Kelley says,
Well, today I am making my second blog live. It is kinda scary but SO exciting all at the same time. God has sent SO many people my direction that have struggled and are currently struggling in this area. Through "Feel the Tatas" I was able to reach out to more women than I ever thought possible. It will never cease to amaze me how so many people do not feel like they can open up about some of the trials in their lives. It just breaks my heart.
But I am so thankful for the internet because it allows those people to connect and get hope from complete strangers which sometimes is just easier in certain situations. I do hope that you will please remember this blog and send any female survivor you meet here to get hope, encouragement and maybe a few answers. As always, they can contact me any time by any means for free at any time. And be sure to have them check out the "Sewing for Tatas" page on this blog to get a hospital gown for themselves.
I ask that you would pray for my hospital gown ministry that God would provide the funds and the workers I need to see this vision come to pass. I'm already getting orders and will soon run out of gowns. Please believe with me in prayer!!
If you are interested in following along this journey that we are on in our marriage and want to see what all God is doing in our lives on that front, I ask you to please "follow" the new blog at www.sometimesshecries.com Please be sure to check out the "pages" so you are up to date. If you follow me regularly, the only post you haven't read is the most recent. Please leave comments on the new blog and let me know what you think. And show us your support by following us. Thank you to everyone for all your support for "Feel the Tata's" I hope it becomes a wonderful place for cancer survivors. And I hope "Sometimes She Cries" becomes a refuge of hope for people who are struggling in their marriage. I can't wait to see what God is up to!!
Love you all...and I always will!!
P.S. You can now "Pin" to Pinterest either of my blogs from the blog homepage. You can also follow by entering your e-mail address and Blogger will e-mail you anytime there is a new post! Super sweet!
Kelley
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
New changes for "Feel the Tatas"
Kelley says.....
When I started www.feelthetatas.com, which seems like a lifetime ago by the way, I started it as a way to inform family and friends of my health updates. Slowly but surely other people started referring newly diagnosed women to my blog. Then women started contacting me thanking me for being so frank about my emotions and my feelings.
Not long after that I got the idea for "Sewing for Tatas" and then that became a HUGE vision of mine. But 2011 brought BIG changes to my life. As Deryl and I started blogging about our walk through overcoming our marital struggles he mentioned that maybe I needed two blogs. At first I was thinking...NO WAY. But as I started to pray about it I realized that I really do have two missions in life. My first mission is to help women....period. I want to reach out to all women but I want newly diagnosed women and women going through treatment and those about to face breast surgery to have a place to come for hope, peace and an outlet to express their feelings. I want them to read about the truth, and when they read my words they realize they aren't crazy but the feelings they feel are actually normal.
But after the events of this year, if a newly diagnosed woman were to come to my blog, they might be confused and if they got to reading the entries they might actually be very frightened as to the possibilities that the same thing could actually happen to them and that is way too big of a pill to swallow when you are just starting your cancer journey.
SO, after my faithful followers have had a chance to read this post, I will make my second blog LIVE and all 2011 marriage related entries will be removed. Don't worry, they will all be available on the new blog. And there our journey will continue. If you know of anyone who is newly diagnosed or going through their own cancer journey, please refer them to www.feelthetatas.com I would greatly appreciate it.
Secondly, when I post my new blog address, please follow me and show your support for Deryl and I and this journey we are on!! And then if you know of anyone who has been affected by pornography in their lives, please forward them and tell them all about my new blog!!
I set up a new "page" on the home page of www.feelthetatas.com called "Sewing for Tatas". Please check it out. I am starting to get the word out about it but I need help!! I have had all the graphics done for Feel the Tatas t-shirts and they are awesome!! But I need someone to contribute to help me pay for the actual shirts! So please check out the page and pray about how you can be a part of this awesome ministry!! It is my dream to be able to give every newly diagnosed woman a hospital gown to bring to all their many doctor appointments. But I cannot do this without help! Please take a couple of minutes to read about that. Selling shirts is my first step in being able to raise money for the gowns.
Thank you to everyone who has followed my blog and have hung in there with me throughout the most difficult years I have ever faced in my entire life. I will be continuing to post to this blog but will also be updating my new one with Deryl as well. I know I didn't mention what my second mission in life is but you can read all about that on my "pages" in my new blog. So keep your eyes open...new blog will be live by this time next week.
Kelley
When I started www.feelthetatas.com, which seems like a lifetime ago by the way, I started it as a way to inform family and friends of my health updates. Slowly but surely other people started referring newly diagnosed women to my blog. Then women started contacting me thanking me for being so frank about my emotions and my feelings.
Not long after that I got the idea for "Sewing for Tatas" and then that became a HUGE vision of mine. But 2011 brought BIG changes to my life. As Deryl and I started blogging about our walk through overcoming our marital struggles he mentioned that maybe I needed two blogs. At first I was thinking...NO WAY. But as I started to pray about it I realized that I really do have two missions in life. My first mission is to help women....period. I want to reach out to all women but I want newly diagnosed women and women going through treatment and those about to face breast surgery to have a place to come for hope, peace and an outlet to express their feelings. I want them to read about the truth, and when they read my words they realize they aren't crazy but the feelings they feel are actually normal.
But after the events of this year, if a newly diagnosed woman were to come to my blog, they might be confused and if they got to reading the entries they might actually be very frightened as to the possibilities that the same thing could actually happen to them and that is way too big of a pill to swallow when you are just starting your cancer journey.
SO, after my faithful followers have had a chance to read this post, I will make my second blog LIVE and all 2011 marriage related entries will be removed. Don't worry, they will all be available on the new blog. And there our journey will continue. If you know of anyone who is newly diagnosed or going through their own cancer journey, please refer them to www.feelthetatas.com I would greatly appreciate it.
Secondly, when I post my new blog address, please follow me and show your support for Deryl and I and this journey we are on!! And then if you know of anyone who has been affected by pornography in their lives, please forward them and tell them all about my new blog!!
I set up a new "page" on the home page of www.feelthetatas.com called "Sewing for Tatas". Please check it out. I am starting to get the word out about it but I need help!! I have had all the graphics done for Feel the Tatas t-shirts and they are awesome!! But I need someone to contribute to help me pay for the actual shirts! So please check out the page and pray about how you can be a part of this awesome ministry!! It is my dream to be able to give every newly diagnosed woman a hospital gown to bring to all their many doctor appointments. But I cannot do this without help! Please take a couple of minutes to read about that. Selling shirts is my first step in being able to raise money for the gowns.
Thank you to everyone who has followed my blog and have hung in there with me throughout the most difficult years I have ever faced in my entire life. I will be continuing to post to this blog but will also be updating my new one with Deryl as well. I know I didn't mention what my second mission in life is but you can read all about that on my "pages" in my new blog. So keep your eyes open...new blog will be live by this time next week.
Kelley
Sunday, January 1, 2012
My new job part 2
Kelley says.....
As always there is so much I want to say that I have to really ponder what I want to write. I guess I will just start by telling you more about what goes on at my job. We have clients that have hit a bad patch in their lives. Some of these clients are executives who have lost their jobs. A lot of them are just like me and you.
They start off by making an appointment to come in. When they get there they are greeted by a volunteer. Then, they meet with a counselor who is also a volunteer. The counselor gets their story, asks them questions to get to know them better and see what is going on in their lives. Then, the client is presented the gospel!! How awesome is that?! There are lots of tears and awesome stories that come out of this time. Once they are done with the counselor, they get to go pick out clothes for each person in their family and any household and miscellaneous items we have that they may need. Once they are done in our clothing room they are met by more volunteers who have all their food items on a wagon and their items are taken to their cars and unloaded for them. They can come and do this once every 30 days.
We have many events throughout the year. I started at the beginning of October and for Thanksgiving we gave out frozen Turkeys and all the trimmings so they could fix their own meals at home. It was a great day. We all went and volunteered and the girls met people all day that were in the same position we were in back in 2009 when Deryl had lost his job.
For Christmas we had a big Birthday Party for Jesus. Every child received a gift as well as every adult! It was so amazing. I just loved every single minute of it and again, my whole family was able to be a part. After this we moved on to what is called "Adopt-a-family". These families stories break my heart. Most of you who know me or have followed me for a while know that I grew up very poor. I lived many years of my childhood in trailer parks. I was always so embarrassed and always picked on and bullied because of it.
The majority of the families who filled out an application in hopes that they would be adopted live in trailer parks. With the exception of families who actually live in old chicken coops. Yes, you read that correctly. There are some old chicken coops that were made into an apartment type living environment and this section is very close to the trailer parks.
I must say that the following story blessed me more than anything else I have experienced at my job so far. The day we were going to deliver some gifts it started raining. I just couldn't believe it. A lot of these people don't have any transportation and if they do they don't have the extra gas money to come pick up their gifts. But it isn't really somewhere you want to go after dark. So delivering gifts was proving to be difficult.
If we didn't get these gifts to these families, they weren't going to have Christmas. I couldn't stand it. I was determined that I would do everything in my power to get as many gifts as I could delivered. Keep in mind, I had never actually been to these areas yet, I had only heard about them. I loaded up my 4 Runner and we loaded up another volunteers SUV and off we went. It was dreary outside and sprinkling off and on. As I got started with my deliveries and I started getting glimpses into these peoples lives a flood of memories came rushing back in my mind from my own childhood. I thought about how awesome it was that God provided this job for me. I felt so incredibly blessed at that moment but so sad that nothing like this existed when I was young. There is just no way for me to go to work each day and not be so very thankful.
I think some people really have no idea what it means to be poor. I mean I know for a fact that some people actually feel like they are poor if they can't go out to eat and to the movies whenever they want. I myself have felt poor if I can't go get clothes for my children that they need. But let me describe poor to you. The majority of applications we took in for families that were hoping to be adopted didn't request dolls or toys or things you would imagine for their children. They asked for socks, underwear, and shoes. Some of the ladies asked for cleaning supplies. The closer it got to Christmas the busier we were. We ended up being totally booked all the way until January 10th and no one could even get in for an appointment. People were calling in saying that they were completely out of food or that their electricity had been turned off.
We all know that things are bad in the economy right now but things are much worse than you could ever imagine for a LOT of people. My job is at a non-profit and they are ran almost completely on volunteers alone and they accept no help from the government. They run strictly on donations. I just think it is amazing and I ask you, my faithful followers of this blog to pray that God would bless my boss and his wife abundantly!! They have a vision to have a medical and dental facility on the property as well. They do SO much more that I would have to write a book to tell you all about it. But it is wonderful.
We have a short bible study and prayer time every Monday. We pray for the clients and other things. On my first Monday there, I found out that not only that small group of people but that several HUNDRED people had been praying since early in 2011 for the perfect person to fill my position. So people were praying me into that job back when my world had completely collapsed back in Texas!! Isn't God just SO darn amazing? I still can't believe it. I know there were the naysayers that questioned how we could have moved so quickly but they just didn't understand. When I found out how so many people who didn't even know me had been praying for me I just couldn't contain the tears. God never ceases to amaze me. So I am here to tell you once again that God is a God of the impossible. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Just trust in the ONE who is always on your side and will NEVER let you down!! He is always, always, always FAITHFUL!!
As always there is so much I want to say that I have to really ponder what I want to write. I guess I will just start by telling you more about what goes on at my job. We have clients that have hit a bad patch in their lives. Some of these clients are executives who have lost their jobs. A lot of them are just like me and you.
They start off by making an appointment to come in. When they get there they are greeted by a volunteer. Then, they meet with a counselor who is also a volunteer. The counselor gets their story, asks them questions to get to know them better and see what is going on in their lives. Then, the client is presented the gospel!! How awesome is that?! There are lots of tears and awesome stories that come out of this time. Once they are done with the counselor, they get to go pick out clothes for each person in their family and any household and miscellaneous items we have that they may need. Once they are done in our clothing room they are met by more volunteers who have all their food items on a wagon and their items are taken to their cars and unloaded for them. They can come and do this once every 30 days.
We have many events throughout the year. I started at the beginning of October and for Thanksgiving we gave out frozen Turkeys and all the trimmings so they could fix their own meals at home. It was a great day. We all went and volunteered and the girls met people all day that were in the same position we were in back in 2009 when Deryl had lost his job.
For Christmas we had a big Birthday Party for Jesus. Every child received a gift as well as every adult! It was so amazing. I just loved every single minute of it and again, my whole family was able to be a part. After this we moved on to what is called "Adopt-a-family". These families stories break my heart. Most of you who know me or have followed me for a while know that I grew up very poor. I lived many years of my childhood in trailer parks. I was always so embarrassed and always picked on and bullied because of it.
The majority of the families who filled out an application in hopes that they would be adopted live in trailer parks. With the exception of families who actually live in old chicken coops. Yes, you read that correctly. There are some old chicken coops that were made into an apartment type living environment and this section is very close to the trailer parks.
I must say that the following story blessed me more than anything else I have experienced at my job so far. The day we were going to deliver some gifts it started raining. I just couldn't believe it. A lot of these people don't have any transportation and if they do they don't have the extra gas money to come pick up their gifts. But it isn't really somewhere you want to go after dark. So delivering gifts was proving to be difficult.
If we didn't get these gifts to these families, they weren't going to have Christmas. I couldn't stand it. I was determined that I would do everything in my power to get as many gifts as I could delivered. Keep in mind, I had never actually been to these areas yet, I had only heard about them. I loaded up my 4 Runner and we loaded up another volunteers SUV and off we went. It was dreary outside and sprinkling off and on. As I got started with my deliveries and I started getting glimpses into these peoples lives a flood of memories came rushing back in my mind from my own childhood. I thought about how awesome it was that God provided this job for me. I felt so incredibly blessed at that moment but so sad that nothing like this existed when I was young. There is just no way for me to go to work each day and not be so very thankful.
I think some people really have no idea what it means to be poor. I mean I know for a fact that some people actually feel like they are poor if they can't go out to eat and to the movies whenever they want. I myself have felt poor if I can't go get clothes for my children that they need. But let me describe poor to you. The majority of applications we took in for families that were hoping to be adopted didn't request dolls or toys or things you would imagine for their children. They asked for socks, underwear, and shoes. Some of the ladies asked for cleaning supplies. The closer it got to Christmas the busier we were. We ended up being totally booked all the way until January 10th and no one could even get in for an appointment. People were calling in saying that they were completely out of food or that their electricity had been turned off.
We all know that things are bad in the economy right now but things are much worse than you could ever imagine for a LOT of people. My job is at a non-profit and they are ran almost completely on volunteers alone and they accept no help from the government. They run strictly on donations. I just think it is amazing and I ask you, my faithful followers of this blog to pray that God would bless my boss and his wife abundantly!! They have a vision to have a medical and dental facility on the property as well. They do SO much more that I would have to write a book to tell you all about it. But it is wonderful.
We have a short bible study and prayer time every Monday. We pray for the clients and other things. On my first Monday there, I found out that not only that small group of people but that several HUNDRED people had been praying since early in 2011 for the perfect person to fill my position. So people were praying me into that job back when my world had completely collapsed back in Texas!! Isn't God just SO darn amazing? I still can't believe it. I know there were the naysayers that questioned how we could have moved so quickly but they just didn't understand. When I found out how so many people who didn't even know me had been praying for me I just couldn't contain the tears. God never ceases to amaze me. So I am here to tell you once again that God is a God of the impossible. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Just trust in the ONE who is always on your side and will NEVER let you down!! He is always, always, always FAITHFUL!!
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