This post if for you, Stephanie Burley! :-) Annie Profitt--10 days old

Goodbye Gramps...

My Gramps walked into the adirondack woods last Wednesday with my Uncle Jim's dog Cherokee.  Cherokee came out alone.  My Gramps who loved the outdoors just a little less than God and his family, died snowshoeing in the woods he loved. We all had said for years that he was going to die that way and yet it was pretty amazing to know we were right.  My Uncle Jim said it was a perfect winter day.  The sun was shining, the snow was gently falling and I have no doubt my Gramps was loving every step he took. 

My Gramps was very, very special to me.  He was a truly unique, one of a kind person.  He was easily the smartest person I have ever known.  He was a pastor who walked away from God and his family.  But the good news is...he came back.  The mercy and forgiveness of our Heavenly Father has never been more evident than in the life of my Gramps. 

I feel so very blessed that my cousin got married 2 weeks before my Gramps died and I was able to spend three days with him.  I was able to add some more precious memories to my already large stash.

One of the last time I saw my Gramps was at my Gram's funeral in April.  He wasn't feeling well and I was very scared that he was going to be gone maybe before we even left.  A few of us were gathered in Gram's big living room and an inpromptu hymn sing broke forth.  My grandfather had a beautiful tenor voice and I loved to hear him sing.  After one hymn, Gramps stood to his feet and stated, "This song is my Testimony" and he started to sing the song below.  What a beautiful testimony of a man who had come full circle and who is now sitting at the right hand of the God he loved so much.

Christ is not a Disappointment

I have found no satisfaction
In the fleeting joys of earth.
I have hewed me broken cisterns 
That have mocked me by their dearth
All the springs my soul had tested
Failed to meet my deepest need
Christ alone has met my longing
He has satisfied indeed.

I have tried the world for pleasure
But it could not satisfy
Though it promised much it failed me
All its wells and springs were dry;
Everything I tried was empty
And I thought that life was vain.
But He came and tuned my heartstrings
And I learned to sing again.

I was tempted not to trust Him
For so many things had failed
But so patiently He waited
and His tenderness prevailed
So I swung my hearts door open
And His promises I tried
Christ is not a disappointment
He has fully satisfied.

Christ is not a disappointment every longing in my breast.  Finds in Him complete fulfillment He has brought me into rest.  I have tested Him and proved Him more than all I dreamed He'd be; Christ is not a disappointment, He is all in all to me.

Been a while...again!

My sister wanted me to check something out on someones blog and when I signed in, I was a bit shocked at how long ago my last post was....wow! Thought I better give a quick update to my last blog.



My cousin, Shane, made it out of the hospital shortly before Christmas. He had to have extensive phyisical therapy to learn to walk again. To be honest, I believe he is a walking, talking miracle today. Its amazing (and I am so thankful!) the mercy that God has on those who don't even know Him!



My Grandmother passed away in April. It was so very sad and yet, an amazing peace and contentment pervaded our family's togetherness during that time. We miss her but are so happy to know she has made Heaven her home. Unexpectedly, a couple weeks ago, she welcomed her little 5 day old, great grandson, Marshall Williston Lum, into Heaven as well. I know it was a comfort to his parents to know she was there with him.



From what I understand from her mom's posts, Little Annie Thompson is currently in remission. Another miracle!!!

So its been almost a year and 2 out of the 3 prayer requests are miracles! Thats a pretty good percentage people! We knew at the time of my post that Gram was ready to go and what a miracle entering Heaven must have been. She definitely got a "well done, thou good and faithful servant!" and I like to think she is holding a precious little baby boy in her arms and enjoying Heaven with him, in all its perfection.

Prayer

My cousin Shane and his dad, my Uncle Bill


Julie and her little Annie.



My Aunt Nomie, my mom and My Gram

I know, I know, I know! I have not updated my blog in far too long. I have gotten caught up in facebook and it is all to easy to go and read all the status updates and forgot about the deeper blog world! But tonight I wanted to share a little bit deeper stuff than just a status update. My cousin Shane is in the ICU in Grand Rapids, MI right now. He has double pneumonia, and H1N1 on top of that. He is literally fighting for his life. I have a Grandma who was told a couple of weeks ago, that there is nothing they can do to fight her cancer, and to go home and live the rest of her life to the best of her ability. Many of you know Bart and Julie Thompson. They found out 10 months ago that their baby girl, Annie, has neuroblastoma--a very dangerous cancer. So, why am I telling you these things? In each one of these situations, prayer support from the family of Christ is paramount. As I was scrolling through facebook tonight and reading all the comments that my friends have left on my status that asked for prayer for my cousin, I was brought to tears. It is so incredible to know that there are so many people out there who are willing to hold my cousin, whom most of them do not know, up in prayer to our heavenly Father. When you go and look at the website dedicated to praying for Annie, you will see there is an incredible amount of prayer support going up for that family and little Annie. When I read Julie's updates on her little Annie, I can hardly imagine what their family must be going through. Her posts always bring tears to my eyes. I am not a parent...but I can only imagine the pain and heartache that they are dealing with, but I know that they have a HUGE army of people praying for them all the time! Some of the things she has said in her posts are so powerful! In fact, here is a little excerpt from one of them..."However God chooses to use her she will be healed - a healing here on earth where we can all see her and marvel in what God has done or a heavenly healing that we cannot see right now but will be His perfect will and who could deny her to be able to walk, talk, see well, hear, touch, smell, and have a perfect body! We love her so much it hurts but God loves her and us even more." Those are the words of a woman who knows what faith and trust in God is all about. She also a woman who is prayed for every day..maybe even every hour. My Gram, as far as I can tell, has a peace about her that passes understanding. She KNOWS where she is headed and she knows its a beautiful thing. She has lived an amazingly dedicated life. She is an example of someone who took a lot of hard knocks in life and kept on trusting God. When she dies the world will lose an incredible person! We are going to miss her SO much! We as her family, need the prayer to deal with the loss of a wonderful grandmother and Mom. My cousin's family does not know much about prayer, but they are definitely learning that they need to rely on a Power greater than themselves. The point is...Isn't it great to be a Christian? We have such strength when we all pull together for the same cause. I think that sometimes we forget how wonderful it is to have a Christian family. What would we do without each other? Sometimes I think we get so caught up in annoyances and disagreements that happen. Forget the little annoyances and disagreements! Do they really matter? We NEED each other! Its a beautiful thing and its a beautiful way to live!

A sunflower day....

Jade--2

There is a big field of sunflowers near us so we took all my nieces to get some pics.

How funny is this pic?!  Those two girls.........

Emma--4

Maria--22 Months

Kasey--5

Kristina--9

Isabel--7

Visiting the Grandparents!

I was trying to get a pic of my grandma and her daughters, when my uncle Jim's dog, Bailey, decided she should be in the pic, which in turn created much laughter all around.

Uncle Paul and me.  Sweet, sweet uncle Paul.

My wonderful Gram!

Aunt Nomie, Mom, and Gram

My Gramps and I on top of Whiteface.

A bear paw mark on a tree on bear den mountain...yes it made me a bit nervous.....

This view is just off my Aunt's road.  

Hiking with Dad and Gramps!

Love him!  

It rained A LOT the whole time I was there.  So finally we just decided to go on a hike anyway.  It stopped raining and when we got to the top, we were treated with a beautiful rainbow!

I was able to go and visit my Grandparents in upstate, NY, this last week. First, I have to say, it is such a beautiful place up there! So peaceful and beautiful you can feel it! :-) I have gone on vacation there my entire life. My mom's whole family lives there, so as you can imagine that was the chosen vacation spot. As I have gotten older, I have not been able to visit as often and that means that I hardly ever get to see my grandparents. A while back, my Gramps was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and in April this year my Grandma found out she has cancer. I have to tell you, up til now, my grandparents have been the picture of health. My grandma worked full time into her seventies and actually retired one week before she found out she had cancer. So, we don't really know what the future holds for either of my grandparents and I knew that I wanted to get up there to see them as soon as possible. I had such a good time. I love those two people. There really is just no one like them in the world. My Grandpa took me on some long hikes and taught me more than I could possibly remember about every little plant, tree and flower that we saw. Its pretty incredible to be taken up a mountain by a seventy something year old man. (I know, I should know exactly how old they are...but I don't! I have been told countless times, but me and numbers just don't get along!) He was in his element. He kept apologizing for slowing me down to which I laughed at! He is amazing. There is a certain amount of fear I have, knowing he goes in those woods every other day by himself, (what will happen to him if he has a heart attack in there?) and then I realize that even if he died by himself on a trail on a mountain, he will have died in his own earthly heaven. I definitely would not want to deny him what he loves so much.

My Grandma had a chemo session on Friday and she was pretty good until Monday. Then she wasn't feeling very well, which makes me so sad. My Gram is a busy lady and it was definitely not normal for her to sit in one place all day long. Cancer is so evil and the drugs you have to take are evil in their own way. The last night I as there, she was pretty much back to feeling normal so that was nice. We had a good time just sitting in the living room watching O'Reilly and Hannity and discussing our country's issues. My Gram had a pretty tough go of it when my mom was young and she has triumphed in ways that are unexplainable. There isn't a doubt in my mind that she is ready--come what may! I am so thankful I was able to go on this trip. Hopefully my fears are ungrounded and my Gramps will keep on going on like he is for years to come, and hopefully my Grams cancer can be licked...but either way, I am so thankful for Grandparents who love God and who set a great example of how life should be lived. I also want to emphasize...at the end of your life...family is what really matters.

Gabby

Our neighbors decided to get an au pair at the beginning of this year.  Little did we know that she would become such a good friend.  Gabby is from Argentina, and she is just full of fun and life!  

We had so much fun meeting her and learning about Argentina.  She very quickly became a close friend with whom I loved to spend time with.  It was great to have a friend live so close!

Unfortunately, her host family decided to move to Utah, so we had to say goodbye this week.  We are all sad and we are going to miss her a lot.

Love ya, Gab-Gab!