California Bound

In just two days I will be arriving in Southern California. I am going there to help my Mom move out of her appartment and into her new home that the Lord has blessed her with. I haven't been back to Southern Cali now for a year and three months so I am really looking forward to this trip. Living this far from my hometown and more importantly my family has been really tough especially being this far away from my Mom! This is the first time that I have lived almost 3,000 miles away from her and hopefully it will be the last as this is just too far! ;)

I wanted to take this time and update my friends and family that may or may not know about the challenges that my Mom has been facing in these last couple of years. She has been looking to purchase a house now ever since Richie and I moved to North Carolina back in April of 2007. We have all been praying that God would put her where He saw fit and God willing one day she would be able to own a house again and begin a new chapter in her life. I must admit I was growing a tad impatient and was wondering what God was doing and if His timing would ever prevail. But atlas as always God's grace proved to be ever sufficient and He had just the right house in mind for my Mom. She has had one of the fastest escrow's in history I do believe and is about to receive the keys to her new home any day now. We are hoping to go there Friday evening or Saturday morning after I arrive there in California. Yes she is waiting to turn her key for the first time until I am there with her and I am sooo honored by her decision to do so. I stand amazed once again by God and I have felt His prescence with her through this whole process and I praise Him for His answers to our many prayers!! Now I continue on to the biggest prayer request right now that is much needed, my Mom's job situation.

Oh where do I begin with this issue?! As many of you know my Mom works for San Bernardino county and has for some time now. She is now in the management field in the Medical Records department at a local medical center. She is under an EXTREME amount of stress there and the department is in complete chaos. The people who are in higher management are completely unable to please and they act more like tyrants than fellow employees. They yell at not only their office workers but more importantly their supervisors, which is where my Mom is grouped. This stress has caused many health problems and challenges for several of the employees in that office. One lady has had significant heart distress and many of them have suffered severe headaches, stomach problems, nerves that are on edge, and have a hard time functioniong while at work and often times even away from the office as well. There are a few individuals who have processed transfer papers and are willing to go to another office to escape the absolute chaos. My Mom is one of those individuals. She has been told that she is the 17th supervisor there in the last two years and that she has now lasted the longest, I know sad huh?! This has made me angry at them but more importantly I am greatly concerned about my Mom's health. Her blood pressure has raised since working there and she has been dealing with a few health concerns for awhile all because of her job! So my prayer is that God will place her in a new job position that will not be nearly as stressful as this one is and where she can finish her last few years working for the county before retiring. Please I ask all of you, friends and family to pray with me about this issue. I ask that you will lift her up to the Lord and ask for God's will to be done. Just as He placed her in her new home, I ask that He will deliever her from this work environment quickly in order for her health to improve. If you have any prayer lists at your local church could you please put my Mom on there for me? She needs all the prayers she can get and I know she would really appreciate it a lot as I do as well. Father we lift up my Mom to you right now and we ask that you will intervene and deliever my Mom from this awful situation at work. I ask that your will be done and I ask that you give her the strength to be able to hang in there until something else comes available. In your precisous name I pray, AMEN!! Thank you all for praying with me and for my Mom. I know God is going to do a mighty work in her life as He already has! He is mighty to save indeed!!


Blessings to you and your family,

~Lori Fender

Fender Facts

Okay I know, I know, it has been a long time since I have blogged. I can't tell you how many emails I have received asking me why I haven't blogged in a long time. The truth is life has just been overwhelming for me the past few months. I have been living in the fast lane for sure!! It reminds me of that Alabama song, "I'm In A Hurry To Get Things Done(Oh,) I Rush & Rush Until Life's No Fun, All I Really Gotta Do Is Live Die But, I'm In A Hurry & Don't Know Why. I thought that I would update some of the happenings that have gone on in the Fender household and I promise I will get back to blogging more frequently!

• Richie got on with a marketing firm in Rocky Mount, NC and is interning for them. He has already gained a ton of experience and they have appreciated having him there. This was an answer to prayer and we are very grateful for this opportunity.
• Richie is now a senior at North Carolina Wesleyan College and is still making the honor list and has every term since he started there. I am VERY proud of him!!
• Richie works full-time for his Mom's family business and he gives back on a daily basis doing all kinds of duties for the family. I work there part-time and help as much as I can.
• Richie & I are working hard to eat healthier and incorporate exercise in our daily lifestyle.
• Richie & my Mom surprised me for my birthday and she flew here for a visit. It was the best birthday gift ever and I was very surprised and really enjoyed her visit, she even brought her mini long haired dachshund. The 3 of the dogs enjoyed that a ton!
• Richie and I are working very hard to pay things down and prepare for our move. We ask that you all pray for God to continue to lead us where He wants us. Just when we think we know where we are going God shows us something else and we have to re-focus. God please lead us and may we do your will!
• Richie & I haven't taken any trips yet and though we love to travel we are limiting our travels to a minimum due to saving for paying bills off and saving for a move. I'm sure we will take a weekend trip for our anniversary and we already have tickets for December to fly to CA for 10 days. YAY! :)

I do believe that is it for now. We are plugging along and working hard to get where we need to be. Life is certainly busy and we are constantly working towards a new chapter in our lives. The Fender household is never still for too long. God may we glorify you and may you continue to mold us and use us for your will! We hope you are all doing well. I do promise that I will be blogging more and keeping in touch better. May God bless you and your family and may you find comfort in Him!

Blessings,

Lori Fender

Christmas at the Fender's in 2008

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year and that you were able to make some wonderful memories as you spent time with your loved ones. Richie and I had a good Christmas even though we missed my Mom in Southern California very very much!! It was definitely NOT the same without her but we enjoyed getting to talk to her on the phone and we also began talking about our Christmas plans for next year so that kept us all smiling and got us through the day just fine. We are planning on traveling to Southern California next year and spending the holidays with my Mom. Yay! :)

Richie and I celebrated Christmas morning at our house in North Carolina as it was our first Christmas married all by ourselves in our own home. It wound up turning out just fine even though it was a little different. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast and then we opened our gifts from our family near and far as well as our gifts from each other. Hoagie and Harmony even got some gifts.....they of course loved the food ones but weren't so sure about something else that they got from their CA Grandma. LOL! Look below......our mini Dachshunds were turned into little Reindeer's. They just weren't sure about this and knew that Santa played some kind of practical joke on them. I of course just couldn't contain myself and laughed until I cried. It was a lot of fun and our babies say thanks Grandma....... ;)



After we were done with the gifts and laughs we got ready and headed over to Richie's Mom's house. We exchanged gifts with them and then we had a wonderful Christmas dinner. We had a blast with our 7 month old nephew Jackson and thoroughly enjoyed watching him open his gifts. He is always such a joy to be around and he is growing so big. He loves everybody and as long as your paying him some attention he is pretty content. Next year he will be ready to take part in all of the festivities and get to enjoy Christmas a little more.

All in all it was a pretty good day. I was feeling pretty down at first but then I began to think about the homeless, the ones in the military who are serving our country far away from their families, and the ones who work serving the public such as policemen, firemen, and Doctors. That helped put things in perspective for me and reminded me how much I have to be grateful for. Once again I hope that you had a terrific holiday and that you were blessed as I was. I hope as you begin 2009 you will take the time to make new memories and reach for your dreams. I have learned and seen that God truly is in control if we surrender our lives to Him. May you have a wonderful year ahead and may you cherish the ones you love. God bless!

In His Grip

~Lori Fender

A Tribute To My Granny

I can hardly believe it has been 3 years already since my Granny went home to be with the Lord. Some days it seems like just yesterday I was sitting on her couch talking to her about life and believe you me she had many stories to tell me. Then there are some days where it feels like she has been gone forever because so much has happened in the 3 years she's been gone. I got married, graduated college with my Bachelor's degree in Psychology, bought 2 new little Dachshund puppies that she would've loved, moved almost 3,000 miles across the country to a town I had never heard of let alone lived in before. I remember she always called me adventurous and said that I had a lot of living to do. She must have been right because boy have I experienced so much these past few years not to mention why lies ahead for my husband and I.

She was so incredibly happy for me when she found out Richie had asked me to marry him. She said, "Oh good you've finally found your soulmate, I am so happy for you two". Right after then I started planning the wedding and she was the one who told me to make it however we wanted it and not to be coerced into doing things that we didn't want. I wasn't able to get much advice about wedding stuff from my Granny as we got engaged September 2nd, 2005 and she passed away on October 15, 2005. There was one area where she made sure to talk to me about. It was about living for Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. She talked to me about always remembering to keep God in the middle of our marriage and He would always take care of us as long as we had our eyes fixed on Him. I have never forgotten those words and I hold them close to my heart every day. She was right about so many things. Though she wasn't there physically at our wedding I felt her presence very much so. I left open a chair for her and I put a beautiful rose on that chair to symbolize that she was indeed with us in spirit. We played the song holes in the floor of heaven and it touched everyone who was there to share our day with us. I could almost see her smiling down on us and saying, "I love you precious ones". It wasn't by any means a time of sadness, other the other hand, it was a time of celebration and a way for my Granny to be "there" with us as we became husband and wife.

Something else that I remember about my Granny is that she loved to take drives and admire the beauty that God had created. She use to come and pick me up from daycare and ask if I wanted to go for a nice drive. Well of course I always to and the best part was the ice cream that I knew my Granny would almost always pick up along the way. Yum! She's the person who got me hooked on ice cream, milkshakes, or even a root beer float from A & W once in awhile. My Granny could always come up with an occasion to have an ice cream. I can say the tradition continues to this day in my own household. We love ice cream and every once in awhile like to have a treat. Yum yum!

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One last thing that I remember about my Granny and loved so much was her prayer life. She was one who prayed faithfully for hours. She was so amazing and we all felt the power of her prayers. I remember getting to spend the night at my Granny's house many times while growing up. It would be bedtime and she would start saying her prayers while she was down on her knees. Many hours later I would wake up and she would have fallen asleep while saying her prayers. She sure was my faithful prayer warrior. She would pray for our President, the Pastor of her church, family members, friends, and just about anything else that came to her mind. She would always tell me to pray about whatever was going on in my life and God would work it all out. She said, "pray about it and just let go of it and give it over to God". It was in giving it all over to God that I found a certain kind of peace, the peace that only God can grant.

Granny I miss you so very much! There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of you and remember all of our memories and good times that we got to share together. You made a special impact on my life. I often find myself doing things the same way that you did and it brings a smile to my face. I learned so much from you. The most important thing you taught me was to live one day at a time and live for God!

IN MEMORY OF
EVELYN LORINE HATCHER
(1919-2005)

~Lorine Hatcher Fender

Little Bundle Of Joy

On June 5th, 2008 my sister in law, Lisa Lancaster, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was 22 1/2 inches long and weighed in at 9 pounds 5 ounces. I know what a big baby huh?! His name is Jackson Gray Pittman and he already is a charmer let me tell you. He is so alert and constantly looking around to see what's going on. He is surrounded with lot's of love and is always wanting to be held by someone within the family network. I would have to say that the one person that seems to make him smile or coo the most is my husband Richie. Every time he begins to cry uncontrollably Richie is usually the one to make him stop or even begin to smile. This little guy is such a blessing to us all and we are all so glad to be a part of his new little life. May God bless his life and may he be used for His glory always!

In the beginning...

Richie & I met back in 1996 in the Asheville, NC area. It was actually a small town right outside of Asheville called Fairview. My Mother and I had rented videos from his family's video store for many months and I had seen Richie several times before but never really looked up if you know what I mean. Sometimes we can get so busy in the every day life that we never truly stop and take a minute or sometimes even a second to look up. So one day I was on the internet in a local chat room and lo and behold there was Richie in that room. We began talking back and forth and when I realized that he worked at the video store I was renting videos from I was baffled. As time went on we officially met in person and had our first date. Literally from that moment on we were completely inseparable. I had finally found somebody who loved going to movies, heading to the batting cages, playing miniature golf, going to the bookstore for hours, and just enjoying life. I was so excited to have a best friend and later boyfriend to just spend most of my time with that later when Richie told me that he was signed up to go to college in Raleigh almost 5 hours away my heart sank. I thought how could this happen?! The time finally came for him to relocate and God had called my Mom and I back to Southern Cali to take care of my Granny who was not doing very good at all. Richie and I stayed in touch with emails, phone calls when we could afford it, and instant message through aol at the time. I still couldn't understand what God was doing and why this happened but we both eventually went on with our lives and wound up dating other people off and on. It was later that I went through a horrific marriage and divorce and he went through a nasty breakup with someone he thought he may want to marry one day. Here we were yet again single and alone. We could not figure out how we both kept winding up alone. I remember many conversations where we were talking about this and we just felt like maybe we were either losers or just meant to be alone. But through it all we always remained good friends and we talked about one day meeting up again for a visit. Hmm I wondered would that day truly ever come? Your talking meeting back up somehow with a guy who lived on the opposite coast. I myself wasn't sure that that day would ever come.

~LF