Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you are having a great St. Pat's Day!

You should See the Other Guy . . .

So Gavin had a rough week. He scratched himself on the face, while wrestling Drew scratched him, he ran into the sliding glass door -which is the mark on his forehead, and last but not least he fell on the bench at our table and broke open his eyebrow. Do you like how Drew got into the picture? He added a bump on his chin at the playground yesterday. Hopefully this week will be a little easier on his poor little face. Although, he does love to wrestle. Andrew has big hopes for him, he is actually a natural according to my former wrestler and UFC fan husband. I see many more black eyes and bumps and bruises in his future. What am I saying in our future, we have 2 other sons! Pray for me!

6 years

I have been getting up early these last couple of days and my thought have gone to my mom. It is hard to believe it has been 6 years. To steal the phrase from my sister, a lot has happened in 6 years. I met the man of my dreams, we went through some tough years trying to have our two little boys, and we then moved across the country to a place I had never seen. Then of course we have had the little surprise with this third little boy on the way (I still think I don't fully comprehend that we are having another one.)That is not counting what all has gone on in my mom's family's life. I have decided that if I could have just a couple of minutes with her I would have to ask her so many things:

How is your new body (or whatever form she has in heaven) since the old one failed you?

Spiritually, what advice do you have for me?

What advice do you have for me as a wife?

What advice do you have for me as a mom?

You left such a legacy, how do I come close to doing that?

The thing is I am pretty sure mom would send me to the Word. She went there for everything. So, I guess I know how she would answer each of those, but I would just love to hear her voice. She was a "truth teller' whether you were ready for it or not she would tell it like it is. I miss that so much about her (most of the time). I don't know how but some how she always managed to do that in love.

Also, like Darce said I know I had to go through her loss to make me the woman that I am. I know that I would not have found my husband if she would not have gotten sick because I would not have been in Johnson City when I met him. I actually have an interview set up with the department of defense dependent schools and a job offer in Mexico when the we discovered the first round of chemo did not work. Who knows where I would have ended up or who I would have ended up with. I can not imagine my life without my husband or my boys, but I know they would not be with me if I had not lost my mom. These are just some of the big things that I know I had to experience, which was all a part of God's plan for me.

I also know and cherish that I will some day see her again. I know where she is and I know where I am going and we will be reunited not only as mother and daughter but as sisters in Christ. I have to say that is what makes the ache of missing her bearable. I know that is the promise we have as believers, it is not goodbye forever it is just see you after a while.

I could go on and on about how much I miss her and how wonderful she is, but I just needed to write some thoughts in order to not only share the legacy she has left but encourage you if you don't know Jesus then you don't know where you are going after you are gone. I know that was why my Mom had so much peace. If you want to experience this peace or want to know what in the world I am talking about please ask me or ask someone, because now is the time.

I don't have any pictures of mom that I can load so you will have to take a glance at Darce's blog to see the peace on my mom's face even though she was in a world of hurt when the picture was taken. http://darcyholsopple.blogspot.com/

I do have a picture that would make Mom smile:

Talk about a mug shot! They are getting so big! I think she would also say, they need haircuts!

We have been studying Revelation at church and small group and I have realized how important it is for my friends and family and for that matter everyone to know Christ because you don't want to have to endure what is going to go on here on earth in the end times and I want to keep everyone I know from having to endure those times just because I didn't take the time to say it for whatever reasons. (Excuse the run-on sentence because IT IS that important!)

Thank you for helping me heal and mourn the loss of mom and thank you for caring enough about us to read some of my thoughts and hopefully comment. Most importantly though if you don't know Jesus now is the time because we never know about tomorrow unless we know about Him. So, I started with questions to ask mom. I have a couple of questions to ask you:

Do you know where you are going when you leave this world?

Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior?

What are you waiting for?