Favorite Photo of the Week

So much has happened this past week and I look forward to Monday morning when all is quiet around here and I take time to share lots of photos and stories...

Until then, I will share my favorite photo of the week here, and at Renaissance :

During one of their weekly visits, I talked my future son-in-law into a photo shoot with his baby boy (my grandson, Jayden, of course!!). I loved this shot!

Happy, Blessed Weekend, friends!

Today

Sadness hits our family today. A brother. A sister-in-law. Two nieces. Grandparents.
I wont be present to hug, hold or help carry the load of grief. Instead, I will hold them in my heart and pray for each of them.

Here were my thoughts last year on remembering my niece, Desi, who left us 3 years ago: Remembering Desi

I find myself thinking about how great some hurts in life are. You feel as if your heart is ripped out. The pain stops you and brings you to your knees and you want nothing more but for the pain to subside. Over time, sometimes reluctantly, the pain turns into wisdom and you find yourself in a position to care for someone else who is experiencing something similar. My brother and sister-in-law lost their daughter and when we question "Why?" and we face the pain, sometimes the only thing that we can find is a speck of consolation that we can now relate to others and help them along their path because we know what they are going through. I haven't lost one of my children the way they have. But they know of deep pain that seared my own soul. Now we are connected as we continue on. It's not what any of us would choose. It's just what was on our life path.

Please pray with us for wisdom, peace, comfort and love from our Heavenly Father.

A Moment in Time

Over at the LENS Photo Challenge the theme of the week is "This Moment". Looking through this very week's photos I find one very fun moment in time:

(He won that point and match!)
And another moment in time that brings such beauty. When we make our way out of town, this is something I always love to see:

Over at...

Renaissance the photo of the week recommendation was "Pets". I really enjoyed looking through my "pet" file of photos and selecting a couple of favorites. They are fairly recent, too.

Our dearly loved Frodo means so much to all of us.
And... in this picture I have to admit that more of my heart belongs to the boy than to the dog...

It is well.... with my soul.

This morning I have an hour of so.

The quietness of morning gifts me with serenity.

Peace.

After flipping through a stack of printed photos, I make my way through one folder after another of online beauty.

Each picture providing a gift.

Representations of a moment in time.

When something caught my attention.

And spoke beauty...

peace...

joy...

freedom...

courage...

And like a turtle basking in the sun, my soul soaks in the warmth of memories.

And I most certainly know that the path that I am on,

while unsteady at times,

and even a bit bumpy,

is filled with purpose.

"My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace"
Chris Tomlin, Amazing Grace

And now... knowing the great prize I have... treasuring the gift that is meant to be shared... I am off to start the day!

Blessings!

I called him my "man-child"...

... and he said he'd prefer to be called my "adult-child". But when I look at him I don't think "adult". I think "man". I see the tell tale signs of him not shaving for several days. I see the broadened shoulders. The set of his jaw.

When he was young and small, I called him "son". "Hey, son, come here!" And the like. 'Cause he's my child. But, I never called him "child". But, now I gaze his way and see my "man-child". I suppose I'll have to just keep that in my head and heart... because it just wouldn't sound right to say, "Hey, man-child, come sit next to me!" I'll continue calling him "Son". Yep, that'll do.

I battled traffic for nearly 100 miles yesterday. There were just a few times I got out of 2nd and 3rd gear. But, I got there. I couldn't make it on the very day he turned 18. But he had the day out of school to participate in tennis finals at his local sports club. More importantly, he wanted me there. And when your "man-child", oops, I mean "son", says it would mean a lot if you were there, well... you get out and battle traffic.

Here are a few of this mom's faves:





I see through those last two photos and he is 10 again... next to the court... calling out "Hey, mom! Watch this!", while he delightfully demonstrations killer forehands, backhands and serves. (And to save what remains of his pride... I wont post those pictures of him!)

I love my man-child. Um... Son... I truly do. No matter what. Forever. 'Cause I'm his mom. That's what moms do.

PS Here's what Jayden thought of tennis:

Yep... he gave it his half smile.

Here's what Uncle Stephen does with Jayden:

May the road rise up to meet you.

It's a Boy! (Newly sized photos... sorry!)

I was SO excited to have a baby boy! Eighteen years ago!
When I first thought of having children, I wanted three boys in a row. I also thought, if I had to have all of one "kind" of baby, I'd pick boys. God in Heaven always knows best and He did one great job creating me a couple of daughters first. While they were just babes I had an ultrasound and the doctor said, "I think this one is a boy! I am fairly sure I see ****** in there. But, don't get upset with me if it's a girl." I wouldn't let myself totally believe it was a little boy, but I sure hoped and hoped!

The night before he was born, I had contractions every 10-20 minutes, non-stop. They woke me up frequently. About 5am I decided to bathe and get ready for my day. By 8am I told Stephen's dad not to go to work, that I thought I was in labor. By that time contractions were consistently 5-6 minutes apart. We loaded up our two little girls and went to the hospital and contractions were 4 minutes apart. When the Dr. checked me, I was not quite 4 cm and they didn't want to keep me! But, then, the monitored showed the baby's heartbeat drop significantly during a contraction, so they changed their mind. While I settled in my room to continue laboring, the girls were taken to a sitter's home. Labor progressed quickly! Oh, my did it ever! Stephen's dad decided since the girl's labor had taken so long, he could stop and do the banking before coming back to the hospital. In the meantime, I was doing the best job ever of relaxing and praying through each contraction. The midwife came in, quite concerned about baby's heartbeat. She ordered preparations for a water infusion to take pressure off of sweet little baby. Then she ordered me up on my knees. Now, I was in the middle of a whopper of a contraction in "transition" and wanted to wait until it went down a bit and the midwife yelled, "Now!" So, I practically screamed as I rolled over and got up on hands and knees. The baby was not handling the labor. The room was preparing for a water infusion and the Dr. checked me and said, "Never mind, the baby's coming now!" So, I got off my hands and knees and prepared to push. Baby's dad was still not back. As my sweet little boy was born, the cord was unwrapped from around his neck (twice). He was as blue as baby blue could be. The Dr. wrapped him and watched him and he progressed well, then was handed to me. Then baby's dad came through the door. I am so very thankful that my son didn't sustain more trauma when he experienced lack of oxygen. I've met other moms whose babies weren't so fortunate. Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for giving my son life and breath and health.

Over the years, I did a lot of scrapbooking and photo journaling. It was easy this morning to get the first 10 years of Stephen's life... then, it became much more difficult, because from them on, my pictures aren't so much in order...

So, I give you the first ten years!!

Birth:

One year:

Two Years:

Three!

Four:

Five:

Six:

Seven:

Eight:

Nine:

Ten:

And that's all I have for the moment... But, just look at those sweet smiles... the thoughtful eyes. Stephen is one very special person. He is kind, caring and would never (usually) think of hurting anyone. I am very proud of him. I know from the son he has been to me, that one lady out there will be blessed someday.

Will post a part two sometimes soon...