Has it really been two years?

It's so hard to believe that Chris has been with Jesus for 2 years already.  My friend, Karen, told me two years ago that a few years down the road I would look back and marvel at where the Lord had taken me.  In my grief I had a hard time believing it, but here I am 2 years later and I DO believe it.  God has been gracious, good, kind, faithful, loving, caring, comforting...a Father to the fatherless and a judge to the widow.  This past summer I bought a beautiful, bright orange flowered azalea bush. Today after work some of the ladies and their children joined their husbands and we buried some of Chris' ashes with the azalea.  I know that those ashes are not who Chris is, but putting them in the ground was a sort of closure.   We all then shared dinner together.  It was nice to not be alone today.  I love my MMS family and I feel so blessed to be here and still serving among them.  

Dave and Caleb dug the hole for the azalea bush.  Caleb developed pink eye and was unable to join us today, so it was nice that Caleb was able to be a part of the day.

Shawn and Dwight planting the bush in it's place.  One thing that Dwight said before the planting was that the Lord delights in the home going of one of His children.  The Lord was delighted in taking Chris home.  It's hard for those of us left behind...but the Lord's words bring comfort and hope.  One day, provided the Lord doesn't return first, the Lord will delight in each of our home goings, also.  Hmm...it blows me away that the Lord would even think of me, let alone delight in me.  I don't deserve His love.

JoAnna is putting some of her daddy's ashes around the bush.  

Dwight and Bob putting water and dirt over the roots.  Now, like Dwight told me, next year Chris will tell us that spring is coming.  Lydia picked the bright orange flower.  She didn't want the pink--she thought the guys would enjoy the orange more.

After dinner the children were outside running around.  We hadn't heard from them in a while and Donna stepped out to see what they were up to.  She came back and told me to get my camera.  When I went outside this is what I saw.  Sarah, JoAnna, Rachel and Katie were crawling under the fence, getting rocks and putting them around the azalea.  They had also picked some "flowers" to put around the bush.  I love the hearts of children.  

Nature Hike

Today the girls and I went for a walk so that JoAnna could fulfill one of her Green Jewel requirements for her AWANA book.  She had to find 6 things God created and then she had to find 5 rocks to glue on a poster to show her leader.  Once we arrived at Warsaw Park the girls had to play a game of Pooh Sticks.  Pooh Sticks all started years ago when Caleb loved Whinnie the Pooh books.  Pooh and his friends would drop sticks from one side of the bridge and race to the other side to see whose stick would come out first on the other side.  When we moved here to Warsaw we started playing the game ourselves.  The children would pick up sticks before we got to the park.  We--that included Chris and I--would drop our sticks in and go to the other side to see who the winner was.  We still play the game today.  

JoAnna and Lydia getting ready to drop their sticks for Pooh sticks.

JoAnna and Lydia watching for the sticks to emerge on the other side.

JoAnna finding rocks for her poster.

JoAnna stuffing all her rocks in her pocket...I hope she gets them all out before laundry day.

You know you're a home school family when (#3)...

...one of your son's "classes" is mowing the lawn 101.

Baptism

On this beautiful Sunday morning our church service started with two young ladies who wished to be baptized.  One was a young lady who just graduated from high school.  The other young lady lives in my house.  Two years ago JoAnna expressed a desire to know more about what Jesus did for her on the cross.  Just a few days before Chris' surgery she asked Jesus to be her Savior.  Well, a few weeks back she told pastor that she wanted to be baptized.  We talked with her and made sure that she understood what baptism means.  At the beginning of the service today both young ladies professed their faith and followed our Lord in baptism.  In a world of disrespectful young people it is a blessing to see two young ladies who desire to follow Jesus.

Today

I feel so blessed.  I have had several phone calls today to see how I am doing...and to let me know that I am being prayed for.  I can really tell.  I told one friend that I feel like I should be sad, but I feel like I am being upheld by the Lord's strength.  I feel so very blessed.  

One of my young friends, Kirsty, is challenged with Cerebral Palsy.  When Kirsty and her mom came into AWANA last night they gave me a card that Kirsty had made for me.  She told me that it took her 30 minutes to write the message, but she did it.  She wanted me to know that her family is praying for us. 

I love Kirsty.  She lights up her world and her understanding of the Lord is amazing.  I have shared with Kirsty's mom several dreams that I have had about her.  In one dream there were of a bunch of us MMS people running in a field and Kirsty was right in the middle of us.  We were all laughing and enjoying the tall grass and beautiful flowers, but Kirsty's laugh was heard above them all.  It was so sweet.  I love to imagine what heaven will be like.  Heaven has always been real to me, but Chris' death has sweetened my understanding of heaven.  

The other day the children and I were watching an Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  The father of the family is in the military and he is serving in Iraq.  They brought him home for the show and surprised his wife and children.  They ran to meet each other and, of course, they were crying.  By that time my cheeks were pretty wet with tears.  I said to the children, "This is only an earthly reunion and they have only been separated for 10 months.  Can you imagine what it will be like to get to heaven and meet daddy?  When we see him again face to face?"  

"When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory."  AMEN!!! 

October 9, 1993

I have not been good at adding things to my blog lately.  I don't feel like this time of year should be that overwhelming, but I guess it is in the back of my mind.  

I went to the Apple store with a friend the other day.  She is a die hard Mac user and she highly recommended them.  A few years back Chris had researched them and was ready to make the change.  Then we were gifted a wonderful PC (not a Mac).  It has been a great computer but lately is has been having problems...just running programs.  It would work fine and then it would just shut down and I would loose what I was doing.  I have now joined the world of Mac users.  I love it so far.  It's wonderful, straight forward and soooo easy to use.  

One thing I haven't figured out how to do yet is scan into iphotos (which is a wonderful program!!) so Caleb helped me to figure out how to scan this picture.  This picture was taken 15 years ago on October 9th...the day Chris and I were married.  It was a simple ceremony--my parents got off easy.  Chris and I washed each other's feet and vowed before family and friends that we were committed to serving one another.  It wasn't always easy, but we had fun growing together.  The day he went to heaven I lost my best earthly friend and soul mate.  In this picture Chris was being a rascal...'nuf said.

   

The Fair

I hope I get this posted before my computer acts up again. The screen all of a sudden will become distorted making it extremely difficult to see what's going on. We hooked up a second monitor to see if that was our problem and it wasn't. So it must be the computer...oh joy. Where's my computer technie when I need him the most?? Being with Jesus is far better than playing with computers any day.

On Tuesday we enjoyed a wonderful day at the fair. The girls rode the rides...though Lydia didn't ride many, but JoAnna did.

Lydia and JoAnna enjoying a ride on Pharoah's Fury. 

My children have always enjoyed the big pink slide...they would go down over and over, but now JoAnna was the only one who wanted to go down...my babies are growing up.

One of our favorite rides is the bumper cars. JoAnna was finally able to go on them alone this year. Now I know that my baby is growing up. How is it possible?

One thing that JoAnna has wanted more than anything in the whole world is a horse. I let her enjoy a pony ride this year. She grinned from ear to ear the whole ride. It was worth the $3!!

When my girls saw this Ohio State booth they had to show their opinions of it. I was born and raised in MI and have 'brainwashed' my children to cheer for MI...notice JoAnna's shirt. We get teased alot for wearing our MI shirts, but what would life be like if we all liked the same things? The other day after AWANA we went to our car and notice a great big Ohio State magnet on the door. We know exactly who it was from and we are quietly plotting our next move.