HOPEful girl

  With anticipation and excitement, I look across a sea of athletes as I walk out to the starting line of what will be my 3rd marathon.  I'm always  amazed to see so many participants come together for this massive event.   The Honolulu marathon is the 4th largest marathon in the country comprising about 30,000 participants. Some marathons have qualifying times which means you would already have to run a marathon before AND within a certain time before you can even sign up for that event.  Honolulu marathon happens to be an open event so there are no qualifying times.  Everyone and ANYone can participate.  I love to see runners from all levels and backgrounds.   This year, I have a friend from church who ran his first marathon, while another friend who's been running for years ran it enduring an injury.  As long as you have the desire and faith to believe, then you can run this marathon.   During Christmas we celebrate the grea...

Basketball season is in full swing!   and so are practices, away games, and unexpected injuries.  As I was dropping my son off at one of these away basketball games at a cross town Christian school, I noticed a bible verse posted on the gate entering the pathway leading up to the school gym.  It simply read Psalm 100:4.   Some christian schools like to do these strategically placed verses as reminders throughout the campus.   For example,  …’ whoever restrains his words has knowledge…Proverbs 17:27 ‘ sign in the library OR ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but every word of God’ -Luke 4:4 sign in the cafeteria. But something told me to take a second to actually look this verse up.  I guess I was searching for God’s voice in this hectic, errand filled Saturday.    So I did, on my bible app, read it and tucked it away in my heart.  Then this verse was revealed to me a couple more times this month.  Hmm so I think maybe...

I recently heard an expression that went something like,  ‘I wish we knew we were in the good old days when we are actually in the good old days’.   I tried to hold on to that sentiment  this month because I knew there would be some good old days to be celebrated.  For one, my birthday! :-). Also , I was blessed to have my parents come visit me from the mainland. While they were here spending quality time with grand kids, my husband and I escaped for a brief moment to the Big Island for a weekend get away to celebrate our 17th anniversary.   I got to share some quality time with my boys during fall break.   And finally got to go on a glider ride (see pic above). These were truly ‘authentic moments’ if I can quote my self from the testimony I gave at church last month.  By ‘authentic moments’, I’m talking about those joyful moments that only come from God as a gift from above  rather than a drug or bottle in my new life of sobriety.   ...

And after the rain comes beautiful greenery as you can see from the picture above.  I took this picture while I was out on one of my runs.  Whenever I am awed by an outdoor setting like this, I can't help but think of that song lyric from Hillsong's, so will I ,  'if creation sings your praises, so will I'. It reminds me that even in a world of uncertainty and turmoil, our God who created everything in the universe also created me as his own beloved.   So the only and most natural response would be to look up and give him praise for that.  There are many times we come to God when we're in desperation or in need, but often I forget to come to him in thanks when everything is all as it should be.  We enter into the last quarter of the year and with that, we started the last quarter of my recovery step study.   I can't believe I've come this far to  step 10 in this biblical based program.   I started at the beginning of this year with a s...

And so I wait again.  This time there's  a category 5 hurricane hurling toward us as the entire state of Hawaii waits like a sitting duck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.   The island of Oahu is on hurricane watch.  We made all the preparations that I could think of.  This included several trips to the grocery stores.  I kept thinking of that one more item I had to be sure I had enough supply of.  You know, important things like toilet paper or chocolate.   We read all the latest information so we knew what to include in our 'hurricane kits'.    I gave our son, Nathanael a summer project of making sure our house is hurricane ready but I neglected to check his work.   I better get a few more dried goods at Wal mart AND water.  We can never have too much water.  Soon, images of the big island, maui drenched in inches of rain stream the t.v and social media.   I look out our window and see only grey skies and ligh...

My name is Janette and I am a grateful believer in Christ who struggles with waiting in line at the store.    Its the end of July which means if you live in Hawaii and have kids, time to be getting ready for school.   My recent trip to Target found myself with a cart full of school supplies that nearly shoved out  the  rest of the other week’s food items.  I like to say I usually have ‘good luck’ or knack for picking out the good check out lines which enable me to  leave quickly.   Today, I find a line with only one person if front of me who was already paying for their items.  All I had to do was unload by big cart and I’d be out of there in a flash.  Unfortunately, it was not that simple.  It took so much longer than I thought.   I had already unloaded all my items onto the conveyor belt when the cashier told me the person in front of me will be applying for a credit card and it will take  longer.  No problem,...

I had the pleasure of surprising my husband with a glider ride for his 44th birthday this year.   No, I'm not trying to get rid of him, as some people might joke.    Although he is not the typical adventurous type,  I know this is something he always wanted to do.   This year, his birthday falling on a Saturday and since we had all of our boys together, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to give him this unconventional gift.   He would go on the ride up in the air while his family stood on the ground excitedly (and nervously for myself I might add) looking on.     Of course, my husband and I always had an appreciation for aeronautics as we attend many air shows and air space museums already throughout our marriage.  So this was an exciting  experience as much for the giver as it was for the receiver.  Before the happy day, I had some idea of how gliders worked, but its amazing to see it all happen when you're ...

The buzz and excitement of the upcoming summer swirls  about our house as another school year winds down.   Micah, our youngest is counting the days and he completes first grade.  Nathan gets to graduate (again) from elementary school as he switched schools this past year from 5th to 6th grade (some schools finish elementary at 5th and others at 6th).  We are super proud of him as he made strides to adjust to a private school curriculum.  Andrew is finishing his first year in high school. (omg!) He was invited to join the National Honor Society and will be starting AP History next year and of course continuing in basketball.  A new season approaches.   Throughout the school year the boys had to go through a lot of tests and many more to go through in the future. These tests were a way of showing their knowledge before graduating to the next step. We go through tests in life every day.  But are we being tested, and if so then by whom?...

Meet my friend, Dale.  Dale is a seventy something year old man who runs over a hundred miles a week or sometimes all at once.  Yes, Dale is a real person.   I met him three years ago, not long after we moved to Hawaii, while running the paths around here at the lagoons.  He runs from his home in Makakilo, around town and down to the beach. He greets just about everyone that comes along his path.   I consider him my running spiritual guru.  He always has some advice to share with me whether its about shoes, nutrition,  or an upcoming running event, all in quick second spurts as we meet each other along our paths.  Or sometimes we share a quick hi if we're running in opposite directions, and then he shouts 'I'll catch you on the go around!' when he passes by.  The other day he told me he was on his fourth day of running twenty miles in a row.  He wears feathers in his running hat.  He even gave me shoe trinkets to attach to...