Family portrait day...

I was blown away by the slideshow at the photography studio this past Thursday night! Up on the screen were some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. There were soooo many pictures to choose from, but we narrowed it down to about a dozen for purchase :-) Here are three pictures that are absolutely adorable. I tell you, I think Kennendy is going to be a model :-) But then again, she has good-looking parents (and grandparents) :-)

When our ship sets sail...

Recently, my father forwarded us an email that spoke about the subject of death, and how it will be a joyous occasion for Christians. It reminded me of a morning some time ago when Ana and I were having breakfast just before leaving for work. As is our habit, we read aloud from "Our Daily Bread" before we finish from the table. One particular morning the "Daily Bread" subject was "the death of a loved one". The scripture reference was from 2 Corinthians:

"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." —2 Corinthians 5:8

A commentary followed which included a beautiful description of dying by Henry van Dyke:

"I am standing at the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud, just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. . . . And just at the moment when someone at my side says: 'There, she is gone!' there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: 'Here she comes!' And that is dying."

I could barely get through the reading of it without choking with tears. I thought about our mortality, and the fact that we will all part from this life, one by one. But our Lord who provides for us here has also provided for that last journey. It will be a moment when we close our eyes here, and wake up over there. It will be a day of unspeakable joy! Until that day, I want to make every day count for Him.

Whose Woods These Are, I Think I Know...

This is the first snow day we've had in years, it seems. Ana stayed home this morning from work, anticipating a blizzard (such faith she has). I dutifully went to work. As the morning progressed, rain turned into sleet and snow, and then just snow! By midday the snow began to stick! I had to run some errands, including picking up a car for Meredith (another story by itself). Thankfully, we were able to close up our office early, and I was able to get home in time before the roads got too messy. I enjoyed driving up the driveway, looking at our home in the snow. Once inside, Ana and I sat down to a nice lunch and peered out the back door, watching the snow fall. These top photo's are of our backyard. It is hard to imagine that just beyond those trees lies busy Gum Branch Road. To Ana and me, it is a deep forest providing protection from the world's cares. As I gazed at the snow falling in our backyard against the backdrop of pines and oaks, I couldn't help but think of Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening". My favorite verse is the last one, which goes:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

If looks could kill... :-)

Recently Ana Maria was sweet enough to let me document her childhood and teenage years with a large selection of photo's she's kept stored in a closet. I decided to create a website just for her called "Ana Maria - Memorias". It is a work in progess, so I have many more pages of pictures to display for her commentary. Today while scanning the photo's Ana picked out for me, I came across this picture. The first time she showed me this, I laughed to the point of tears! Ana related to me that she was at the beach with her parents and at one point needed a little privacy. But her mom couldn't miss a photo opportunity as she sneaked up on Ana and took the shot. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, so it is not difficult to see that Ana was not impressed:-)

You know, sometimes Ana gives ME that look :-)

Let it Snow..

Ana is praying that it will snow rather than rain this evening. She is such a kid at heart:-) This is a strange phenomenon since she loved the arid climate of Angola, Africa, as a teenager, and even now prefers summer to winter. In December of 1975, she and her mom moved from Africa to Rhode Island, where she saw her first snow! And I guess it was "love at first sight." :-)

On Time's website (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1869394,00.html), I looked at a series of snowflakes photograped by Cal Tech physics professor, Kenneth G. Libbrecht. The two snowflakes pictured above were the most interesting to me. According to Mr. Libbrecht, the top one -- called a "needle" -- forms around 23 degrees Fahrenheit and looks like small bits of white hair on your sleeve. Mr. Libbrecht relates that it is a scientific mystery as to why these snow crystal shapes change from thin, flat plates to long, slender needles when the temperature changes.

When we look at a white blanket of snow, it is hard to imagine the delicate intricate details of each flake! It reminds us that the God of the universe watches -- and is interested in -- even the smallest detail of our lives!

This photo of Jerusalem in the snow (January 2008) was taken by Will King with the Zola Levitt Ministries ( http://www.levitt.com/). I love it! Who says it doesn't snow in that area of the world! When Mom used to display our family nativity set with cotton for snow, she had the right idea :-)

Today's Sermon at Church...

We heard a great sermon today at church regarding stewardship.  The pastor spoke from Malachi 3.  Also, Deacon Stuart Howard gave a testimoney about being obedient to the Lord's commands.  He alluded to Moses' words in Deuteronomy 11:26-28, which says:   "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse--the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known."   The focus of Stuart's comments was that God will bless our obedience, which also includes how we worship Him with our tithes and offerings.  I think back to the days when I not only disobeyed God's commands with regards to the sin of selfishess, pride and a host of other sins, but also the sin of with-holding what already belonged to God--my money.  Somehow, I didn't think I could "afford" to give to God as he commanded.  It was a difficult decision a few years back to just take God at His word and begin tithing.  But Malachi 3:8b-9 says:   "But you ask, "how do we rob you?'  "In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse---the whole nation of you---because you are robbing me."    Most of my adult life, I struggled and struggled to get ahead, but I was always met with trouble and disappointment.  One day I came to the conclusion that I either had to believe God fully or not believe Him at all.  Ana and I talked about it and made the decision to trust God and tithe up front -- from the firstfruits that He blessed us with.  We decided to take the words of Malachi 3:10 seriously:   "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."   Now we don't take that to mean that we will be financially rich - by no means!  But we now have a sense of God's providencial care.  We are not having to make it alone - we don't trust in our ability.  We've experienced the fulfillment of His promise, and we've received from His perfect hand---a hand that gives generously and sufficiently--- not only our physical needs, but our spiritual needs as well.   I often think about Mom and Dad, and how they have been faithful to the Lord in every way for many years.  They understand, firsthand, how God takes care of those who trust and obey Him.  When I think of Mom and Dad, I think about Jeremiah 17:7, which says:   "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes;  its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."   That's Mom and Dad!  They are like the tree planted by the water!  What a marvelous legacy for us children, grandchildren and great grandchildren!  I've grown to understand that scripture more personally as I've begun surrendering areas of my life that used to be lived in disobedience.    Can we step up to the plate and continue such a legacy?

Psalm 121

In recognition of the Jewish Fast of the 10th of Tevet, I wanted to add this video which my former Hebrew teacher referred to me through YouTube. It is a beautiful song, Psalm 121, sung by a popular Israeli singer, Ninet Tayeb. Here is the English translation:

Song of Ascents

I lift my eyes to the mountains - from where will my help come? My help will come from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot falter; your Guardian does not slumber. Indeed, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord is your Guardian; the Lord is your protective shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul. The Lord will guard your going and your coming from now for all time.

Today is Ana Maria's birthday! After church we drove to Wilmington to meet Nicole and Daniel for a birthday meal at Macaroni Grill. We had a great Italian meal and a great time! The video at the bottom is of Ana and Nicole singing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese. Very lovely! And that's good because the resturant singer wasn't feeling well today and couldn't sing for us :-)

Afterwards Ana and I went over to Belks to find a winter coat for her. I tried to find her one for Christmas, but wasn't able. But we found the perfect one in Wilmington today - a nice birthday present:-) We joined Nicole and Daniel at her house for a little while before returning to Jacksonville. The month is young, so we'll be celebrating Ana's birthday for awhile. This is kinda HER tradition! :-) Happy birthday...er.. ah... birth MONTH, Ana Maria!

New Years Eve!

Ana Maria and I went to Sherry's house for an evening of food and board games! We also played Chinese majhong as we waited for the new year to come in. We had a great time together with our friends. At midnight, in keeping with Portuguese tradition, Ana and I jumped down from our chairs--right foot first for good luck-- into the new year! Happy New Year!

Later in the Evening on Christmas Day...

Nicole came over about 7:30pm, and she brought her little critter...a.k.a. dog, named Piddles. He behaved (and didn't live up to his name..:-)) We had a great time chatting and exchanging gifts! The top picture is Nicole holding a pastel I gave her, which pictures a silver thimble that belonged to her grandmother and a pair of clippers belonging to Ana. Ana is holding a needle-point that she put together for Nicole. Originally this was a pillowcover made by Nicole's great grandmother. Ana used it to embroider the Portuguese words "Lar, Doce Lar" (Home, Sweet Home) in the center.

Christmas Day in the Evening...

Around 5pm Natalie and Judson, Meredith, Alex and Kennedy came for a visit; Nicole would arrive later. We had a good time snacking, opening gifts and holding and rocking the baby :-)

Inside IOP Church on Christmas Day..

The altar was decorated so nicely with a beautiful nativity set up to the left side. Ana and I are donning our Christmas atire. We are a bit tired because we went to midnight mass the night before. We were running on adrenaline by this time. Our girls and grandbaby were coming for a visit - so we were primed up!

Christmas in Our Hometown...

We had a family Christmas gathering on December 20th at Mom and Dad's home. It is so hard for all the kids and grandkids to get to all the family events within two days, so it works better to start celebrating a few days early :-) Here are pics of Meredith and baby Kennedy (very sweet). There's one with Tara, a cousin, with her baby (lots of babies this year !:-)) I'm so glad to get the shot of Grandma Ann, Mom, Meredith, Kennedy and me - 5 generations! I'm really blessed to see this day, and to enjoy having my grandma with me to see it! And doesn't Ana look sweet holding Kennedy? What a beautiful grandma..er..ah.. "nana" :-)

Kennedy, Her Pacifier, and Me...

On Christmas Eve, I went to Greenville to help Meredith, Kennedy and Alex come down to Jacksonville for Christmas. Meredith and Kennedy were involved in car accident the day before in a mall parking lot. Thank the Lord they were ok; but the car was pretty much totalled. As you can see from this video, Kennedy and I had some time play a little bit while we waited for her parents to get ready for the trip.