Sick family and loss of dear human friend

Hey Guys,
This has been an eventful week with my working in Engineering and all of the new responsibility that I have now. The sad part is that all of my family is sick now. It is probably because of the constantly changing weather. 76 degrees one week and then 28 low and 50 high the next. But at this time, I want to pause to acknowledge a great man among men. His name, Loyal Smith. God took him home a little earlier than his family expected. My prayers are with his grieving wife, daughter, and two sons. He was only a couple years older than I am. It is humbling when you think that any of us can go at any moment. Say a prayer for Loyal and his family. They are not in a great deal of pain.

The Story of Hope by Dr. Jackie Gillespie.

The Story of Hope

We worship a God that is busy everyday meeting his children’s needs. Sometime we loose site of this awesome gift and the countless miracles he performs to see to our needs. I was reminded of this when God used and everyday miracle to remind me of his great love and care for his children. This is the story of Hope, a small kitten, which God chose to use to remind us of his loving care.

It was a Thursday morning and I was thrilled to obtain one of the last parking places in our school parking lot. If you work at Clemson University, you know this feeling. Having a few extra minutes, I thought I would use this time to study my upcoming Sunday school lesson. Soon a young lady pulled beside my car into the next parking space. Immediately, she jumped out to raise the hood of her car. I feared that I would see smoke or fire as I looked out my window. As I watched her amazed face, I knew I better get out to lend a helping hand. As I looked under her hood, I was shocked to see a tiny kitten. The kitten had ridden to school on a small shelf near the front windshield. When the young lady reached for the kitten, the tiny kitten quickly jumped to a safer perch. To be so tiny, she was quite adept at avoiding our hands. Not knowing what to do, we called the University Police and were told they would call animal control. Visions of this kitten being taken to a shelter or possibly being put to sleep concerned us. As we waited for the animal control officer, a police car came by. A female officer stepped out and came to look at the small hiding kitten. As it turned out, this was a multitalented police officer and was a former pet shop owner! Soon she was down on her knees, coaxing the tiny kitten to the safety of her arms. When the animal control officers arrived, they were not the villains we had imagined but very nice men that were willing to wait as we frantically looked for someone who would give this orphan kitty a home. Of course I called who I usually call when I frantically need help - Kim Finley, in the School of Nursing. She immediately began asking throughout the 5^th floor of Edwards, “Who will take this small kitten.” This is how kitty found her new home. Dexter Stowers stepped up to the plate to give this kitten a home. To all our amazement, not only was he willing to take the kitten, he was so happy to do it! Knowing Dexter, we should not have been surprised. He has a such a kind heart.

Well, a home was found and we thought all our problems were over. Then the officer asked us what we planned to do with the kitten during the workday. Another problem! It was then that the animal control officers offered to not only keep the kitten until Dexter got off work but to feed her also. In fact, when Dexter arrived to pick up the kitten, he found she was quiet cozy with her new surroundings.

Dexter took the kitten to the Vet that afternoon and with the help of his loving family, named the kitten Hope. She is the most pampered kitty in South Carolina. She even has her own insurance policy and is considered an official member of the Stower’s family! What an amazing outcome for a kitten that was an orphan, homeless and was well on her way to using all nine lives. God has such awesome plans!

As I reviewed all the events of that Thursday morning, I was reminded of God’s amazing love for all his creations. He had orchestrated a series of events that would promote good for this tiny kitten. Most of all, he used these events to remind me of his watch care over every aspect of our lives. God is not a passive bystander but an active, caring Heavenly Father that wants to see to our every need. That morning I was reminded of Jesus’ words :

Matthew 6:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you…”

While little Hope is quite worthy of her own story, what is amazing was that God used these circumstances to remind me of how he has marvelous plans for our well being. If he took the time to devise this elaborate plan for this little kitten, how could we ever doubt that his watchful eye and loving heart is there to see our every need! Thank you God for loving us enough to give us gentle reminders.

With Thankful Heart,

Jackie Gillespie

New member of the family

I know that is has been quite some time since I have made a post. Drum roll....we have a new member of the family...of the feline species. Her name is Hope. I will post some pictures of her real soon. I will also explain how she got her name Hope. She is a wonderful kitten. She is 7 weeks old. She has medical insurance.....yes that is correct our kitten has medical insurance so our expenses will not cost much for her vaccinations and spading. Well, I must run off and do some work. Then Jeremy and I will work on our assignment for NWN.
Ciao!

-- Dexter

Interesting week

This has been one of those interesting weeks. Some job opportunities have opened up for me out of state but I am some what reluctant to take advantage of these opportunites. I have my wife and kids to think of and more importantly I have 8 years under my belt at Clemson. I have 7 more years that I can count towards my retirement because of my military service; I must pay a percentage of my salary for 7 years of service. There is quite a bit of changes going on in the Unix community on campus. Job positions are not posting as fast as I would like it to...I just do not know what to do?

Birthday Party

I had a great weekend. I had a birthday party at Sal Grosso's restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. My friend and godfather of one of my daughter was host. It was a great day. I am not one to participate in celebrating my birthday. I want to thank everyone for making it one of the best I have ever experienced. I am sitting here watching the DVD collection that I have of Dark Angel starring Jessica Alba...man that it one good looking woman. I wanted to claim her as a "sister" until I read about her Mexican and Danish mix. She definitely looks ethnic and that explains why. Well, I got to do some programming. I will try to post more. Everyone take care! Ciao!

Typical Monday

This has been a Monday that I want to forget. The Dean's computer was down. The hard drive is going dead. Jordan had to use herculean efforts to retrieve his data. It took the better part of his work day to get his data. I have spec'ed him out a new desktop since the present one is a Dell Optiplex 240...a computer we consider obsolete. Then with two meetings that we scheduled today and numerous computer related problems...it's been a banner day. I am working on project that is time based so we need to get things up and running. It is fun but is was hard since our team leader was out sick.
Other news, the family and kids are doing fine. Jordan is walking at nine months. She is all over the place. To clarify, Jordan is not walking without going back to the old routine of crawling around at 100 miles/hr. She is so cute but boy can she get into everything known to mankind. Jeremy is getting ready for college. It has just been a great Monday!