You win our🏆for best Dad and best Husband and Grampy.
We didn’t find each other when we were in our teens. We didn’t date then, but when we moved to a new place, I understand now how it feels to have the memories of just us everywhere we go each straight road, every corner, the cafe where we have coffee, that country dinner we eat breakfast at and the seat at the edge of the lake. Every moment on the water riding our bikes on the wooded paths, living here at this place every place that is being touched by our lives is a memory of just you and me. Well, it’s just like we met in our teens, and here we are at the end, and it feels like the beginning.
I’m married to my best friend, and loving him is the miracle gift God gave me over 40 years ago. He’s a sweet, God-fearing, filled with love, and full of tenacious living kind of man, and he understands me through and through.
We took a giant step of faith and moved hundreds of miles away. I was retiring, and he had gotten a new career. This may be hard for some to believe, but the first time we stepped on this land, we both looked at each other and said we needed to pray right now because we felt strongly God had led us to live here. We held each other right in the street and prayed. I drive down that street often with the picture in my memory each time I say,” There’s another me and you spot.”
Leaving was not easy
Jessica, our daughter, found this song when we were moving, and it tells the whole story well.
The house that Brad built along with our two boys
He had a vision and a strong will to build a home for his wife and three children. His dream included a lake view. How we got that property is a beautiful picture of much prayer as Our Heavenly Fathers hand-prepared the way.
I was looking back through the years, all the precious memories of our family and those sweet grandchildren enjoying the house Grampy built.
That Journey Pioneering a path never used?
It was not easy, but I say to anyone reading this, please listen. “It is worth it all.”
Knowing daily that we have a purpose gives us the energy to fuel our vision. It’s like crossing the finish line and finding out you did it. You did it. What a powerful experience that brings alignment to your perspective. Better yet, you are on a new starting line now, but every hurdle is no longer a limitation this time. It’s a challenge.
We begin our days and end our nights, focusing on the words of life and each other. We were pressed like a flower between pages of a book.
We build ourselves up, giving clean, fruitful substance to see with our eyes and hearing enjoyable, lasting words brought only to us from 40 years of experience, along with a wake-up call when the electric paddles were ready. Surgery was prepared, and the doctors declared out loud, “It was as if something pushed his blockage through without our help.” At the miracle moment, we knew God gave us more time than the one thing you can’t build, grow, or make because it is a gift given only by the life-giver.