Get 67% off Dressing Your Truth
Dressing Your Truth is an online makeover and clothing store that helps women bring out their true beauty.
I love the way I look and feel because of Dressing Your Truth. And I think every woman deserves to feel this way. That's why I'm sharing this link (and unbelievable deal) with you.
Get 67% off the Dressing Your Truth online makeover course and a $20 gift certificate to the online clothing store. It's only available until September 30th.
Ready to look better and feel more confident than ever? Click here to learn more.
Syd's Wedding Photos
In June, Syd and Lance were married in the Vernal LDS Temple!
Here are some photos of their special day.
Syd has a blog post about it here
See their engagement photos here.
Ryan was accepted for Stem Cell Therapy in China! Can you Help?
I previously posted that my twelve year old son, Ryan, is legally blind from a condition he was born with called Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) (read about it here). We have prayed for years for a miracle to help restore Ryan's vision or improve it. Recently while doing a web search on ONH, I found out they have been successfully treating it in China with non-embryonic stem cell therapy. We were so excited that this wonderful opportunity was brought to our attention.
I contacted Beike (BAY-kuh) Biotechnology for more information about treating Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) with umbilical cord stem cells. They very quickly replied and sent me all sorts of video testimonials, treatment protocol information and a medical form to return if we wanted to pursue this option and see if Ryan could be treated. I filled out the medical form and sent some medical records to them. I was so excited to see this email the very next day!
------------------------------------
Dear Audrey,
I am pleased to inform you that Ryan has been accepted for treatment by our medical department. The doctors have reviewed all of the medical information you have provided and have confirmed that we can accept Ryan for stem cell injections for his Bilateral Optic Nerve Hypoplasia based on this information. I have attached a letter about this acceptance from our International Medical Director, Dr. Kara Zhang.
Primary Recommendation (please note that all prices are in US dollars) :
Number and Type of Injections: 6 umbilical cord blood stem cell (UCBSC) injections by IV and Lumbar Puncture. Retrobulbar injection is initially recommended.
Number of Days: 15 days (including admission and discharge dates)
Treatment Center(s): Guangzhou, China
Treatment Price: $18,500 USD
Secondary Recommendation: 7 or 8 injections
7 injections - $21,000 (18 days)
8 injections - $24,000 (21 days)
Again, we are very pleased to inform you about this acceptance and hope it will bring either some sense of excitement and/or relief. Please let us know questions you have and when you are ready to register for treatment, please submit the online Treatment Registration form.
--------------------------------------------------
We are RAISING FUNDS for Ryan so that he can have 8 injections of stem cells. We appreciate any help you can give! To Donate please go HERE.
You can also help by sharing this link in your emails: http://www.gofundme.com/HelpRyan
or posting a donation widget on your blog or website. Get it HERE.
------------------------------------
Dear Audrey,
I am pleased to inform you that Ryan has been accepted for treatment by our medical department. The doctors have reviewed all of the medical information you have provided and have confirmed that we can accept Ryan for stem cell injections for his Bilateral Optic Nerve Hypoplasia based on this information. I have attached a letter about this acceptance from our International Medical Director, Dr. Kara Zhang.
Primary Recommendation (please note that all prices are in US dollars) :
Number and Type of Injections: 6 umbilical cord blood stem cell (UCBSC) injections by IV and Lumbar Puncture. Retrobulbar injection is initially recommended.
Number of Days: 15 days (including admission and discharge dates)
Treatment Center(s): Guangzhou, China
Treatment Price: $18,500 USD
Secondary Recommendation: 7 or 8 injections
7 injections - $21,000 (18 days)
8 injections - $24,000 (21 days)
Again, we are very pleased to inform you about this acceptance and hope it will bring either some sense of excitement and/or relief. Please let us know questions you have and when you are ready to register for treatment, please submit the online Treatment Registration form.
--------------------------------------------------
We are RAISING FUNDS for Ryan so that he can have 8 injections of stem cells. We appreciate any help you can give! To Donate please go HERE.
You can also help by sharing this link in your emails: http://www.gofundme.com/HelpRyan
or posting a donation widget on your blog or website. Get it HERE.
Stem Cell Therapy for Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) and other health problems
A few days ago I did a google search for Optic Nerve Hypoplasia because my son, Ryan, has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) and is legally blind. The doctors told us his condition was unchanging and there was nothing we could do to make it better. We have tried to prepare him for his teenage years and the disappointment of discovering he couldn't see well enough to get a driver's license.
I haven't done a Google search on ONH treatments/information for a few years, Last week, I felt prompted to do quick Google search on ONH. I was very surprised when Google pulled up a website called StemCellsChina and how they are using adult/umbilical stem cell treatment for all kinds of nerve problems including ONH. I couldn't quit reading and watching the videos. I was absolutely stunned that we could have an answer that could make it possible to improve Ryan's vision.
I haven't done a Google search on ONH treatments/information for a few years, Last week, I felt prompted to do quick Google search on ONH. I was very surprised when Google pulled up a website called StemCellsChina and how they are using adult/umbilical stem cell treatment for all kinds of nerve problems including ONH. I couldn't quit reading and watching the videos. I was absolutely stunned that we could have an answer that could make it possible to improve Ryan's vision.
Below is a video about a girl named Macie Morse with the same diagnosis as Ryan (ONH) and her experience after receiving stem cell therapy.
Macie Morse received her first round of stem cells in 2008 to treat blindness caused by optic nerve hypoplasia. After this treatment her vision had improved to a level where she could get her driver's license. We caught up with Macie and her mother during a second round of adult stem cell treatments in 2010.Macie's story has been covered extensively by international news outlets. In 2008 a US television production crew attempted an intervention to prevent Macie from coming the first time. Macie's parents raised her without teaching her Braille or focusing much on her blindness. At 15, Macie did not know her visual abilities would keep her out of fighter-pilot school, F1 competition and all other normal driving activities. These interviews were shot while Macie and her family were staying at the hospital in Qingdao.
You can read about our journey to China and updates HERE
Turning to God in our Afflictions
In 2 Nephi 2:2 Lehi blesses his son Jacob saying...“
Thou art my first -born in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And
behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow... Nevertheless,
Jacob, my first-born in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and
he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.”
To "consecrate" means to make or declare sacred or to devote solemnly to a purpose. God is a God of miracles. He can take our afflictions and turn them into blessings if we will rely on Him and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
We may resist relying on God's power and choose to lean instead,
on ourselves or others and the answers the world provides. Afflictions make us look for answers to find
relief. Our afflictions humble us to the
point where we despair of receiving help and we realize that the only source we
can turn to is God. To "consecrate" means to make or declare sacred or to devote solemnly to a purpose. God is a God of miracles. He can take our afflictions and turn them into blessings if we will rely on Him and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Afflictions can help show forth God's power in our lives because we
are in such dire straits that we MUST rely on the Lord to make it through our
trials. Afflictions can also be a tool
to wake up the wicked unto repentance.
Afflictions can be looked at as a type of bondage and there are many scriptures that talk about people being in bondage. Often being released from bondage is a process rather than a singular event.
In Mosiah 7: 33 it says: “But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.”
This scripture says the Lord will deliver us according to his own will and pleasure. What is our willingness or lack of willingness to submit to the Lord's will and "pleasure?" It helps to remember that the Lord’s will and pleasure is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life through our experiences of this life.
The people of Alma were in bondage to the Lamanites who were treating them very harshly. We can find out what happened to the burdens and afflictions these people struggled with when they put their trust in God to deliver them.
Mosiah 24: 14-15 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."
It is hard to bepatient through suffering. Could we be satisfied to have God lighten our burdens instead of removing them? Can we be long-suffering and patient with God and ourselves?
Tony Snow, who was a press secretary in the Bush Administration, announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. The disease took his life in 2008. Prior to his death, he wrote about the spiritual lessons he had learned through his ordeal.
"We want lives of simple, predictable ease--smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see--but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension--and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise…
The natural reaction when faced with trials is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything more simple." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your affliction has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter--and have dragged into insignificance the concerns that occupy our "normal time."
God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do… Through such trials, God bids us choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place--in the hollow of God's hand."
In Mosiah 3: 19 it says ..."For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
How do we receive the ability to be able to cheerfully submit our
will to God? The answer is through the Atonement
of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ.
Pray unto God with all your hearts for His peace and comfort to be with
you. Miracles will occur; answers will
come whether it is through church leaders, family members, friends or direct
revelation. Great peace and answers to
prayer will come through faithful temple attendance. By sanctifying yourself through faithful temple attendance you can help lift
those around you and miracles will occur.Afflictions can be looked at as a type of bondage and there are many scriptures that talk about people being in bondage. Often being released from bondage is a process rather than a singular event.
In Mosiah 7: 33 it says: “But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.”
This scripture says the Lord will deliver us according to his own will and pleasure. What is our willingness or lack of willingness to submit to the Lord's will and "pleasure?" It helps to remember that the Lord’s will and pleasure is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life through our experiences of this life.
The people of Alma were in bondage to the Lamanites who were treating them very harshly. We can find out what happened to the burdens and afflictions these people struggled with when they put their trust in God to deliver them.
Mosiah 24: 14-15 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."
It is hard to bepatient through suffering. Could we be satisfied to have God lighten our burdens instead of removing them? Can we be long-suffering and patient with God and ourselves?
Tony Snow, who was a press secretary in the Bush Administration, announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. The disease took his life in 2008. Prior to his death, he wrote about the spiritual lessons he had learned through his ordeal.
"We want lives of simple, predictable ease--smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see--but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension--and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise…
The natural reaction when faced with trials is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything more simple." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your affliction has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter--and have dragged into insignificance the concerns that occupy our "normal time."
God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do… Through such trials, God bids us choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place--in the hollow of God's hand."
In Mosiah 3: 19 it says ..."For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
I solemnly testify that God can and will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. In D&C 98: 3 it says: Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks; Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, (suh-bey-ohth) and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted. Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.
I know that the Lord consecrates all of our afflictions for our good. He walks with us even when we think we are alone. He is only waiting for us to turn to Him and ask for His help and grace so we can be able to bear up under the burdens that are placed upon us. I know He lives and loves us. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and only waits for you to lay claim upon its healing power.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen
Desiderata Poem
Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Posts
