Promises

All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep 

Come Lord Jesus
Come

Truthfully,

Joanne

 (Song by Kutless)

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4)

Counting My Blessings

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

 For His mercy endures forever.

Let Israel now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”

  Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”

Let those who fear the Lord now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”

 I called on the Lord in distress;

The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.

The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?

You pushed me violently, that I might fall,

But the Lord helped me.  The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.

 You are my God, and I will praise You;

You are my God, I will exalt You.

 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

Happiest Of Birthdays Ethan

Dear Ethan,

Twelve years ago today, I first laid eyes on you and fell in love. I was so excited to be your Gramma.

Your first year, your hair became curly and your blues eyes sparkled.

By year two, your happiness and laughter filled our hearts with such joy.

You were curious about everything, and loved anything of your Aunties, including shoes and purses.

Long before you turned 3, your love of dogs was apparent.

You and your mom made a great team in everything you did. At 4, the two of you had moved 90 minutes away and we missed you so much.

Thankfully, you visited often and your favorite thing to do was mow the lawn with Grandpa.

It didn't take you long to move from lawn mowers to fast cars.  I still am not sure how you got your car seat into the driver's seat of my car, but if you could have, I'm sure you would have found a way to drive.

First it was Power Rangers and Spiderman, but once you found out about Transformers, you and I spent a lot of time shopping. No matter what store we went into, you knew exactly where to find Transformers.

Your great grandparents took you on your first trip to Disneyland when you were 7.  I am so thankful I got to be a part of it.  Not having any expectations, your genuine surprise and excitement was priceless at seeing the characters and riding the rides. Your favorite part was watching the kids be Storm Troopers and fight against Darth Vader with Light Sabers.  You practiced for years afterwards, no doubt awaiting a turn to do the same.

You and your mom continued to be best buds.

You loved baseball,

And we continued our quest to try to buy every Transformer ever made.

 And then it wasn't just you and your mom.  You had a new dad.

But still loved your Aunties & Uncle very much.

 You became a big brother.

 

At 12, you are the best big brother ever!

And you still love Transformers!

Happy 12th Birthday, buddy! 

Love,

Gramma

"Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!" (Ps. 66:1)

Color Or Not Color

A good friend of mine, now that she has her first grandchild, has decided to rock her natural hair color. Because the two of us share a grand daughter, I wondered how I would look with naturally white hair. The time, hassle, and cost of continually coloring my hair is annoying. This led me to hours of searching through pics of my hair.

2001-2002 

In the top left photo, I am 39 years old. Believe it or not, I was still highlighting my hair. As you can see from the middle picture, it was definitely gray. By the third, I had quit bleaching and was instead applying temporary color.

 2003
After turning 40, I decided to grow my hair out. I'd never had long hair in my entire life. I truly mean never. While my sisters were sporting ponytails, I had pixie cuts.

 2004

2004

A dear friend, who happens to be a hairdresser, pulled me aside and convinced me to go red and cut my hair.  It took a few tries to get the right color, but Michael fell in love with this ginger.

 2005
Red fades more than any other color, so I began going darker in an attempt to keep it from fading so fast.

2006 

I added blonde highlights,

2007
and continued to play with the color.

 2008
I couldn't decide about the cut.

2009
I experienced more than one bad haircut.

2010
A bad haircut results in a bad hair day,

2011
which can ruin my week,

2012
and can last for months.

2013
After I turned 50, I noticed my hair had also aged.

2014

Then I got busy and haven't had time to get my hair professionally done.

 What do I do??? Cut? Color? Go gray and return to my childhood pixie cut? I have an appointment with the hairdresser. Yikes!

Truthfully,

Joanne

 "The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair." (Prov. 20:29)

Blessed Indeed!

I can't believe I have to wait a month to see the professional wedding photos. I can't wait to share them.

As the mother-of-the-bride, I didn't have a chance to take pictures myself, except when I grabbed Michael's phone and got this one.

I felt unbelievably blessed at the wedding. Not only was the bride beautiful and everything perfectly lovely, but I realized once again what an amazing family I have.

As I looked around the room,

 I saw 20 family members who had flown in from out of state to celebrate my daughter's wedding: my daughter's grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles.

I looked at my own 5 children, their 4 spouses, and my 3 grandchildren;

I felt abundantly blessed.

Yet in that moment, I realized an even greater depth to our family.

Danny's parents were at the wedding. Lauren's parents were not only present but helped set up for the reception. Brian's mom was in attendance, as were Travis' parents. All 7 parents of my inlaw children were joined together as family to celebrate the wedding of Sarabeth & Travis. I  am blessed indeed!

Truthfully,

Joanne

 

(P.S. I hope to share pictures of everyone once we get the wedding photos back.)

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1)