Well, it’s 2008… so Happy New Year everyone! We’re glad (in a lot of ways) that 2007 is now over, and that we have a fresh start with this coming year. While we had a lot of wonderful, wonderful things happen in 2007 it was, overall, what we’re choosing to call a “faith building year.“
2007 started out with our decision to move to Albuquerque starting to become reality with our house beginning to be built (a good thing). We had decided to move out here around December of 2006… just before Christmas… and it was God’s hand that led us to do it for sure. Things just fell into place to make the move very obvious, and as much as we hated the fact we’d be leaving friends and family (including church family) behind in Springfield, it would’ve been selfish and unfaithful for us to stay. Faith building #1.
We had just came back from Christmas (and house planning) in Albuquerque last January when the great ice storm of 2006 hit Springfield. It knocked us (personally) out of power, internet and phone for 10 days. We were finally, and thankfully able to get have internet access and let our clients know what was going on. I believe the ice storm, however, was a faith building experience for everyone in the Springfield area.
It wasn’t long after that we made our trip back to Texas to attend our good friend Amber’s Mom’s (Hermion) funeral. Her mom had struggled with cancer for basically as long as Celeste had known Amber and it was, in many ways, a relief to see her finally go home. The funeral truly began with “fun” and while there was crying and sadness there was joy and praise for her life and the gift she still is to Amber’s family, and to all of us. It was another faith building time though.
Then Granny Rose, the spitfire, piano playing, very active mother of Celeste’s mom, had 2 strokes. We were really worried about her for a while, and worried too that she wasn’t going to recover to her full self. God answered our prayers in the way we hoped He would and she is doing much, much better now… but it was a faith building time for sure.
There didn’t seem to be anything else that could happen. It wasn’t even 3 months into 2007 and all this had happened already… then, while we were on the road one day we got a call that Celeste’s brother had been diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. While this is “the best” kind of cancer you can have if you’re going to have it it is still cancer and it was yet another thing to lay at the feet of the Lord. He was gracious to us all yet again and healed him completely from it.
It wasn’t long after that my older brother Barry’s wife Sheila unexpectedly passed away one morning in April. Barry was, understandably, beside himself with grief, and it was a time for family to stand next to him and with him through it all. Our oldest brother Leland did a great job of representing this correctly at the funeral when he said, “Isn’t it great to be able to get together for such a wonderful event?” We know, without a doubt, that Shelia is with the Lord now, along with Amber’s mom. While her funeral had a much more somber mood than Hermion’s it was an amazing funeral because Shelia wrote most of it herself. While she didn’t know when she was going to go home, she knew that she wasn’t long for this earth and she planned accordingly. Barry even pointed out that she had written “Lord willing” on the calendar for a planned trip to Oregon. The whole thing gave us all, as a family, to represent things the way they should be… and Shelia helped us before going to get the right start. It elevated my opinion of her a great, great deal… and helped our faith become stronger for sure.
Among all this we had plenty of reason for worldly celebrations as well… such as the wedding of Cari & Jeremy. And, back in January we had the wedding of my sister Janelle and Maxx. We also had a record year with Park East (our business), so there was a lot to smile about too… but it seemed that we constantly had something new to add to the prayer list at church.
Recently it was the final days of our dear family friend “Aunt” Melissa. The day we got to Albuquerque Celeste’s mom got a call that Melissa was on her final days. She had suffered with MD for many, many years, and we knew that she was ready to go home as well… however, it didn’t make it easy, especially for Celeste’s mom who was there with her for the entire week until the Lord gathered her up. In the nursing home she lived in for many years she always kept a red cord on her door… a symbol of the hope she had that the Lord was faithful and that He was going to one day come back and escort her home. That red cord was still there on the day that He did just that… and was then given to Celeste. A treasure, and testimony, to what a faithful, Spirit filled, life can do; hope and wait on the Lord.
With all this behind us we were ready to continue in prayer when we found out that Celeste’s dad Dan had his 6th and 7th kidney stones simultaneously. He went in to surgery a few weeks ago and then about 2 weeks ago had to go back in because of complications. He wasn’t doing well at all for a few days… and we were all honestly pretty concerned… but worry didn’t take hold of us because we knew that God is faithful and no matter the outcome we, and Dan, was in His hands. Thankfully, yet again, God showed His grace and Dan is doing very well now. He still needs to pass the final stone, but he is himself again, and we pray that we all have many, many more years together.
God is good… we have no doubt of that. He hears us… we have no doubt of that. And whether it was one of the times that didn’t turn out like we’d like, or one of the times what we hoped for coincided with what He saw fit to give us, our faith was strengthened through every single experience, “good,” or “bad,” that happened all year.
We look forward to what 2008 brings, and hope that God will grant us another full year together, as well as many, many after that. We praise God and thank Him for all He does and is… and have faith that this year will show His love for us yet again, and will carry us through whatever we happen to encounter always providing all we need.
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