My bloggin' days have suffered any updates, but I'm moving past that guilt. Praise His merciful, faithful name, God was unsparing in His presence among us at Harold's funeral!
Harold died on Sept 21, following a 3-week struggle resulting from his stroke. Jesus saw he was getting tired and a cure was not to be. So He put His arms around him and whispered, "Come with Me."
Thus starts the funeral procession before the funeral procession. It only took me 3 hours to pack up Kevin's sister Jane (who suffers with Alzheimers). Jane did okay with the travel and funeral, etc. But even as we left Kentucky, she thought we were leaving the family reunion and wondered if that was Harold/Viv in the truck ahead of us!
Kevin did an AMAZING job at giving his brother's eulogy. Everyone was blessed. Everyone. It was like being at service, and then ... oh yeah, you remembered you were at a funeral. God covered him as he spoke. He tied in the good, the bad, and the ugly as only the touch of the Holy Spirit can do. Is it any wonder? It is such a privilege to live under God's faithfulness!
At the service end, I joined my Harley Hubby at the casket to greet the line of final goodbye's. It made me do what I HATE to do in public: the UGLY cry. Geez, I hate that! Nobody looks good doing that. But after Kevin delivered the absolute best message to document and celebrate a life lived, there was no hope of gettin' out of the UGLY cry.
Kevin has burned up the highways making 4 trips to KY to see his brother. His knee hasn't had any time at all to properly heal, and Kevin has certainly paid the price. But again, I'm reminded who paid the ultimate price!
I've learned that it is no coincidence that we were dealing with so much personal stuff lately. Isn't it wonderful that God is IN our lives, and not just there at the END of our lives? He is SO worthy of our trust in every stinkin' detail! In the end, it's BLISS. Forever BLISS. But until then, we can dang' well decide how we're gonna "deal with stuff" till we get there! Dealing with stuff is just a stepping stone to holy!
This past year I have said this 1000 times and I'll make it 1001. You will never meet another face on the planet that has been graced more than me! One thing I am taking home with me from Kentucky is loss. Harold will be missed. And for this season-of-time, I am going to shout to whomever will listen to my face, there is no such thing as serving in obscurity when you belong to Jesus. He is attentive to your labor. He is attentive to your CRY. It MATTERS.
Sweet peoples, there is NO ONE on earth God notices more than you. He knows that the situation you are in is not the easiest place on the planet to serve Him, but He sees you doing the thing day-in and day-out. Thank goodness we have an example of a man after God's own heart.
Good Bye Harold. Forever BLISS is yours!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
SHOPshewana Trip
I've been meaning to post some pics from our August motorcycle trip to Shipshewana, which turned into SHOPshewana after ordering a new kitchen table and chairs from the Amish Furniture Shop! Still waiting on our order ... oh darn, we will have to go back with our trailer to pick it up! Mercy me, whatever shall we do except make the drive ... sigh!? (wink wink) Here, Lynn is talking to Mr. Ed .... I think.
A 3 hour trip took 5 hours (but who's counting)! This was a necessary stop - DQ! Smiling bikers! Lynn/Bear ... Rick/Karen ... where's K&K?
Mr. K ... checking into the hotel ...
Tired and hot biker babe ...
Refreshed after eating at the BlueGate. Did anyone say Beef Manhatten, Fried Chicken, and all the fixin's? Naw ... I just heard someone say AMEN!
Lynn had a chance to visit with her bro .. who lives a hop skip and jump away. Nice little family reunion!
God's green thumb ...
Happy biker Chic's ...
Me & my honey, walking thru the "tunnel of luvvvv"!
A 3 hour trip took 5 hours (but who's counting)! This was a necessary stop - DQ! Smiling bikers! Lynn/Bear ... Rick/Karen ... where's K&K?
Mr. K ... checking into the hotel ...
Tired and hot biker babe ...
Refreshed after eating at the BlueGate. Did anyone say Beef Manhatten, Fried Chicken, and all the fixin's? Naw ... I just heard someone say AMEN!
Lynn had a chance to visit with her bro .. who lives a hop skip and jump away. Nice little family reunion!
God's green thumb ...
Happy biker Chic's ...
Me & my honey, walking thru the "tunnel of luvvvv"!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wordy Words and Inspirational Words
It's Friday night, and I'm ready to snuggle with my foam pillow here in a little minute so I can start a 3-day weekend fresh as a daisy! I decided to blogaroonie a bit before I hit the hay, because I love ya and my head is full of Wordy Words.
1. Today I'm reminded how much I enjoy my intimate friends. To qualify for intimate friendship you must care, for example, about very important things like whether or not she is using a new Bath & Body cream or if she wore almost the exact same shirt as you on a given day. It could just be my imagination that Karen & I showed up at work today in such a predicament. But in case you are wearing a shades-of-blue tie die shirt today, then I'm afraid we are indeed intimate friends. I'm hoping it's a two-way street here!
2. I’ll have you know that yours truly was FORCED to finish off the remaining Chocolate Zucchini Cake this week! A simple cake doesn’t even begin to say thank you for all the love we received throughout Kevin's surgery, but I offer it humbly! Mr. Stubborn continues to do too much, but we did get a good report from the doctor earlier this week. They took x-rays and showed us a before/after comparison and WOW, what a difference! I don’t let him off the hook though --- I tell him that just because his knee “mug shot” is good doesn’t mean he has free reign to tear it up again! God did not grace Kevin with a subtle wife. So the next day, he went to work. And yesterday morning, he drove himself to Bowling Green, Kentucky ….
3. I will list this one as part of the Wordy Words, but it is not light-hearted. Kevin's brother, Harold, is not doing well following the massive stroke he had a week ago. They were able to do surgery and remove the clot, but he is non-responsive and paralyzed on his right side. His heart rate and blood pressure is not stable and he is struggling to breath. Kevin wanted to get there. We had planned to leave Saturday and take Kevin’s sister (Jane has Alzheimer's and we take care of her). So Kevin went on by himself, and I will bring Jane down on Saturday. Not sure if we’ll be going to the hospital or to a funeral. Only our Heavenly Father knows. I’m glad Kevin made it.
Oh my heavenly mercy! It's almost time for me to say good-night to O'Malley the monster cat and snooze in preparation for my 3-day weekend. I know you prolly feel cheated that I can't go on, so how about a final word of the inspirational type.
1. My nose has been in the precious word of God, because me and my intimate friends (that means you too) have endured pain in our lives. In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah did this. She went through an excruciating personal journey in infertility and the relationships in her life were chaos! She prayed so hard, Eli thought she was drunk! That is sad because he judged her. Isn’t prayer the best way to react to situations in life? We should seek God’s face with passion and emotion! Well, Hannah poured out her heart – just like Kay is doing. It’s okay to ask for healing of the body against disease. It’s okay to plead with God to mend a crushed heart. Praise God that we can take our griefs to God – He can handle it! Well, God remembered Hannah and blessed her. I’m SO thankful that God included Hannah’s story, to bring us hope when we pray and cry out to Him. I have been praying and crying out for my own situations! We HAVE to remember to keep it real with our lives, just like Hannah did!
2. I am learning that worry is just another way of saying that God can't handle His job.
3. Our "Chaos" bible study begins next week and I can't wait to hang with the gang again. I'm sure God has big plans for "Finding Calm in Life's Chaos" by Becky Harling. Calm sounds good to me right now. Where on earth would we be without God and His word? Lord, have mercy! Honestly, I believe with all my beating heart that God wants us to talk about our fears, solutions, and taking chances for God. That, my intimate friends, will keep us busy and smack dab in the middle of each other’s business!!
Okay, I'm snoozing. I pray that our very big wonderful loving God of all the universe will do something very big wonderful in your 3-days of labor-rest, perhaps something with Wordy Words or perhaps something inspirational inside your sweet self!
1. Today I'm reminded how much I enjoy my intimate friends. To qualify for intimate friendship you must care, for example, about very important things like whether or not she is using a new Bath & Body cream or if she wore almost the exact same shirt as you on a given day. It could just be my imagination that Karen & I showed up at work today in such a predicament. But in case you are wearing a shades-of-blue tie die shirt today, then I'm afraid we are indeed intimate friends. I'm hoping it's a two-way street here!
2. I’ll have you know that yours truly was FORCED to finish off the remaining Chocolate Zucchini Cake this week! A simple cake doesn’t even begin to say thank you for all the love we received throughout Kevin's surgery, but I offer it humbly! Mr. Stubborn continues to do too much, but we did get a good report from the doctor earlier this week. They took x-rays and showed us a before/after comparison and WOW, what a difference! I don’t let him off the hook though --- I tell him that just because his knee “mug shot” is good doesn’t mean he has free reign to tear it up again! God did not grace Kevin with a subtle wife. So the next day, he went to work. And yesterday morning, he drove himself to Bowling Green, Kentucky ….
3. I will list this one as part of the Wordy Words, but it is not light-hearted. Kevin's brother, Harold, is not doing well following the massive stroke he had a week ago. They were able to do surgery and remove the clot, but he is non-responsive and paralyzed on his right side. His heart rate and blood pressure is not stable and he is struggling to breath. Kevin wanted to get there. We had planned to leave Saturday and take Kevin’s sister (Jane has Alzheimer's and we take care of her). So Kevin went on by himself, and I will bring Jane down on Saturday. Not sure if we’ll be going to the hospital or to a funeral. Only our Heavenly Father knows. I’m glad Kevin made it.
Oh my heavenly mercy! It's almost time for me to say good-night to O'Malley the monster cat and snooze in preparation for my 3-day weekend. I know you prolly feel cheated that I can't go on, so how about a final word of the inspirational type.
1. My nose has been in the precious word of God, because me and my intimate friends (that means you too) have endured pain in our lives. In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah did this. She went through an excruciating personal journey in infertility and the relationships in her life were chaos! She prayed so hard, Eli thought she was drunk! That is sad because he judged her. Isn’t prayer the best way to react to situations in life? We should seek God’s face with passion and emotion! Well, Hannah poured out her heart – just like Kay is doing. It’s okay to ask for healing of the body against disease. It’s okay to plead with God to mend a crushed heart. Praise God that we can take our griefs to God – He can handle it! Well, God remembered Hannah and blessed her. I’m SO thankful that God included Hannah’s story, to bring us hope when we pray and cry out to Him. I have been praying and crying out for my own situations! We HAVE to remember to keep it real with our lives, just like Hannah did!
2. I am learning that worry is just another way of saying that God can't handle His job.
3. Our "Chaos" bible study begins next week and I can't wait to hang with the gang again. I'm sure God has big plans for "Finding Calm in Life's Chaos" by Becky Harling. Calm sounds good to me right now. Where on earth would we be without God and His word? Lord, have mercy! Honestly, I believe with all my beating heart that God wants us to talk about our fears, solutions, and taking chances for God. That, my intimate friends, will keep us busy and smack dab in the middle of each other’s business!!
Okay, I'm snoozing. I pray that our very big wonderful loving God of all the universe will do something very big wonderful in your 3-days of labor-rest, perhaps something with Wordy Words or perhaps something inspirational inside your sweet self!
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