A Special Pink Saturday and Spiritual Sundays Weekend

It's a Good Thing!
Happy Weekend, bloggerettes! This weekend, both of these blog parties are all about A Miracle Makeover!

Beverly at Pink Saturday http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ and our own Pink Saturday participant Sherry at Country Wings in Phoenix http://countrywingsinphoenix.blogspot.com/ are joining with

Charlotte and Ginger at Spiritual Sundays http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/ and Kelee at The Katillac Shack http://www.katillacshack.com/ for a very special weekend event to honour Colette, a very special lady. Please go to Kelee's blog to read this very moving story.

Kelee and her team at Guideposts Magazine http://www.facebook.com/guideposts went in and created a 'healing room' for Colette Gauthier, a cancer patient. Please go to Kelee's site to watch a very special video about how they transformed an ordinary room into a beautiful space for Colette to recover in; a room filled with beauty and peacefulness.

Thank you Kelee for giving us each a chance to give in some small way to a wonderful cause. For every comment left on Kelee's post and the others mentioned above, one dollar will be donated to help someone else receive a Miracle Makeover. There are also some wonderful Giveaways too. So please check out Kelee's blog and all the others today.

We were asked by Beverly, Charlotte, and Ginger to share a short story of inspiration, a poem, or photo which will inspire others.

This is my offering of what I pray will be an inspiration to you ~

A pink stained glass butterfly was one of the last gifts my friend Carol gifted me with.

Carol and I were best friends and she was the only best friend I ever had because when I was growing up my family moved around a lot. I moved from one province to another and from one community to another. Her family also moved around a lot. In fact, her family moved from one coast of Canada to the other. This was one factor which drew the two of us together, for we were both lonely and in search of a good friend. Well, actually it was God who drew us together! I guess you could say we were more like sisters as we had so much in common.

Carol and I were both passionate about our love for the Lord and we both adored our families. We both had three sons and we loved all the same things when it came to home decorating. We loved music, pretty clothes, and the beauty of nature. We loved walking through the woods together and enjoying fields of flowers.
Christmas was an especially wonderful time because we both shed our more mature facade for the little girl within. We loved everything about Christmas and we both decorated our homes to the hilt in celebration of our Lord's birth.

In 1987, Carol was struck with Breast cancer and she had to have a masectomy. For several years she led a fairly normal life and then tragedy struck again in 1990 when the cancer came back. We spent as much time together as possible because we didn't know how long she would be with us.

Sadly, for her family and for me, and all those who loved her, Carol lost her battle in November of 1990 and she went home to be with the Lord. Sometimes it just seems like yesterday that she left us! She is in a better place, I realize that. She is free from pain and surrounded by beauty which no one can fathom. I still miss her terribly as I never knew anyone as much like myself as she was. The good news is, I will see her again someday and we will once again skip through fields of daisies and walk through the woods enjoying God's nature.

Carol's pink butterfly adorns the window of my china cabinet. It reminds me of the beautiful lady who was my friend and just like the caterpillar once caught in its cocoon, Carol is now free and has spread her wings to enjoy a better place filled with peace and beauty.

Carol left behind a legacy of faith, grace, love and of life. She was one of the gentlest people I have ever known and she inspired me to live my life to its fullest every day.

One never knows what lies around the corner!

I am myself stricken with a form of Muscular Dystrophy but even on a bad day, I try to glean as much happiness as I can from it for there is always something to be thankful for!

We are reminded in the Bible to, " Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." ~ Ephesians 5:19

To Carol and Colette, and all you beautiful and brave ladies and gentlemen who are fighting or have fought breast cancer, or indeed any kind of cancer, I salute you! You are special! You have showed us how to live graciously in the midst of the storm.

Thank you for stopping by today and thank you Kelee and Guideposts Magazine for making this weekend possible. Thanks also go out to Beverly, Charlotte, and Ginger for hosting so faithfully week after week.

God bless you and have a wonderful weekend, my friends.

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi