Grandsons

This is a fun post...baby Isaiah and his mommy and daddy came to Montgomery to visit over Labor Day weekend! I was privileged to be there as well. What a fun time we had together. Isaiah is growing up and such a sweetheart! He is all boy! How did he get such a booming voice when his mommy and daddy are so mild-mannered and soft-spoken? He fills their days with laughter. Whenever I talk to Tiffany on the phone I can hear Isaiah in the background just jabbering on and on....and with great volume!

Speaking of grandsons, one morning Elijah was praying at the breakfast table. Crystal says that as he was praying he began to include a dialogue about Christmas. "Mommy is the shepherd, I'm the baby, Logan is Joseph and Daddy is....um...the cow. Amen." Hmmm....just wondering what happened to Mary in the whole scene?

Logan was playing baseball in the backyard with Elijah. They were talking about who they were. Elijah decided he was "Lefty" and their mommy asked, "Who is Babe Ruth?" Logan said, "Babe Ruth, Babe Ruth, Lonnie Bruce, Lonnie Bruce. Mommy, did Grandaddy play baseball?" She answered that he did and he was a catcher. Logan decided then and there, "I'm Lonnie Bruce!"

Jason told me a cute little story about our Judah. When the family prays and thanks God for their meals, Judah bows his head and holds their hands and prays with them. Throughout the prayer he yells out, "AMEN!" Jason says, "Sometimes I feel like I am at a pentecostal church in my home." Way to go, Judah!

And we have a new grandson coming in December! Yeah! More stories to tell.

What are Jason and Sunnie Barker going to have in March? Another boy or a little girl? I wonder....

Stella and Zoe...don't worry...I'll be telling stories on you soon! Take note!

A Note from Lola

My sister, Lola, her husband Keith with baby Michael and Grandma Anderson at the arch in St. Louis with Lonnie and Jeremy, Jason and me.

Lola and Keith were with us from the beginning....and are still walking along side our family offering comfort and support. They came to spend time with us in San Diego (pictured below with Benji, Jen and Zoe) and we are thankful for their love, prayers and encouragement.

Yesterday Lola sent me a verse and included in it were these words: "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all who wait for the LORD!"

These same words were part of Pastor Mike Rippy's sermon last Sunday. He has been going through the book of Ecclesiastes which has been very inspiring and perfect for these times. One of the verses he highlighted was Ecclesiastes 10:10 which reads, "If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success." He stressed that we need to develop the skills of obeying God, being strong and courageous, facing the future with hope, faith and not fear, and develop the skill of adding to what others have done before us.

We have choices to make everyday. Let's choose wisely. The "little" choices we make today greatly affect our tomorrows.

And, just for fun, I leave you with one of Lonnie's favorite quotes from the musical, The Music Man. It illustrates perfectly why the choices we make today are so important.

Marian Paroo: Maybe tomorrow.
Harold Hill: Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering.

Happy Birthday to a Sweet Little Girl

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Zoe!

Happy Birthday to you!

It seems only yesterday you were born and now you are growing up and learning so much. You sing, talk, dance, paint, praise Jesus, take care of your babies, have tea parties, and a bubbly birthday party too!

We love you, sweetheart! You bring so much life and joy to our hearts and we celebrate that God gave you to your parents and to all of us! You bless our hearts!

Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so...

I'm singing with you, Zoe!

A Single Rose

Back on January 31, 2010, Tiffany and I went out to visit Lonnie's grave site. A single rose with a rosary had been placed there. I don't know who left it but it touched my heart and I am thankful for the friends I know and those I do not know who love our Lonnie. A couple of days later, I was talking to Jason and he mentioned that one of his and Sunnie's friends had written a tribute in Lonnie's honor and had given it to them. He read it to me over the phone and also sent me a copy:

A Single Rose Fell

by Jaclyn Heistand

My bare feet step upon the cement with assurance. Heat from the sidewalk radiates through my skin, warm enough to keep my stride from lulling. It feels good. I feel good.

I walk with confidence. Hope is my guide, and I am running on faith. With my head lifted, I walk.

Don't be fooled, for it isn't pride that I wear, but a sure confidence in Christ. This is how it is.

Then...it happens, that as I walk, something comes to lay in my path. It is, that as I step, I come along a single yellow rose in the middle of the sidewalk.

I stop. I peer down, and I stare at the rose.

I am unaware of my knees bending. I am unaware of my strength leaving me. I am unaware of the heat biting my feet. The ground beneath me shakes suddenly and quickly I fall to the walk. It is also, for a moment, that I fall from that place of assurance.

With my palms on the cement, I steady myself.

The yellow rose is still there. I ponder that rose. The tarnish of age has not yet touched its petals. The blossom lay open in its full display of beauty. I look for its purpose there and cannot find any, but only as if it fell lonely and alone from off the bush that bore it. My eyes dart around, looking for the bush, and it is there. With other yellow blossoms leaning in my direction.

No, they were leaning towards the rose. Truly? Were they bowing?

I stare at the scene in front of me. This one beautiful rose, alone, and now gone with no life, fallen apart from where it belonged. And the others, still left, bowing down in mourning.

My heart aches in what I cannot change, and in what I cannot do, and in what I now miss. What a fall I have taken as I mourn. My stride is no more. I now sink deeper into the ground, my head bowed.

I cry out for my hope, for my blessed assurance. And He hears me. And I feel His tears fall upon me even as I am held.

Forever I will ponder on the life of that rose and certainly in its end. I seek now to walk again. I stand slowly, my legs tremble. I don't want to lift my head, but I do.

Cautiously, my foot steps forward.

(When Jason read the title to me, in my mind's eye, I immediately pictured a red rose. How remarkable that the flower we found just two days prior was a yellow rose placed there by someone who knew and loves Lonnie and at the same time someone on the other side of the country who had never met him would write about a yellow rose and honor our Lonnie in such a loving, heartfelt way).

Our Father is holding us in His hands and is walking with us as we take each step moving forward......and we know our Lonnie has moved forward to be with Him in heaven......just a breath away!

We can see his smiling face even now....and remember the many times when he sang praise to our Lord here on earth including the words "blessed assurance, Jesus is mine." (Another thing our new friend in Washington did not know....Lonnie's favorite hymn was Blessed Assurance.)

So thankful for that blessed assurance and we join you, Lonnie, in "praising our Savior all the day long."