Online merchants @ iGive.com now support Deb Smith.

Now you can help Deb and Tom with the overwhelming cost of uncovered medical and ancillary services by signing up to do some online shopping at iGive.com. There are over 680 well-known online stores ready to donate up to 26% of the purchase price to Loving Deb Smith. And you will receive free deals and coupons just by being an iGive.com member. Also, if you join iGive.com using this link and make a purchase within 45 days from one of the participating stores, iGive.com itself will donate $5 FREE to Loving Deb Smith!

Here is how it works:
1. Join to Support Loving Deb Smith. It's FREE, private, & easy.

2. Shop the Mall at iGive.com. You'll see familiar stores like Lands' End, Office Depot, JCPenney, Expedia, Barnes & Noble, and eBay, etc.

3. Up to 26% of each purchase gets donated to Loving Deb Smith!

Remember, shop within 45 days of joining, and get an extra $5 donation, FREE.

If you use this link to join for FREE, Loving Deb Smith will be selected as the cause you'll support.

Please forgive the sales pitchy tone of this post. This opportunity has been a while in coming, and now that the details are worked out, it is worth a bit of a promotion if it helps Deb & Tom. You will note that there are many specialty merchants involved, including ones you may have dealt with in the past. Using iGive.com makes the shopping experience more meaningful.

P.S. iGive.com would like you to know that all the causes at iGive.com have been listed by members for their own and others' benefit. They don't endorse the causes, and the causes don't endorse them.

An Extreme Measure of Happiness!

On Thursday, June 28, 2007, Darla Wextssen, Tom's sister had this to say: "I just returned after having had the privilege of spending 12 hours in the presence of Deborah Ann Smith. I wish all of you could have that opportunity."

Deb had an opportunity for the first time to actually see the Loving Deb Smith endless love letter to her (as best she could) while Darla read to her when she had difficulty seeing. Darla reports that Deb is quite thrilled and overjoyed by "everything that is there". In fact, Darla said of Deb's protracted reaction that you could see on Deb's face and in her spirit an "Extreme Measure of Happiness ".

Deb, Praise be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the God of All Encouragement. What Joy in the hearts of those who Love you! Your happiness in the midst of great pain profoundly ministers the Boundless Love of God in Jesus Christ.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who,

although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,
and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
NASB, Philippians 2:1-11

Everybody's gotta eat Cincinnati's favorites!

Often, caregivers of seriously ill people have little time or energy to care for themselves -- little sleep, a bite to eat on the run, etc. You can help Deb and Tom concretely by providing homemade food for the family. But if you live in Cincinnati, or North Carolina, or Colorado, or Michigan, home cooking might be out of the question. Perhaps you would consider sending along some Skyline Chili, Montgomery Inn ribs, Graeter's ice cream, Busken's baked goods, or LaRosa's pasta sauce and all the fixins. Check out Cincinnati Favorites.com or Best of Cincinnati.com if you feel led to help in this way. You can find Deb & Tom's address in the left side-bar, along with those of Nellie and Charity.

My Mom

Charity offers this "getting to know Mom" portrait of and accomplished artist and musician, her Mom, Deb:

Deb loves music, both in her home and at worship (the two lines blur). If you enter her kitchen, which was designed to be a combo art studio and eating space, you will see her giant boom box that fills both spaces with music. She listens to a wide variety of music, from Selah to Michael Buble to all types of movie soundtracks. She took many of her personal favorites to work with her as she taught painting and drawing at Frontier Community College. She would tell us about how her students enjoyed listening to music as they painted.

-- Charity

DEB AND HER GRANDKIDS

Deb and Tom have 5 grandchildren.

• Adam (7),
• Bella (6),
• Shane (5),
• Eden (3) and
• Violet (9months).

Things the kids love to do with Grandma (the short list):

• paint,
• sit on the porch swing for a long time,
• read,
• watch SpongeBob,
• jump on the bed,
• make up songs,
• draw people,
• laugh,
• eat a lot of sugar,
• take naps, swim,
• cook,
• play at the park,
• draw on fake tattoos and
• put on Grandma's jewelry and perfume