It's a birthday!

Happy Birthday Kate.... and Anne!

How blessed we are to have two people in our family with the same birthday! But wait, it is not the first time...My grandmother and her sister were born on the same day, a few years apart, August 23rd! And then Dana Beth got to share Jesus' birthday, December 25... of course, that's the day he was born! But wait, again we were doubly blessed, well, triple-blessed when Joyce joined our family, with another December 25th blessing-birthday! And then, Heather joined me in sharing September 6th, although Leah and I already shared the "6th"! Talk about blessings in double portions, we have them! But wait, again, I am reminded of another set of pairs, when the number of April deaths in Oklahoma City matched exactly the number of conversions that came out of a Ralph Bell/Billy Graham Crusade in Goldsboro at the same time! And then Anne shared her day with the deaths of Columbine, followed by having Grandmama's joy of her September birthday paired with 9/11/01. And way back there in the depths of my mind I think I recall an Abraham Lincoln date of death that is also my mother's April 14th birthday! Life and death, paired in life's events: two thieves on the cross, life and death; the cross itself, life and death, his for ours! Grief and celebration, joy and sorrow, unity and separtion...causing us to look both inward and outward, upward and downward, yet seeing over all and above all our sovereign Lord, the master weaver bringing everything together for our single focus on Him, His plan and purpose and glory! So we are one in Christ, with double portions of blessings, in the hands of the Trinity, on this 4-20 that along with 8-6 gives me my fourth child (whoa, I miscarried a pregnancy that was due in April!), in our family of five, now become six, with three Gardner kids and four Hortons to get a perfect 7..... OK , it is infinite and pushing the point, and I will stop as I get farther and farther from the reason for this entry.... One big Happy Birthday wish to both you girls, on two sides of the ocean! Oops, here I go again! So, Happy Birthday, and I hope you dance, girls, and celebrate today and life and your part in the family that I am glad you can call yours. Love to All!

Step by step, month by month....ta da...drum roll, please

oops! Photo attempt Fails!

OK, technology gets me again! Somewhere out there are three pics of the boatworks process, Tim! Oh well, I will try again!

March...marching on!

Well, I did it again....Let another month march on without pausing to ponder what to publish. I guess it is not so much about the ponder as it is the pause! And for me, the challenge is finding the right clicks to even get to the posting point. Well, I am finally here, realizing I had better do so to get a March post on. So to all who might check to see if I updated, it's finally yes! I certainly like reading all of yours, and am afraid I am quite guilty of soaking up all you send, without sharing very much. So for the meat of this message and the point of this post,
a tale from the homefront:

So March has been madness, well, basketball, and lots of it: messes, and lots of them I am always trying to clear out ( with Richard even preaching on "Jesus in Your Messes!) ; meditating and mentioning all of you to the One who guides you and holds you in His righteous right hand;
reading from Pigs in a Taxi (African devotions) to the Patriach study in Genesis, thinking on an Africa trip and shots and preparations, planning for a West African event at church, family events in Wilson and Durham, and planning and leading the Associational Bible Drill. Leaving the Bible Drill and going to hear Anno Domini was special as we went from hearing the word spoken and shared by children to hearing it shared and sung in powerful and living testimony of college kids was awesome and a great blessing and reward.

Our God is marching on in the lives and love of his children. God bless you all, from the homefront to yours.

It's About Time

Wow! After a fun start with the blogging thing, it has been over a month since that last entry. So yeah, those birthday crates finally made their way to their destination... some some 12 days later and actually only a week after the day we were told they would arrive. I suppose that was really good considering it was an international delivery. We have missionary friends who left 4 years ago and have never received some things they had shipped.

The luggage arrived and they moved into the house that was being readied for them, also within 12 days of when move-in was first expected. Tim says everything takes longer in a third world country, so you just wait and enjoy the experience. A good challenge and a good goal.... for all of us, third world or not!