Celebrating An Engagement.

My 5th born child and 3rd son Josiah recently left for Texas for Basic Training for the Air Force Reserves. I miss him so much but I do want to share the good news of his engagement to sweet Rebekah. She is a quiet and soft spoken young woman who fits nicely into our family. We will be celebrating their wedding sometime next summer and are so glad to welcome her to our family. She is of Iranian descent and will be a nice addition to the abundance of blonde babies that seem to come our way. Here is a picture of the 2 of them at Christmas.

A Tribute To My Father In Law.

Yesterday I was priviledged to witness the death of someone who has had a great impact on my life. My Father In Law passed away in the comfort of his own bed surrounded by his wife of 54 years, 4 of his 5 children and their spouses and 26 of his grandchildren. I first came into this family as a very needy and hurting 16 year old girl from a hurting and dysfunctional family. I had never met a family like this one. They showed a sincere and deep love and affection for each other. Something I had never seen. They said "I love you," and they hugged each other and they spoke good things about others. I caused their first born son a lot of heart ache over the years that we dated and yet they continued to show love for me despite all the hurt I caused. I have now been married for 31 years to Jim and in all these years they have shown nothing but love towards me and never rebuked me for any of my past mistakes. I have seen unconditional love up close and have been changed by it. Jim's dad had a strong and personal faith in Jesus and despite his flaws he was a great man who made an impact on many people over the years. He shared the love of Christ with so many and he will be greatly missed. I have been blessed to be a part of this big and loving family and I thank God for it. He died peacefully with no struggle after suffering from pancreatic cancer for the past 8 months. He will be sorely missed and yet I know that one day we will be reunited in that great and glorious Heavenly home.