Laughter Even in Tough Times

It's amazing to me to see how God can bring laughter to you and your family even when the circumstances around you aren't pleasant.  


One of the first things I would do after I woke up in the morning was to ask Wes how Dad was doing.  I took the first shift at night, which ended at 2 am.  Wes would go to bed at 7 and get up between 1 and 2 am and stay with Dad the rest of the night.  When I went in to check on Dad on Wednesday, May 16, I found him unresponsive to me.  He hadn't been real responsive in the last couple of days, but he would at least acknowledge my presence.  That morning, he didn't.  I started to look for other signs our hospice nurse had told me to look for and sure enough, most of them were present.  I immediately called hospice and they sent a nurse out to confirm my observations.  Yes, we were in the last days of Dad's life here on earth.  Yes, it was time to call my brother and sister and tell them they needed to come.  Both dropped everything and came immediately.


Let me back up and give you a little history........


In 1968, Dad went to Florida and caught this huge sailfish.  From the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, it was 91 inches long.  From the top of its top fin to the bottom of the fish's belly was about 3.5 feet tall.  It was huge!  And from the time I was 10 years old, that fish hung over my parents' fireplace.  It really was one of Dad's prized possessions.  


As time passed on, my brother, sister, and I would joke about who would inherit the fish.  Even though it meant so much to Dad, it really didn't have a sentimental value to us.....plus the thing was so big that it would take up a full wall wherever it hung.  We would kid and tell each other that Dad had specifically put it in his will that whoever we were talking to would get this fish.  We would laugh and joke, but deep down I became a little concerned. 


Once Dad moved in with us we decided it was time to sell his house.  I called our Realtor and set up an appointment for her to see Dad's house and list it.  She walked in the front door, saw the fish, and said, "Oh my!  What is that thing?  It has to go!"  I knew I was in trouble.  The fish was coming to my house and it might never leave.


Wes and Dad brought the fish down to our house and mounted it in Dad's tv room.  (It was actually one of our bedrooms, but became one of Dad's rooms when he moved in.)  The fish was proudly displayed over Dad's tv and honestly, it looked pretty good.  He would proudly tell every hospice person or visitor about his fish when they would come visit. 


So......back to the top of my story.....


When my brother and sister arrived at my house, the kidding began again who was inheriting the fish.  We even told all the grandkids that Pawdy had "willed" it to them, but no one would bite. No one wanted the fish.  Yep, I was going to get stuck with that fish and had no idea what to do with the thing.  It's not like you could donate it to the Salvation Army, or sell the thing, or even put it out on the curb.  I mean, what do you do with the monster?  But pressing matters put the fish in the back of my mind.  Dad's earthly days were coming to an end.  


So, Dad passed on Saturday, the 19th.  We were so thankful God allowed him to go home.  He was so ready....and because of that, we were so ready for him to go.  The funeral home came out that evening to pick up Dad's body.  The young man, Victor, walked in and very respectfully gave his condolences, and honestly, I'm not sure he knew what to do with us.  We were all laughing and having a great time.  Dad was in the presence of Jesus and seeing family members who had gone before him.  We knew we would see him again and we were happy for him.  So, we weren't the normal crying, somber group that Victor was probably use to.  Victor also informed us that his helper, Don would be coming shortly to help him.  And it turns out, Don, almost showed up immediately.....in another hearse.  So I have 2 white hearses in front of my house.  Our neighbors were quite concerned.  They knew about Dad, but with two hearses.....what was going on?


My brother takes Victor to the room where we had Dad's body....which happened to be the same room with the sailfish.  Victor walks into the room and is overwhelmed with the fish!  It is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.  He is in awe!  So, what does my brother do?  He looks right at Victor and asks, "Would you like it?"  Victor tells him not to kid him.....that's the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.  My brother looks back at him and says, "No really....would you like that fish?  You can have it".  And yes, my friends, he took the fish!  Don walks in about the time Wes and my brother are taking the fish off the wall.  Being a little confused, Victor explains to Don that they are going to put the sailfish in one of the hearses and put Dad's body in the other.  I wish you could have seen Don's face, but he shook his head and said, "Ok".  So Wes and my brother take the fish out and place it on top of the gurneys in the back of one hearse, and then the gentlemen go back in and get Dad and put him in the other.  We are all giggling....no, just down right laughing at the sight of Dad and his sailfish heading off together!


Isn't that like God?  He took care of a really kinda unimportant thing - a sailfish.  But during our time of saying good-bye to Dad, God steps in and does something so fun to let us know, "I am here.  I will take care of things for you."  And He did and gave us much laughter and a memory we will NEVER forget.


Oh, and by the way, Victor sent me a picture the next morning of the sailfish in its new home.  What a treat, to be able to give it to someone who will truly enjoy it.  So, I've put on a couple of pictures....one of the fish in the hearse and one with it hanging it its new home.  Yep, a memory that will last forever.  

Thanks, God, for the good laugh.  It truly is good, good medicine.

Good-byes

Good-byes can be strange things.  Sometimes we are very saddened by them...sometimes we have mixed feelings about them...and there are other times when they can be a happy occasion.  I had the chance to experience all of these feelings a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday, May 18th, my twin chocolate grandbabies went back to their biological mother.  My son and daughter-in-law had been fostering them since January 2011....so to say the least, they had my heart wrapped tightly around their little fingers.  They were a joy and my heart would burst with love and happiness when I would hear them squeal out for their "JuJu".  I have missed them so.  I am so very proud of my kids who have given them everything they could over these past 16 months.  They loved these babies as their own and spent many hours in doctors' offices and therapists' offices to help these little ones get their bodies back on track.  My heart goes out to them as they had to give "their children" back....not knowing what the future held for them.

On Saturday, May 19th, I said good-bye to my dad.  He left this earth 4 days before his 85th birthday.  He had been living in our home since last December.  We knew he was having some medical issues, but we found out in March that he had lung cancer that had mastesized in his brain.  A month and a half later, he was gone.

But these two good-byes were very different and very much the same.  I was ready for Dad to go home.  He was ready to go home.  It was very joyous in my home when Dad left his earthly body.  We knew he was standing face to face with Jesus and that he didn't have to deal with his ol' body that just didn't want to work anymore.  Of course we would miss him, but what a comfort to know God was taking every step with Dad and that they had an eternity together!

I wasn't ready for the babies to go.  I wanted them to stay...to be a part of my family....permenantly.  I didn't understand why they had to leave.  I didn't want to tell them good-bye.

But God was so very gracious.  On Monday, May 14th, I heard Him speaking to me very clearly.  He told me I was entering a week of "good-byes".  I knew what that meant.  I knew I would not only be telling Dad good-bye, but also my little chocolates.  But He just didn't stop there....He told me to trust Him and that He understood how I felt and that He really did have everything under control.  If I would rest in that, I could walk through a hard week with peace and joy.  And He was right......it was a week of peace and joy.

I wish I could say that the babies are back with us....that we are in the process of becoming their legal grandparents.  No, that's not the case.  It may happen one day....but then again, it may not.  But I can rest in this, that God loves those little ones much more than I could ever possibly love them.  He has big plans for them - and it may include me or it may not.  And if I just keep resting in that, I can walk through some pretty tough stuff with peace and joy.

Different types of good-byes - but one Heavenly Father who has it all under control.  Which means I can sit today with peace and joy.  Yeah, I'm good with that.

Superbook

The kids' ministry just completed a month long "competition" for the 1st - 6th graders. We call it Superbook. We divide into two teams, Red and Blue, and compete all month by answering questions from our "homework" and playing games. It is another one of the things I love to do with the kids.

Above you see a picture of all my volunteers that helped me this year. They were all coaches, except for Ref Dani and Brendon. These guys were the very best! They yelled, screamed, and cheered their team on. They ran races, got wrapped up in toilet paper, sat on balloons to pop them, did their homework, brought their Bibles, and emptied their piggy banks for our mission project. Brendon had music blaring, awesome graphics for our scores, and all kind of surprises for us when we would dance to our song! I could not have asked for better role models for our kids. And the kids couldn't have asked for anyone to make our last four Sundays more fun than these folks did for them.

I am so very thankful for these people. Yes, I am the Children's Pastor, but I can't pull off Superbook all by myself. But with my team.......it's pretty easy. Yep, I'm blessed.

Also, our kids did a fabulous job. They brought in 191 Box Tops for Education to give to our elementary school that we have adopted and they brought $398.53 to give to our Haitian missionaries who have a feeding program for the children there. Just so you know, most of that was in change....I know....I counted it all. :)

They are already asking when we can do it again. We usually do it once a year, but I'm not sure we can wait that long. We'll see........

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It took a little work, but all our men were able to get the 23rd off, so that was Christmas Day for us. It started with Ashlynn and the babies coming over in the morning in their pjs. I loved that! We had homemade cinnamon rolls still warm from the oven. Then we let the twins open their gifts. We did this because they were going to spend time with their mom and dad in just a little while. Didn't really care for them to leave, but we didn't have any say in that matter. After the little ones left, we opened up gifts and spent the rest of the day eating and playing. The babied joined us in the afternoon and the playing continued. After turkey or ham sandwiches for supper, the gang all loaded up the van and headed back to their house with 3 tired, but happy kids.

I wish I could post pictures of the babies....they are getting so big and are so adorable. But maybe, just maybe, one day they will be ours and we can post all the pictures we want. Until that day, though, we will do everything to protect them - including no pictures on public websites. So, even though there aren't any pictures of them......they were there.....being a part of our family.

Santa

This is one of my best buddies, Santa, a.k.a. Ron Myers. Doesn't he make a perfect Santa? And yes, the beard is real. The cool thing about this is you couldn't pick a person who would represent Santa better than Ron. I don't think I know of a man who is more gentle, kind, and loves kids with all his heart. So, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

My Christmas Tree

I've always had a real tree in my house for Christmas. I would try to find the biggest and the best every year. This has caused "tension" in our marriage as Wes would get frustrated trying to put these huge trees in stands that weren't big enough or have to cut off ridiculous amounts off the bottom of the tree because I got one that was too big. Or we would even wake up the next morning to find out tree laying on the ground. Every Christmas it was the same thing.

So after the boys had left home, I decided to put all the misery of the Christmas tree behind Wes. It just wasn't worth it. Why was I heaping all this on him? Christmas was supposed to be a happy time - and the Christmas tree event was not a happy time for him. So, we went out and bought a very beautiful aritificial one - prelit - 1200 lights. I had to admit, it was a very pretty tree considering it wasn't real. I didn't have the great pine smell in my house like I had with the real tree, but it was worth it. I was very pleased.

After several years, some of the lights didn't work. That was ok, we could put them towards the back, hang a few extra ornaments and hide the fact that they weren't working. However, this year, when we set up the tree, over 400 of our 1200 lights didn't light. Almost half of our tree was dark....hmmmm....this wasn't going to work. Wes worked hours trying to coax them into working. He changed bulbs, fuses, went one by one - but to no avail.

We decided to just add new lights to the tree. However, they didn't match well with the old ones and it was very hard to get them on the tree around the prelit ones. They kept getting all tangled up. We really still liked our tree and didn't want to get rid of it, so we decided to take off all the prelit lights and then replace them with our own.

Once we started trying to take the lights off, we realized that every light was held onto the tree by 2 clips (which had to be taken off with pliers). Do the math - that's 2400 clips. It took Wes and I 8 hours to take off all the lights. By that time, I was so frustrated, I told him to put it back in the box......don't even want to deal with it anymore. This is how my whole year had been - and I wasn't going to go through it with this stupid tree. So, we boxed it up and sent it back to the shed. We just weren't going to have a tree this year - whatever, that was par for our lives this year. Why would Christmas be any different?

After a couple of days, Wes and I came home from shopping and guess what? There was this beautiful decorated REAL tree in my house. Austin, Shawna, Ashlynn, and the babies had come to my house while I was away and set up a beautiful tree for me. My heart soared. My kids loved me enough and knew I needed a tree - even when I didn't know I needed it. They gave up their evening to go pick out a tree (in the rain and cold), buy a stand and lights, go to my house, set it up and decorate it.

I'm pretty sure this will be the best tree ever. I don't think you could ever top it. It's not that it's the most beautiful tree I've ever seen, but the love that eminates from it is staggering. Just another way God is present....He asked my kids to show me how much He loves me. I am overwhelmed.

Looking Back

A few weeks ago, Brendon invited Wes and I to go hear Dennis Jernigan in concert. Dennis is a modern day psalmist and we first heard of him in the early 1990's when we had just moved to the DFW area and were attending Restoration Church. Our worship leader at that time would sing many of Dennis' songs which ministered to our very dry and weary hearts.

Dennis began his concert that night with a great "oldie but goodie". One we used to sing all the time at Restoration. Then he began to share his heart and it was quite obvious that God was speaking to us through Dennis. Our hearts were so burdened and heavy that night. Dennis kept saying, "I usually don't sing this song at a concert....this is one of my songs that I just sing to the Lord. But I keep hearing God tell me I need to sing it tonight." He would sing his song, and Wes and I both could feel God washing our hearts, soothing the broken pieces and making His presence so real to us. The one song that touched me the most was titled, "It's Gonna Be Alright, Child." As I cried through the whole song, I kept asking, "Really, God? It really can be alright, because it sure doesn't seem like it can be." And He is right there - comforting and saying, "Yes...just trust me."

Then Dennis would go back and sing another song from the past. All of a sudden, God started showing me what all He had brought us through to get to the DFW area - from Wes stepping away from a very successful military career, to being hired at American Airlines, to leaving a denominational church which we both had grown up in to a church who sought after the Spirit, to pulling our kids out of school and homeschooling. It was amazing what He had done for us in a short time period. God kept saying, "I took good care of you then. You didn't think it could ever happen. And look how good it turned out. So, if I could do it back then and I've never let you down, I can get you through this one."

At the end of the concert, Dennis said something I have heard a million times, but it sunk in this time.....don't go back and live in the past - but go back and remember. Remember what God has done for you. We had the opportunity to go back and remember that night and we both walked out renewed. The fight was still ahead of us....but we remembered who was fighting for us. He had done it in the past and He was going to do this again.

How thankful we are that Brendon got tickets for us that night! Did he hear the Father tell him that his parents needed to be at that concert? I think so! I love to watch the Father work in my kids and watch them respond. It was an evening of incredibleness - not sure if that's a word but that's what it was.

It's Gonna Be Alright - Dennis Jernigan

It's gonna be alright, child
Even through the darkest night, child
I'll even use the darkness
To teach you how to hear Me

It's gonna be alright now
Even if you don't see how
I'll even use your failure
To help you to draw near Me

So, hear Me, I am calling
Child, come falling, deeper in love with Me
Trust Me, you must let go
Or you will never know, any deeper love in Me

It's gonna be alright, yeah
If you will let Me hold your heart near
I'll even use your sorrow
To teach you how to love Me

It's gonna be alright, child
I'll hold you really close and tight, child
I'll even use your worries
To help you know more of Me

So, hear Me, I am calling
Child, come falling deeper in love with Me
Trust Me, you must let go
Or you will never know any deeper love in Me

Why do you hold on to the things of your past?
Let go and cling to Me and love that will last
How can you know Me if you do not trust My love?
Let go - you'll find My love is more than enough

Hear Me, I am calling
Child, come falling deeoer in love with Me
Trust Me, you must let go
Or you will never know any deeper love in Me

And it will set you free

It's gonna be alright, now
Even if you don't see how
I'll even use your failure
to help you to draw near Me