4th Annual Christy's Stocking

Dear Family and Friends,

Can you believe that the holiday season is already underway? Next week is Thanksgiving and in the blink of an eye it will be Christmas. It’s almost impossible for me to come to terms with that fact! Our family is very excited to celebrate Christmas this year with our newest addition. We were so blessed when in July, Josh and Kristen welcomed our sweet Laila Lee. She’s so adorable and we just love her so much. What joy she has brought us in such a short amount of time.

With Christmas comes our annual delivery of Christy’s Stocking to the patients at Kentucky Childrens Hospital. It’s so hard to believe that this will be our fourth year of sharing God’s hope and love with needy patients and their families. Many of these families will spend the holiday sitting in a hospital room with their children. Please join us as we spread the overflow from Christy’s Stocking with needy families at Childrens Hospital. Your tax deductable donations help provide - gas to parents who need to travel to and from their homes, food, Christmas gifts that they may not otherwise receive and most importantly, a feeling of being loved.

As in past years, we are seeking gift cards from restaurants (fast food or sit-down), gas stations, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Kroger, Meijer, etc. Also children’s books and appropriate DVD’s for children. Please remember when making your selections that the hospital has children of all ages, from infants to teenagers.

Many of you have asked about filling in the “To” & “From” information on the gift cards. If you wish to do this we have always written on each card – “To: Someone Very Special” - “From: Christy’s Stocking”. We try to be sensitive and stay away from “In Memory Of” since many of the families who benefit from your donations have a child with a terminal illness.

In an effort to make things as easy as possible for the accounting staff at Childrens Hospital would you please include with your gift - your name, complete mailing address and the value of your donation so that the hospital can mail you a receipt, which you can use for income tax purposes. Please note that your donation conformation letter will be addressed to you from The University of Kentucky.

Donations can be mailed to:
Christy’s Stocking
c/o Wells Household
104 Millhouse Drive
Nicholasville KY 40356

Please feel free to drop off your donation, or call and one of us will gladly pick it up from you. We will be delivering Christy’s Stocking to Childrens Hospital on December 19th, so we would appreciate receipt of your donation before that date.

Once again we can’t thank you enough for joining us on this journey of honoring Christy. Your willingness to be a part of our effort is a tremendous blessing to each of us! Thank you for helping us honor the life that Christy lived so beautifully. Her love of children, especially those hurting, can continue through your efforts.


Merry Christmas,
Chris, Julie & Kyle
Josh, Kristen & Laila

Three Years

On October 11, 2008 at 8:45 p.m. Christy left her earthly home to enter her eternal home. It’s been three years. It’s been three years. Really? Three years. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lived forever with this ache in my heart. Other times, I feel like she was just here with us last week. How does time continue without her? How do I continue to breathe through the pain?

Anxiety

I have major anxiety. It’s not anything new, I’ve had it for years. However, it’s reached an all time high since Christy’s death. Most times I can deal with it, rationalize with myself that it’s my anxiety and not a heart attack (or whatever else I decide the problem is). Lately I haven’t been dealing with it so well. I’m currently doing a Bible study titled No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. I just love Kelly’s writing style. This study is about idol worship, not the kind of idol that looks like a nearly naked fat man, but the idols we build for ourselves every day. For instance, an idol could be our home, our car, our boat, food, even our husband or our children. It’s odd how we can take something good and make it into an idol by worshipping it above God.

When I cracked open my study book this morning and got to work, God revealed something new to me. I’m starving to death for a food that I don’t have – the food of peace. I have made my anxiety my idol and in doing so have robbed myself of God’s peace. Why in the world would I do this to myself? I think it’s because I’ve pushed God aside. I’ve stopped finding my joy in Him. I feel like He took away something that was so precious to me that I can’t really trust him anymore. (Please know that what I “feel” and what I know to be truth are two very different things, it’s just hard to convince my heart of the truth sometimes.) I love God. I know who He is and I know who I am in Him. I just don’t trust him. I trust that He will do His will, it’s just that my will and his are sometimes very different. That’s where the problem is. I desperately need to take the focus off of myself and put it fully and completely on Him. My will is nothing! His will is everything! If my focus is on Him, then my will and His will will be more the same. (I hope that makes some sense with all those wills in there.) Not that I will always understand His will, for as long as I’m on this earth that just won’t happen. But, I can better accept it if my focus is on Him.

Please pray for me as I try to get the focus off me and on Him. It’s going to be a process and something that won’t happen overnight but I need to be fed the food of peace. I need for God to fill me up with peace that passes all understanding. I want all of you to look at me and say, “She is filled with such peace, it must be from God.” Because we know that without Him, there really is no peace at all.

Thanks friends!

Seeking God’s peace,
Julie

Kyle

My baby boy is 24 years old today. Where does the time go?!!!!!! Kyle graduated from EKU in December with a degree in Human Resource Management. Two months after graduation he got his first job in his field, which required him to move to Paintsville. So, I thought that for the first time since his birth that I wouldn't be spending his birthday with him. But as we all know, God is good. Kyle is off today and home with us. I'm feeling very blessed.

Happy Birthday, Kyle! I love you!!!!

Birthdays

Missing my girl on what would have been her 31st birthday. It's hard to believe that it's been 31 years since God blessed me with her. I'm very thankful today for her life and for the beautiful way she lived it.

Grieving forward,
Julie

March 27, 2004

Seven years ago today was the happiest day of Christy's life. Remembering her wedding day joy and still missing her terribly.

Love Me

Someone I know needs to know this..............



Friend, I don't know who you are but I do know that He will love you!

Praying for you now,
Julie