I was just on my way to bed and something moved me to log on. I had not anticipated posting to you till tomorrow night. Are you o.k.? Tell me what you can. I'm not sure what to say, but as you request, I will pray very hard for you. Please let me know something as soon as you can. I will check on you tomorrow. Till then, you are all in my thoughts. God be with you, whatever your struggle....

I'm okay, but I'm a little scared. I'm so sorry to alarm you, but I know that you pray earnestly for me and I just really need your prayers. I don't know what this woman is going to do, but my husband is actually concerned, too. I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I've read some other posts and I've heard of the OW actually reading their posts and I've been really discrete, but if I tell you any more about what's going on, I will give it away. I really need to get out of this town. I hate talking like this, but please pray for me. I am being as strong as possible. I know God will hear us.

Hey, I hope things have settled down for you. Do you really think that she would try to hurt you? I gather from your postings that this is your concern. I won't pry. I don't want you to tell me anything that might cause you difficulty. I have read of OW reading postings as well, so, please don't compromise your anonimity. I am concerned for you though, that you are this upset. I hope whatever you are going through right now, resolves itself very quickly. Please let me know what you can as you are able to. I am praying for your family's peace. I am worried about you, so please try to keep posting regularly until this is resolved. God hears and will answer. That, you can stand on, but please be careful and KEEP PRAYING! Talk to me when you can, I am waiting to hear from you. May you feel God's presence in your midst, right now, and may you hear a still, soft voice speaking soothing peace over you. Whatever your conflict, right now, know that you are not alone and that there is power in prayer. You have my prayers, that they may help empower you to accomplish what is God's will in your life. Listen for his voice to lead you in all things. May you know peace tonight, the peace that only a loving father can bring. Amen. Let me know how you are when you can....

I want so badly to tell you what's going on, but it will definitely give me away. What's going on is actually on the news and I would no longer be anonymous if I told you. I've talked to my family and I'm considering leaving town with the kids for a while, but I'm just trying to take it easy for a while. Thank you so much for your prayers, it does bring me some peace and reduce my anxiety level to know that you are praying. I'll be in touch.

Well, I kind of feel at a loss. I had no idea you were dealing with such a serious situation. I am so very sorry. You don't need to tell me anything, whatever is happening I am praying for you every time you pop into my head. I am scared for you, but will try to help you be strong. God is watching over you and will help guide you, but it sounds as if the devil is not willing to let things be. Oh Lord, please give this woman strength and courage. Trust in the Lord, he WILL NOT, no matter what the devil would have you believe, steer you wrong. I feel so helpless. I wish I could help you more! I find the a verse from 1 Peter keeps coming into my head, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring loin, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Stay alert. Be prepared for whatever battle the Lord may call you into, meanwhile, I will be praying for your strength and safety. Keep me up to date! You are in my thoughts and prayers.......

Dear lord in heaven, please watch over my friend. Give her strength and courage in all things and send your peace into her heart and soul. Amen. Please let me know your o.k. when you can. I am very worried about you.....

I am so sorry to worry you. I think things have simmered down a bit. I keep erasing and re-writing this message because I don't know how to say what I want to say without saying too much. I think your prayers worked. Thank you. I feel like things are going to be okay. Please don't worry too much, I think we have the situation controlled a little now. But thank you, thank you so much for your support. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get back to you 'til now. I'll try to keep in touch.

Praise the Lord! It's good to hear from you. Keep in touch. I am thinking about you and praying for you.

Things seem to be going well. I don't think it would be spilling the beans to say that there's a huge investigation going on and I think my concern for safety has been reduced a lot. Thanks for the prayers. You are in my mind and my heart, when I have fear I imagine holding hand in prayer. Thank you for your strength. I'll be in touch...

It's good to know that things are going better. I hope everything clears itself up soon. I guess there is not much to say until you are able to talk more freely. Just know that I am praying for you. Also, I would ask that you pray for my oldest girl. All of the children have been sick with the flu bug but now she has pneumonia. I am hoping it won't have her down too long, but she needs strength. Remember her when you pray please, and keep me posted on how things are progressing on your end. I hope you have closure to your situation very soon. Keep praying! It's all we have! God bless....

I have said a prayer for your daughter, I hope that she will get better. Is she in the hospital or has she seen a doctor? Pneumonia can be so dangerous, a few people in my family have had it this winter. I will keep praying for her.<P>Everything's still okay with me. I'm sorry I worried you so much. But thank you for your prayers. My husband and I have been spending a lot of time together lately and have talked a lot more. I feel like we are mending our way back together. I realize a lot of feelings I've expressed and vented to you, I hadn't really blatently told him. I just always assumed it was obvious. --Men really are clueless. Anyway, I think he understands my feelings a little better now and we are progressing well.<P>I feel a little vein for bringing up so much concern over myself and you never seem to mind, you just keep giving and giving. But I guess that's why your kids love you so much. I will pray for your daughter's strength and recovery. Talk to you soon...

I am glad to hear that you are spending good time together. Nothing could be better. My baby is still very sick (her temp was 101 before her last dose of Tylenol) but she is finally able to cough some yuk up. She was taking breathing treatments, but doesn't have to take any more unless her progress slows down. She is most upset because she didn't get to go skating with her friends tonight, and tomorrow is my God son's 7th birthday and I have told her she can't go to it. At fifteen, her idea of torture is having to stay home! Anyway, things on our homefront seem to be settling down. Is this woman still causing you grief? Bless her heart. Wonder what causes some people to be the way they are? It must be very sad for her. Hopefully, very soon, this will all be just a bad memory for you and your family. Keep communicating with your husband. That is the key to everything. This weekend is also my husband's birthday party, so I may not get to post back till Sunday evening after the kids go to bed. If I don't get a chance to check in, please know <BR>that I will still be thinking about your family and hoping your weekend is peaceful. Till next time we speak, may God guide your steps......

Yes, I remember that ripe age of 15 when I thought I would die if I didn't go to certain somewhere on THAT night, because EVERY night was important as a teenager. She sounds like she might be getting a little better, huh? You know you can alternate between Tylenol and Motrin if she's continuously having a fever, right? Like, normally you would take Tylenol every 6 hours because you cannot total more than 4 doses in a 24-hour period -- and same goes for Motrin, but you can alternate between the two. Like take the Tylenol, and then 4 hours later (rather than 6) take the Motrin, and then 4 hours later take the Tylenol, and so on. You end up getting 6 total doses during the day rather than 4 and you don't have to wait those two extra feverish hours to take something, ya know. I guess you should check with the doctor first because it might be different with Pneumonia. But mostly with my kids, the pediatrician always tells me if the fever continues at a high temperature, you can alternate Tylenol and Motrin. On a non-scientific note, prayer is always the best medicine, so I will keep praying for her!<P>No, this woman isn't really giving me greif directly, but you know how I had planned on talking to her that day, and then I told you she was realy nice the next day to my husband. He said she was very respectful and he thought maybe that she thought she was going to lose her job over our conversation with her. He told her that I felt bad and if she wanted to call me sometime, she could. I think I told you this before... I never told him to tell her that. I said that there was nothing left to say and if he said anything at all that he should say it on our behalf, because it would just give her opportunity to 'cry on his shoulder.' I said to tell her that since WE put her on the spot, if she would like to clear anything up with US, that WE'D make ourselves available. But since he put it in the sense that I felt bad for her, she started crying and saying, "She was the one who was mean to me in the first place, she's mean to me everytime she comes in to the office." --Exactly what I expected, crying on the shoulder bit. Well, the very next day she was no longer respectful, she just became really hostile. My husband said that she seemed like she didn't really fear for her job anymore and it probably just hit her that she had to take krap from a much younger woman and she had to sit there and take it. In another words, she's very angry with me. I came into the office on Valentine's Day and I was VERY nice to everyone in the office and especially addressed her. She seemed normal. But a series of events happened from that day forth that is what I've been talking about that's in the news. There's still a huge investigation, but just the whole thing, and the timing, really just gave me and my husband goosebumps and especially knowing that she was angry with me. We didn't know what to expect. I'm feeling more settled now, but still don't know what to expect.<P>Anyway, I'm okay and I'm going day by day knowing that if I stumble God will carry me through this. I was really freaked out before, but I think your prayers and mine are being heard. I feel more at peace and feel His presence more. You are right, God will not send me to battle without the proper weapons and I don't feel so scared anymore.<P>I better go, I will say a prayer of Birthday wishes for your husband. Hope everything goes well.

You can always tell when you are doing things right, because the devil trys really hard to trip you up. That is how my weekend has been. Anyway, tomorrow is another day, so maybe it will be better. Yes, my girl is much better. Her temp is staying around normal, sometimes going up to just over 99. Now the youngest is starting to hack again. I have tried to keep them as seperated as I can, but that gets really hard with six people in one little house! I am extremely glad to hear that things are more settled for you. It sounds like this poor woman just really needs a lot of prayer and help. Sometimes people just refuse to see their errors. There is nothing you can do to help them till they are willing to see their own downfalls! At any rate, it sounds like it is going better, and that is what really counts right now. I hope you and your family had a good weekend. I am pretty worn out tonight, so I will go for now. I said a special prayer for you at alter call this morning, so expect a miracle. Just kidding, but really, that is what pastor says. Always expect a miracle, and you will get one. It may not be in the form you expect, but it will be there. Anyway, got to go. Have to go medicate the old gal and send her to bed. Will talk to you soon. God bless!

You got me thinking about what FORM of miracle I'd get, and you must've prayed really hard because I think I am getting a miracle. A friend of ours maybe moving here and even though we still want to move when our contract is up, it would make living here so much more bearable for me to have someone that I'm not parynoid about. Maybe it's a stange miracle, but I still think it is one.<P>That's good news about your daughter getting better. It's so hard to keep everyone well, I know. I don't think there's a single time that just one of us had the flu, as soon as one of us got it, the rest of us followed right after. Anyway, hopefully spring will get here soon and bring better health.<P>Sorry about your bad weekend. What happened with your husband's birthday party? It wasn't a surprise was it?<P>Well, I hope you do have a better weekend. Talk to you soon...

That would be fabulous if one of your friends was able to move there! I certainly hope that works out. Are things still going well in the open communication category with your husband? That is the real question. As long as that is there, I feel confident that you can persevere in your current situation. When will you know if your friend is coming? How is everyone in your family healthwise? This has been a very nasty season down here. Schools closing right and left because of flu epidemic. I figure we have probably spent $350-400 in the past two weeks on doctor bills and medicine. I thought that was what insurance was for! Oh, no, I don't want to get started on that! Anyway, in reply to your question about my weekend, my husband is a very angry man. He lives his life one second away from blowing up, so the children and I just tiptoe around him. He is just a miserable person. He married me when I was "fun", now that I "got religious" he doesn't really know what to do with me. But I digress, that is another story. Anyway, some days are good and some are bad, and he is a very selfish person who, when he doesn't get what he wants, throws temper tantrums. Kind of like a child, you know. Well, we do not ever have much, if any, money left out of our paychecks, so what he gets for his birthday is what we can afford; not much. Simply, I think he is mad. Before we got married, his parents took care of him. Now they think we should function as a family. Well, they had more money to buy him things, plus, they bought the children's things too.(He and the children lived with his parents after the divorce). He did not have a clue how much the things the children need cost! I do not mean to make my husband sound like a bad man. He isn't, he has just never had to sacrifice anything. Before, his mom took care of everything. Now he expects me too. Well, anyway, it was just a long weekend. When he is in a bad mood, the children are to, which leads to fighting, then he leaves and I get left to try to and make peace. Very frustrating! Enough about me! Woops, I see it is past time to go back to work. I will post back tomorrow before church to see if you have any special prayer requests. That reminds me, one of my girls taught her first Sunday school class this past Sunday. She is only 12! I was so proud! I will tell you more about that tomorrow. Hope your day is going well. God bless!

Well, I guess when you said you could relate to having to do ALL the chores, you meant it. My husband lived with his parents until he moved in with his sister after high school and then went into the Navy and got religious and moved back in with his parents. His mom packed his lunch, did his laundry, and everything 'til we got married. What I noticed is that if I slack off then he ends up pitching in on the chores --that's one way to force him to try it. He does help a lot now.<P>Regarding the religion thing, since my husband is the MORE religious one, not say that I'm not, but he was a very devout Catholic when I met him... I felt a little suffocated with him being so devout because it made me feel like a bad person even though I wasn't. I had been raised Seventh-Day Adventist and although I had started disliking my religion before I met him, I was not about to change religions and become Catholic just so that we could get married and raise Catholic children. Actually, I just went through the RCIA program last year to become Catholic and it was a long hard decision for me. I needed to do this for me and not for our marriage or for parenting or otherwise. I read about other religions and I had to know in my heart that this was the religion that I wanted to follow. My husband ended up being my sponsor, which I didn't want because it's like he's coercing me into it, you know. I wanted someone to witness the religion to me for the sake of witnessing, not for the sake of "Yes, my wife's finally switching over" and it ended up that he was a good sponsor because he's very Bible literate. But even now, sometimes I have a hard time with him being so much more religious than me. Because even though I feel myself to be faithful person sometimes I feel like he's standing over my shoulder with it. Like today's Ash Wednesday and he reminded me that it's a fasting day (you can have two half meals and one whole meal, and no meat) and even though he didn't mean anything by it, it annoys me that he feels that he has to remind me when I already know. I feel like saying sometimes, "Yes, I know, I'm Catholic, too now, remember?" I guess it's kind of a guilt thing, an ego thing and a pride thing all mixed in one.<P>I am going somewhere with all of this... I'm just saying that when my husband gave me space to decide for myself all of those seven years before I became Catholic, it helped. Sometimes he would bring it up and ask me if I decided and it would annoy me, but the times when he would just let me feel like my own person, my own mind, my own ability to make decisions about my faith, and let me have my own faith... those were the things I appreciated. The space allowed me to be able to decide. But even now I look back on it and I say to myself, I'm going to make sure that I encourage my children to make a decision about their faith before they get married. It is very difficult to be your own person once you're in a relationship and it's so important to have a strong sense of who you are before hand... I wish I knew this before hand!!!<P>Your husband seems to be at a whole other end of the spectrum with the faith difference between me and my husband, but in the same aspect I think it's very important to give him space. As much as it may hurt you to see him not following a Christian life, it is ultimately his decision. Probably the best you can do for him is encourage the good things he does that are directly related to your faith. I think your spiritual growth gets better with encouragement. In a way, it is like he's a child like you said. And if you look at it that way, you already have your 12 year old in an environment where she feels strong enough to teach a religion class... due to your encouragement and praise I'm sure. That is going to be the same with your husband, although you CANNOT correct him like you do with the children. Adults, especially men cannot handle corrections of behaviors... actually I read something on this Marriage Builders website that supports that. Steve said something on here towards that, he said one of the reasons why men don't like going to counseling is because at counseling you eventually have to respond to assignments that the therapist gives you and men generally can't handle having their behavior controlled or corrected.<P>Anyway, give it some time and I will say a prayer for him. Continue to encourage your children, he's going to see the positive results in them and may find his faith through them. Talk to you soon...

Good to hear from you again! Quite honestly, my husband and I never talk about religion. The children go to church with me because neither their mom or dad or grandparents go to church. They like it for the most part, although, a lot of the time my stepson doesn't go. The Sunday's they are at their mom's house, I go get them. The two little girls really love our "Junior Church" which is our church's equivalent of Sunday School. My oldest likes to go help me on the days I teach. (One of the other girl's mother and I take turn about teaching on Sunday mornings). Anyway, my husband has been with us once in three years. I told him to go once and try it and I would not ask him to go again, although, the invitation is always there. He went, and I haven't asked again. But anyway, how are things going for you? Are the waters still calm? Nothing major going on at work for your husband? How about the situation with your friend moving there? Do we know anything else about the status of that? We are having a bit of a situation down here where I live. I live in a tiny little town but last night the girls at church were telling me that two of their classmates had brought a gun to school with the intention of killing "Christians and preps", then killing themselves. They were afraid to go to school today. It was all over the local news here last night. The two boys are in custody. You know, of all the things I hated about school when I was growing up, I don't think I was once ever afraid to go to school. The thought that I might die there never crossed my mind. I can't imagine trying to be a teenager these days. I feel so sorry for my kids. I just don't know how they take all the pressure. These are just not safe times. Anyway, please remember these children (and for that matter, all children) in your prayers, that they may be kept safe from harm. It's a crazy world. Our secretary has a "Peanuts" cartoon strip framed on her desk. It shows Linus being drug around by his blanet in a huge wind gust. The caption reads, "When life takes you for a ride, hold on tight." So true! Well, I guess it is time to go back to work. Let me know how your life is going. I anxious to know that things are still somewhat settled down for you. Talk to you later! God bless.....

Wow, that's terrible about those boys. I will definitely say a prayer. Actually, we just had a similar situation at the high school down the street, not my daughter's school, but still scary. My husband says the same thing to me when we hear about these things... I never imagined fearing for my life in school. There's something so wrong with society today that enrages children to this point. I take part in a lot of activities at my daughter's school and I find it so endearing when the kids come up to me to tell me something, no matter how frivelous their words may be. I see a lot of other parents who come to pick up their kids get angry because their kid won't 'shut up' and it disturbs me because as non-important as it is to the parent, what these kids have to say is THEEEEE most important thing in their life. I mean who else are they going to tell, who else are they going to confide in? When we had the similar incidence here, there was a pastor quoted in the newpaper saying, "This is a wake up call for parents. Children spend 3-5 hours a day watching TV after school and less than 15 minutes talking to their parents. The parents are never home because they are too busy out there making the big bucks." My kids are young now, so it's almost impossible for me to ignore them, but I do pray that I never get into the routine of ignoring them when they get older. Especially if I go back to school. I know how easy it is to fall into this slump as an exhausted parent. We should pray for the parents, too.<P>Everything's okay so far on my end. There's still an investigation going on, but I don't feel so worried anymore. --Maybe that was the real miracle you sent me! You took all my worries away! Could be, you never know.<P>About your husband, I mispoke when I was talking about the religion difference between my husband and I. See, I wasn't really practicing any religion at all since I had turned completely away from the religion that I was raised with when I was in college. So I was basically just out there with no religion and not spiritual guidance as your husband is. When my husband and I met, I always felt like he had this need to 'save me' spiritually. My husband was very wonderful about not pressuring me as you are with your husband, but somehow it still brought me a huge amount of guilt. I think part of it is that I felt that I was being looked down on, like a pride thing. That's the only similarity I was really trying to bring up with your husband. Maybe when you started becoming strong in your faith, he felt guilt about it. --I'm just guessing, I may have no clue at all, but just trying to show you my point of view. For me, I felt that I believed in God and I knew that if I prayed earnestly for something God would give it to me and so why did I have to go to church for that. A lot of times I would justify not going by saying that I don't really get anything out of it, when really I didn't want to go because I was too lazy, too busy, or too tired. Sometimes, I would feel that it's a waste of time, why do I need to go all the way to church and take all this time to dress up to pray, when I could stay home and pray? Then one day I was in church and the priest was talking about the purpose of church and how some people say 'they never get anything out of church, so why should they come... He said that you can't get anything out of church just by showing up, you have to WANT to get something out of it. It just dawned on me that day that I had been JUST SHOWING UP!!! It really turned things around for me, but it's nothing that my husband could do to help me, it was just an answered prayer. I had prayed for God to bring me closer to Him, knowing that I didn't belong to a church and I think this was an answer to my prayer. I'm going off on a tangent, but I guess my point is that what you are doing now, by offering the open invitation is the best that you can do. I do understand your frustration though, it must be very hard for you to deal with him when he's miserable.<P>When you said that your husband said you're no fun anymore now that you've become religious, that to me shows guilt, I don't know, just bare with me on this one... For me I had guilt because I was raised with a religious backround, but if you're husband and his family have no religious backround at all, I don't see him as feeling guilty. But somewhere along the lines he must've picked up some faith in God to know that you're faith was going to draw him in... and that may give him guilt for resisting. A big part of it to me is that when one spouse becomes religious the other spouse feels like they are loosing them, kind of like they found someone else to love. He may feel a little left out and WANT to come to church, but doesn't want to give in and let you know that you're right about your faith, that you've won, that sort of thing. Especially since your younger ones are going, it probably leaves him out.<P>I dont' know, I'm just babbling and I feel like I'm talking out of turn a little here, since I don't know the whole situation. But I guess that's what's good about this site, that we're giving each other impartial advice or opinions. I hope it helps. I know one thing that will... God has always answered my prayers and I have prayed especially hard and earnestly for your husband today, I had tears dripping down my face, and I begged of God to bring your husband closer to Him. Now remember, God has always answered my prayers... maybe no today, maybe not tomorrow, but when the time is right. In the meanwhile, God is watching over your husband.<P>Take care of you...

Yes, I read recently... here, I think:<P>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <BR>God always waits for the right time to <BR>do the right thing in the right way. <BR>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <P>HTH<BR>