How He Loves

The crickets have returned.

The sky was navy blue and Orion appeared to say hello.

The sun was gone and it was 8:53pm.

I walked down the driveway. I could only see it because I knew where it was at.

Crickets, an occasional horse-cough and my flip-flops were the only noises heard.

The only lights were those of the stars and the blinking tower across the road.

As I stood in the curve of the driveway and listened to whooper-wills and looked at the stars, everything was saying the same thing:

God has brought about spring once again!

The air smelled like grass and freshly plowed dirt ready for corn. My arms welcomed the 70 degree breeze that floated by. My feet were happy to show off their pink toes in my flip-flops.

Spring is coming!

Winter is ending!

God's voice is drifting through the woods saying, 
"Wake up. It is time to dance and sing...for me!"

Thank you, Lord, that spring is coming! Thank you for the hope it gives us! Thank you for your faithfulness to us and the beautiful gift of spring!    

And the little boy was answered...

Once upon a time a brown eyed  baby was born in an Army hospital in Kentucky. Shortly thereafter she moved to Florida. She lived there until she was twelve years old. She spent summers at Grandpa and Grandma's house in Georgia. They lived on a dirt road and went to a small Baptist church. Back in Florida she watched her dad build dragsters and paint flames onto hot rods.

She wanted run a service station and pump all the gas.

Then her dad, wanting to take his family to a safer place, moved the family to Georgia. She lived next door to Grandpa and Grandma when dad was through with their house. She had left everything she knew and that was all she wanted. Yes, the mountains are beautiful, but the beach and salt wind were her stomping grounds. She worked hard in school. She worked hard on everything she took part in.

She loved Biology. So she decided to become a doctor and live on the beach.

And then she met a young man with green eyes and calloused hands. He supported her and loved. He took her seriously. He loved her and she loved him, and his crazy family, in return. In this, she gave up her dream of living by the beach; falling asleep to the sound of the waves. She fell in love with a mountain man. It was cold December day and it was the evening of the 20th that they promised to love each other until they died.

She was in college learning how to become a teacher.

But she wanted to quite. She wanted to get a job at the bakery she drove past everyday. She wanted to have a baby. He didn't want her to quite and he wouldn't let her. He wanted a family too, but he knew it would come in due time. She didn't quite. And didn't have a baby, either.

And then she graduated and a year later fell in love with a swaddled-pacifier-sucking Christmas present.

She began teaching and taking her babe to the sweet little lady babysitter. Doesn't sound to hard, right? Three years later, right before the firecrackers started in July God gave her own firecracker right on the due date. She didn't want to leave another baby. She wanted to be with her babies. And her green-eyed hero granted her her wishes.

A little boy once asked a small girl what she wanted to be when she grew up.
The small girl answered, "Well, I want to be a nurse, a cook, a race car driver, a teacher, a hostess."
"There is no way you can do all that stuff!" was the little boy's response.
"A mommy is all of those things," is all the small girl had to reply to suffice the little boy. 

My Mommy is all of those things and more, and my Daddy knows it. My Daddy loves her and she loves him.

I love you, Mommy and Daddy!
Love,
Leah-Joy.

Today I Am Grateful

I am not grateful everyday, but I should be.

Today I am very grateful.

Only thirty minutes away from my house in a valley, a tornado gave a party.

It danced and sang.

And it left a mess of destruction as a party favor.

Homes are gone.

The place where laughter, food, and goodnight-kisses were given,
are a heap of sadness and suffering now.

Work places are gone.

Where men and women provided for their families,
ate sandwiches with their friends, and stayed till after 5:00 when they didn't have to.

Nothing was taken from me.
My home is still here, my daddy is still working.

I thank God that we are safe. That our brown couch is still our brown couch.
The Avenger cups are still in the cabinet and my tooth paste is where it belongs.

If you were not touched by the tornado I hope that you praise God for that.
And ask Him what you can for those that were forced to host the party that it threw.

If you were touched, torn, or bruised and battered, I want you to know that I am praying for you and so are others.

I pray that God gives you strength, endurance to the end, hope, peace, and rest when you need it. 

Nine Strawberry Cookies

Friendship can't be explained on the rim of a picture frame with a few fluffy words.

Friendship isn't a couple movie nights and dress up parties.

Friendship isn't just texting and smiley faces. 

Friendship isn't picking up the tab because you can.

Friendship isn't gifts and smooth-sailing.

Friendship is baking salted caramel oat bars and seeing the being joy in the midst of it.

Friendship is saying, "Lets eat at home and watch a Redbox. I'm broke."

Friendship is holding hands during Les Miserables and putting your heads together in the sad parts.

Friendship is bits of encouragement fused together by God to give you hope in the next chapter of your life!

Friendship is touching toes and being OK with it.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”  -- C.S. Lewis

Friendship is nine strawberry cookies.

My friends, dear sweet ladies,

I praise God that you are my friends. I praise Him for giving me true friendship in you! I pray that God gives you the strength to face whatever this year may bring! Be it a trial you did not expect or a blessing you do not understand! Just like Paul told the people of Philipi, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."

Love,

Your Friend.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

    She is woman from whom grace and mercy flow out of because she has been filled to brim with them. She washes, feeds, and teaches all her children whether or not they are still at home. Her left arm is stronger than her right arm from years of holding babies and toddlers. She rarely ever paints her nails because it never stays on long in the dishwater. Seeing her read her Bible in the morning, getting her strength from her Heavenly Father, is a picture of peace. She has a laughter that starts at her toes, revs up in her soul and then bursts through her lips. She is a mother figure to all who love her. She is Deboo to some, Deborah to her friends, Momma Debbie to many, and Mommy to me. She walks me to my car as I head out for school and asks how she can pray for me that day. Just like the woman is Proverbs 31, my daddy praises my mommy. She is woman who “acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with her God.” Micah 6:8 With a clean sink at 6:30 in the evening, she shows my daddy, in just a small way, how much she loves him. That is where he likes to wash his hands when he comes in from work so she has it prepared for him. My mother is a beautiful woman. She is a woman who serves people with her soul. She is woman that is mothering orphans. But because of her love and obedience to her heavenly Father, they are no longer orphans. 

I am blessed in a colossal amount to have this woman as my mommy! 

Thank you, Lord, for bringing her into the world on this day! Thank you for making her my mommy!

I love you, Mommy! I hope you have had a wonderful birthday! 

She Is My Sister

    She has hands that know the meaning of work, care and love. Her perfectly shaped and Austrian chocolate colored eyes seem to smile before her lips turn, but they have seen so much and pierced through the heart of her new family. Her plump lips aren't often in a smile. My Daddy had to teach her how to pick on him. She didn't like it at first but then it made her smile to poke him. She has waited on a forever family for four years.

    When anyone else would have lost hope, she held on.
When anyone else would have wondered if they were ever going to get to go home, she had patience.
     
         After seeing child after child and baby after baby go home with their mommies, she had faith.
After holding on, embodying patience and never loosing faith...

God has decided, in wonderful mercy, to give her to this crazy, Southern family that can't wait for her homecoming!

 Marigrace and Jim at a cookout hosted by their wonderful church!

 Grandmother and Uncle Keith this spring

 Noel and me at Christmas 2011

 Hope with her spaghetti bread at Christmas

 JubiLee teaching a friend/sister a piano song

 Jesse, Will and JubiLee blowing balloons at Easter

 Hope, Whitney-Faith and Marigrace "teaching" our friend, Jessie, to group waltz.

 Marigrace coming home from New York!

             

            And two of the craziest people in the world: My parents! 

I thank God for the tenacity in the faith, their boldness in obedience and their love for life inside God's will.

1979

I can't say enough about these two people.

They are strong, courageous, faithful...

gentle.

They never give up.

They never don't do what God wants them to do.

They. do. it.

Hard or not.

They love GOD,

they love people.

And they are my parents.

I don't know why God gave them to me,

but I am grateful He did.

I don't know where I would be

or

what I would do if...

God hadn't put them together in March of 1979.

And brought them here.

And made them my parent's.

Two people who have never given up on me.

The Embodiment of Strength

That is what this little bundle of joy.

Strength.

She is full of hugs and kisses, ready to share, or to just give away and never, NEVER expect ANYTHING back.

She is full of hope and perserverance.

She trusted and loved strangers that she embraced as family.

She didn't give up when she didn't understand a word we were saying, "What in the world is this spaghetti stuff you are feeding me?" is what she was probably thinking.

But she ate our food, she gave her hugs annd kisses to us; her hope spread out and filled our hearts.

She has taught me how to be Christ's hands and feet. How to wash the dishes and sweep the floor with spunk.

She laughs and you can't help but laugh with her.

She is a child; she is my sister. And oh, how grateful I am God gave her to me. Why he chose her to love me, I don't know but I am thankful for her!

We have our older sister/little sister moments but thats part of being sisters. We are kind of like sandpaper for each other. We rub off the rough spots on one another. She dances wether in a ballet outfit or jeans and we dance with her (or both).

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:6-8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jO7xhU_Pw