Thinking Blogger Award

http://grandmaofthree.blogspot.com/gave me this award today and what a BLESSING it is to recieve an award! She is a very dedicated grandmother that offers insight and inspiration through her blog. It makes me feel so good to know that their are blogging friends out there, that actually read what I write, check on me if I am away too long, and find inspiration from my blogg. I have been BLESSED over the last several months to meet so many fascinating bloggers just through their written words and getting to know them better, one post at a time. Thanks Dawn for the recognition! I plan to "pass it on" in a future blog.

Vase from India

My daughter-in-law (DIL) brought me this beautiful vase back from a mission trip to India. It is made of metal and the village people hand make them for souvenirs as their source of income. She was able to go to the village where these were made and work with the people as they were making the metal items. It is indeed a BLESSING to have a Christian DIL that sacrificed her time to go to a foreign country to minister to others and then to remember her mother-in-law in such a special way. I think of her and her sacrifice each time I fill my vase with flowers from my garden and ask God's BLESSINGS on her and the people of India that labor to make these items.

March 19, 1980

Sometimes my BLESSINGS in life are hard to see and may even be disguised as tragedy or disaster at first. My post today is that kind of a BLESSING, it happened 27 years ago today, and taught me life lessons of patience, sympathy, greiving, pain, perserverence, love, support and most of all... that God is in control of my life- not me! I was 27 years old at the time, a planner, a control freek and had my life mapped out. A dream home, wonderful husband, supportive friends and Church family, great job, baby on the way, and life was good. Little Joe was born on March 19, 1980 after a perfect pregnancy, a perfect 8 pound baby boy born into the perfect all American Christian family. And everything was perfect- until we made preparations to take our son home 2 days later. The doctor came in to tell us Little Joe had a congential heart defect and that we needed to take him by ambulance to UNC teaching hospital 4.5 hours away. After a long optomistic night, we were told that our perfect little son would die. He had hypoplastic left heart syndrone and the left side of his heart did not form during pregnancy. The coming hours ticked by slowly but provided us with 24 more hours to love our son, have him baptized, and treasure the small amount of time that God had given us to spend with Joseph Lawson Carson III. He died in our arms surrounded by family and love. The trip home, the funeral, the suffocating pain, the overwhelming heartbreak, and now a life to finish without our son. But that wasn't the end, that was where our BLESSINGS begin, only to make us stronger... family that stood by us and showed us the paths to take to get through this, best friends that shared our pain and are still best friends 27 years later, a church that rallied behind us to help us through and continues to do the same today, and the faith we needed in God that let us know- He was in control- with plans for us so big that we could not comprehend it at the time. Happy Birthday Little Joe, you BLESSED our lives in ways that we never thought possible.

I'm Back

Our trip to Napels, was wonderful! The weather was gorgeous with lots of sun and temperatures in the low 80's each day. The resort was top notch with excellent food, attentive staff and lots of sea shells on the sandy beaches. The town was full of gorgeous mansions and unique downtown shopping. It was a BLESSING to have this relaxing time away with my wonderful husband! I hope each of you have a great weekend and a Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Spring Break

For many years now, my husband and I have been BLESSED with a "spring break" trip, given to us by the national company that my husband builds houses for. It is an earned trip dependant upon the number of houses built each year. This year our trip is to Naples, Florida and we fly out on Sunday! I look so forward to the warmer weather,the Gulf coast sunsets, seeing old friends that we have met on these trips over the years, and enjoying time with the most wonderful hunk of a husband in the world! I will be back next week with all of the "juicy" details(lol). I hope all of you have a great weekend with BLESSINGS galore and a week full of happiness!

Comments

Please know that I appreciate and read all of your comments and I look forward to hearing from you, visiting your blogs, and keeping up with all of my blogger friends. This blog has added a deminsion to my retired life that I never would have anticipated. It is a hobby, a creative outlet, a time to reflect, a way to communicate, and a way to stay connected. Here is a comment that my friend Tom (@www.patternsofink.blogspot.com) left after my previous lunar eclipse post and I wanted to share with you. "I never thought of this before, but of all the reasons and explanations for why it's important that earth has a moon... one of them must be that it ties us all together as a common focal point. We're all disconnected all over the place and yet we can look up at night and see the same moon. Even when there's no eclipse, that's pretty amazing in and of itself." Thanks Tom for reminding us all that we share a common focal point in many ways and that is a BLESSING indeed!

Meticulous Details

I have always been fascinated by our amazing universe and the meticulous details that only God could have added during His creation. At sunset, Saturday evening, we have the opportunity to witness one of God's meticulous details- a Lunar Eclipse! The alignment of the Sun, Earth and Moon could produce a spectacular, red moonrise- during sunset, if the weather cooperates. Observing one of God's meticulous details during a Lunar Eclipse- now that will be a BLESSING indeed! I hope the weather cooperates and that you have a great weekend watching the Lunar Eclipse on Saturday.