I couldn't pass up passing this on ...

I hope my sister doesn't hurt me too badly for sharing the following email with my friends. She tries to tell her siblings that she is not a writer but I think she sells herself far short. The passing of my mother was particularly difficult for her since she was just 42 years old when my mother went on to heaven. (Sorry for sharing, Rach!) Her oldest child is just 20 years old and her youngest, Seth, just turned 8 in October. While the rest of us miss our mom a lot, I had an extra 15 years with my mother that she didn't have. I am blessed by my family -- my brothers - Tim, Mark, Joel and Thad .. and our sister, Rachel. Thank you, Rachel, for putting into words what we all must feel but you described so eloquently!! I wanted to include a few photos .. and found a treasure -- the one of my mother with Allen and Bob. They shared the name "FIL" (Favorite In-Law) and bantered with her about which one carried the name at that particular moment! What memories to treasure!!

Dear Fam,

On Tuesday I was ordering our Christmas cards and the lady taking my order, which we have known for 10 years or so, put all the pictures down and said I will do this later. She proceeded to say, "Rachel, you lost your mother, my dad has been gone since February and I don't know how I am going to get thru this Thanksgiving. She started to cry and I felt as if Mother's gift of ministering came thru me as I told her how difficult this past year had been, but yet God gave us peace and helped the pain to ease a little.

I told her how last year I felt it very helpful to ease the grief and write a Thanksgiving prayer and thank God for all the things I learned from my mom and it helped me realize how blessed we truly are....On that basis I would like to take this opportunity to write another Thanksgiving prayer.....

"Dear God why did G'ma have to die?"

God, this is the question I hear so often from our Seth Mark.....He will be playing quietly with his legos and out of the blue this question will come. How do I answer this 8 year old who never even had the opportunity to spend as much time with her as the rest of us did? He seems to have a special bond with her.

Thank you God for the memories I can share with him to keep her close to his little heart. ( He was the first to break down and cry when we were at the cemetery on the one year anniversary of her passing)

Here are a few of the memories I want to share with him:

I can still hear her voice as she would call usually around 8:00 a.m. and ask "What do you have planned for today? I am having my devotions and I am praying for you....stay encouraged, God is still on the throne." Man, I sure miss hearing that!

I can still hear her shout praised to God when she was blessed and felt God's reassurance that all of her children were going to make it to Heaven......God will answer her prayers...

G'ma's touch was always so special as she would hug all of us when we came to visit and she loved all the little things the children were involved in and always made over all their accomplishments no matter how small.....Bible quizzing, basketball games, plays, etc. The children always wanted to call and tell G'ma how they did on their Bible quiz since they knew G'ma and &G'pa were praying for them....we still call G'pa and report to him and it he still enjoys sharing in their successes.

She touched our lives with the prayers she prayed daily for each one of us.

I find myself thinking about the smells of wonderful food cooking.....especially on Sundays as Mother would make her famous pork roast, carrot casserole, or chili, and meatloaf....These recipes I am passing on to my children and I tho't about her as I was putting the turkey in the oven today. She would always get up so early.

It's hard to believe over a year has passed, God, you've been so close when a wave of grief has passed over us and we just want to call Mother. The pain is not as fresh, but it is still a dull ache in our hears and lives. I have felt her near many times when I have been so discouraged and so overloaded, I've wanted to just call her. I then realize she has reached her goal...Heaven....I then think of the many times when we could come to visit she would be waiting in the doorway of their apartment and hug each one of us and welcome us home. One day I believe she will waiting at Heaven's gate for us and she will say, "I've been waiting for you, I knew you could make it and I'm so proud of you."

So God, would you tell my mother "Happy Thanksgiving"? Please tell her we are caring for Dad just like she would've wanted us to do.

God, thank You also for letting us have Dad live closer to us. Our children, especially Juliana, Seth, and Shaley have said so many time when we have been with G'pa, "I wish G'ma could've lived closer like G'pa then we could've spent more time with her and she could've come to church with us too.

Thank You for carrying Dad thru many hospital visits this year and allowing him to be with us this Thanksgiving. He has continued to minister to so many people. People stop me regularly to tell me what a blessing he is to them and how much they love him. What a gift he continues to be to us and so many others...in singing and praying with people.

Thank You God for my wonderful sister and brothers, husband and children who have been such a support this last year. Their love for Dad/G'pa and the grief over the loss of Mother/G'ma, has made an even stronger bond between us.

So, God when Seth asks again "Why did G'ma have to die" or Juliana writes me a note saying "I know you miss your mom and I really miss G'ma", help me to continue to instill in them the legacy of prayer and commitment to You that reminds us we can see her again someday!

Amen

Thanksgiving memories ...

It's amazing what memories we have of Thanksgiving ... from years of long ago (longer than I want to admit actually) at my grandmother's house. She was one of those old fashioned type grandmothers who did everything in a proper manner. Just ask the rest of her 12 grandchildren and all would probably agree. We were not allowed to drink iced tea until we were ... well probably almost adults. It was not a drink for children!! I can't remember what we did drink -- probably milk!!

She had a table that folded right up against the wall - and yet could stretch out farther than I could imagine. I have no clue how many we actually sat around that table -- but I know my brothers did all kind of antics during prayer -- along with my cousins, Gary and Scott. They loved to 'de-pit' the olives -- pull the pimento out and I'm sure my parents, my aunt and uncle and my grandmother had it all figured out. However, I don't remember too much about that -- just from stories I have learned since!

I loved going to Grandma's house. She was the only grandparent (my mother's mom) that I remember much about. My mom's father died when I was just a little over 3. My dad's mother died when he was just 8 years old. I don't remember much at all about his dad but I believe he died not long after my mom's dad passed away. So, we spent most holidays at Grandma Nelson's house. Since she didn't have a particularly large family -- three children and twelve grandchildren, we could fit into her home quite nicely. My Uncle Cecil and Aunt Roberta lived in Tennessee so they usually didn't make it home for Thanksgiving. So, that left about 15 of us! But, we had a lively time.

After dinner which usually good desserts, there was often a lively discussion on a political topic -- which my dad and my Uncle Chuck shared. I couldn't tell you the topics, but all I know is that it got quite animated!

My dad had a deep voice and when he prayed, we all thought heaven heard right through the roof. His voice was so resonating that Uncle Chuck would threaten his kids that Uncle Dick would get after them if they didn't act right. However, the kids all loved my dad so they didn't seem to be too afraid. At least, I don't think they were!

I always loved heading to Grandma's coffee table. She had a glass cover on it and under the glass were the latest family pictures she had received. We always wanted to see who had been added!

When the table had been cleaned up and folded nicely back against the wall, it was time for hide-and-seek -- I have no idea where all we thought we could hide but we seemed to all race for Grandma's coat closet in her entryway. (I think we also tried to hide in a closet in her bedroom!) We'd hide behind her coats and maybe it was the smell of them that made us feel safe. Isn't there something special about a Grandmother's smell. Sounds weird, sort of, but I think we might all agree on that one.

We also loved to sit in her kitchen which had a big picture window. When I was little, it looked out over a big field. But, the years passed and homes were built there. But, she usually had a bird feeder hanging in her tree and how I enjoyed watching to see if there were any birds 'feeding'! What memories! Oh, and of course, I inherited her love for crossword puzzles. I remember her often as I'm working on a puzzle -- which I do everyday in the newspaper and almost go into withdrawal if I miss! Thank goodness that my mother-in-law is an avid crossword-er so when we stay with her, we share the task at hand!

I am the oldest of her 12 grandchildren and because of that, I had a very special place with my grandmother. I was reminded of that once in a while by my brothers or cousins but usually without any jealousy. Everyone had their own place but I had held a special spot with my grandfather before he passed away. It seemed my grandma and I shared a special love for him -- I have lots of film clips of my early days -- like 15 minutes of watching someone feed me a bottle. (Boring, I know .. but it must have been a treasure for my grandpa. He seemed to film it again and again.)

My grandmother has been gone for quite a long time now -- actually over 17 years. And yet I find myself from time to time wanting to drop her a note about the kids and grandkids. I remember when I last saw her before she passed away -- she had fallen right before we were to celebrate her 90th birthday. She was in the hospital and we took turns stopping by to see her. She was doing okay ... so okay that she looked over her glasses as she did so well and told me (when she knew they were considering whether she could return to her own home), "They are having a meeting of the board!" That was my grandma!!

Tomorrow I will celebrate my grandmother again -- I was fortunate to receive her china after she passed away and I will be using some of it tomorrow as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. I don't have any olives so I guess my grandsons can't try to pull the pimento out of them .. but I'm sure they will have their own flavor of fun and they'll tell their own stories some day ... at my expense! One correction in the photo above -- my grandmother is actually holding Valerie -- I don't think Rachel had arrived yet!

"Over the meadow and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go .... "

Urgent Prayer Request

I wanted to pass along this request from William and Tammy Brown. They are staying in a guest room near the hospital -- others have offered accommodations but the guests rooms there are very adequate for their needs.

Urgent Prayer Request
We are in Indy at Tammy's dad's home. We were driving behind them (Tom and Mary Morgan) when they were involved in a horrific accident right in front of us.I am posting this from the waiting room at Indy Memorial. Both Tom and Mary were airlifted here. Tom is in Surgury and Mary is awaiting her turn with the same surgeon. Tammy's uncle Mike is with us and Gene Hood and Mike's pastor have been as well.

At the present it appears that neither of their injuries are life-threatening though Tom especially is looking at "many surguries" and months of rehab for a "pulverized ankle" and broken hip.We had come across 28 from Muncie to Alexandria (past Woodland Family Camp) to see the Gaither studios etc.

We were following Tammy's dad in our car and the accident unfolded right in front of us. Debris from the back of Tom's truck totally dusted our car. You can see photos, etc here... Tammy's dad was driving the white truck.

http://www.heraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_324153935.html

Update :

By way of praise, the surgeon just came out to update us. As it turns out, Tom's most serious injury is his ankle and this hospital has signifificant experience dealing with this type of injury on race car drivers. According to the surgeon, his odds of having his foot survive are greatly increased since he is being treated here.

The rest of the story ....

I was going to write more yesterday and as you can see, it just didn't happen!! Fallin' down on the job, I guess! It was a beautiful day on Sunday -- perfect for a birthday party -- especially outside! Sandi had food set up on their back porch and tables set up outside. Of course, several found places inside where it seemed to be a little cooler. There were others who were not necessarily thrilled that a sign "No TV Today" had been taped to their TV. Sandi and Tim were pretty sure that some party goers would have stopped there and not passed 'go' to go on outside. Football games were on -- but, Sunday was party day and 'party' we did! Little guy style!

Star Wars was the theme and if you asked me anything about it, you would probably get a blank stare. I have no clue who is whom and what is what. It's pretty sad that I had to look up how to spell Princes Leia (I wanted to spell it Leah .... go figure!) Did I actually spell it right? Who knows! I think Sandi read lots before she threw this party since she was pretty sure Tyler knew more than she did. Although, they are careful about what he watches so who knows where he learned about Star Wars.

One of the things I thought was really neat was the 'pinata'. Rather than using a bat to beat the poor thing to death, each of the kids grabbed a streamer and on the "1-2-3 GO" instruction, they all yanked their streamer. Tim had to help the Darth Vader mask pinata open up a little but out came candy and little boys were waiting. I heard no distress calls as they filled their little bags -- believe it or not, they all seemed to be happy with what they got! Wow!

It is always hard for Tim and Sandi to choose who they will invite -- people look forward to their parties and while they don't want to offend anyone, they knew that the typical over 100+ could send Tyler into melt down mode and they didn't want that. A 'crowd' of about 50-60 seems to work well. Tyler really enjoyed having new friends Gordon and Cannon Lombos all the way from California. (I hope I spelled their names correctly.) They are the grandsons of Rex And LaWanda Bullock (the sons of their daughter Sherilyn and her husband, Allen).

So .. there was food -- chili -- 2 kinds! My kind and Tim's kind -- how's that for description. Doesn't tell you much, huh?! There were chips and dips and veggies and dip and hot dogs with anything you wanted on them. I cut up the onions -- and didn't even cry in the process. Woohoo for me! Of course, there was a cake -- a Yoda cake! Sandi had no clue what it should look like other than a photo but I think she did a pretty good job!!

So, what will it be next year? I can almost guarantee you that within about a month, we'll know what the plans will be for that party. Makes me tired thinking of it -- but, it did take a lot less time this year than it has in other years. Wow! I've included a photo of her 'prize' bags she gave to each of the boys who attended - and the mask as well.

I'm tired thinking about it all so will stop for now -- I'm ready for a nap!! Oops -- only 3:30pm -- hardly time for a nap or I must be getting old!

Tyler's 7th Birthday Party!!

I'm going to post a few photos from Tyler's party here and then will write more tomorrow! It was a great time! What fun!!