Grace and Love: Those Last Hours

In the last three weeks, my Granddad and uncle both passed away.  I could never have guessed beforehand the amazing things God would show us in those last days.  

My Granddad's life had been rough, without the light of Christ, but in his last couple days he began to open his heart.  Hours before he passed away, he accepted Christ.  Surely, those last few hours were the clearest and most important of his whole life.  That night, I wrote this poem for him.

The End of the Rough Road Unknown 

 By Caroline Meek

It was a rough and rocky road unknown, cut out for you to live.

A life of twists and hardships at each turn, confusion and chaos ever-present.

There is a beginning and an end, but life sometimes has

a funny way of getting you through, its own idea and plan.

From place to place, moving, and not finding what you sought,

life fought with you, and you fought back, not giving in.

God watched you choose your path, blindly groping for that joy.

You may not have felt it then, but He guided your every step.

He wanted you to reach the end, no matter how you turned away,

with the knowledge that He was LORD, your perfect peace for every day.  

After many years a new trial came, six months of failing health and weakness

and little gain - we fought for your recovery and you held on.  

When life began to close its door on you, you finally started to understand.

Life had brought you this far, and God still had control of His plan.

It came down to the end, when you let Jesus hold the door for you,

and finally found that life of joy - surrendered and found eternal peace.

God led you through your life, a road of rocks and hills unknown.

He had planned your every second, and carried you to the end.

It was as if life had waited patiently, for you to see the truth.

Despite moments of defeat, despair, God’s plan had never failed.

When you said at last, “I believe, I’m ready to meet my LORD,”

Life’s road no longer mattered, and God, right then, took you home.

 .........

 At the end of those days and years, God gave us the most beautiful ending with him, one we never imagined possible.  Through all this, I see the most strong evidence of his grace: He accepts those who come to Him, every one of them.  No matter what previous actions or sins; when he believed, his past was forgiven.  

A couple nights ago, my uncle, who had severe mental handicaps, passed away after a couple days of fighting pneumonia and a lung infection.  Minutes before, a song came on over the radio that was playing in his room.  

"I Can Only Imagine", by MercyMe.

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side 

What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine
[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine 

(.......)

Thinking of these lyrics, I can just picture Uncle David, who could not walk, hearing these lyrics as he took his last breaths.   What will it be like when he walks by the side of Jesus, can dance and sing?  I can only imagine.  God loves his little children; He told them to come to Him.  Now he is rejoicing, in a place where there is no more sickness to hinder him.  I wrote this poem for him.

-->

Stars 

by Caroline Meek

How will it be when a new body is born into Heaven?

When every sickness is gone, and no more are the insurmountable obstacles,

Every mind will be sharp and alert with joy,

Comprehending every mystery. 

How will it be when we are made new?

When the lame walk, and the dead see, they will get up and dance.

I can only imagine – what overwhelming joy,

Our heavenly bodies will light up the sky with song.

  ........................
 

God has given us a lot to overcome right now, but He's used these last few hours and days to show us His grace and love, nothing short of miracles. 


Thanks to everyone for all their prayers and thoughts,
~Caroline M.

 

Varsity, Homecoming, and a Novel for November

Not much new lately.  Volleyball season is over - but not before I got a uniform and started playing with varsity!  Freshman season ends a bit earlier, so I had a couple weeks extra with varsity.  It was the best - I had been working for it all season.   We ended up going to sub-state, but not winning.

I also went to homecoming with some friends!  This picture is of the varsity team at homecoming.  :)  I had a lot of fun!

 

This month, I'm in a challenge -  November is National Novel Writing Month - to write a novel of 50,000 words solely in the month of November.  It's a lot!  I'm going to try and get as far as I can, though.

Happy November!

Caroline

Sumner Sports and More!

Almost a month since the last post, and not much new!  In volleyball, we had our first three games on a night a couple weeks ago.  Won the first against Bonner, and lost the other two - I played main setter and team captain!  I am now going to the morning varsity practices at 6am (Coach suggested it), which are twice a week, for extra practice, as well as after school!  I am loving it all.

We had a tournament in Atchison on Saturday (yesterday), and it was a great experience.  10 teams participated, and Sumner advanced to the semi-finals and placed 4th!  The Sumner freshman team had not reached the semi-finals for at least three years.  Our coach was happy - and we got medals!  The 3 games we lost were close, too; by the end we were exhausted, but loved it. 

/\ The team, before and after the Atchison Tournament \/

 The next two or three weeks we have a lot of games and a couple more tournaments; our first (and sadly, only) home game on October 1st against Wyandotte, Schlagle and Washington.  This is a quad, so we play three games total.  If you want to come and see us play, we start around 4:30pm, in our gym at Sumner!  Comment with any questions. :)  I think there is about $4-5 fee per person to get in.  

Not much else to tell, except that Olivia and I are in the final stretch of our novel, Go East on No Road!  About 8 more chapters to write, then editing.  We have about 32 chapters so far.  Also, we are about to make another order for the poem book, Ripples ($9), so comment or email me if you want to order one through us! 

Thanks for reading!
Caroline M.

School Update

Hey everyone!  Haven't posted in a while, but a lot of things have been happening. 
My first two weeks at Sumner high school have been awesome.  I have met a lot of awesome new friends, and started to get used to the schedule of public school (one of the hardest things being having to go every day!).   The cafeteria has been an adventure - the lines take forever - but the food isn't all that bad.  :)  I take the bus from the corner of 16th and Grandview, a block away from my house, and ride it about 10 minutes to and from school!  It has been fun, especially cause my friend Helen also rides it.  (It has been so great to have someone I know at Sumner!).

I also like my classes.  I am taking World History, Choir, Computer Applications, Physics, English, and Geometry.   I especially like Choir, Physics and Geometry.  :)

One of the best things, though, is the volleyball.  I tried out and made the freshman team last week!  We have had practices every day since then, and even though the schedule is a little tiring, I am loving it.  I am getting to know girls from all three teams (9th grade, JV, and Varsity), and I love the team dynamics.  We have our first game on Tuesday against Bonner!!!

I also auditioned for the 2014 Poetry Slam Sumner does - a big show with dancing, singing, poetry and other such performances - and just found out that I was accepted!  I read the poem "Sick", by Shel Silverstein.

Have a great weekend!
Caroline

The End of An Era?

In the town of Tillamook, Oregon . . . 

A bookstore goes out of business.

Rainy Day Books, a local bookstore in Oregon, is forced to close its doors.  (You are probably familiar with the Rainy Day Books here in Kansas too.)

Why?

Karen Spicer, the owner of the store, has worked there 6 days a week for 26 years.  In the years past, she has had great success, and still has a handful of faithful customers who support her, but this is not enough to keep business going.

She says the signs started about 15 years ago, with Amazon.  People started buying books online, and small bookstores now had to compete with that.  She tried to adapt, but then came the Nook and Kindle.  Ebooks, which have become increasingly popular - some people buy all of their books in digital format now.  This is big trouble for small, local, and independent bookstores.  They can hardly - if even - compete.

Spicer says, “What people can’t get shopping online is the chance to wander the aisles and discover books that you never knew existed, to find a treasure, and encounter an author you haven’t read before. That’s what is lost in the digital age.”

To me, it's sad.  I love bookstores.  I want to support out local stores, and take the time to wander the aisles.  Are books - the ones you can hold, feel, and smell - going 'out of fashion'?  I hope not.

To see the article I have written about, visit this website.  

http://www.crbizjournal.com/news/article_8036d86e-2391-11e2-a1ee-0019bb2963f4.html

I encourage you to visit a local bookstore and support them!

~Caroline M.

Published! Ordering Information

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers:  Olivia Rogers and I are now officially published authors!  Ripples, a collection of poems, is now available on Amazon!  To see it, go here: ripples!  (ripples may not show up for the next few days in a google search, because it is so recent.)  For best search results, search: ripple - a collection of poems.  :)

If you are interested in buying a copy, here are some points to help you.

• The list price for our book is $9.99.  You can search and find it on Amazon.  There, shipping will most likely be added.  The book will be shipped to you as always.  If you live out of town, this is probably the easiest way.

However, there is another route that is better for you and us as well.  For one, our profit is significantly less when a book is ordered through Amazon, as the above process.  Our price can be lower for you, as well, if you choose this second option!

• We have a special discount for anyone who orders through us!  Get the book for $8.99, a 10% discount!   This deal is for all orders through us, and currently does not have a time limit.

• To order through us - simply comment on this blog post, email us, or somehow contact us. When we accumulate a certain amount of orders, we will order the copies ourselves through our author membership account.  This takes shipping and 10% off for you, and also boosts our end!

• We will deliver the books to you once they come in, and then you can pay us.

So if you would like a copy, just tell us!  We would also love feedback on our Amazon page!  Any questions, just email or contact us.  :)

Here is an email at which we can both be reached. 

02dreamcatchers@gmail.com

More sites:  

See our new poem and writing blog, Two Friends. Two Pens.!!

2friends2pens.blogspot.com .  This has extra info, fun bits of stuff about us, some back ground story, and a bit of a preview of our other work!

We hope you enjoy our book!

~Caroline and Olivia, co-authors  :)

News . . . .

Here are a few exciting things that have been happening lately . . . .

- Writing!  The second proof copy for our poetry book came today!  Now we will just have to review it and make sure all is good, before the process is finished.
- I'm getting my braces off in FIVE days!  Very excited about that.  It's been 15 or 16 months. . .
- I have been wanting to find a volleyball camp this summer - we finally found one at a nearby high school!  I will be doing that soon.  I am hoping to be in Sumner's V.B. team in the fall, so this will be a really good experience beforehand.

It's been a good and busy week!  I have been reading a ton also.  One great book I just finished is the Bronze Bow.  A historical fiction set back in the time of Jesus.  Books have been coming in and out of my house very quickly lately.  I've set a goal to read at least 66 books this summer.  So far.....I've finished about 13 (since May 20).

Have a great weekend!
    - Caroline M.

Book Update

So, for an update on the book-to-be!   Last week we got our proof copy to review 5 days earlier than predicted!  That was a great surprise.  And the book looks great!  It is a really cool thing to hold your own work in actual print.  It turns out that we didn't like the original cover as much when we saw it in real life, so we went back and designed another.  This one I think fits our book way better.  We just now ordered the second proof, just to make sure we like the cover.  Hopefully the shipping goes as quickly as it did the first time, and we should have it by the end of this week!  Then all that's left is approving the file . . . . and publishing!  :)

There will be a post soon for anyone who is interested in buying a copy, and more information on everything.  We will be doing a pre-order beforehand, for anyone who confirms that they want one.  There will be a special discount on that.  So that will be up soon, probably as soon as we get our second proof in.  :)  Stay tuned!

As for our novel, Go East on No Road, we are currently wrapping up chapter 21!  We are still making really quick progress on it.  About 5 chapters per week.  One of our tentative goals is to finish it before the end of Summer - wish us luck!

Have a great week!  Looks like it's going to be pretty hot...is anyone going to the pool?  We did today.  :)

~Caroline M.

Writing!!

So....exciting day!  Just got back from a sleepover with my friend Olivia Rogers, who I am writing a couple of projects with.  It was like an amazing and fun 24 hour period of time that we got to work on our stuff!  It was super refreshing to catch up and talk through a ton of stuff.     We are doing a lot of things together....a novel, short stories, a poetry book.....

We worked for a couple hours on our poetry book, Ripples.  And finally, after about 9 months, we've finalized it and sent off for the proof copy!  I still can barely believe it.  We are  self-publishing it on Createspace, a company owned by Amazon.  There it will be available to order and have shipped to anyone!  Our dream to be published is coming true....!   So next, the proof copy will be shipped to one of our houses, a copy just like it will be after publishing, so we can make sure everything is perfect.  If we need to, we can go back after that and fix stuff before it is finalized.   Then it will be published!  We are so excited!  ...There are 65 poems in the book - it has been super fun working with Olivia.  It is so much better doing it with a friend; you can keep each other on task, give each other ideas, and get twice the work done.  :)  8 times the fun.  Co-authoring has been great for us - in our poetry book, we each wrote about half the poems.  We keep them all on a doc - and add new ones as we write them.  We also edit each others, and give some feedback.  We haven't yet written a whole poem together - but it would be fun! We put the poems together in an order that puts them near others of the same style.  Ripples doesn't really have a certain style for the whole book - except for that everything is our thoughts.  That is pretty much the theme....these poems have parts of us in them.  We have funny poems, descriptive poems, deeper poems, no boundaries, really.  I can't wait to share this with you!
  To see a preview for the book - visit : https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1124542
  I'll keep the blog updated as the news comes and we receive our proof!!  More details later..

We also worked for a couple hours on our book, Go East on No Road.   We have made incredible progress in the last week (plus a few days) - we wrote about 5 chapters!  This puts us up to 16 chapters total now.  We are still set on finishing this book - we know we are not quite halfway yet, but getting close.  Again, writing it together has been what has kept it going.  We need both of our ideas and determination to do it.  It's amazing to look back to August, when we started, and see the difference between our writing then, compared to now.  It is huge.  I feel like we've progressed so much ......  we've also analyzed so many things together and come up with methods for doing things right - that's one of our favorite things to do.  We think a lot alike...it is good to have someone who thinks so much like you - you know they will understand what you're trying to say.  :)

So lately we've been editing some of the earlier chapters, while continuing to add more to the current spot, Chapter 17 at the moment.  At the sleepover we were able to basically rewrite the Prologue and Chapter One - that was an accomplishment, considering it is one of the most important parts to get right, that we were working on the same computer in the same room (we had never really done that before-only calling on the phone and Skype..) and of course the fact that it was about 11PM.  I am really glad that got done because it has been a really hard part to do.  Now the first two chapters have been redone, and we're still making progress on the current part!  We are moving. :)

Our hopes.....well, we know that the start of the school year this fall is going to make us terribly busy.  Olivia is homeschooling - and I have been accepted to Sumner Highschool of Arts and Sciences in KCK!  It is a public school - so it will be a big change after 9 years of homeschooling.  I will be a freshman....wow I'm really excited, although a bit nervous.  Anyway, that will make our schedule real busy, so we definitely want to establish a great pattern and habits this summer so it will be easier to be productive in the short times we have when school starts.  If all goes well....we want to get a lot done this summer - even 3/4 of the book or more!

So I have been really happy with this lately, and have been writing a lot.  Olivia and I are constantly learning new things and teaching each other - so glad we are doing it!  I love to write.

~Caroline M.

Home Again!

Well, we are safely home and back in Kansas!  It's officially been a week!  I am really excited to be back and see people, but also know I'm going to definitely miss a lot of people back in CR.  It still doesn't really seem real, it's just like we are away for two weeks and will get back and keep on living there soon...don't think it's really sunk in yet!  

........................

Some of my highlights - 

spending time with great friends - Sears, Granados, Paola and Eduardo....

meeting great new friends from the Spanish school and volleyball team....so many!  

learning how to play volleyball and getting to be a setter on the team....

the easy schedule and no stress or business....

.........................

I really missed a lot of people while we were gone, the regular events that always kept our weeks busy, inviting people over to our house for dinner and all the ministry things, and people that are apart of our lives here.  

We had a great welcoming committee at the airport last Monday night, and it was SO good to come back to such a clean house!  The weather......Hm.  What can I say?  It was beau-ti-ful for a day or two...then it started to get cooler on the first....now it's SNOWING!  We went from like summer on Wednesday, then Spring, then Fall in the evening, and now winter.    Crazy!  I mean, it's  MAY!  What a welcome!  I guess we didn't miss all of winter after all!  Here are a couple pictures :)  Lucy and Charlie loved it.  :)

I also got to go back to Brighton last Wednesday, my twice-a-week school.  I had been keeping up with all my classes (Biology, writing and history), turning in my assignments by email - it was a great reward to get to go back and see everyone again.  I have a couple of days left before the school year ends.  :)

I have been writing some more poems lately - more on that later. :)  

Our poem book (Olivia and I's)  is also in the last stages before we self-publish it!  It will be on Amazon....to see a preview, view this link!  We are very excited

SO thanks everyone for the great welcome, and can't wait to keep seeing everyone I've missed so much!  

Love,

Caroline

Manuel Antonio - an amazing trip to the beach

This Wednesday, we just got back from an awesome beach trip to Manuel Antonio!  Luckily, no one got burnt to bad, just mostly tan.  :)   The ocean was amazing.  (we were on the Pacific side)

we did a lot of buggy-boarding

Lucy had a great time burying Charlie and building sand castles with us.

....................of course, she got buried too.  :)

 \/ a great beach side lunch

...............

On the second day, we entered the National Park.  After a 30 minute hike through the path - saw a sloth! - we arrived at the beach part, a calmer cove than the regular public side.

This place is kind of famous for the animals...... the best are the white-faced monkeys!  They are very bold, and hang around to try to steal some food or such.  SO cute!

stuffing his face with papaya....good for him  ;)

The monkeys were not the only bold and hungry animals we saw on the beach side in the park....... my mom had a somewhat lively struggle with a raccoon!  

It grabbed one of our backpacks and started trying to rip it open - my mom  and thus the tug-o-war commenced. :)  The very brave raccoon finally gave up.  He did come back for lunch though...... :)

Manuel Antonio was incredible.  We got a ton of great pictures.  We also collected shells, just walked along the beach, and went to some cool restaurants!  One was called 'El Avion'. (the airplane).  The view from the deck of the sunset was amazing.....

................Here are some more pictures.  :)

Costa Rica has been amazing.  I am sad to say goodbye now, but also glad to go back to the regular life.  I have realized many things here, and can't wait to go back and start applying them!  The slow schedule has been really good, and let me take a good look from far away at my life back home.  To everyone in the States - I've missed you so much and can't wait to see you soon!  To my friends in Costa Rica - thanks, I will never forget you.   Costa Rica has been AWESOME!

      ~Caroline M.   

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Volleyball!!

  It has been the end of many things, and also the anticipation of coming back.  There are a lot of things here that I never realized I would do, and my life here was different and better than I had expected.  When asked if I am ready to come back, I have a mixture of feelings - I am in both worlds.

One of the highlights of our time - Annie and I have been continuing to play volleyball with the team at Sojourn, and LOVING it!  It has been my first team sport, and the team environment and all the people has been one of my favorite parts.  I have made a lot of progress from when I started - after the first two months I successfully started getting strong serves over (overhand), and was super happy and kinda surprised to become one of the two main setters of the team.  Our team is a very mixed group - grades, 6-12 - almost 20 kids, some of which have been playing for over 5 years.  The other half of us just started this January, but all of us have grown so much.  I had my first game against another school, as one of the setters........and we won!  It was a really good game - I was so happy.  Last week we went to our last practice, and said our goodbyes to everyone.  It was really sad, but overall a peaceful goodbye - they prayed over us at the end.  I went home happy and fulfilled - I was glad for such a great end to our awesome time there.

action from our first game

the team

the girls :)

Me and the girl in the blue shirt, Cana, are the two setters.  The girl on the left is her twin, Bethany. :)  Then the one in the black shirt next to me is Alej.  :)   If anyone is wondering the two people in the back.....that's Ally and our Coach. :D  /\

I love the team. :)

When I get home, I definitely want to keep playing volleyball.

          ~Caroline M.