Crusty old sailors meet again

Dennis and Will Stewart first met in 1983 as a couple of "older" sailors who had returned to the Navy. They were stationed on the USS America in Norfolk, Virginia. We had just moved there, and Will lived on the ship. Every once in awhile he'd come and spend the night with us. Will left the ship just a few months later. But somehow we stayed in touch.

Several years later we met up again in Italy. He was married by then and had two little boys. We were there together for the next 7 years. Our families returned to America in 1999. We haven't seen each other since, but this weekend we met up again in Kansas City for the wedding of their oldest son, Thomas. What a wonderful time! It was sweet to pick up where we left off, share about our times in Italy, our difficulty in returning to the States, what we missed about Italy and what our families are doing now. Fun to see their boys all grown up, well nearly.

Club "M" mega par-tay!

Since the original Club M members are moving away we had to have one last party to celebrate all our times together. We have a wonderful group of friends that have gotten together over the years over and over. We love them all. We will really miss the Hollidays and hope to gain some new friends to take their place, yet not in our hearts! We are thankful for blogs, Facebook, texting, Skype and all those means of communication that keep us from feeling far from old friends!

Morning sky

You can tell you're from the Midweast when you take photos of cornfields and clouds! So here I am. *smile*

Cheers for a morning at home!

My hours at the garden center have been cut from 20 to 8, so now I am home three mornings a week. This morning my angel wing begonia is so beautiful that, in my very amateurish way, I took some photos of it.

The begonia bench.

Club "M" opens

News from Over the Ord

"Janie is with Jesus."

 It was sad to hear. But we are so glad that God took us "over the ord" so that this wonderful lady could become a very special part of our life!

 

 
Janie loved her garden and worked hard to keep something blooming in it all year round.   
 
She was wonderful helping me in the children's club for the four years I taught it. I think she did it before I got there and after I left.
 Faithful. That describes her.Faithful in teaching Sunday School, in helping with the children's club, in being a wonderful, caring friend and confidante to anyone who needed her. Faithful to her large family. Although she only had one daughter who died young, she was like a mother to scores of other children and adults.
She was special, and even though I am thousands of miles away from that wonderful place, she still will be missed. I will miss her letters that came regularly, lately in very shaking handwriting and written over a few days. Letters that described her garden, her travels in Scotland, her visitors, the food on her holidays, the local church "doings". Letters that always ended with, "Will we see you here this year?"
Yes, the reunion with her and so many of my "mature" Scottish friends will be sweet. Thank you, heavenly Father, for bringing those precious old saints in to my life. How rich I am because of what we shared!

Reunions. Made in heaven.

After our lightning 10-day trip to California, I thought about the wonder and joy of reunion. Why is it such wonderful thing? Why do we love stories where people who have been separated are united at the end? Why does the reunion of biblical Joseph and his brothers make us cry no matter how many times we read it? Why do we love to hear about families reunited? Recently some friends of ours told about the miraculous reunion of an adopted daughter with a brother she thought she'd never see. It brought tears to our eyes.

So our California trip ended up being something like that. And I never anticipated the joy. I have two uncles who live in San Diego. We didn't see them much growing up for that reason. But we had times with them "exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think"! Good visiting times, good sightseeing times, good sharing times. We saw two of their sons as well. Reunions that brought joy and tears as well as "Are you really my cousin?"

Second reunion was with our good friends, the Theurers, who were in Italy with us. We had a lovely, though unusually chilly, time in their cabin at Mission Springs near Santa Cruz. Wow, the redwood trees were amazing. And we just picked up where we left off in our relationship. Very nice and comfortable to have friends like that.

San Francisco was amazing! We met up with a cousin there that I hadn't seen in living memory since he is several years older than I am. :) He was very anxious to meet up and kept after us to fit him in to our schedule. We did and are we ever glad. Hugs.Laughter. Joking. Talk about family memories. He had sharper ones about family gatherings, and I learned things. Spent an evening and a night with him and a friend. His brother came for the evening. Another reunion. I don't remember when I last saw him, either. But it was a really fun evening that went late. And we're so glad for the memories.

Finally, we visited an aunt and another cousin in the central valley. April is perfect for going there! Not too hot and everything is beautiful and green. My cousin and her husband took us to Sonora and Columbia to see that side of old California. Great weekend with them! Good food and a good visit with both my aunt and my cousin. My aunt is 84 so it was particularly sweet to spend some time with her.

God gives us glimpses, occasionally, of what our reunion with Christ will be like. If this is just a shadow, our heavenly reunion will be beyond all imagination!

P.S. Someone needs to show me how to place photos in the text. I realize now why I don't blog with photos much! Nothing matches the text, and they all jumped around when I tried to move them! You got the idea, I hope!