I HAVE to brag!

 She'll probably kill me! LOL! But on my travel laptop these are the only photos I have of her!!

She is my daughter. 
The baby I brought home in 1990. 
Born from a beautiful woman who is outstanding, and precious in her own right! 
And then she was born in my heart the day we found out a family had decided not to adopt her!

Why? Why would another family drive from MN to TX and go home without her?
PRAYER! Prayer from her 2 foster Moms and their husbands and their families, and their Church.

And God always knew. 
She was MY baby!! 
IS MY baby!! LOL!
Every time I tell that story. I cry tears of JOY!! 
Even 20 years later that family told our mutual adoption agency that they still didn't know why they didn't bring her home.

But I knew why!!  

She is now married one of the nicest, smartest men I know! This Fall they celebrate 5 years of wedded bliss!
He is truly my Son in Love.

There isn't a day I haven't felt blessed to have her in my life.

Today she found out that out of 10,000 College grads in MN taking the State placement test. That she scored in the TOP 5!!!!!!!!!!
The top 5 receive a fully paid Scholarship to finish their Masters!!!

I always knew from the first time I held her, that she had touched my life! I only hoped that she'd love me, as much as I loved her.  
Now she touches so many others lives, not just mine. 

She's a Christian, she's beautiful, intelligent, and responsible. None inherited from me. But I pray my nurturing helped it all blossom.

I often joke about "Millennials"!! but my daughter is a "Millennial" who has set an example for us all.
Thank You God!! Praise God!!
And Thank You Grace for who you are!! 

Years go by like months!

 In October 1999 we bought an old house, with and old garage, piles of trash (washing machines, car parts, snowmobile parts, you name it) on 19.25 acres of land. 
The first 5 years we cleaned it up, tore every building down and added our old trailer from the lake. The building and trailer were vandalized. The building was repairable, the trailer was not.

 Back then we had a 12 passenger van. It was our 2nd 12 passenger van. Later after Isaiah was born we bought our first 15 passenger van and now we own our 2nd 15 passenger van. By the time this van above calls it quits, we'll be back to a 12 passenger van. 

 After cleaning the land we built our super garage. :o) 

 The pines were big then. But we had no idea, how big they'd be now!

This side is now our Lodge. It took another 20 years before we built it.

 It sat here sad and lonely waiting. The weather wasn't kind to it. The vandals couldn't destroy it.

We brought a few things here. We visited a few times a summer, mostly to mow.

 And now it is complete. It is more than we ever hoped for. It is a gift from God! Next October we'll have owned the land 30 years!

Praise God! Our 4 teens at home will inherit it. Lord Willing.

A New Beginning

My 4 almost grown teens (14,15,16,17) and their big brother, my son now a man, Samson.(23). 
We were in the Woods in June and July, and now August. 
Oh the JOY these 5 bring!

My precious girl Sassy died July 19th. She was only 5. 
We had seen that a good sized bird had died and fell into the dog potty pen. 
Tom had seen the bird the night before just sitting, looking at him. That is very unusual here. We thought the bird could have had West Nile. Now I wish we'd given the bird to the DNR to be tested. We buried it because we have a lot of owls and predator birds who can get it from eating infected birds. 
We don't know what happened to Sassy. If it was West Nile or a tick bite? (we use tick repellant but have still had trouble with ticks) It re-plays over and over in my head. I've owned a lot of dogs, but never experienced a dog acting fine, and then misbehaving, but not complaining at all? 
By the time I realized she was not right, it was too late. We hugged her as she lay, told her we'd see her soon, and cried out to God to take her quickly. 
Our vet had not had any openings the morning we called, but even if we'd taken her to the vet, it was not going to help. It had affected her brain. In the woods she was acting like she wanted to go home, whining when Tom left. 
When we finally went home the 2 hour ride home was un-eventful. But once home she became agitated very fast. She died in less than 24 hours.
She was very special. She's buried in the woods by my arched gate
memorial. A memorial I put up in the woods for my daughters. Two of my daughters are buried 8 miles down the road.
~~~*~~~*~~~
So now the title of my post. A new beginning.

My 2 very sweet Granddaughter/daughters have decided they do not want to have photographs on the blog anymore. They now feel violated that family who grew up here, see them here, but have nothing to do with their lives. They want their privacy.
I respect their wishes.

I will still blog here about my incredible son Isaiah. 
But not my sweet Faithy. Because she too wants her privacy. For similar reasons. I bought her a Kindle last Bday and now she has little time for any other social media, until she can purchase her own phone! She wants to concentrate on school. She's unbelievably bright!

I'll mostly now write about the JOY that God puts in one small insignificant old woman's life. We serve such a Good God don't we!
We sang this song below this morning at church this morning. It touched my heart so!
Samson said prayer after Church like he always does with Isaiah. Samson was saying to God and Jesus how much he LOVED them and how they are in his heart. He must have said heart at least 10 times, because he really understands now. Tears started falling from my eyes from JOY as he prayed! Praise God!

850. God of Grace and God of Glory

• Full Text

1 God of grace and God of glory,
On Your people pour Your pow'r;
Crown Your ancient Church’s story;
Bring its bud to glorious flow'r.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

2 Lo! the hosts of evil round us
Scorn the Christ, assail His ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
Free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.

3 Cure Your children’s warring madness;
Bend our pride to Your control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.

4 Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore;
Let the gift of Your salvation
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving You whom we adore,
Serving You whom we adore.

written by H.E. Fosdick

 Our preacher Eddie Parish fills our hearts with the JOY of his sermons online at Brown Trail COC.

I hope your Sunday was as blessed as ours!!!
Thank You for visiting! (((HUG)))

Is it really February? My teens have grown very big now

Kitty wearing the new skirt I made her with some clothes from her dresser. The girls love re-creating their wardrobe, old with new. :o)
Kitty takes her photos with the Tripod if Isaiah isn't around.

 Lysa wanted a haircut.
Faith wants to be a Beautician.
All 3 of my Teen girls really LOVE each other. They get along so well. They are very best friends. And very close. Lysa said Faith could cut her hair.
These pictures were taken after Faith's first try.

 You can probably tell Faith is very animated! Full of energy and we think she's way too much fun! Lysa is like me..................excitement? Meh. But we try for Faith's sake! :o)

 I gave Faith my Grandma's scissors from when she was a Beautician in the late 1920s.
I didn't check to see how sharp they were. I didn't think to see how they worked. I gave them to her months before.

 Faith used them on Lysa. They were very dull! And Faith had no idea how they should be! :o)

 It wasn't until after the first try that I realized..........oops! They were so dull I was surprised she cut this well!

                                                       Lysa was fine about it.

Just as well, Faith was thrilled to start her career early! This is how we learn!
No worries. I loaned her one of my super sharp professional scissors for her next try.
We had Grandma's scissors sharpened (Dad took them somewhere) Sadly they came back still cutting badly. :o(

 We threw my sweet Zay in here. He keeps himself busy as the girls and I were running around with scissors!
The girls adore Isaiah and he adores them. They are such good Teenagers. Teens are actually my favorite stage for children. But it flies by way too quickly. Adult "children" frustrate me to no end.

 Hair cut number two! Very impressive with a better scissors.

 It has since grown out very long in the front since November. I'll be trimming it up next. Just because Lysa wants the front shaped differently, not because she doesn't want Faith to do it.

 This winter has been unbelievably COLD!! Day after day below zero temps. As low as -20 in the night. We don't buy Christmas gifts. But we enjoy seeing the variety of items advertised for gifts during the Season. We saw these fleece one piece jammies on sale and knew we needed them for the cold!
They wear them over their clothes instead of a robe.

                                         Sister and best friends for life!

Yes, they take their own photos! LOL! I never know what I'm getting when we download them! (much to their delight!)

Miss Mercy had to try on Lysa's. She was dragging it around the upstairs, sneaking it from Lysa!

The 4 teens October fun!

The teens help me so much. It's joy to see them have fun when they aren't also working hard on their studies. 

Our Princess Kitty above :o)

I hate having my picture taken. I contributed to a sewing blog, they  requested a photo. Kitty helped me not feel so awkward getting my picture taken! :o)

The Fall pumpkins took over the house! They were frightening!

                      There were even "killer" pumpkins! ;o)

                               And one on the loose outside!!

Isaiah hates wearing a pumpkin costume. But he obliged his sisters.

 Lysa hates the pumpkin costumes too. Here she's making fun. She's so darn cute! :o)

 Here she's bored, while two decide to wear their costume in a new way! LOL!

 Kitty made a cute pipe cleaner craft of woodsie creatures for us! The background was pre-cut, but she had to make the animals.

                                                   mouse

                                                 Squirrel

                                                     deer

                                                 moose?

                                                 skunk

                                                   another deer?

                                              bunny

                       The artist herself dressed as Bat girl.

                   Lysa says she's a scare crow with a lamb?

 Even Violet (aka Catty) dressed up!

Isaiah handed out candy as an Air Force pilot. His dream one day :o)
We've been so busy since we got home October 1rst.
This is how the woods looked the last week of October-

No going back to the woods till next year.  The little "lines" to the right of the trees is my clothes line!
Tonight it's getting down to 2 degrees. So cold for this time of year.
We are so blessed! We are warm and happy and filled with God's LOVE! Praise be to God!