All things family-related. My husband and me, the children we made, the grandbebes that thrill us now. Our whole great big, loud, messy family. Love! *sigh…
Everybody is so busy. I actually do KNOW every one of these {extremely cool} people, I do. But wowzers – getting together these fast-paced fall days is missing from my life. :(
Tredessa is 31+ weeks in her pregnancy.
I just got to attend Birth Classes with Ryan and Dessa over the weekend. Babying is so much fun. I wish I weren’t too old to have another one (yes, shhhhh, I did say it, but don’t tell anyone). Haha. Baby shower preparations are underway as we all get ready for the arrival of Evangeline Lilly, “Eva.”
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Tristan recently released 2 drumming videos. He is so talented. I love the drumming AND the video editing. He did these in Stormie’s basement, also cool.
This one will put this song in your head. Fair warning!
Steph {www.maydae.com} has been featured on the Etsy home page and in some Etsy treasuries recently.
Steph has an eye for vintage and unique with an expertise in thrifting. Everybody wants her secrets, which she shares at her blog. Oh, and she just went over 400 sales in her Etsy shop!
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Emilee {my very great-niece} was on Channel 9 News from Estes Park. She shows up at about 1:07 in the video. I could not quit thinking of the old Mary Tyler Moore theme from her 70s TV show, “Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it’s you girl and you should know it…” That so fits Em!
PLAY HERE (I just realized she is on their still shot, too!)
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Rocky and Jovan are just getting back into their home, even though the repairs continue and the basement is now an empty shell. There will be a benefit/worship night for them in early November. Every single person I know should be there! SAVE THE DATE: November 8!
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CallBack Theater is doing another Christmas production. Dave has been putting the finishing touches on the script and I know I’ll be hearing carols soon, as he begins gathering props and making plans.
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The Powers fam left for Ireland today. Ireland!
I cannot wait to hear Hunter’s Irish accent when he returns, as he always enjoys trying on dialects. Won’t my little O’Hunter and O’Malakai be the cutest kids there? They are there for {THIS}.
Stephanie took this picture in Kai’s bedroom recently. It captures reality! Beautiful reality! Life on the floor with toys and two boys!
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I get to meet Baby Blake when Stormie and I fly to Chicago to meet up with Elise-the-Niece in a few weeks, then go to see the parentals.
Is he not just the handsomest little guy ever?
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And? It is flipping cold here – what is up with that???
Hi-ya, Hunter-Magoo! Happy Birthday today to a boy who has been surprising me and making me smile since that Saturday morning you were born 9 years ago. You absolutely messed up my work day – because back then, I never took one off, and when I emerged from a meeting and was told: Uh, you have a grandson, I thought I was being punked or something!
But I wasn’t. I was deliriously excited and shaky rushing to buy flowers for your mommy and trying to get to the hospital. And oh-so-tiny you were. And so mysterious, too – born to two gorgeous blond-haired, blue-eyed people, there you were with that shock of black hair – THREE weeks early! See? **Surprise!**
WARNING: Lots and lots of pictures that make your Nonna go “Aaaaaawwwwwwwwww“
I know I get all gooey on you and it makes you a little crazy. But it is because I just adore you with my whole, entire heart, ya know? You’ve been The Little Prince and my “widdle guy.” I have tickled your little M & M toes and watched them graduate to being ‘Tootsie Rolls’ haha. You’ve gone from this short, tiny kid with the big-thinking brain to become my almost-double-digits man-child, a boy who thinks like he’s grown, a boy cut out for important things.
So, on the occasion of your 9th birthday, Hunter-Magoo, I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I respect your insight into he things of God and I love how much you love and care for your baby brother. I praise God for giving you a brother because you soooooo wanted a brother and that makes me happy that He saw that and blessed you. I admire what a good son you have grown up to be, how honoring you are of your parents and it makes me so happy to see what a great fun-making, playmate you are with your younger cousins. They always have so much fun following you with all your great ideas! Your are handsome on the outside because of all the goodness and love on the inside.
Now that you’re old enough, I can tell you all the secrets of our family universe and answer any questions you have. I can give you grown-up advice and still cuddle you in the mornings when you stay over. I love your gentleness, I admire your attention to making sure I get plenty of love and affection when you’re around and having you in the room always always always makes me happy. I am so proud of you, HP. You’re a good boy and becoming an amazing young man.
I guess I should share a picture of you as my big-guy.
Spirit Week at Hunter’s school. He got to be “70s.” Makes me smile! :)
Happy Birthday, my man-child. Your Nonna loves you to infinity and beyond!
Oh, and in other fun news, Hunter is not only 9 on the 9th, but his baby brother, Kai, is 9 months today, too. On the 9th! How cool is that?
Happy Birthday to Rocky Rhoades, who turned 29 on September the 29th
My son – I am so pleased with you.
I have told you the story of your birth so many times, haven’t I? You arrived early and the doctor had told me not to leave town in case that happened, but I left town and I was so stressed out because I don’t like to get caught breaking the rules. And Tara just reminded me the other night how stressed she was, too, as a 5-year old, because we started on our trip, got halfway there, went home, and then decided to go anyway…and barely walked into the grandparent’s house before it was time for me to zoom right on over to the hospital. Well, I mean, I had planned to make it home so the doctor wouldn’t be any-the-wiser, but you were like, NOW! ~which is so still you. :)
And I have told you that you surprised me beyond anything I could have imagined. I could not believe I got the boy, THE boy I secretly hoped for even though in reality I was totally FINE with having a girl. I already had 3 girls, one more made such sense for balance and symmetry. Omygoodness – the words, “You have a boy” sent me into delirious happiness.
You looked directly at me, your eyes blinked in slow-motion and it knocked the breath from my body. I was dizzy in love, unable to even think about sleep that night, all night, as an oxytocin and dopamine cocktail surged through my veins as if it were coming directly through the IV drip. I had a boy…my very own baby boy!
And you may not realize it, but every time I ever see you, even now, I am thinking the same thing: THAT is MY boy!
I am so proud of you, Rock, not only for the man you are, but for the man you are becoming more and more everyday. This whole flood thing has been a devastation in some ways and an aggravation, for certain, in the life of your family, your ministry. There was loss that probably feels overwhelming and unbearable (as $40-50,000 plus time and effort and re-building will be). I know you look forward to getting your wife and baby girls back home, safe and sound. And then you’ll look and see the possibly long-haul ahead for replacing all the instruments and computers and sound equipment and the studio you’d spent time assembling ~ lots of time and money and hard work ahead.
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For …this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God.. . 2 Corinthians 6.10-12
But it will come back to you. The things you have sown will take root and grow. And I have watched you and Jovan these past few years grow in grace and grow in giving and giving selflessly and giving big and making the conscious decision to live a life of giving and whenever it has been in your power to do so, you have given away anything and everything you could.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows…whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6.7-8
And God isn’t unaware. He’ll see to it that the seeds of kindness and giving that you have already sown will grow and flourish and you’ll reap all that you have sown. Even when you didn’t know you’d need it – you were planting, you were dropping the seeds of compassion and kindness and generosity into the ground – and what you couldn’t see was that God wasn’t surprised by this thing that happened to your house, your home and belongings and He was smiling, I just know it, because He knew you were already doing what needed done – before it needed done. God knew you were planting for a harvest of big-time reaping, financially!
“The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.'” Genesis 7.1
For Noah, for all mankind, the flood was a line in the sand. It was a before and after. It was : things used to be like that, then there was the flood, and now they are like this. The flood was an ending AND a beginning. Things were lost in the flood, but the promises of God are found there, too. Not just for an ark builder for thousands of years ago, but for a worshiper/songwriter right now, in Frederick, CO – man who leads his family and wants to write songs that literally bring healing.
Of course certain things had to die and float away for a dream, a calling, a vision like that. But it is all just so you’ll never forget that the LORD is the promise-keeper and you didn’t do it by yourself, because you couldn’t have. How many times have you told me, since you were 18 or 19, “God won’t share His glory.” You have pointed out highly celebrated, gifted musicians and singers and recognized the call of God on their lives, but watched as they held it for themselves. That is not the standard you are living by and this flood is just a yes and amen to deep-down determinations you have already made to give God all, everything that is His and His alone – you have already said it. The flood is a checkpoint – do you mean it, Rock-man? And I know you do and I know the healing songs are going to pour out from here, like flood waters for the glory of the LORD.
But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord just as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2.14
Do you know what I think?
I believe, and I actually know this to be true because I have known you every second of these 29 years+ and you have made me cry and worry and laugh like nobody’s business and also so very proud because you are forthright and honest and talented and thoughtful and honoring and you love your mommy. So this is what I think:
No one is more beautiful or handsome than my boy, my Rocky ~ from the inside out.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
This is the post-flood promise of God! On the occasion of your 29th birthday. It is coming back to you, all of it and more! I love you!
NOTE: Rocky and Jovan got flooded out during the Colorado rains in September. I have written a little about it here and here. You can learn more about helping them re-build {HERE}!
Oh, Amelie-Belle! I love that you trust your daddy to seek God for you, for the things you need and for your little heart’s desires. And I love that, like the Caananite woman, you keep knocking on that door: Don’t forget, daddy – pray about it, OK, daddy? This will serve you well, sweet-pea.
I thank God for Stefane, who has been a daughter, a friend, a prayer warrior, and a general blessing to my family and me since the day we met. Here is how that went:
2008. I saw Stefane and her husband, Wrex, in Wal-Mart wearing bright turquoise-colored t-shirts from Northern Hills Church. There was a campaign going on asking the question “Are you in” emblazoned on their shirts. I was in one line, they were in the next waiting to pay. I didn’t know them and they really looked to cool to bother with me, I mean – Stef has this classic Hollywood Glamour-Girl thing she can’t hide going on. So, as I finished paying and slipped past their line, I smiled at Wrex and said, “Yes, I’m in!”
I had no way of knowing at the time that Wrex’s pink cheeks are just part of his charming, good-looking self (Wrex will tell you he is the better-looking version of Payton Manning, hahaha). I thought I had embarrassed him, like maybe his wife had forced the shirt on him and he was deep-down mortified that some one had actually answered the question. I was wrong. I hadn’t gotten more than 5 steps when Stef called out to me,
“Are you Tredessa Rhoades’ mom?”
Thus, the beginning of my love for the Phipps fam, which at the time, was just the two newlyweds. For Stef proceeded to tell me she’d heard Tredessa, who was a full-time missionary with Confluence at the time, speak and that she, Stef, wanted to be just like Dessa when she grew up.
Well, I mean – if you are going to talk sweet about one of my kids, then it is a cinch, I am going to love you!
My love for her has grown ever since.
Today is Stef’s birthday. I wanted to share 10 things I love about her, countdown-style. You’d love her, too, without a doubt!
10. The hair, of course! I had spent years trying to have that super-straight flat hair that everyone else had, but OH how I missed the 80s and big hair. Stef is from Texas and when she started working with us at the Heaven Fest office, her teased and spray glam-hair made me so happy. I have never still managed to have great hair like she ALWAYS does, but goodness me, after she visits, my hair is better for 2.687 weeks just by the inspiration of being in a room with her! Big hair is wonderful and nobody does it better!
9. Her fashion-style. GLAMOROUS! Another thing I noticed about her right off is that she was NOT leaving the house ever in sweats or grubby clothes. Every single outing finds her dressed from head to toe and looking beautiful. Ouch, puts me to shame. I got too casual in my old age. AND on every single outing WITH Wrex, she dressed to kill! Date night! Shamed, again. The girl rocks a miniskirt and boots and she is really an inspiration to be beautiful every single day!
8. Events. She is like us crazy Rhoades women. We do events. We just do. It is NEVER agony over oh-my-goodness-whatever-shall-we-do. It is more like, “Hey! We need to get a grip on the creativity here, people. Let’s start cutting ideas.” Stef is like that, too. A perfect union!
7. The food. One of my major complaints about younger generations is they don’t get the potluck concept. Potlucking doesn’t mean you only have to fix a little of one dish and get to come and eat many dishes. It means, you fix a meal for you and your family plus enough to share. then we all throw it on a table and FEAST! It is becoming a lost art. but not to Stefane. If I say, “Could you bring the _____,” indicating just one “______,” she will arrive with a counter-full of ever imaginable type of dish in large quantities. Wow! Does my heart good! There is hope for the future!
6. The Almost-annual Grandbebe Nativity. I got in my head one year that an annual Nativity photo shoot with my grandbebes would be just the thing. The first year, we threw 6-month-old Gemma on the floor as baby Jesus and hung a tablecloth behind the 4 that there were then and called it good. But then, Stefane got Wrex in on it and they arranged sheep and goats and donkeys and oh-my-word! My Nativity photo shoots are the BEST with her help!
5. She let our whole extended family come to the farm for our reunion and spent lots of time making it wonderful for a big bonfire, yard games, lassoing, BBQing, horse-riding and horseshoes. It was amazing. And she loved my mom. And my mom loves her back! That is the Good-Housekeeping Seal of Approval! Stef is IN!
4. She loves every single member of my original family and has found ways to bless each of them, with gifts, with her famous banana bread, by serving with us, serving us individually, she is just a major Texas-sized-LOVE-show-er! But especially for her friendship to Tredessa. I love how much fun they have doing nerdy things in an orderly fashion with spreadsheets and databases at their disposal.
3. I got to be in the room for the birth of both of her children. How honoring is that? Sawyer and Wryder are just beautiful babies and how could they be otherwise? They are such happy little sweetie-pies, so loved, so adorable, so well-cared for and delightful. I am excited to see what God has in store for their little lives with these amazing parents!
2. The Wrexster. Well, I mean, I could go on all day about Wrex. There is nobody like him in the universe and I mean that in the best possible way. He is an amazing guy. When we first knew them, we kept running in to them at Chilis on Saturday evenings and they were always at the bar. Always. So we thought: Ok, nice people, but big drinkers. But it turned out they were just there watching football games and Wrex was drinking them out of business with his free refills on Strawberry-Lemonade. Hahahaha! He is something else. And for him to be everything he is that makes us all love him so much, he has to have the love of an amazing woman. And he soooooo does. She loves him. So he can be who he is meant to be. It’s lovely.
1. Her all-new blog: A few days ago, Stef unveiled her latest venture. In addition to being a gorgeous wife and devoted mommy, besides her attention to mentoring and encouraging other young mommies and her commitment to the Body of Christ and being a great neighbor in her community, Stef will start sharing her adventures regularly on her new blog, so appropriately titled www.theblessyourheartblog.com, because it will – bless your heart. The link is on my homepage. Click it anytime to go there and read up. She is warm, self-deprecating, humorous, godly, and insightful.
Love you, Stef. I hope you can see the favor of God on your life through my silly little observations, because it is there. You inspire me so much. Very proud of you. Congratulations on the new blog and HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY Birthday, my sweet.
It is not only Sunday, but also the birthday of the only boy I ever had (until the reward of Tristan, Dave and Ryan), but his birthday blog will com later.
Meanwhile, this is a song I shared with the birthday boy, Rocky, and his wife Jovan the other day. It has been a challenging couple of weeks for them, with three young daughters and flooded out of their house. They are worn out from everything you have to do to make your house livable again.
This song has amazing words and is full of hope and promise. It basically reminds us that no matter where we are, the GRACE of God (that empowering Presence of the Holy Spirit that enables us to be everything He called us to be and do everything He created us to do) will come and find us again and again.
…there in the sorrow and the dancing, Your great grace, Oh such grace…
How do we know this is true? Well, for Rocky and Jovan and any of us in situations beyond our control and overwhelming to say the least: we recall His goodness through the years, His faithfulness. In every good thing and bad, in the birth of our children, at our weddings, when loved ones have died, when we are rich or when we have been poor – always, every. single. time – His GRACE has found us, has come to us, has filled our lives with His great hope and joy. It all just proves the old hymn true, His grace is AMAZING!
From the creation to the cross, There from the cross into eternity Your grace finds me, yes, Your grace finds me
The fist video is Matt Redman leading the song live. The second is his intro about how and why he wrote it. Watch that and you’ll want to go back and worship along again with the live vid. :) Pretty simple song, you’ll be singing along after the first few lines. Listen for the strains of “Amazing Grace,” too.
So I’m breathing in Your grace and breathing out Your praise…
You are not lost enough that His grace cannot find you. I know this for a fact.
Elise-the-Niece got married two years ago this week.
I had always imagined getting to go make her a cake, but I didn’t get to be there. *sniff:(
The other day, I was looking through photographs on my computer and ran across some images Stormie snapped while in Aberdeen for the wedding. I selected a few that are just tooooooo cute not to see. These can be inspiration shots for other brides-to-be.
Her venue in Aberdeen S. Dakota
The sign (held by the cutie-patootie, Christiana ~ sister-of-the-bride)
The truck: it held the gifts!
Brown-paper bag lanterns.
The guest book table.
While the wedding party got pictures…
This one was from the actual photographer, of Elise and her maids.
Then the real celebration of love began…
So congratulations to Matt and Elise on two years of wedded bliss.
The P.S.
It was also Elise’s birthday this week. AND their baby, the darling-adorable little Blake Matthew was dedicated to Jesus this past weekend. He is 4 months of beauty and oh-so-beloved by all. They are loved and highly favored by God and their Aunt Jeanie.
Love you, Elise, sweet niece, you and you familia!
Here are my {humble and extremely astute, hahahaha!} observations on what happens when a lot of rain comes quickly…
Nothing profound or scientific here. Just my thoughts running downstream…
You may be praying for it (in arid, semi-desert areas, we often do), but it shows up in the night while you are totally unprepared, sleeping, minding your own business.
Rocky and Jovan had no warning, when at 3 am, their electricity was out and within 20 minutes they watched water rise from the second step to just a couple of feet from their main level, reaching nearly 6 feet high in their basement. They couldn’t drive out of their cul-de-sac because the street was already rushing and deep, but had to pack quickly for three baby girls. It can be sudden. It was in this case.
It rips your belongings from their places and they just float away.
The next day, Rocky went to his house and everything downstairs was just floating around on its side: furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer, computers, musical recording equipment and sound systems. All of Rocky’s guitars and instruments (the ones he learned to worship on), were soaked and floating or submersed. Material things float away in a flood, in an abundance of rain.
It fills the creeks, the rivers, bursts through dams, flows down it’s normal contained path in ever-rising power then through streets and places that cannot contain it.
It gets dangerous. It shows up where we were glad to have it and where we weren’t. But it is the nature of abundance. It’s everywhere. It rains on the just and on the unjust, in good ways and in ways that we were not expecting and don’t know how to handle.
Everybody wants to claim they got more of it than some one else.
I don’t want to say too much about this for fear I’ll end up totally snarky. So let me just say, if you lost anything at all, if you are now faced with mold growing where the basement flooded and your childhood keepsakes are gone – it is a loss. It is horrible. And I hope you have some one in your life who will acknowledge that and let you say why the loss affected you and how sad you feel. I really do. But there were people whose houses stayed completely dry who acted like they had been banished to a completely undeveloped third world country because a road half a mile away couldn’t be transversed for 24-48 hours. Keep perspective and get into gratefulness. Maybe the next big tragedy will be all about you – won’t that be nice? There! See? I got into snarkiness. I cannot be trusted.
Some people will lose a lot and then be recompensed with piles of pious platitudes.
Mourn with those who mourn. Maybe what they lost didn’t mean anything to you, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t mean anything to them. They are tired. They have a lot of work ahead. When they say, “Oh-I just found out I lost {some, silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} in the flood,” we should commiserate, we should sympathize, and maybe if we know what that is like, we should empathize. For how long? Until they are done. My conjecture is that if we’d stop and mourn with those who are mourning, their mourning would turn into dancing a whole lot sooner. Sometimes what is lost isn’t recognized right away anyway, in the shocking aftermath of a new normal, of material loss. Encourage, literally give them some of your courage. Listen, let them tell you why that {silly, ridiculous, sentimental, inconsequential thing} meant something. But refrain, pleeeeeease, from pious-sounding-cliches and especially from a “knowing look” that God sent this hard thing to work something in their lives that you totally knew they needed. Because you will not want that coming back on you!
The rushing water brings a cleansing, but cleansing strips away things we didn’t count on, too.
It is a heavenly do-over. Now what will we do with it? It’s a chance to right wrongs, fresh slate, build better, travel lighter, haul away the concentrated, contaminated mud for good.
But in the cleansing – I have one friend who lost everything including her home in Lyons. There is nothing for her to even go back to, her home and those who lived near – all gone. The land will be cleared and maybe eventually that will seem fine, safer for the future, but right now – it represents many families, people who have nowhere to call “home.”
So? A fresh slate can be good, it is also very empty – much work to do!
If the water gets stuck in one spot, it will become stagnant.
There is so much contamination throughout our state now, as the rain has ceased and the rushing has subsided and is sitting still. I have read about the revivals of old, Azusa, the Welsh Revival. Powerful moves of God flowing through and changing the landscape, were eventually dammed up, “named”, coined phrases were assigned to them for categorizing the flow of the Holy Spirit. The rains can be administrated and basically contained…to death. Choose life from this wet mess!
The bug population will suddenly be crazy after it happens.
Because even where the rains have made the grass and trees greener than ever in our state at this time of year, when the good stuff is increased, the annoying stuff {fatigue sets in, bickering, backbiting, distrust, unrest, eye-rolling, offense} increases around it, too. Be aware. Be wary. Be on guard. They seek to destroy the green-life we are enjoying.
See? Nothing profound or scientific. Just a bunch of thoughts rattling around, things I see.
The Bible says where the river flows everything will live. This will eventually probably be one of the most beautiful autumns Colorado has ever seen {both in the natural and because it is bringing people together to do good for one another}. It will take time to rebuild, to get “back to normal,” to regain what was lost. But even now, are we not seeing clearly the great grace and love of God, His heart poured out in love towards us, His great grace at work through His people. He is good. We know this now. But – in the looking back someday, how amazed we will really be, I am sure of it!
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Zumba, baby!
Meanwhile, the amazing Tammy Brown (the outrageously gorgeous woman married to the ineffable Lewis “Proxy” Brown, yes THAT Tammy) is doing a fitness-fundraiser {how fun is that?} to help Rocky and Jovan as they work to recover their losses! It’s a ZUMBA-thing! You should ALL come! Seriously! THIS kind of abundance – it’s a love-rain!
Thanks to so many who are helping so many others and especially those who are loving on my familia.
Because Rainy Days & Mondays and especially this particular Monday could really use a good song…
The water rose today,
The river with the rain
Memories and picture frames
Are floating miles away.
Through the wreckage and the mud,
The ruins after the flood,
She survived at 91, hmm
Some would have given up
Drowning in their tears
But on her wrinkled face
A smile appeared.
When you face your greatest fear
Losing all that you hold near
Open up your eyes my dear,
Oh how mercy looks from here.
The call I couldn’t take,
Unbearable mistakes
A brilliant mind that fades away
A baby doll beside the grave
When you face your greatest fear
Losing all that you hold near
Open up your eyes my dear
Oh how mercy looks from here.
I would have given up, drowning in my tears
If it wasn’t for your voice all these years
When you face your greatest fear
Losing all that you hold near
Open up your eyes my dear
My dear
That’s when boundless grace appears
Unseen angels hover near
Saints are singing loud and clear
Oh how mercy looks from here.
Oh how mercy looks from here.
Oh how mercy looks from here.
Oh how mercy looks from here.
The water rose today…
I think Tara had Jovan listen to this the other and what a perfect song for our situation. So, for Jovan, but for us all for all we have held dear and lost anyway…
One son, urged to marry carefully ~ he got the sweetest one ever!
A black-sky, vicious storm-brewing day was overtaken by the burst of bright-light sun-shining, as you spoke your vows in that window-walled cafe. The light (and the love) were nearly blinding!
Seven years, 3 baby girls, a mean, bow-tie wearing dog named Steve (Steve-Holt), some guinea pigs, a new house, a lot of video-game playing, music and worship and little-girl hair-brushing + one major flood later…
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alleyways and payphone calls
I been everywhere with you (that’s true)
And here we are. Oh goodness, the years have been blessed. Of all the girls who ever tried to turn my little boy’s head, you were the best choice for him, Jovanie. Congratulations, to you both on such a great decision then and now.
I am so sorry for the week you have had, for the loss you have experienced – not so much about the “things,” the washer and dryer and hot water heater and furnace and carpet. Not even about the physical “things” that included Rocky’s studio and all his guitars and sound systems and computers and recording equipment. Even that, we know – the guitars represent so many precious times in the Presence, the memory of songs sung to the heavens, we feel that loss. We know The LORD will provide and He is your Provider! But it is what those material possessions have represented – a really good life.
You’re safe, your family is good. But it’s hard. Scary to awake in the night to see the waters rising from the lower level and have to be “rescued” in the dark, by flashlight grabbing everything 3 little girls will need until…who knows when?
I love that you have chosen the song for this day of celebration to be, “Home is Wherever I’m with You,” Jovan. Because that is the secret you know.
Laugh until we think we’ll die,
Barefoot on a summer night
Never could be sweeter than with you
So while you’re displaced, not even knowing how long until you can return to “the house,” I am so glad you have found refuge in each other, not just for these days but for life and that even today, in such an unsettled moment – you are home.
PLAY HERE (I just realized she is on their still shot, too!)
