A Month In Review - January

Shabbat Shalom Friends and Family!

 

I hope you have had a blessed month.  Last year as I thought about this blog, I wondered why we have a family blog, if we basically never up-date it!!!  So, I have decided to try and change that.  I am going to try and post at least once a month with "A Month In Review".  If you enjoy these posts, please feel free to let us know, that way we will know whether to continue them or not.

 

Well, I guess I should get started!

 

January started out not being very cold.  Here is our beautiful little Lydia who is growing up too fast :)

 

About a week into January ... it rained one night, so everything was soaked, it then froze and snow fell on top ... it was BEAUTIFUL.

 

We have a little tradition to go play in the snow with our neighbors (whenever we get a good enough snow).  These next couple pictures were taken down at their place.

 

I love their big bell!

 

 

Me and my Dad climbing back up their hill.

 

We had a pleasant surprise awaiting us when we got back home ... our mail lady was stuck on our hill!  The hill we live on gets really bad if it snows/ices over, and yet people are daring and try to come up anyways.  Our mail deliverer said she had never been stuck on the hill, but this year she has a new vehicle and it didn't make it.

My Dad was going to try and pull her out with his 4x4 truck ... but as he was warming up his truck, our neighbor drove up on his Ranger, with his out of town guest .  He told us he was looking for some fun ... and, well ... he found some!  I think our mail lady was a little surprised to see what was going to pull her out!  

 As the guys were getting everything ready, another truck tried to come up the hill, but they had to stop, which meant they lost their traction and momentum.

 

Another neighbor could not believe the Ranger was going to pull the mail deliverer's vehicle out, so he had to come down to watch as well!  We had a community party on our road :)  Below are the cheer leaders!

 

Here's the "Ranger Power"!

 

 

And here's the truck that came up behind.



 



 The next day, an older man tried to come up the hill.  We called our neighbor and he came up with the "famous Ranger".  It was a little harder to get this guy out though ... the car was farther down the hill and our neighbor did not have the weight on the Ranger like he did the day before.  But he got him out. A "GPS" can be useful at times ... but I haven't seen one yet that says "NO!!! DON"T GO ON THAT ROAD ... ITS FROZEN!!!" 

 

Okay, have you ever put dish soap in a Jacuzzi tub?  We were cleaning out our jets and once the cleaning process was over, we decided to put some dish soap in for the fun of it.  Next thing you know, my Dad came in and turned the jets all the way up!  We had to turn them down because the suds were about to go over the edge.  I love Lydia's expression in the picture below :) 

 

Abigail got this picture of the moon.



 

One evening we got a call from one of our neighbors, that another one of our neighbors house was burning down.  We hurried up to the place, and were very relieved to hear no one was in the house.

 

To see the pressure of that water is pretty amazing!

 

This was the second house I've watched burn now.  It is really sad, but interesting at the same time.

 

 

 

The fire department was finally able to put the fire out ... but there is not much left to the house.

 

Many of you know about our dear friends Clinton and Sharon (I have mentioned them on our blog before).  Clinton is like an adopted brother to us, and we were very happy when he and Sharon got married last year.  Soon after they married, they conceived and were expecting their first baby to be born in January.  We were all excited and were thrilled when we got the phone call that Sharon was in labor.  My parents left that evening to be at the birth (my Dad drove my Mom ... he was not in the same room).

 

Have you ever read Isaiah 55:8?  It says:  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith YHWH."

 

To say the least, we were extremely shocked when we received the news that our dear little "nephew" Shmuel ... Samuel was stillborn.  From that time on, it seemed like we were living in a whirlwind.  The phone rang of the hook, there were so many preparations, etc..  It was terrible, and yet wonderful at the same time.

We were so incredibly blessed by all of you who reached out to us during this time ... for your love, support, prayers, encouragement ... the list could go on and on.  I do not know how we could have gone through this without you.

 

During this time, my parents where traveling a lot.  They would come home and then go back to be by Clinton and Sharon's side.  During one of those times, our neighbor (thank you!) took us along with her children to the graveyard where baby Shmuel was going to be buried, and we dug the grave.

 

 

Everybody helped at different points.  It was grievous to dig the grave, but our hearts were comforted by our Heavenly Father! 



 

 

The overseer came out and helped us a bit.

 

We were expecting a lot of out of town company for the funeral, so another friend let us borrow her camper (thank you!).  Abigail insisted we needed to get a picture together once we had finished cleaning it :)

 

We were so blessed when my parents brought Clinton and Sharon back to our house, the night before the funeral.  It was so good to see them and to be with them and to walk through this situation together.

 

Finally, the day of the funeral came.  We were so blessed by all of the people that came ... we had several people who drove many hours to be with us all - thank you all so much!  A few ladies put together a whole menu for the meal afterwards ... words can not express how much we appreciated that, you ladies were amazing ... thank you!  It was such a blessing to see how different people pitched in and did different things - we are so thankful to have you all as brothers and sisters in Messiah.

 

Now for some pictures.

Madison and Lydia.



 

My Uncle (the guy on the right ... he's my Dad's brother) surprised us all when he showed up for the funeral!  

 

 

 

Our dear friend played a solo on his clarinet.

 

 

Because of how cold and windy it was, my Dad drove the car Sharon was in right up near the grave, so she did not have to be out in the weather.  Clinton stood by and held her hand and spoke for the funeral.  I can't reproduce what he said ... but it was beautiful and so heart-touching.  When talking to my Grandmother later, I told her, I do not believe there were any dry eyes there ... everyone was touched in one way or other, the little children were even crying.  

 

The beautiful ... amazing wife and mother!  We were so thankful that she had the strength to be there.

 





 

Many people helped cover the grave ... sadly I do not have pictures of everyone. 

 

Even though this funeral was extremely sad, it was one of the most beautiful funerals I have been to.  While people were grieving ... everyone had such a peace at the same time.  We know that Shmuel is happy with our Heavenly Father, he has no pain, no suffering, and he didn't have to face this sinful world.  It would be easy to ask the question "why" this happened, and "why" was he taken from us, but we have decided not to.  We know that YHWH has a plan for this and that all things work together for the good of them that love Him (Romans 8:28).  We are so thankful and grateful we were allowed 9 months with Shmuel, and we eagerly await the day when we will meet with him again.

 

We hung out and fellowshipped with one another, after the funeral at our house.

 

Uncle Dave, Samuel, and Abba.

 

Samuel, Scott, Clinton, Stephanie.

 

Cadence, Finley, and Abigail.

 

Clinton's Uncle and Aunt talking with Samantha.

 

Samuel, Simeon, and Scott.

 

Rohan walked over and put on my Dad's Crocs ... it was so cute!

 

These pictures are priceless!  Rohan climbed up on the love seat with Clinton all by herself.

 

After most of the people left, Clinton (along with some others) wanted to have a time of praise and worship.  So, our musicians got out their instruments, and we started praising YHWH.

 

By the way, just so you know ... Lydia is not pink/red because she is out of air playing her flute ... her cheeks got wind burnt at the graveyard.

 

Sharon's sister Sarah, played her violin.

 

After a little bit, Clinton got up and wanted to dance.  We all got up and danced with him.  But to tell the truth, it was a very interesting feeling.  I told a friend that we had been mourning, and you don't normally dance when you are sad.  My friend replied and said, "I am so so thankful to Yahweh that He has been guiding you along this sad season of life and has strengthened  you through it all, and that you all have chosen to trust in Him and praised Him through this time, which to the rest of the world is something crazy and ridiculous because how are you going to dance when your baby just died, but it is ultimately Yahweh who gives and takes like you said and we as His children and servants will take both good and bad, and praise His blessed Name!"  Her words are so true ... we were moving on ... we were praising YHWH who is so good and who is so worthy of all of our praise.

 

 

After dancing for a while, my Dad brought up an interesting thought.  Here is what he shared in an email later on: "In the midst of playing, I was reminded of the Jewish custom of "Sitting Shiva".  You can search for it and find out many customs.  Basically it comes from Joseph mourning for his father Jacob/Israel.  You can also find that Job's friends mourned with him seven days.  While we do not accept anything and everything from Jewish customs, there is a Biblical pattern for this time period.  As I looked at the clock, I realized that we were just several hours away from the one week period marking the time when Shmuel went to be with the Father." 

 

 

We had a lovely evening.  I do not know if you have noticed this or not, but it seems to me that a lot of people (myself included) don't really consider their death.  We get caught up in our life and so what is death?  Death is something we picture it in the far future, and so we don't give it a lot of thought right now.  But the truth is, we don't know when YHWH will take us.  We all expected to have a long happy life with baby Shmuel, and yet he never took a breath on this Earth.  I do not know about you, but when there is a death, I seem to take a step back and look at my life and how I'm living it.  I hope to live a good long life, but if I was taken tomorrow ... would I have lived a pleasing life to my King of Kings?

 

In Matthew 22:37-39 it says, "Yeshua said unto him, thou shalt love YHWH thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

 

As I was preparing to write this, I was reminded of two movies we once again watched this month.  The first was The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry and I was reminded of when Mr. Sperry took the boys to the graveyard and told them to "listen" to the tombstones ... to the people crying out.  For those of you who have not seen the movie, he was wanting them to "hear" the people who did not know Yeshua.  And they were "asking" why they had not been told about Yeshua.  This leads me to the question, where are you with your relationship with your Creator and Savior?  If you are on the fence, I beg you get off it ... choose to live for the King of Light, not the King of Darkness.  Yeshua died for us so that we might have Eternal life.  Please don't sit in the fence, please don't have a lukewarm relationship ... He deserves every bit of us and more than that (1 Chronicles 16:29).

 

I mentioned two movies, the second movie I was thinking of is Seven Days In Utopia.  Towards the end of the movie, the older man who was mentoring the younger guy, had him come to a graveyard.  He gave him a box, a tombstone, paper, etc.  ... and he asked him what he wanted people to say about him after he had died.  When I saw that, I found it very interesting.  I had never thought of my life though those "glasses", but it is a very good way.  What will others say about you?  Will they say you strived to live your life to bring glory to the Heavenly Father?  Will they remember you as loving, kind, generous, servant hearted ... etc."? 

 

YHWH has given us a short time (some of us shorter than others) here on this Earth, it is up to you how you live it.  There is no time to waste.  Look at your life, is it bringing glory to the Father?  May we be clean vessels so that He can work through us, that our lives might bring glory to Him (Matthew 5:16).  I highly encourage you to spend quality time with your family ... whether that is biological, adopted, or the Body of Messiah, or all of the above.  Do not take any of them for granted.  Enjoy all the time you have together ... do fun things ... and make lots of lovely memories, ones you will fondly remember! 

 

I am sorry if I've been talking too much ... my heart is just overflowing right now!  But lets move on. 

 

Haha ... you want to see something funny?  I was left in charge of the house and my younger siblings for a couple hours.  I got a phone call ... and this is what happens when the youngsters are left alone for 10 (?) minutes!



 

They seemed to have had enough fun the first time, that they decided to do it again a few days later ... although this time they became a "Brass Band" (not sure about the electric guitar though) :)

We got a dusting of snow a week or so ago.  I really like this picture Abigail got.  By the way, if you are wondering what the pile of stuff is on the left hand side of the driveway, it is mulch the road workers have been giving us (they have been clearing the power lines) ... we are in the process of moving it.  

 

This last Shabbat we went to our friends house, and some other friends came over as well.  Our friends live out in the country ... it is really pretty and we went for a walk with them.

 

 

Finley, Abigail, Cadence, and Josh.

 

 

Okay ... the picture below is typical Tennessee!  When I walked past the sign, I just had to smile.
"NO TRESPASSING."

 

I thought this one was funny as well ... the well was out in the middle of a field.

 

When we got back to the house we just "chilled" for a while ... actually, it would be more accurate to say we "thawed" :)

Justin, Andrea, Rohan, and baby in the womb!

 

Mr. Josh and Finley.

 

Abba and Ima.

 

Finley and Sarah.

 

Rohan ... such a beautiful little girl.

 

She likes to play with Abba ... 

 

 

... And she LOVES cornbread muffins :)

 

We got some family pictures of our friends.

 

This picture was taken the following day!

 

 

Well, I think that concludes the month.  I hope you had a blessed month and I pray the next month will be better than the first!  February here we come :)  Shalom. 

 

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O YHWH, my strength, and my redeemer." 

Psalm 19:14