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Afraid more thunderstorms are headed my way,
so I'd better get offline.

Blessings to everyone this wonderful day in May!!

"may all the love you've given your children be returned three fold on this your special day. : )"

For days I have been posting about the many blessings through my children and stepchildren, Wolfie.
More recently, my stepson married, describing his bride as "a lady and GODly woman" - she was a widow with two children.

The relationship with my stepdaughter has slowly transformed since Thanksgiving, and is now full and happy, she sending a Mother's Day card that reached me yesterday, and a gift!

We cannot change the tragedies of the past, but we can extend love and kindness and forgiveness and find something even richer in relationships.

"I am my Mother's garden.
I am her legacy-
And I hope today she feels the love
reflected back from me"

Oh, Colleen, how very beautiful and poignant this is, especially to those of us who lost their mother early in life, as did you and I.
Just the other day I came upon my mother's last letter to me, written in 1964.
I was in Fairbanks, Alaska and she wrote how much she wished I were there in Florida having a cup of coffee with her, as we often had. I had lived with my parents for 4 1/2 years after a disastrous first marriage.
They never complained nor critized me, and had allowed me to be the mother to my little fellows, and they remained the grandparents.

Just weeks later she was stricken by a burst aneurysm, and passed away in 1965, with my never having seen nor heard her voice again.
While the missing her part is tremendous, greater still is my appreciation of the wonderful human being she was...she never, ever raised her voice to my sisters or me, and we genuinely wanted to please her in every way.

To all those who expressed here Mother's Day greetings, thank you.

Thank you both for your replies to my recounting in #87 some of the many, many blessings with which Our Lord has lightened my walk.

Learning so early in life that He is available 24/7 and yearns for us TO communicate with Him often set the stage for ease with that.
Rather than some unapproachable Greek or Roman or Norse god with a little 'g,' to me, He was there whenever I spoke to Him, whether I realized it or not.
Looking back, most of those times were when I was driving alone in a car!!
It, however, did not matter what the setting or my physical position before Him was, other than a sincere desire to be in His Presence.

That was usually prompted by my admiring the Creations in the landscape du jour, as I praised and thanked Him, and I came to realize fully how very true it is that He inhabits our praises!
[[The car was not the actual *vehicle* for discussions - just my *appreciation* of the world I was seeing! He is available wherever we are..:)]]

I am wonderfully blessed and I know it,
and want to shout it from the rooftops!

Billie, I love this gif you created for me - -

He indeed does, and I know it..:))

Oh, dear Meggsie - I circled to check the thread before I went outside to *play in the yard, planting flowers,* and am thrilled with this very Good News!!!!!

Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers - -

I will praise Him as I decorate His already beautiful world!

"Only by choosing each day to let go of our own plans and by trusting the Holy Spirit’s leading can we cooperate with His work in us."

The Daily Bread had not yet been posted when I wrote my Reply #87!
It reinforces what I learned - we must consciously get out of His way and allow Him to guide our course...

Blessings to you, Your Honor, and to all...

"I think sharing it with all of you and typing out my prayer helped give me strength..I know there are strong prayers in this good company.(((Hugs.)))"

It truly is so that we are instructed to pray for one another, and here at the Finest we indeed follow that.

It is wonderful that Our Father has gathered many together here for mutual understanding and caring. Every heart and need is lifted up, asking the Holy Spirit to be in the midst of each situation. The power in that is so uplifting!

Only with Him present can we get through life's stumbling blocks and setbacks - all the undermining work of the one who with (temporary) power on earth, seeks to separate us from God.
Learning to yield and trust and allow Him to see us through is often difficult, but when we walk in strong trust and faith, He we can see He is there.

In all things, The Timetable is His.
As many here know, a kidney biopsy in December 1985 on me revealed diabetic glomerulosclerosis - gradual thickening of the kidney walls so they become unable to filter wastes. It is "progressive and irreversible," and the prognosis then was poor...probable dialysis and death within two years.

I then worked at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensbro, NC, and the physician who had cared for me for 3 years told my husband that from what he knew of me and saw (with extremely brittle diabetes as well), to expect to bury me within one year - and more likely, 4 or 5 months.
The nephrologist who did the biopsy and became my Primary Physician scheduled me to receive the biopsy results on a Friday the 13th in the late afternoon... hmmmmm.. it so happened that morning my m-i-l in Florida passed away. [double hmmmm..]

Having been in and around medicine a long time, and having researched in the hospital library what he was looking for, the outcome was the same for all 3 possibilities.
Okay - also knowing how hard it is for a physician to give a patient bad news, I stopped him as he gave me the name of The Problem. He was about to say all he could do was "hold my hand while I went down the tubes," and I interrupted him to say I understood the course, but knew The Great Physician and rested in His Timetable - and meant it!

The truth is God had just 3 weeks before dramatically removed from me the Spirit of Fear, and I truly and totally accepted His Will for me.
Since I worked quite visibly with the entire hospital in my position, including coffee privileges in the Physician Lounge, God used me to show the professionals a thing or two! He has a wonderful sense of humor, keeping me *in their face,* going like Energizer Bunny 9 more years before He put me out to pasture to rest!

Count it up - the biopsy was 20 1/2 years ago.
He still had and has things for me to do.

The prayers of those here at The Finest have genuinely been felt in a very tangible way, and I cannot thank you enough for their sustaining power...

Meg, we lift up your precious family - and you - in this stressful time, knowing Our Father hears every prayer.
May He sustain each one of you, infusing in you His grace and peace.
Amen.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. —3 John 1:4"

How wonderfully appropriate this is to contemplate and savor!
In the past month, it has been punctuated over and over, and indeed - -

Truly, my
!!

April brought a visit with our older son and wife, in SC on vacation. We celebrated Steve's birthday together.
Kevin and Susan call often from Florida, with news of them and their sons. They both teach teenager Sunday School classes, and Christopher and Nickolas have always attended a Christian School in West Palm Beach.

Our daughter, Jennifer, and Bill hold home group Bible studies on Tuesday nights.
Her older daughter has secured a position as a field chemist, graduating from college in December, and in 2 weeks will be moving to Memphis, her life launched..

Tuesday brought the wonder of a second great-grandchild, and this evening Kyle called us to describe with obvious awe how *complete* he and Roxanne feel with their little girl!
Her name is not Ava, I learned, my s-i-l misspelling it -
pronounced like 'Ava'- but is spelled Eva, as in Eva Peron.

They were able to bring her home yesterday, the hospital sending a special blue light for them to use for slight jaundice, which is common in newborns. We'll be going to see them in two weeks, after they're settled in.

In all three families, they are secure in following the Lord, and as the verse says, nothing brings a parent more joy than this!

It extends also to my two stepchildren, who live in the Midwest.
Cheryl is recovering from her second spinal surgery and the house she is having built will be finished soon.
Roger and his Lisa married Saturday the 6th of May. He describes her as "a lady and GODly!"

Let's see - her two children bring the total of all our grands to - -
an even dozen - and two great-grands!

There is no description adequate to express the profound joys at this end of life....
I praise and thank our loving, gracious and awesome God.

Thank you so very much, Meggsie.
It has been an incredible few weeks,
full of blessings for our entire family!

I second your lovely prayer for Texagirl's sister, Miss Kitty.

We just received wonderful news from my stepson in Oklahoma that he and his Godly Lisa got married Saturday.
The blessings have been flowing in a steady stream the past few weeks!!

Miss Kitty, I just saw you used here something my husband
quoted just about 15 minutes ago - -
"Behold, I Make All Things New!" !!!

Thank You, Father...

I like Ava, too - not a common name,
and they just decided on it a week or two ago.

Here in America, Tetley has just come out with a
Premium Tetley tea for brewing iced tea.
I almost always have a pitcher made with it in my refrigerator.

Good night, JustAmy...and JustFrank...

HA!!
See the post after yours..:))
I do believe he does have a Sterno stove...

Our dear Thin Man is resourceful.
I suspect he might have a on an adjacent floe,
just in case..:))

Were we to visit him, he probably could rustle up cups of

.....

Oh, TMan, TMan...sniff,sob..
Just got this in the mail from you, and it is heartwrenching...

You know Billie is not intentionally krewl... just doesn't think about how sensitive you are, and how much you suffer..:((

Hang on...floating this over to you on the next ice floe...

Thank you, Rus.
It has been a lovely week of blessings,
including a great-granddaughter born this morning!!

Thank you so much, dear Dolly.
I hope your -
pace has slowed down a tad...

We all need to climb down from the
now and then...

{{{ Hugs }}}

Oh, Louie-Louie!!
I weely, weely wuv my "Woofie Toofums bear" : )

Thank you so much, Eleanor.
Hope your Dad's was a good one.
I'm sure you make him feel very special every day, though..:)