Experience the "Present" & miracle of modern surgery

This is truly amazing!!!

Please read before viewing picture - it's worth it!


A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact,unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta She knew of Dr Bruner's remarkable
surgical procedure.. Practicing at Vanderbilt Univ Med Ctr in Nashville , he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.'Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome....incredible....and hey, pass it on. The world needs to see this one!




Don't tell me our God isn't an awesome God!!!!!

The "Present" is your real catch of the day.

Experiencing the "present" is a choice we all make.... Success is a personal choice as well. Think about your "personal success". Is your "personal success" created & followed through by you, for you & controlled by you?

Success is not just about annual revenue. Real success is about your business and your personal life blending together at their best, fullest and most evolved potential.

I would like to share a fable with you... You may have heard it before, but I think it bears repeating....

An American businessman took a vacation to a small village in Mexico. He was sent by his doctor...to relax & "re-think". The businessman walked onto a pier one morning and saw a small boat with a lone fisherman sitting inside. Inside the boat, he saw what he thought was an amazing catch. The American complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish. "How long did it take you to catch them?". he asked. "Only a little while," the Mexican responded."Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish," the American asked. I have enough to support my family and give to a few friends said the fisherman. "Very interesting", replied the American. "What do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican smiled and said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play the guitar with my amigos. I live a very full and busy life , Senor. "

"The American laughed and stood tall. "I am a Harvard MBA, I can help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. In a very short time you could have a fleet of fishing boats." "Yes Senor, and then what?" the Mexican asked. "You could begin to sell directly to consumers, and open your own cannery. You could control your own product processing and distribution. You would need to move from this small village, go to Mexico City, LA and perhaps New York from where you can better manage your expanding enterprise."

"But how long will all of this take?" the Mexican asked. The American replied, "10-15 years, 25 at most." "And then what?", queried the Mexican fisherman. The American laughed, "Here is the best part, when the time is right you announce an IPO, sell your company stocks to the public and make millions." "Millions senor, and then what?......"

"Then you could retire and move to small coastal fishing village. You could sleep late, fish a little, play with your children, take a siesta with your wife, stroll into the village each evening, where you sip wine and play the guitar with your amigos."

I don't think I need to tell you the moral of the story...... We sometimes lose sight of the goal..... What is the "true goal" of your business AND your life? Don't find yourself at the end of your life, realizing you have lost sight of your "true goal". Enjoy the ride.... Make the ride worthwhile & enjoyable. The end goal is a bonus!

Concentrate on these sentences

Concentrate On These Sentences...

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'

When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

Believe this.....Something good will happen to you today; something that you have been waiting to hear.

Experience & APPRECIATE "the present"!

Send this to those you care about... JUST DO IT!

Sharon Blumenthal
"The Present Pro"
http://www.Names2U.com
http://www.GiftedGreek.com
http://www.PersonalizedGiftWeekly.blogspot.com
http://www.Bagelling.blogspot.com

It is important to experience the "present", but I think it is equally important to "remember the past"......

Remember when?

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes . Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats , seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were OK. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 's, X-boxes, no video games at all,no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet nor chatrooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! No GPS was needed :)

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. We had All Star games & those who didn't make the team were "good sports" about it. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Those generations produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this article (& blog) with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good . While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another,and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks...are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

A FRIEND is a GIFT you give yourself

A friend is a gift you give yourself. When you must "gift" your friend for her birthday, handle it with panache.

I feel that the best gifts are PERSONALIZED ones. If you want your friend to love your gift, think about what would make her happy. Ask yourself - What kind of a person is my friend? What are her favorite hobbies? What particular item does she need currently? Does she love gifts that are funky & artsy or conventional & useful? Did she mention that she'd ripped her old bag recently? I have a great suggestion.... Replace her ragged bag with a brand new, personalized, embroidered "monogrammed tote". This will give her something she probably would not buy for herself, but she will surely use often.
Need more suggestions? Visit http://www.names2u.com/ for lots of other options.

Please comment & tell us about YOUR best present to a friend or the present you loved the most & why!