Family Friday, A Tribute of Love

Left to right; youngest son Daniel, oldest son David, daughter A.Joy

Our three children, now grown. They love each other very much, they love us very much, and they are there for each other. Our daughters' husband and children, and our youngest son and his wife have been very active in prayer and the practical outworking of their love for each other in helping their brother, our oldest son do what is best for his 4 daughters and for himself. This is our beloved daughter-in-law, Breezy. She is holding their 2 Jack Russells, Shotgun and Ruger. Can you see the sadness in her eyes? This picture was taken the day she and our son David came back from court in California with the bad news that the little girls had to be returned to their mother for the summer and the little girls whole future was up in the air and in the hands of the courts we had no faith in. This picture breaks my heart and still brings tears to my eyes. Our oldest son and his daughters live with our youngest son and his wife. They all have their own rooms because Daniel, David, Breezy and friend Josua helped make new rooms and special bunk beds for the girls. Breezy is there for the girls when their father has to work. Breezy is there to do laundry, prepare meals, and cuddle, love, teach and correct when necessary. Breezy was accused of terrible things by the little girls' mother , and slandered falsely in court documents. This last spring and summer have been a nightmare of filing court documents and proofs rebutting one ridiculous false accusation after another. They were easy to disprove, but boy...legal proceedings , even if the accusations are false, consume major amounts of energy and money and can sure sap the joy out of a person. ( the goal of them in the first place) Breezy, we love you and thank God for you! This is Daniel and Breezy posing for me, the perpetual photographer around here. They look pretty happy here, this was taken when we did not know how awful our summer was going to be.You might note in many of the rest of the pictures , most of the adults have a sad or strained look around the eyes, the set of the mouth, or carriage, because we knew things little girls do not. And in spite of our trust in God we could not completely cease our concerns for them, after all, we only had to hear about each nightly phone call from the girls mother and how the girls would be in tears and fearful...purt near EVERY night. This is my sister Joni holding our granddaughter MN. Cheerleader and prayer warrior for our son and his daughters. Joni has a soft spot for our men and women in the military and she , her husband, their extended family and church family have had David ( and many others in the military ) on their prayer list since his first deployment to Iraq. As they and others watched the tragedy of David's return home to , well, disaster, one after another- with the courts seeming blind to massive amounts of legal proofs of the need for the girls to be given to their father for their own safety and well being, and the people praying for them would be amazed at the depth of callousness and avarice on display in the court system. Why didn't anyone who could change things legally seem to care? My other sisters, Karen and Tricia, cheerleaders and prayer warriors too. They keep in touch, offer encouragement and love the little girls. Their families have been praying for us, and by the way, all the family has chipped in to help out with the massive legal bills we have acquired, believe me, none of us are rich. Whenever David's girls are in town my sister Karen comes over loaded with fun gifts and plays with them. They call her the 'Fairy Godmother'. Everyone needs aunties like that! My husbands' father has been in bad health and this crisis in his oldest grandson and namesakes' life has not helped. He has worried and prayed, prayed and worried. He himself raised his 6 children pretty much singlehandedly due to my husbands' mothers' illness much of their childhood. My father-in-law gives God ALL the credit for his 6 children growing up to be Godly men and women...and he has a legacy of many, many grandchildren who love and serve God and we are praying the great-grandchildren are drawn to God too....Thank-you Dad B. My husbands' mother,some siblings, cousin and nephew and niece....all have prayed for our son and his daughters and each other too. You know, many of the people I have pictured have gone through some pretty hair-raising experiences themselves, and trust God all the more. Thank-you God for these loved ones. More of the family, I am wearing red. This is just before a wonderful family camp fire where we sang hymns to guitar music, laughed and talked and ended in prayer for David who could not help show the strain of worrying about his daughters in California and the distressing phone calls he would get, not knowing where his daughters were except they were far away and legally he could do nothing about this but pray. He also hurt deeply because he had lost his dream of a happy marriage and family, and he could see his sister, brother, cousins , aunts and uncles enjoying happy families. This is a hurt that will probably always be there. Isn't divorce just yucky? Thank-you all for upholding us and him, and for giving Godly counsel of encouragement and wisdom. Thank-you to my husband, who has been hit hard in the heart to see such tragedy dumped on our son, and sometimes the sadness for this alone seems able to cripple, and like our son,he is also concerned for 4 precious little girls, but we KNOW God has protected them thus far and He has plans for them and us, and He is in control whether we feel like it or not. The judge gave our son primary custody of these four little girls, his daughters, our granddaughters. They will be turned over to their father tomorrow evening, and David and Breezy will bring them back home, where they will have to heal from the summer they have had, yes, HEAL.They will start back up in the school they thrived in last year, they will tend Snickers the pony and their cats, resume riding lessons from their Uncle and be free to read the Bible and sing songs of praise to God. "I will praise You , O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works; I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name O Most High. Psalm 9:1,2 note: there are many, many dear friends and family I have not mentioned that mean so much to all of us and who have upheld us in prayer. Thank-you all. And to my blogging friends, you caused me to weep with joy at your e-mails expressing the prayers of your hearts. Thank-you! Our son was humbled when I read him the many expressions of love and prayer from you all. And also, thank-you God for giving us a judge who read the documents and ruled justly.