Prayers for a little Princess...

Hi friends and family... I write today with a mix of good and bad news... I'll let the good news come pouring out, and get it out of the way, and then ask you for prayers for the bad news that's weighing heavy on my heart.

For the Good News.... I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!! I will start on August 1st at UND, as their Conference Services Specialist, in the Division of Continuing Education. I'll help plan, organize, facilitate various conferences through the University, for the University and the community, and around the state. I welcome this new challenge and adventure with eagerness, and joy. I hope I will be able to utilize my talents, my personality, and my "GUSTO" in this new job, and I have a feeling it's going to be better than I ever dreamed of. True, there's not always a "grass is greener" outcome, but at least I should be out of the weedy patch I had been in recently. Maybe there will be new weeds in my next meadow, but they should at least be a different variety, and can maybe be viewed more as wild flowers, rather than noxious herbs.

Now, sadly, I have the bad news to share. Recently I got word from some friends of ours, that their little girl Sydney has a tumor behind her left eye, and will need to have surgery to remove the tumor, as well as her beautiful little eye. She has Retinoblastoma, and will be treated through the U of M Hospital. I ask you all to keep little Sydney and her family in your prayers as she undergoes the surgery and if further treatment will be needed. From what I've been told, the little sweetheart is already aware of everything that's going on, and actually is happy, since she won't have that pressure and pain behind her eye anymore. You can log onto her Caringbridge website to read more about it, and to share a prayer or words of encouragement if you want. That would be www.caringbridge.org, and then type in sydneydorian to get to her site. Her parents, Cam and Pam, are friends of Ed and I, and Cam was in our wedding. As with many friendships in life, we fell out of touch for a number of years, but have recently reconnected, and been in touch periodically. They were at our house visiting only a month or so ago, and we had the privilege of meeting their kids, Thomas and Sydney (kind of surreal that their names are the same as my niece and nephew). Sydney is such a beautiful, vibrant, wonderful little angel, I just fall apart thinking of that precious little princess has to go through such scary stuff ahead. Please pray for them.

Boy, whether it's my good news or my bad news, one of my catch phrases sure is fitting for this day ~ LIFE'S TOO SHORT TO SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF! Please hug your children, or your spouse, or your parents today!!! You never know if tomorrow is a day that will change your life forever, for the good or the bad, and maybe sometimes for both at once.