Category Archives: 3 Celebrations & Festive Events

A record of our gala celebrations and convivial festivities!

The Cabin

In the Mountains.

“Front side of the cabin”

“Back side” of the cabin, where the trail leads down to the middle fork of the St Vrain.  This is where you can usually find me.  {NOTE:  my poor little cheap Kodak could not, try as it might, capture the water.  It always just whited-out, but that is water down there.  It’s OK, though, it did pretty well on colors and textures.}

Rushing waters.

Dappled sunlight.  Warm, hot even.  Yet a cooling breeze blows over.  Fresh.  Exhilarating mountain stream baths.  Blue-jays cackle loudly on their way by.  Hummingbirds swooping and frolicking, feeding frequently and zooming in so close I am afraid they will scratch my glasses lens.

The chipmunks try to hide in the shadiness of low brush, but betray themselves by their own relentless chatter.

The path down to the water on the left.  The path up the driveway on the right.

The blue of the sky :: what blue is that?  From where does it get that depth and clarity?  Bluuuuuuuuuue….saturated with intoxicating substance.  Mmm.

How many different greens am I seeing?  How many different textures?

Moss, earthy and sweet.  Moss is safe here.  Is that why I am drawn?  Did my very name at birth identify a part of my souls’ homeland that draws me, still?

Large boulders stand settled, immovable for the truth they represent.  The waters flow freely around these altars, splash against these planted “tables.”

“You prepare a table before me”

The Aspens quake like the religious sect of old, the trees clapping their hands and roaring their applause to great God.  When the breath of the Lord blows through, the forest-stadium is filled with home-team-victory ear-piercing, loud, standing ovation excitement.  I cannot quit watching the leaves – trying to capture them by digital recording – knowing it is all for Creator.  They’ve never learned to dissipate their purpose in delighting Him by doing what anyone else thinks they should do.  It is all song and dance to Him, for His good pleasure.

He and I keep laughing at these tiny, energetic hummingbirds.  They are just so happy and busy, so full of life.

Laughing with God in the mountains at Peaceful Valley is so good.  He is giving me a clue about what makes him happy, what brings His smile.  I feel like He is letting me in a secret.  I am giddy to find that the birds of the mountains crack God up.

This is the Rocky Mountain {most} High.

Omygosh, I am weird, but wow I love it, too.  My Father is putting on a show for me, or maybe, more accurately, He is letting me see the one being put on for Him.  He claps.  He laughs.  He sings along.  He sees that His creation is good.  Here I am, lucky enough to sit in the Divine box seat with Him.

I am struck by how all of creation just does what it does and is in constant worship by very nature, created to bring Him glory.  I wonder what the heck we are doing?

I can’t help singing Andrae Crouch’s old song~

If I was a tree all I could do is lift my arms to You, Lord

If I was a bird, all I could is sing a song to You

If I was the sun all I could do is shine for You

Everything You made I know You made to give to praise to You

But You created me in Your image to give You the highest praise

Yeah, that’s right.  I sang my head off.  I was created to.  I couldn’t help it.  The waters splashed and pushed by loudly headed toward destiny.  The birds did sing.  The trees did clap their hands, the sun shined brilliantly and I sang and laughed and cried.  My soul sang.  It sang.  I was born for it.

Peaceful Valley was…peaceful, in its’ own raucously full-of-living kind of way.  Good times.

Happy Birthday to the Man of the Kelley House

Son.in.Law

Our very first son-in-law just drummed his way right into our hearts and and still keeps the beat, all these 10 years later, to the soundtrack that is our family-life.

Wow, we got spoiled.  We lucked out.  We got blessed.  We couldn’t have done it better if we’d spent years and years auditioning candidates.  God just knew.  He knew what we needed.  He knew what was missing for us, for you, too.  And He put you in our family, where you are looked up to as the big brother, the musical genius, the technological wizard, the guy who knows everything we need to find something out about.   Ask Tristan.  You’re like our very own, personal search engine.  AskTristanDotCom.  *smile

Happy Birthday to a man we are so grateful to call son, a man who loves our daughter and is raising three of the most amazing little kids ever.  You were born to be a part of us.  We are blessed.  Yes, happy-happy birthday, Tris!

That you are a good man, one for which we can thank God everyday, is evidenced by Stephanie’s success and deepening beauty.  That you are a trustworthy and righteous man is proven by the honoring and great-hearted children you are raising, so loved and so loving, each distinctively developing their own joy-bringing personalities.  Your family, Steph and the kids, look at you in a way that says: Tristan is in his element, right where God created him to be.

We so appreciate and admire your bravery and courageousness in providing for your family creatively.  We applaud the sacrifices you’ve made for the greater good and commend you for good choices in hard times.  Yours is a colorful, thriving, gorgeous family.  All you are doing right – shows.

Your parents got you at birth.  You are their son, the best of the best, the great product of the heritage they have given you.  But then God knew what we Rhoadeses would need.  And He sent you our way as a gift.  And that was a blessing for us.  So we celebrate your birth.  And we thank your parents for the way they raised you.  And we thank God for showing us His favor in this way.

Here is my birthday card for you, Tristan.  It’s a little of what I see and what makes me thank God for you.  Much love.  ~ The m-i-l.

Happy Anniversary to My Two Favs!

My goodness.  Look what you have done.

Me and Dave and Tara and her Dave with Hunter (plus another on the way); Stephanie and Tristan and the little K-kids, Gavin, Guini, and Gemma; Tredessa and probably Ryan (shhhh, top secret); Rocky and Jovan and their girlies, Averi and Amelie; Stormie and her house.

Then there is Joe and Robin and Elise and now Matt; and Ross and Christiana and Corbin.

You’ve got Tim and Julie and their three great boys, Zach, and Seth and Caleb.

Tami and Gerron, the cool ones.

And Danny and Dawn and Jordan and Alise and new baby Brody; Jared and Austin and all who are to come.

5 kids, 15 grandkids and 7 greats so far.  You’re on a roll!

Psalm 128

A Pilgrim Song

1-2 All you who fear God, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!

You worked hard and deserve all you’ve got coming.

Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!

3-4 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes,

your household lush as a vineyard,

The children around your table

as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.

Stand in awe of God’s Yes.

Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!

5-6 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem

every day of your life.

And enjoy your grandchildren.

Peace to Israel!  [The Message]

 

1st Day of School

Everybody has been posting pictures of their kids on the first day of school.  I happened across this little framed print in the closet the other day.  It’s from 20 years ago.  Stephanie-Tredessa-Rocky on their first day of, I think, 1st grade, 3rd grade and 4th.  And Tara was already off to middle school and Stormie was an afternoon Kindergartner…I think.  It has been awhile.  New backpacks and tennis shoes and apparently some sunglasses I got on a deal??  Haha.  Wow, I adore these little faces!

And the ones they have now.

Wait…maybe it was 2nd, 4th and 5th?  No, then Stormie would have been in first and in the picture, “Remember, we don’t like school, we LOVE school.” – Stormie’s 1st grade maxim.

I Choose You

Adoption means you grew in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy.”  Author: Unknown

The Powers Family Journey

Dave and Tara got married in September of 2003.  They were going to wait 5 years or so to have a baby because of all the traveling and plans they had.  But **sUrpRisE!** They got pregnant 5 months later with Hunter Magoo.  He was born 3 weeks early in October of 2004.  And a joy he is!

When he was 2 1/2 or 3, they started thinking about adding to their family.  As time went along, their curiosity was picqued about the hold up.  Getting pregnant the first time had been a breeze.  A physical exam did reveal a serious condition for which Tara went through surgery.  We thank God it went well and she was whole again – pregnancy would soon follow, we felt certain.

But this is God’s story and we cannot wait to read the next chapter!

Dave and Tara and Hunter have decided to choose the next baby or small child.  They have started their plans, filling out papers, having the home study, all the things needed to prepare for a new member of the family.

We are so excited.

This amazingly loving family

{ + }

a little one God is preparing for them =

 

My 7th grandbebe is on the way!

Keep up with the process on Tara’s new pictorial blog :: http://powersadoptionstory.blogspot.com/

 

Awesome Digs

Remember those little wax bottles?  You’d bite off the “cap” suck the 1/16 teaspoon of colored water out and then chew the wax – because gum was not always available?  They still have those!

We did not dig in the dirt today.

The pool is still up.  But today we officially started Pre-K for Gemma May.  Once a week with Nonna and every day with mommy and daddy.  She and I have been hanging out pretty much all year, but “school work” was mostly “playing school” and making crafts!  Good times.  Today she came with her backpack and school supplies, so grown up and so ready to read!  First order of business?  She made a “family’ of butterflies.”  “Mommy and daddy, Gavin and me and then Guini!  There we are.  We are flying!”

The speed of life has at least doubled since my kids were young.  And quadrupled since I was.  It really does fly.  A gazillions miles per hour!

Moslander Reunion 2011 :: For the Mamala

Arriving in Chicago on a Friday night. We get real Chicago-style pizza near Midway Airport where planes fly just above our heads.  Near the south shore in Hobart there is a wedding rehearsal with the other half of the family.  We will all gather for a celebration of a new marriage on Saturday.

BBQs at Dan and Dawn’s, corn-holing competitions, waffle-ball in the backyard.  Even the matriarch and patriarch got into the games!  There was the beach at Lake Michigan and driving the old neighborhood.  Remember 4995 Roosevelt Place and all the baseball dings in the side of the garage from the 3 Moslander boys?  Oh, they are still there.  Our giant spruce is nearly dead now, but there is the house, the one we all finally lived in together before growing up and moving away began.  Schools and businesses and streets we travelled.  A Vienna Red Hot at The Village Shopping Center.  I could still smell J C Penney’s even though it hasn’t been there now for almost 20 years.  My first real-life job was there.

Once green-grass, established neighborhoods with distinct ethnic identities, houses where people had lived for over 40 years in a thriving steel-mill industry and could be counted upon , like clockwork to be edging their perfect lawns at exactly 6:15 pm every Wednesday evening now have the signs of transience at best.  Bars on inhabited house windows, boarded up openings on empty, beautiful brick homes on hills.  You can buy a million-dollar Denver-type home there for $15,000, cash.  So says the hand-written cardboard sign.  The city waits to be revived.

But we remember our life and  times.

And the vivid colors come flooding back and our hearts are warm in the remembrance.  These were good times and good places.  This is where we finished growing up and where our parents had to let us go.  There are altars in every direction, signs that point to God’s faithfulness in our lives.

Jordan and Alise start their life as husband and wife.  We dance and eat and make merry.  We see old friends and catch up on 30 or so years.

Joe and Robin and their family couldn’t come this year.  We are remembering them always, bringing them up constantly, missing their presence…

The boys wrestle and play pool and work out to get pumped up. I give my mom a perm, which, though a bit kinky to begin with, of course, turns out just fine.  I get lots of time with Averi & Amelie Belle and they are truly the “belles of the ball!”

Southlake Worship Center – home church

We got to attend church at Southlake on Sunday.  So sweet.  More on that later.  But Pastor Sam Abbott and congregation welcomed us fully.  Rocky and Tara led worship, with a small acoustic, all-family band.  It was lovely.

Back to Chicago

On Tuesday there is a trip into the city: Navy Pier at Chicago.  Then an authentic Puerto Rican meal to. die. for. at Tami and Gerron’s church, provided by some ladies of the congregation.  Sitting on the front stoop at the church, we get a taste of a busy Chicago neighborhood.  The sounds, the smells, the accents – colorful and unique.  Tami and Gerron are perfect there.

Before we part we have our standard Family-Mass, a time of worship and fellowship around Him whose mark on our lives keeps us one, Jesus Christ.  It is informal, it is easy.  I wish it really could be captured in a way everyone could experience it.  Somehow, we just blend.  We just are :: The Moslanders.  The descendants of Ross and Norma Moslander, 4 generations of us, declaring God’s faithfulness from one generation to another.

In all my dad pastored in Des Moines, the Davenport, then a short time in Cedar Rapids, and a short time in Robert, Louisiana before we got to Gary, Indiana.   I kinda call it home and Dan and Dawn are still there.  And with all of us there, it felt like home.  But home really is where my mom and dad are.

These are just a few of the moments, especially dedicated to my mom.

HOME is wherever I’m with you.

 

Sam May: A Miracle that Keeps Happening!

In February of 2010, I asked all my friends and family to pray for Sam May.

He’d been in a horrible accident and it didn’t look like there was much hope.  My dad pastored a church in NW Indiana where Roni May was the pianist and the Mays became great family friends over 30 years ago.  In fact, my mom conisders Roni, Sam’s wife, her dearest friend in the world to this day and she always reminds me to pray for them.  I even babysat Ryan when he was a little guy and I was in high school.

Ryan has put together a documentary about their ordeal and great hope and about the faithfulness of God, really, when all hope seems gone.  This moving tribute makes you want to get back in the battle and possess your land-of-milk-and-honey!

W A T C H ! !

30 Years in the Making

O, um…found in drafts…and just a week or 2  or so late. :)

So, we met, August 1978 in Minot, ND.  And we flirted, but there were other things/people/stuff (??, as if).

Then I moved back home and we wrote letters, mostly in the summer, but there were lots of sweet letters over the course of 2+ years. I love that you kept all of mine and wish I had kept yours, too.

Then I moved back to Minot and we flirted some more, but you were unavailable.

This is Dave preaching in chapel at Northwest Bible College just a few weeks before we started dating.  This is Tara and I just a couple of weeks later.

Then, when I thought you were still unavailable (right after your graduation), you asked me over to watch a Rock Hudson movie.  And you sort of made your availability known.

It was NOT Rock’s best movie (“Man’s Favorite Sport”). But it turned out to be a fun night, anyway.  I think there was some Barry Manilow involved…

And we hung out late nights after you got off the radio (KHRT) and you’d call me at the office frequently.  Or drop by – pretty much a lot.  And it was a whirlwind.

And 3 weeks later, you said you wanted to marry me.  And surprisingly your family thought that was fine.  Mine was on the fence, but after they met you, they liked you better than me, anyway.

And 59 days after the first date that I didn’t know was a date, we went to Wimbledon, ND and Dr. Gough married us.  I was wearing my cousin Shellie’s dress and none of my family was there, but you were my new family: me and you and Tara.

My co-worker Elaina, had just thrown a whole bag of rice down my dress.  Wimbledon, ND

And then we were us and we had a truckload of kids.  A girl, another girl and then another.  Baby dedications were regular celebrations!  Finally got that boy before we gave him a baby sister.  We lived all the way from Minot to Kokomo and then to Sioux City and then to Norfolk, NE, where we moved in June the year Stormie (who wrote us a sweet anniversary blog) had just turned one.  Then we landed in Denver – home!

Look!  Through relentless determination and commitment to the pursuit, we got a boy (baby number 4)!

I did my best to be the “sober” pastor’s wife I’d been charged to be when Dave was ordained.  Not my best life’s assignment!.

And besides lots of kids, lots of life and love and wow-did we laugh and dream and grow??!!

Um, yeah.  I don’t have any idea what this silly picture was about.  My mom took it.  It was the 80s.

And there were hard times, too, some disappointments and regret and times we were afraid we’d end up like everyone else.

Me with baby number 3; Dave with baby number 3 (July 1983)

But we made our choices and did them on purpose, together.  It was always all about together. And then we didn’t end up like everybody else.   It was waaaaaaaaay better.

And we made it.  We did!  We beat the odds together. Just like the Shania Twain song.

And I love you still.

Happy Anniversary, honey.

est. 1981

NOTE TO YOUNG MARRIEDS: Try to get in pictures together.  You are all doing well with the arm shot in this digital age, but be sure when you look back over 30 years of pictures that you are not just seeing mom with all the kids or dad with all the kids over and over and over.  And yes, I am speaking from experience!

With a sign the kids made us when they “decorated” our yard late one night.  Sweet.

NOTE: The “graininess” was from the photos being in their album covers.  Shoulda took them out, I guess.