16!!!

Look who turned 16 years old recently!
The transformation this young man has gone through in the last

three years is nothing short of dramatic!!

It takes our (his parents's) breath away.

We would never be able to classify him as our "easy" child,

but I think that he has grown physically and become more pleasant socially

in these last few years more than ever before that.
Like at lightening speed!
More than making up some ground!

What awesome moments when folks from church or our neighborhood

tell us some lovely thing that he did for them or said to them.
I kinda peek over my shoulder to see if they are talking about my child!!

But God has been good in His life and we're starting to see some fruit

of the years of labor we've invested into him.
We love you, Grant,

and can't wait to see what God is preparing you for in the future!

Just the week before his birthday,

 Grant had the awesome opportunity to take his first ever flight

out of his home state to California.
What an adventure for him!
While there, the group he was with took an afternoon to visit
Six Flags Magic Mountain.
I was a little nervous for him because the last time he went to
Six Flags Over Texas (last summer),
he spent half the time losing his lunch.
To compound that problem, he wouldn't tell the adults he was with

when that was about to happen.
Surprise!!!!  (On the floorboard of the van)
So I quietly, discreetly prepped the adults he was traveling with
to not badger him about riding huge roller coasters if he was resistant!
While they were gone, I got these fun pictures from a Mom who kept an

eye on him for me!!!

Grant's birthday fell on Sunday this year,

 so we spent a good part of the day with our church family.
It was also "First Responder's Sunday" and we had
a delicious Bar-B-Que lunch served for our family as well as other

families of first responders.
Our minister of music is very special to our family
and he gave Grant just the most precious spoken blessing
to encourage Grant on his special day!!

  

The following evening our family took Grant and Ashlyn to dinner

to celebrate their milestone birthdays!

Happy Birthday, Grant!!!
We love you!!

First Responders Sunday 2017

This past Sunday, our wonderful faith community honored

local first responders including police, fire, and EMTs!!
What a blessing to have several police chiefs from local police departments,

as well as the mayor of Fort Worth, Betsy Price in our morning worship service!
Our church worked so hard to reach out to these departments to invite,

support, and honor them.
The children loved getting to see all the vehicles from various

jurisdictions on display.
A delicious barbecue lunch was served to all the first responders

after the service was over!

What a blessing to watch the Body of Christ reach out

to minister to those in difficult, often thankless careers

and to shower the Love of Jesus on them!!

One funny that a friend told me about:
Garrett is seen above in the gray shirt talking with an EMT.
She said this paramedic "had a cool machine that had a sensor that you put on your finger to get heart rate and oxygen saturation.  Garrett asked him if it was a 'lie detector.'

"First Responder's Sunday"

Have I mentioned before how much I love our church? It has been such a blessing to us on so many different levels, and yesterday was no exception.

Every couple years they honor all the first responder's of our community with a "First Responder's Sunday." They/We invite, invite, invite as many EMT's, firemen, and police officers as we can for a powerful message, a catered lunch, and a chance to represent their departments with vehicle/equipment displays. It's a great time for the children to see all the different types of emergency vehicles used in their community, and to get to know the men and women who have trained to help them in the event of an emergency.

Sorry this picture is so dark and grainy, but I wanted a picture of the color guard and pledges during the morning service.

My wonderful husband talking to the children in front of his department's police vehicle.

The life-flight helicopter made a special landing for us.

There was a delicious catered lunch of Texas BBQ for all the first responders and their families.

My husband with our special speaker, Mr. Emery Esse. This gentleman was a Detroit SWAT member and has an amazing testimony. He gave a most powerful message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ from being a Shiite Muslim!!!

The gentleman on the right is our Pastor Emeritus, Dr. Raymond Barber.

Modeling his sheriff's badge.

Getting his fingerprints scanned for his child safety ID.