Gaylord Opryland in Nashville

Daniel and I took off last Wed. evening for our trip to Nashville. Daniel was attending his annual Southern Assoc. of Colleges and Employers conference. Our first stop was at the Grimaldo's home. Wow!! I wish I had a picture of those girls, they have grown into fine young ladies. They were so easy to catch up with with all of their activities having moved to Kellar recently. We enjoyed a great meal cooked by Lisa, and Jose was the perfect host. Could not have asked for a better night!!

We drove out the next morning very early and it took us 12 hours to get to Nashville. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is 59 acres of resort under one roof. The Christmas season was bursting from the seams in every corner. There are four sections to the hotel and you have a main "street" that you stay on as you walk through each. As you get off the main "street" there are many Christmas trees, water falls, poinsettias, a boat ride like the San Antonio river walk, many places to sit and eat or drink some coffee. There are performers to your left and right (singing and dancing), a huge fireplace in the section we stayed in and so many paths off the main street you get lost. Out in front of the hotel was a huge nativity scene, complete with Luke 2 being read over loud speakers. Check out the pictures, hard to describe all that this hotel presented to our eyes!! We were most thankful for a company that spoke the Word of the Lord so boldly through the scriptures. Hard to take it all in!!! I did leave the hotel a few times and did get lost, but always seemed to find my way back to home base. Daniel had MANY long hours of meetings, but we were able to have dinner a couple of times together in the hotel.








We were able to have dinner with our long time friends, Mark and Amy Phillips. What JOY, we laughed and talked for a couple of hours.



On Sunday morning we headed over to Shelbyville, TN, to have a time of great loving on and fellowship with the Fairlane church of Christ. This congregation supports Alison, Justin, Cailyn and Corban while they are in Lima. You are not going to find a more loving, caring group than these folks. There were so many we spoke to and they really love our kids. It was an humbling time and also a time of God's graciousness shown to us. Thank you, Lord Jesus!!

On the left is Patti and Geoff Geisman, the preacher and his wife, and then Pat and Juan, the Spanish congregation preacher and wife. On the right is Buddy and Mary Ellen Koonce, their grand daughters and son, Doug, at the end of the table. Buddy and Doug came to the weekend retreat held for the Lima team, families, and supporters at the A&M church before they moved overseas.

We left Nashville on Wed. morning and got home about 11:00pm last night, after 15 hours on the road. We did stopp for an hour to get out of the car and eat dinner in Mt. Pleasant. Great trip, but our beds felt SO WONDERFUL last night!! We are here until early Fri. morning and then we head to College Station to visit a few friends and on to Jaime and Elizabeth's Wedding in Houston. We will, Lord willing, see my brother, Mitchell and his family, Alisa, Storie and Lindsey and then travel through Bastrop to see Daniel's parents on our trip back home!! What a worldwind trip, but we love to see family and don't get down to Houston or Bastrop as often as we would like.

Introducing.....

Daniel and I have truly had our eyes opened as we watch what God has planned for our family when it comes to young men (and their families) that will join our girls on their journey here on earth!! Justin brought with him - Teri and Andy, Allie and Preston. You can see us all as we enjoyed Christmas 2008 in Costa Rica last year. We have been so blessed to enjoy many Thanksgivings and Christmas Day meals with them while living in College Station. We especially enjoyed Christmas of 2004 when Alison and Justin exchanged their marriage vows. What JOY!!



Now we introduce the other family God has brought us through Jason's love for Hannah!! Phil and Patti Grassie, Jason and his sister, Lauren and Andy Simons. (pray for Andy as he serves our country in the military in Afghanistan). The Grassies joined us in Abilene this year for Thanksgiving. You can read what Hannah thought about the weekend on her site. Our hearts were full as we enjoyed much conversation and laughter, singing and praying together.

We will be able to share some of this family excitement as Hannah and Jason join Daniel and I on a flight to Lima coming up soon. We will have a day that laps over Teri, Andy, Allie and Preston's visit. We love the extended families that God has gifted us with!!

Hay Day 2009

Today we attended a tradition that is part of one of our Hope families. Hay Day consisted of a ride out in the country to about a 600 acre farm, a big barn set up for dinner and a kitchen to serve food from. We had singing on a stage as well as some banjo and bass playing!! The event also included a hay ride behind a tractor. I got to sit by a senior ACU student and had wonderful conversation!! One more activity to bond us together as a community!! We played a game where a person was timed while they put on jeans, boots and suspenders and then ran out to find the two plastic cows in the pasture. It was a reenactment of the farmer who is called in the middle of the night to come get his cows off the road and back on the other side of the fence. Much laughter and hospitality!!

There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk, By Portia Nelson

I was first introduced to this poem last year and I had really forgotten about it and then it came to my ears two days in a row this week....I want to share. What do you think??? Watch out for holes!!!


Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost…I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep whole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately,

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.

Kake and Karaoke

You can always know the house will be packed for these Saturday nights when the Hope Church of Christ mixes dessert with performing. We have experienced Talent and Pie and this past weekend we had three hours of Kake and Karaoke. Wow, we laughed so hard!! One of the comments was "there is no shame!!" I will leave a few pictures to tell some of the story, but i will tell you these pictures don't even begin to explain the laughter we enjoyed!! I have no idea how many cakes there were, but I was number 39 when I entered "Grandma Hawkins' Apple Cake" in the mix.

In the first picture, the three girls are Rebecca, Maddie and Allie, singing You Are So Beautiful to Me. Daniel sang Mona Lisa, Wow, did I say he is my wonderful husband and that he has the most romantic voice!!







The mother-daughter duo is waiting for Play That Funky Music White Boy to come on. It was so much fun to have all of the generations laugh and play together. Of course some of us just performed at our seats. Mitzi and Debbie sat behind me and laughed the entire time!!! Debbie thinks we need to do this once a month and is convinced we might have to tear down the walls to get all of us in the place!!



One of our young married wives is quite embarrassed as her new husband performs with shoes off to Billie Jean. There were many times as he sang that she just covered her eyes. Debbie is sure this performance had to have been practiced at home!! We will never know!!





The person who STOLE the show on many occasions was Damon Parker, our preacher. He even had a hard time getting back up on the stage to preach on Sunday evening. He had memories of the night before with a completely different context!! He sang rock and roll, he sang Love Shack with the girls, he sang rap with the guys (boy he knew the words and has the moves!!) and last and most importantly he sang to his life partner, wife, and mother of their five children Lady in Red!!

Wonderful Women in the Lord

This week God gifted me with three opportunities to see young women He is growing for His kingdom. I know that He wants them for Himself and they each are yielding in their own ways. My faith is encouraged as I experience strong young faith that will carry on the next generation.

Kasey Smith - wow, she and I met through two avenues at the same time. No doubt God wanted us to cross paths. She was attending the Hope church of Christ congregation when I came to Abilene. I had seen her there but not really met her yet. Then I attended a mentoring event last Fall and she and I got matched up as mentor/mentoree. She is a junior at ACU. She was a resident manager in the girl's dorms last year and this year. She is great at talking with others and so helpful as an example. She has great leadership skills. She has worked with Leadership Camps for ACU for several summers and was over all of the counselors this past summer. We were so fond of her and impressed that when Daniel had a chance to choose a student leader for his U100 class that he teaches she chose her!!! (that is a class all freshman take) She is very responsible. Part of the mentoring program is that she and I get to hang out on some kind of regular basis. We went to lunch this past week and enjoyed catching up.



Shannon Buchanan - First off, this young lady was a friend of Hannah but it was a friendship they didn't get to really develop. Their friends were in the same circle and so when I mentioned to Hannah how fond we were of Shannon; Hannah raved and raved about how wonderful of a person Shannon was. This young lady is the one who shows up on Wednesday night with a baked pie for someone special at Bible study, she is the one who is ready to use the drill when we were repairing the new bldg. for Hope, she is the one who is co-in charge of the 9 dinner teams at Hope who provide dinner each Sunday night, do you get the idea. Along with this servant action is a heart that loves people and wants to learn more and more about God. She and her boyfriend, Brandon were able to have dinner with us this week. What a JOY!! We talked about how it feels to be parents and let go of your children, how children need to grow in the Lord and how it doesn't always look the same as their parents. Shannon is another one who works with the students in the dorms. She is actually over both girls dorms. Those freshmen are in good care!!




Elizabeth Fike - It happened that we were sitting across the table from Elizabeth last fall eating a meal with people who attend Hope church of Christ. She mentioned that she had actually gone out on a real date the night before. I ask her about it and she mentioned the young man's name(Jaime) and where he worked. It sounded very familiar to me and so I ask if his room mate was Jason Grassie (Hannah's boyfriend)and she said yes!! Well, my brain started rolling because I knew Jason and Jaime were planning on going to Brazil together in the spring and that they were good friends. Small world!!! Well, the year has gone and Elizabeth and Jaime are to marry in Dec. and Hannah's now fiancee will be the best man!! Today we enjoyed a bridal shower here at the house. Elizabeth is sweet, sweet, has experienced truly a physical healing from the Lord and such a tender heart. She sat and visited with us today telling us how humbled she felt as she hears how her home congregation is all pitching in to make her wedding date a beautiful one. She and Jaime will live in San Antonio after their marriage in Dec. We will miss her!!

Gathering Up Rocks

We had a beautiful Saturday in Abilene last week. We decided, well Daniel talked me into going with him to pick out some rocks for our flower beds. Now we didn't go down to a rock store or Lowe's or anything. We headed about 12-15 miles out of town to our friend's house, the Istre Family. Wonderful family who lives off the land and raises animals for food, makes great homemade bread, and just totally enjoys being a family of God. They have 29 acres and they built their home on the land. They had told us that there were some rocks on their land that we could have when they heard we were wanting some for our flower beds.

We headed out on the 4-wheeler. Boy, it was fun and the younger boy in Daniel came out and really wanted to drive a bit faster than I wanted to go.



We were successful after climbing down into a dry creek or two and shoveling up some rocks. Some we could only see the tops and would dig and have no idea how big they were until they were uncovered. We like them so much that we may have to go back for some more.



We love all of the adventures God is giving us in Abilene!!