The Story of Your Life

This is the story of your life. You decide how the rest is gonna read. This is your chance to redefine what kind of legacy you leave behind.-Matthew West

Thomas bought me the Matthew West CD at a concert he attended. He feels so close to God right now he wants to share that with everyone he loves. To be honest the fact that he left the religion that he was raised in with much love and dedication to be baptized again actually pushed Tom and I away from that same religion. Blaming an uncaring God for everything wrong in our lives. We didn't have much to give our children but we felt that giving them a sense of love and family, raising them in the church was what we could give them. We felt betrayed. Now our son was trying to get us back to the same place he came from. We were happy for him and proud of the man he is and wanted to feel it but . . .

Then one day I was just chatting with Thomas' beautiful wife, Natalie. She is so much more to us that Daughter-In-Law. She is truly our daughter, our love for her has no bounds. Her heart is so big and I don't even think she realizes. Anyway, we were just talking about something mundane and she said God was watching over us. I chuckled and said He doesn't have time to watch every little thing that every single person does. She innocently said that I have time to watch over all MY children and grandchildren no matter how many I have, He has time for all of His children too. It hit me like a sledgehammer. I try to help our children but what they do with it is up to them. I love them all, always. As He has always loved me. Even though at times it hasn't felt that way. Wow.

Thomas in the mean time had better luck with his open minded sister. She was going to church and bible study with he and Natalie. It was then that she became the good example to her parents. She wanted to come to church with her dad and I, the problem is we weren't going to mass. Now we do.

At the same time our beautiful birth daughter found out that her husband was being deployed. After the tears and a plan was set she said it is all part of God's plan. I am humbled to have such strong women love me.

Tom was still struggling a bit. His life has not be what he planned. He's going to church but just . Then we got a card in the mail from Italy and another wonderful woman came to our rescue. Jan and her husband, Flint, were friends of ours from 25 years ago. We've kept in touch, barely, through the years and when she heard he had glaucoma she thought she would send him a prayer card for healing. He was so touched. He carries the card with him and has volunteered to visit the hospital and take the Eucharist and pray with patients. Jan said we should join them on the Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes. Sounds like a great idea.

As I was getting my thoughts together for this post listening to Matthew West I was going through You Tube looking for a link to a song from the CD THOMAS had gotten me in December I found a different song "Save a Place for Me". Funny thing is my dad used to say "Save a seat for me" whenever he would drop Mom off at church and then go park the car. He even had it engraved on their head stone. I think they are saving us all seats. Oh and thank you Thomas for getting the ball rolling.