNo day for this month so I thought I would try to add a few more words for this challenge and share my situation with you. I am doing much better. Washing dishes is not one of my favorite things to do, however, I actually managed to wash all of the dishes and adds and ends. Here on the mountain if you do not manage to keep going some how or have a friend who is willing to help you, then you could possibly be dire straights or worse. One of the projects I need to accomplish is hammering the nails back into the floor boards. Personally I would rather use screws for this purpose because I think they would hold much better than nails. However the nails are in well enough and just need incentive to reseated into their places. Another thing I hope to do by spring or summer at the latest is to put something wheelchair friendly and very, very durable over the base flooring here in the cabin. With some research I should find the proper materials to take care of this project. I have not yet hammered the nails however I have accomplished a lot of cleaning and taking care of my animal friends family members. This took quite a bit of energy from me yt it was very well worth all of my effort because they are my precious family members. Currently Bella wants her food. I believe she must have clock in her belly, not really but she sure has a good feel for the time of day Today November thirty two thousand sixteen I got conformation that the house was successfully settled. This is terriffic because I no longer need to pay double bills. It will help me recuperate from the moving expenses and get back on track without having to watch every thing purchased. I will be able to get necessities and have the stress relief financially which I needed. Although it was tough to manage irt was well worth the effort because Heavenly Father made it possible for me to pay my bills, have necessities, and be safe and secure here. Now I’ll be able to get more out of debt by paying the rest of the moving expenses and most likely the necessary items for the wheelchair ramp and the cabin insulation and dry wall. I am so relieved and full of joy. The very best prat of this situation is that now I will be able to focus on my art and writing without so many distractions. I expect to be able to do a lot of editing, and fresh writing as well as work on some illustrations. Perhaps I will design a book cover r two for my novels and then start working on new projects which is why I decided to move along with better health which is happening and financial relief. The property next to mine has a building on it which seems to be having work done. Hopefully things will work out so that I can acquire these acres eventually also. I feel as if it is already my property yet I do not know the details of how this is going to be accomplished. I’ll wait on Heavenly Father to guide me and then I’ll know about the next steps. So far today I have managed to stay up the entire time which is quite an accomplishment. Prior to today I needed to get up out of bed for short period of time and then go back to bed. It’s great to be able to enjoy the entire day. I am still sneezing, coughing, and a bit tired but much,much better thankfully and praise Heavenly Father. My friend is supposed to visit today which is nice because it means she is also feeling better for which I am thankful and very glad. She said she was bringing stew with her which because she is a very, very good cook should be absolutely delicious. Thinking about it is making my mouth water. The day was windy but with the sunshine the temperature was not too bad. Bella and I enjoyed several walks and we spent a short period of time enjoying the warmth of the sun. Oh yes, Gatita my newest feline managed to sneak outside as I was trying to get back inside after emptying a container of water. I figured she would be gone by the time to got turned around and back outside but she was still on the ramp, so I called her and motioned in a come here motion for her to come to me which thankfully she did. I was thrilled and relieved that she had made this choice. Usually6 she would disappear for a day or two leaving me not knowing if she was safe or where she was. I am thankful to Heavenly Father for her very, very quick return to me and that she decided to stay rather then leave. |
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