It's Been A While...

It's been a while since I have posted on my blog site.  I had almost forgotten that I had a blog!  It has been a year since posting.  We just celebrated yet another Thanksgiving in our home.  This time, it was filled with my family, cousins, that I had not seen in years.  How heart warming it was to be with one of my favorite cousins who I grew up with and now to have him in our home sharing a long awaited Thanksgiving together. This season has been a joyous time with visiting with family and friends, the things that I am most thankful for.


This has been a long and trying year in our family. Most of it involved our son, Michael and his unexpected transfer from his beloved college, The University of Alabama.  He was a walk on punter.  He was told after the A Day game that Coach Saban wanted to take him as one of his three punters.  Excitement prevailed and plans were made for the upcoming sophomore year and the upcoming football season.  Hopes were destroyed when for some reason the end of July, Michael was called in to his coaches office and was told that things had changed, Saban had changed his mind and he was keeping the two punters that he had.  Michael was told his chances of ever playing at Alabama were very slim.  The same day, Samford University called Alabama looking for a punter.  Michael made the decision to leave Alabama and play for Samford. The details are many and we are taking the high road about Alabama's decision.  For the moment, we are focusing on Samford football and Michael's future as the punter.  As I told Michael, "we never know what God protected him from."  His plans are not always our plans.  I believe God has something even better in store for Michael's life.


We are preparing for our daughter's graduation from The University of Alabama.  Katherine will be a graduate from The Capstone College of Nursing.  She graduates, December 17th  of this year.  She has worked very hard the past 4 and a half years.  Her accomplishments have been great and her hard work is paying off in many areas of her life.  She had a very successful Preceptorship at a local , very well known hospital.  She will take her nursing boards in January and hopefully will have a job very soon after taking and passing her boards.  We are very proud of her and of her focus and hard work.  I pray daily for God to lead her in the right direction and for Him to show her His plan for her life, in every aspect.


At this moment, we are getting ready to watch the biggest rivalry game of the year, The Iron Bowl.  For the first time that I can remember and  from the first time I said "Roll Tide"  as a toddler, I have many mixed emotions about this game. As a mother, it's a difficult to separate the game from the emotions that our son and our family experienced.  The one thing this has done for me is to put football in perspective.  Let's just say, I love the game and I love the players, other than that, I do not wast any time or emotion on any one person, coach, player or play.


I do know for a fact, Who holds the future and that His future is more glorious than anything that I can possibly plan, or comprehend.  It is to Christ my God and King that I give my praise, my soul and my life. He wants me and all of me and to Him I owe it all.  I know that I have been "recruited" for life to God and nothing can ever change that.

You always find the strength

There are times in life when decisions must be made. I have learned so much by watching our children make decisions that will affect their lives in the future. At times the decisions are painful to make and even more painful to act on. It is comforting after making those decisions to look back and realize they were absolutely the right ones to make.
After a while, one tires of the same old promises being made and once again being broken. You can only give a person so many chances until you realize, they have no intention of changing....if they cared enough about you, they would attempt to change unhealthy ways. When you come to the realization that the person does not want to change then it's time to walk away. It's only later that you realize what was really going on and it's only later that you realize how much better off you are and that it should have been done a long time ago.
As a parent we try to teach our children to think for themselves, to make the right choices and most of all to seek God's guidance in every aspect of life. What a joy it is to watch as your children have indeed become the product of what has been taught. What more can a parent ask for?