Last Post of 2008

Well another year is almost upon us and I thought I would get in a last post of this year. I haven't posted often in the last year but with four kids I find spare time a rare thing. These past two weeks has been kind of crazy and not just because of Christmas. My grandmother-in-law got really sick the Sunday before Christmas. She was 86 years old so we knew she wasn't going to be with us to much longer. She was rushed to the ER and they admitted her to the hospital for a bleed in the brain( I wasn't there to hear exactly what the doctor said but that's the my best understanding of what everyone has said) and she wasn't given long to live. Due to the DNR in place, the doctors were unwilling to operate. They kept her comfortable and she passed on Tuesday the 23rd. She had a lot of memory loss prior to her illness and didn't recognize many of us in the family but the night before she passed she started preaching to everyone and knew clearly who everyone was and who wasn't there. They all said she was telling them if they don't understand what they need to do to get where she was going they needed to understand. From what everyone said she was very sure about it all.

So with her passing Christmas was extra crazy. We had someone from church anonymously give us money and a gift card for walmart. So we used the cash for the bills. I couldn't believe it. We had gotten a little bit behind on the bills and the cash was the exact amount we had needed to get caught up. We used the gift card to buy the kids Christmas gifts. Then my mother-in-law's church(mostly made up of DH family) started taking up money to buy my kids Christmas all because my sister-in-law "felt the impression" that the Lord wanted her to do it. They didn't announce who it was for just that it was for a family that wasn't doing so well financially. There was also a local charity that my other sister-in-law works a lot for. She signed my kids up for their Christmas program. All the kids would have gotten from me and DH was going to be one small gift each. By the time all was said and done, my kids had more gifts than I ever remember having in one Christmas! In the picture below the tree had about a foot and a half from the bottom to the floor. The gifts are so tightly packed under it. they are stuffed in the corner behind it and everywhere around it! I was so over whelmed and grateful to the Lord and those who He had worked through for blessing our family like He has.


I am truly grateful for the gospel and the light and knowledge we have found within it. The Lord has truly blessed my family!
This has been a GREAT year!