A New Year!

Yes, A New Year!!! Larry and I just came from church where I received a special blessing from Father Larry..which included the thought that "only good will come from my Angiogram tomorrow"....It is such a blessing in itself to have a church to go to where we have many friends and can really feel the Spirit and Love of Christ present. God is good!

Larry and I are looking forward to a new year of organization, saving money and, of course, tithing (can't spell it, let alone do it!) and giving back to the Lord in gratitude for all His blessings and we have had many this past year, along with some events that we didn't consider to be what we would have wanted. However, God has a plan and sometimes we don't understand His Plan, but that is what makes us His children and not His teacher and/or advisor.

Let's see, this past year I went to Illinois in March/April and renewed my real estate license for two more years (just in case I may need to buy/sell a house in Illinois in the next two years and/or become a realtor here in AZ. In which case I would only need to take the AZ State test and not the national one, too. Upon arriving home from IL, I found my sister to be quite ill and after having taken her to the ER and insisting that something was badly wrong, after they said everything was checking out OK, they agreed to do a CT on her head and found a huge tumor which was Cancerous. After four months of dreaded Chemo and radiation, she died. Her family had those four months to begin to accept the fact that she wouldn't be with us much longer and she passed away in Oct 8th. It has taken a great deal of adjustment, on my part, to accept her death as she has been the only constant in my life since I was born, especially since the death of my mother in the eighties. There has been no funeral for her yet, however, our church has said three masses for her and I am beginning to feel more at rest about her having found her way to Heaven. You see, a few weeks after her death, she came to me in the night very troubled and saying that she couldn't find her way to Heaven, which I shared with Father Dan and he is the one that suggested having the masses for her. God bless him. Her husband, Uncle Leo, is beginning to look more positively towards moving back to Illinois in the Spring and has been busy clearing out the house and anything that reminds him of Ruth since before her death. On his behalf, I must say that when Larry and I visited with him on Christmas Eve Day, he was pretty cheerful and seemed grateful for our visit and gifts and white chili we brought him. I do believe he will be much happier in IL where his best friend, Bob, lives.

This New Year, together we have many blessings to be grateful for...six healthy children and seven grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren and my Prescott Valley family here, Trish and Dan and there daughter and recently adopted two more daughters. It was a horrendous struggle, but God was working and they are a beautiful, deserving family of their two new adopted girls, ages four and one and we love them all very much. We are, also, grateful for Larry's contracts with the school system and the Supreme Court/Juvenile Division and for his private practice...all of which have provided us with the ability to remain debt-free and to share with others less fortunate and our church. We are grateful for the good health we have experienced, and, yes, even for my recent diagnosis which now can be improved upon with treatment and I will get my strength and energy back and become my old self again. This past year, God has blessed me a new best friend, Shirley. I love her as a sister and when she is with me tomorrow at the hospital, we will tell them she is my blood sister. God is good!

Projected events for our New Year include, a cleaning of the garage, a new garage door, a cleaning of our furnace and air conditioning vents, redoing our yard's landscaping, a new deck (need lots of help on that one!) finding a new place or owner for my beautiful bedroom set that will not fit in our house and needs to be removed from Leo's house, giving him back their full sized bed and dresser and bringing my daybed back here from their house, painting the kitchen, bedrooms, living room and finish painting Larry's office area....on and on, an endless list..but, I must not fail to mention the Ms AZ Pageant I hope to be in on 3/1/08. My goal is to win the State Pageant so I can compete in the National Pageant that gives away two awards to contestants that work with children. One is $5000 and one is $3000, which, if they awarded one to me, I would choose to be donated to the 'CASA for Kids' very deserving program.

This all sounds like a great plan, don't you think? Bottom line is "Thy will be done and help us to accept it." A Happy and Healthy and Wondrous New year to all...mom/grammie and Larry/pa pa Larry