The growing season

The growing season is what I call it but I don't know if I am that crazy about it or not. One thing for sure, is that I learn a lot during growing season.  I am sure you are thinking what is growing season.  Summer has come and gone so what are you growing.
I am growing to try to be on this earth without Ej. I am in growing season when it takes a whole lot to get me over the draught.  The draught of not seeing him.  The draught of that space that I still try to fill knowing I can't. Then it dawns on me that I need to blog. I have to write it out. I have to get it from my heart to my head and out of my fingertips. I really don't understand it but it is like I have to release all this bottled up feelings. From being mad, to being hurt, to being lonesome, and I guess from being silent.
It has been overwhelming lately and I believe that the change of seasons has so much to do with it. Heck I am amazed that the world still spins. I understand it still spins because of who God is and that the world does not revolve around me. I often say to God, "I am still here now what".  He always gives me a answer but not in my time. But it is always a growing a answer.
It is amazing to me that Jackson and I can sense something with one another even when we think we are doing so well to try not to bring the other one down. I think it kills me more when I see that Jack is struggling and I know that he is somewhere in his mind with Ej.
We went to Ohio last weekend for his class reunion and it was great to see everyone and everyone was and is so very thoughtful and kind. And for that we are thankful. We stayed with a couple that Jack and I love so very much. But on the way home I got that sense of Jack is pondering on Ej.  It was quiet in the truck and I looked over and said "what is it".  It took him a few minutes to talk but I knew it was going to be about Ej in some way.  He said well I had my best moment and my worse moment all at the same time. I ask what that was and he said watching his friend and his friend's son interact that weekend. He said I wish that Ej and I had a office together.  As I sat there with a dagger in my heart, I replied "I wish you did to."   I think at that moment I sat in silence, doing my best not to ugly cry. I did not want him to feel bad for me because I was crying but I really thought my heart would just stop beating.  It did not because I am still here so now what. I completely understood the best moment and the worse moment comment. I have had it several times over the past 10 years. Like college graduations, Weddings, baby showers, mother son dances at the weddings (the worse of the worse, I must say) then the children, the first house, the new job.  Well you get my point.  So happy for others because we would not have it any other than to watch but crushed at the same time. 
Please believe me when I say I never want my friends or family to shy away from milestones, because by the grace of God, we still have milestones that I love to share and that I know God has graced us with two of the greatest grandsons that we love to the moon and back.  Not to forget about sassy who just has her papa and I wrapped so tight that it has cut of circulation. lol  A smart beautiful daughter that makes us laugh and gives us unconditional love along with her amazing husband whom we love so much.
Like I said sometimes I just have to blog and chances are I will be better by the end of this blog. I guess it is important that our friends know that even though we try hard and sometimes we smile through our grief, that we always want to be real. There still is grief and lots of it and God works with us daily, sometimes hourly, sometimes minute by minute. It has been 10 years, sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like it has been 100 years. Some days we cry and some days we smile. Some days we hold it all together and some days we fall apart. This is our life.  But everyday we are thankful and grateful for what God has given us. And we are thankful for even those moments are the best and worse at the same time. I am thankful for a husband that understands me like no other and I know he feels the same way. Always love your babies even when they are not babies.  Always stop to enjoy the moment even when you think it is nothing spectacular because believe us when we say it is.  Thanks for always sharing your moments with us. Thanks mostly for not thinking I am a lunatic when I go off the grid with these blogs.  I love my friends and family so much and I know that God has put all of you in our life for a reason. When I figure out what this growing season is, I will blog again about the harvest. Good night sweet peeps!

Water, Life and God....
Tomorrow is Ej's birthday and it happens to fall on Thursday which is the day he was born.
First of all I cannot believe it has been so long since I blogged. Time marches on...I think this time of year is such a roller coaster for me. It starts around mothers day and travels through May and June and then hitting that dreaded day of July 2. Only to be followed by those 12 days on each side of the dash. Ej Glenn July 14, 1983 - July 2, 2006. 
For some reason this year I have thought a lot about the ocean and how it is so much like my life during this time. It is like visiting the ocean and I am anxious because I am getting ready to go on a journey. You know you are going on a journey and you hope and pray for nice weather. I look at life and I am in awe. I look at the ocean and I am in awe. When I first take the first few steps into the ocean, I am unsure of what is to come.  Is the waves going to be crashing me to the shore or will I be in calm water. Will the current carry me out and that is okay except I don't want to go to far out. If I go to far out, I may not be able to get back to shore, where I feel safe and secure. Then you see that sunrise and I am in awe again. I notice out in the distance that storm clouds are forming and it looks like the weather may get a little rough. Do I wait until the last minute to take cover or do I take the safe way and go for cover. Then bam there is the storm that has been picking up and stirring. The storm comes and I take cover and hope for ocean to calm. Hope for the sun to shine and wait to see the peaceful water with the sun setting. It really is all those emotions that carry me through this time.
It is not surprising that Jesus says that he is living water. That even though we do not know what the future holds, I know who holds my future. My emotions like the ocean are all over the place, but like the storms and the calm, nothing surprises God. I have to remind myself that God is the calm after the storm. God is the sun after the rain. Trust me I struggle and I have those days where I know I only survive by the grace of God.  I want to encourage and a lot of days I think I barely keep my head above water and especially this time of year. But I will keep my eyes above the waves. When someone says I encourage that always makes me smile because that is what God has called me to do. God knows this time of year he has to hold hand a little tighter. He has to throw me the life line a little more often. He shows me and teaches me about how the ocean and life is so connected but more than all of that he shows me that his love is unconditional and when I fail he still loves me. He loves me and allows me to be broken. But he always calls me back into reality after July 14th. He allows me to stand in the storm, he allows me to be taken out with the current and even allows me to try to keep my head above the waves on my own and then he reaches down and pulls me back to shore. Back to where I feel safe and secure. But he always reminds me that a storm can be brewing and I need to be steadfast with him. Ten years and Jack and I are still standing.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET EJ. I LOVE YOU ALWAYS.....
The anchor holds
though the ship is battered
The anchor holds
though the sails are torn

I wish you could have met Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie

Today I as ask to give my take on a decade for a college paper for a friend.  There was lots of questions about work, the price of a home, the price of gas, if war was going on and what was some of my favorite things. One of the last question was what impacted my life the most in that decade.  It immediately came to me because it often does.  I was blessed with the most fabulous aunt, who was my mom's youngest sister and her husband and I always called them Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie.  When I was young I would go to their house in northern Kentucky and stay a week or two every summer. They was the best of friends and even when I was little, I dreamed someday that I would have a marriage just like them.  They was busy raising three of the cutest little blonde hair girls in all the land. That would be my cousins Theresa, baby sisssy (real name Karen) and the blondest of all the youngest Belinda.  Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie was young when they married and when I was staying with them they was only in their 20's.  Aunt Carol laughed so very much and always made it such a great time to be at their house.  She would anxiously await the arrival of Uncle Frankie to get off work and as soon as he got home, we would all go out side to play and horse around. It really was a magical place and Oh how I was reminded today that the very thing that impacted my life was the day Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie lost their life in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire On May 28, 1977.  My daughter Tiffany was born in March of that year and my Aunt Carol would ask me to wait until she got the girls off to school and then she would drive over an hour to come to the house to give Tiffany a bath. She loved doing that I am so thankful that she did. It wasn't about the bath it meant so much that she went to much out of her way just to come and see us.  About two weeks before the fire, Uncle Frankie ask me to come down and bring Tiffany to his work so he could show everyone his great niece. He worked at Riverside Ford and I honored his request.  Tiffany and I drove down and picked up Aunt Carol and off to Riverside Ford we went.  Little did I know we was going to spend the entire day there. Uncle Frankie insisted that he had to show everyone in place Tiffany.  As much as they loved me, I wish you could have known how much they loved their girls. Anyway on May 28, 1977 our life changed forever. I was in disbelief and sometimes even today almost 39 years later, I still cannot believe they are gone. I wish everyone could have met them at least one time. You would have seen what a great couple they was and how in love they was. I know I cannot even imagine how hard it has been for my three cousins but I know their parents would be so proud of them. I know Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie would have been the best grandparents ever in the whole world.  What I can't imagine is how one could have ever survived here without the other. It was life changing and even though I think of them so often, today I don't think they have left my mind.  We are but a vapor in this life and they lost their life way to soon.  Uncle Frankie was 33 and Aunt Carol was 31.  I even thought today that Ej will be 33 this year and I know he got to meet his famous great Aunt Carol and his fun loving Uncle Frankie. I don't understand how life works but I do understand who loves us more then we can love and I have a promise that I will see them someday. What a day glorious day that will be... I will always love you Aunt Carol and Uncle Frankie and you are still my favorites. 

The Sun still shines Amanda and so do you.

Tonight my thoughts are with my really good friend Donna.  You know you have friends that you grow up with, you have friends that you connect with through work or play. Friends for a life time or friends for season. I am thankful that I have all those kinds of friends but I have a friend who is my person. You know the one that is more than a friend, a person that you have connection with because both of you had a child in 1983, but did not meet until after 2006. One that has a child that reminds me of someone that would be a lot like Ej, but only the child is a female child.  A beautiful blonde hair, blue eyed, and gorgeous smile that could light up a room. A beautiful girl that left this earthly home 11 years ago today at the young age of  21 years 4 months and 19 days.  I met Donna not long after we lost Ej.  Amanda was born just two months after Ej.  I have had the blessing of getting to know all about Amanda through her momma's eyes and her momma's heart.  Donna has got to know Ej through the eyes and heart of this momma.  We have laughed, we have cried, we have talked and we have sat in silence but we are connected. She is my person.  We are amazed how much Ej and Amanda had the same likes and how we think they are traveling comet's and galaxies and moon and star hopping.  How they get to see heavenly things. How they have praised God and how they are whole.  But today 11 years ago, Amanda left here. You know the thing about having a person is that you are connected and their happiness becomes yours, and their sadness becomes yours. Even when  something is not quiet right in your soul  and come to find out it is because your person is struggling. This morning on my way back from Somerset the sun was shining. There is something about the sunshine that makes my soul lighter. That was not always the case, I remember after Ej passed away everyday I would wake up and say to God, how can the sun still be shining. How can this world still be turning. Will I ever really feel the heat of the sun on my face. I longed for that for a really long time. It took me a really long time to feel the warmth of the sun again. Well anyway on my way back from Somerset, I felt the warmth of the sun on my face and I immediately thought of Amanda and I thanked God for Amanda and I felt like God was showing me that he had Amanda and Ej. That he was reminding me who he is. Amanda was our gift here on earth just like the sun is our gift on earth. Even though we don't always see the sun, the sun is still here, it is still shining. Even though Amanda is not here, she is still here. She still lights up here momma heart, she still is her momma's light. Amanda I hope you are seeing all that you longed to see. You are beautiful and you are loved. 
I believe in the sun, even when it isn't shining
I believe in Love, even when I don't feel it
And I believe in God, even when he is silent.

Living in the moment

As I think about how we live our life, I find that sometimes we live in the past and sometimes we look to the future.  But then I am reminded in the anxious eyes of my grandbaby Ansley, why not live in this very moment.  Yesterday has gone and tomorrow may or may not come. I live the best life when I am in the moment. I must admit, I do that best when I am playing with Ansley.  She has no agenda, no plans, or no regrets. I was blessed to get the same with Carson & Kade, my grand boys that have grown up in a blink of an eye. 14 and 1/2 years for Carson and 13 1/2 years for Kade.
It has been a journey and although it is good to look back and sometimes sad to look back, I cannot stay there. Even though I believe that God wants us to prepare for tomorrow, I don't believe he wants us to live there either.
God has given us right now, this moment and how sad to miss what is right before our eyes right now. To be thankful for that moment where all is good and even for that moment when all is not so good.
When I posted on fb this morning my Happy Anniversary to Jackson, I was reminded that Jack and I have had some awesome times on the mountains and we have had some really low times in the valley and that is where we have persevered. It is easy and no thought process while I am on the mountain but when I glimpse back, I know that the valley is what has made me appreciate being in the moment.
The best vacations has been the ones that we do not plan every moment of everyday. Even the best life is when I don't plan every moment of every day.  I have to give God room to move. I have to give Jesus room to communicate and I have to give the Holy Spirit space to dwell in me.  I know that I have to plan sometimes but the more I seek God's face the less I want to plan. I don't want to miss my sassy face when she is thrilled by a bird or the wind. I don't want to miss the joy of Carson when he hunts and how he loves nature. I don't want to miss how Kade is so giving like his Uncle Ej.  I don't want to miss when God sends that gift of a hummingbird or putting me in the path of the person that is going to share a story about Ej.  I don't want to miss watching Tiffany be such a loving mommy when she doesn't know I am watching her. I don't want to miss when Jack prays for me to have a great night sleep or when I am almost asleep and I feel him put his hand on me and pray for me.  I don't want to miss when my dad shares a story of my mom or grandparents that have gone to be with the Lord. 
If I can inspire you to do something today, I pray that it is be in the moment. We can glimpse back at yesterday but we cannot live there. We can make a plan for tomorrow in case we are still here but don't fill your life up with tomorrows.  For tomorrow is not promised. I will gladly take make promise for right here and right now. I will look for God in the eyes of my grandbabies. I will be thankful for the wonderful mommy that Tiffany expresses on daily basis.  I will thank God for a son in law that is a great provider for his wife and kids. I will thank for giving me a dad for 87 years and counting. I am thankful for a husband that I am happy to spend the rest of life with and watch who he has become in Jesus. I am thankful for my friends whom I get to pray for and that they pray for me. I am still thankful that God gave me Ej and in all of that I still believe in God. Be still and be in this moment.

Not my will but your will be done.

To say it has been a eventful week would be a understatement.  As I sit here quietly this morning and reflected on the last four or five days, and how God reveals himself to us if we just pay attention.  I believe he is always revealing but we are not always in tune.
Actually I believe God was preparing for the last few days over a week ago when he was preparing my heart while working on the Emmaus walk. I knew this walk was going to show me so much and require me to be in God's will because it was revealed to me before the walk that I would be working this walk for my friend Charmaine who had just lost her son Brian. I know that feeling of loss and no matter how much we love the Lord, the loss of a child consumes us. Brian went home just about 5 weeks before Charmaine, her husband Joel and many of their immediate family members was going to be working that same walk.  My talk I was giving was already in place and God had already given me the talk before Brian went home to be with Jesus. Anyway that reminded that God does not call the equipped, he equips the called. Not by not strength and power of my own do I share about Ej and the loss of a child. As I have prayed for Charmaine, Joel and Brian sister Amy, I have been reminded many times that we do not do these incredible hard things on our own but through Christ who gives us strength. Little did I know at the time that I would be faced with what happened on Monday night. And how much that taught me about a daddy's love.
Jack and I was in the living room and at 9:30 my cell phone rang. I seen it was my dad and I knew something was not right.  My dad ask me to come up and Jack and I immediately ran up to dad's where we seen him very sick, in a chair.  I ask dad what was wrong and he said he was having severe chest pain and his heart was beating 100mph. I said "dad we need to call a ambulance and he looked at me with such calm and peace and said no sis, if you just give me a few minutes I am dying and I just want you guys here with me so I will not alone. He wanted to go home but Jack and I wanted him to go to the hospital. He finally agreed but only if we took him. I was going to do what my father ask me to do even though my flesh was screaming call a ambulance.  Anyway we got him in the car and I drove to Somerset hospital which is about 25 minutes.  I thought of Ej. I thought of how my dad picked me up out of the kitchen floor when I heard Jack on the phone talking to his brother and saying Ej can't be dead. My dad picked me up and said Sis come on, I will help you up.  That was such picture of our heavenly father saying come on, I will pick you up.  Anyway on the way to the hospital, I prayed. My first question was who is going to pick me up when I fall. God said, I will pick you up, like I always have. My heart changed and it was time to practice what Jesus did. to practice and walk in what my biggest lesson through the loss of Ej was. To say to God, not my will but your will be done and mean it.  As soon as I uttered those words, I knew that no matter the outcome, it was going to be all right. Even though I knew that no matter the outcome, God was going to take care of us. At that moment I had peace that is beyond this world. Well the outcome was that God's will right now is that dad lives  After putting in two stents, dad is on the road to recovery. So to God be the glory and to me be the lesson. The lesson of trusting, no matter the circumstance.  And dad being dad is convinced that Jack's accident in his garage on Sunday might have made his condition worse.  I don't know if that is true but I always want to pray into the will of God. Do I struggle with that?  Yes, I do, I am still a spoiled child sometimes and want my will. In this journey of life we will have to do hard things, we will sometimes ask why me, we will have trials and tribulation. But he is who is in me is greater than he who is in the world.

Identity of who I am

I have blogged before a little on identity but it has really just been on my radar lately and it seems that God keeps bringing it to me in a lot of different ways over the past years. I believe my first identity crisis that was the most impacting was when Ej passed away. I remember thinking I have always been Ej's mom but now who am I.  It took many conversation with God to understand that I was Ej's mom and I am still Ej's mom. Of course I still felt like mom because I had Tiffany here with me, so she helped me hang on to my identity as mom.  But as I looked around me I began to understand the importance of our being by our identity.  Outside my bubble as I went to give my testimony at the jail and I sat behind the girls that was incarcerated, I could not help but see the really big INMATE sign on their back.  I was sad because I thought God, please don't let that identity stick to them because there is such freedom in know your identity.  Then last Sunday, a friend of Ej's  (Henry Cardwell) had just returned from a mission trip in Thailand and he spoke of many different things. The one thing that stuck in my head and in my heart was when he was talking about children that was born at home and some of them did not have a birth certificate. And even now that can't afford to get one.  Without the birth certificate the children could not attend school. Without the birth certificate it was like that don't exist. Wow, that was crushing for me. God and I have had lots of conversation about identity. I am so thankful that we are able to have a identity in Christ, no matter if we have a piece of paper to say who we are.  But that is easy for me to say because I have that birth certificate and I have been able to attend school, get married, travel to another country and have a career to make a living here on earth. And even though I know God has for some reason allowed me to have this, I am sure if I went to get my passport and I was to say well my identity is in Christ so issue me a passport without a birth certificate, chances are I would have been turned down.  So I don't know how this is going to happen but if God has gave me this task, I know it will happen.  I am excited to talk to Mike and Sherry (our Thailand missionaries) to find out how much it cost for these babies to get a birth certificate and if it is even human possible to get one.  If it is not humanly possible, I know it is God possible.  I am on a mission because identity has to start somewhere, so stay tuned and see what happens!