Colorado, Here We Come!

By the time most of you read this, I will be on the road en route to Durango Colorado!

My parents and I are leaving tomorrow (Saturday morning) for a family vacation. Tazzie is staying with Kimberly, Justin, and the kids. We were originally going to take her with us but every hotel we looked at said we couldn't leave her in the room by herself. That coupled with the fact that she gets really excited and nervous in the car helped us decide to leave her. My sister offered to keep her so she is there getting settled in with the kids and their cocker spaniel, Boomer.

I've dreaded having to say goodbye to Lexi and Austin since the day we planned this trip. It will be my first time being away from either of them this long. Austin is now going through this phase where in order to get him to kiss you, you have to pretend to cry. He crawled up in my lap tonight when we took Tazzie out there and when he saw me tearing up holding him, he instantly kissed me. When he saw I was still crying, he put his hand on my face and said, "No cry, Nat-Nat..." And kissed me again. That just made me cry harder cause it was so sweet! Then Lexi came and gave me a hug promising that she would take care of Tazzie while I was away. By the time we pulled out of their driveway Kimberly was teary and I was trying in vain to pull myself together. What can I say? We're a close family!

Here are some ways you can pray for us while we're gone:

* Safety as we drive. This is indeed a ROAD TRIP! Mom's not big on flying so we'll be driving. We plan on stopping tomorrow night at a hotel and getting to CO Sunday sometime.

*Lexi and Austin. My cousin is coming to stay with them for the week and will watch them while Kimberly and Justin are at work. Lexi and Austin are SO excited Landon is coming down. Perhaps you should pray for Landon too! LOL!

* Kimberly and Justin as they take care of all the extra house guests and for safe travel as the meet to pick Landon up Sunday and then meet up again the following Friday so he can go home.

* Tazzie to be reassured. This is the first time all three of us have been away from her at one time. Pray she handles everything well.

* Pray that none of us get altitude sickness. I had it years ago when I was on our church ski trip in Winter Park, CO and it was AWFUL! I REALLY don't want a repeat performance. Pray that we all stay well.

We should return home Friday afternoon. I won't be able to check blogs so those of you that I follow/comment on, don't feel ignored...I'll catch up when I return home. I WILL however have access to my e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter accounts (Thanks to my iphone) and will be posting mobile uploads throughout the trip on my Facebook page so keep tabs on things there!

Thank you ALL so much in advance for your prayers...Can't wait to get home and share all the details! Until then....Have a great week!

Loaded Question

Alexis was watching t.v. in my room with me while Austin was napping today when she suddenly turned to me and out of the blue asked, "Nat-Nat, do dreams really come true?"

I felt all of the air leave my lungs as I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked back tears and told her the only thing that came to mind... "Yes, baby girl. Some dreams really do come true..."

She seemed satisfied with that answer as she smiled and turned back to the television.

Lord, give me her faith, Please.

Pictures of Dempsey Racing T-Shirt

My Dempsey Racing t-shirt arrived in the mail today! A VERY welcome surprise after a hectic final day of VBS!

Front of the shirt. Dempsey Racing's # 40 is on one sleeve and their sponsor, El Grado Tequila is on the other.

Back of the shirt

Order yours HERE!

Dempsey Racing Online Store

Yay!!! I can now wear some official Dempsey Racing apparel!!! And the name McDreamy WON'T be attached!

Dempsey racing t-shirts are now available to buy online! I'm told I was the FIRST to order! *blush* :) Right now there's only shirts to buy, but I think hats may be in the works as well. *crossing fingers*

Currently they only ship in the US but I think they will be shipping internationally very soon.

I'm VERY excited about being able to show off my Dempsey Racing pride and of course, have another way to support Patrick! Hopefully I'll have the shirt before we leave for Colorado on vacation so I can wear it while we're there! After THIS RECENT ENTRY I needed something to lift my spirits, this did the trick!

I added the link to the store under the "sites worth visiting" section so you can visit any time! But I'll give it to you now as well!

And another HUGE thanks to Jim for getting this up and going for all of us Dempsey Racing fans! You rock my wheels, Jim!

DEMPSEY RACING ONLINE STORE

Kyle's Story

I talk quite often about Kyle Sherrill and how his story has inspired me. I have yet to meet Kyle in person, but this precious little boy will forever hold a piece of my heart in a way no one else will. He is a living reminder of the power of God. Of how big He is and how prayer changes things!

Below is a link to a video with a condensed version of Kyle's story. Please watch. You will understand why this little guy is such a miracle and hopefully come away with a renewed belief in the power of prayer!

KYLE'S STORY

Prayer Requests...

A couple of prayer requests....

1) Vacation Bible School kicks off tomorrow (Monday) and goes through Friday. Currently we have 136 kid pre-registered (Alexis and Austin being two of them). I'll be helping with registration and record keeping all week and am sure that number will rise as kids show up tomorrow morning. SO many people have worked SO hard to make this coming week a success. Please be in prayer for all of the kids that will be attending that God will move in their lives in a special way this week. Also, please be in prayer for the workers as well, that God will work through us and through the activities the teachers have planned.

2) Some friends of mine have been waiting to travel to China to adopt their little girl. Well, they are in China RIGHT NOW and it is currently 9:33 a.m. Monday morning there so it is GOTCHA DAY for them! Meaning they FINALLY get to see and hold little Ruthie for the FIRST TIME!!! She will be theirs TODAY!!! Just typing that brings tears to my eyes. PLEASE be in prayer for Trent and Ginny as they are probably beside themselves right now waiting to see their daughter. Pray that Ruthie handles everything well as she meets her family. What a beautiful day it will be for them!

Thanks so much for praying, everybody!

I hope you like the new profile song. Listening to the lyrics, I thought it was fitting for me personally.

Is the Dream Too Big?

So, I know I said I was "Dreaming in Silence" (see a few posts below) but I just can't tonight. This is a difficult dream to give up on and I need some place to..... do whatever it is writing does that makes me feel better. Isn't that what a blog is for in the first place? So, if you're getting tired of all the ramblings about me wanting to meet Patrick, just skip this entry, okay?

I can't sleep tonight. Perhaps it's the stop I made to Starbucks after dinner tonight that's helping me not sleep, but whatever the cause, sleep isn't coming right now but other thoughts are.

I keep thinking how totally unrealistic my dream to meet Patrick is. I mean, let's look at the facts here, shall we?

* Most of the people if not ALL of the people I've read about that have met Patrick seems to have been at "right place at the right time." I can't simply look up his race schedule and say, "hey, let's go to that race! First off, he doesn't attend every race due to GA (I'd probably show up to the ONE race he wasn't attending) and second. I can't drive so that means my parents would have to get me there. There would have to be something MAJOR to convince them to do that...Oh yeah, third...Money. I've saved for three years and the amount I have probably wouldn't even cover plane tickets.

* Then there are those that get those set tours of GA...Good night nurse, talk about a DREAM...I get that they're probably not all they're cracked up to be, but who cares....Patrick Dempsey AND Ellen Pompeo and the chance to meet BOTH...Wow! Not to mention Chandra Wilson...She ROCKS!

* But then there comes to mind another question: What makes me SO special that Patrick would even WANT to meet me? Okay, I know how totally negative that sounds, but hear me out: He's got SO many fans, SO many people want to meet him, I'm just one in a sea of faces out there. What is it about me that would make him say, "Yeah, I want to hear your story..."

* I live in Texas. In a small city. This kind of stuff doesn't happen to me...Granted, I've never had something I wanted this badly either.

People say, "Dream Big" and I doubt when they say that they're thinking, "dream of meeting a celebrity..." they're thinking, "dream of becoming something." "dream of finding that cure for Cancer or a solution for homelessness" "Dream BIG THINGS" I know plenty of people that don't think this is big enough, but to ME...It IS big because for this to happen...It's going to take something big happening....It would take a medium sized miracle.

Everyone is told when they are little... "You can be anything you want to be and do anything you want to do." I believed that. When you're young, you believe that. Then you get older and the world becomes a world of "can't."

"You can't have that job because you're not qualified."
"You can't do that because you're not strong enough."
"You can't meet Patrick Dempsey because your disability won't let you..."

So, for me...Meeting Patrick Dempsey IS dreaming big because the reality of the situation screams at me. The odds don't look good and I know that, but I want that faith back I had as a little girl....That anything IS possible and that dreams DO come true!

I know people right now who are making plans to go to a race of Patrick's in a few months with plans on saying hi and getting his autograph and picture...They can do it. They're not dependent on others for certain things, I am and it makes me HATE the fact that BECAUSE I have CP, I can't just go...There are plans that would have to be made for me...Where do the disabled sit? How would I get there? Can I afford it? Could I even get TOO Patrick in a wheelchair with throngs of people wanting to meet him all around me?

These are things I think about when I think about wanting to meet him. And it makes the dream deflate a little more every time because it just seems like there's no way it will ever happen.

But...I still hope. I still pray. I still ask for God to make it possible. I HAVE to believe that it CAN and that it WILL happen. I have to believe in miracles!