If I were on facebook

If I were on Facebook, I would have had some status updates.

But for this time I felt I had to put it down.

So here would be my status updates:

My Valentine for 17 years sent flowers and gave presents.

We are 27 days away from Belize.

Much to do and Much to prepare.

We have reached our goal financially for the trip.

We are always humbled and amazed how God uses His people in our lives to support and love on us and the kids in Belize.

My son ran his first 5K and finished 10th for his age group.

My daughter ran her 3rd kids marathon.

My husband will run his first FULL marathon Sunday.

I am the Mommy Roach cheerleader.

Also I weighed in today at my before daughter weight.

Only took 8 years.

31 pounds gone.

The goal: to weigh my drivers license weight.

Here comes the storm....

Going on an overseas mission trip will involve you in spiritual warfare.

You are invading territory the enemy has long held.

I feel it.

Vulnerable.

Hurts and attacks come from all around.

I step back and look and I see the trip.

I see the purpose.

I see 38 days God will use to prepare me.

Prepare my husband.

Prepare my children.

John 16: 22-24 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Just This Week

Just this week we put together a VBS for Belize.

Just this week we served pancakes as a fundraiser.

Just this week I felt everything was a battle.

Just this week I had coffee with one of my prayer partners.

Just this week my family had rice and beans for dinner and family prayer time for our mission trip.

Just this week my Dropbox filled with music for Belize 2013.

Just this week I took a donation to the church that said in memory of Nina Kent for Roach Belize.

Just this week more money has come in for our trip.

Just this week a student told me he wants to be a missionary when he grows up.

Just this week my sister and I signed up to go back to Belize this summer.

Just this week I heard no mission equals no witness.

Just this week pray for our family as we prepare our hearts to go and serve.

Preserving

My sweet Nana went to be with Jesus a week ago.  We were so blessed to say goodbyes, to hold her hand and watch her leave this earth for an eternity with our King.  A King she knew, loved, followed and served for her entire life.  I think you tell yourself that at 92 it will be easier.  That you know what is coming.  You know that goodbye will always happen.  It still is never easy.  It still is very raw.  Memories flood my mind and my heart spills out.  I ran to her house yesterday to get her mail for my daddy.  Strange not to run inside to yell "Hey, Nana!" and even stranger not to hear, "It's Marsha Lee."  I was never just Marsha to her. She was never just Nana to me.

This past summer I decided I wanted to learn to can.  I spent many a days in the kitchen helping my mother can jelly and I watched my Nana can more jellies, pickles, okras than I can count.  I searched the internet and recipes until I thought I was educated.  I then knew I needed to run my recipes and instructions by the one that knew best.  I called my Nana.  I explained all my instructions and asked if she thought I need a pressure cooker for my okra recipe.  She laughed and said, "No, you don't need that.  I mean I have one but you aren't old enough to use it.  You could hurt yourself."  She was 92 and I was just 35.  She added, "Don't go to the store just yet.  I have the recipes you need.  Those you have will taste like salt in a jar." She then gave me two pickle recipes and an okra recipe that makes my husband love me the most.  A couple of weeks before her long stay in rehab and the hospital, she called me to tell me she bought me something.  I had to come over right then to pick it up.  It was a canning cookbook. Last night I opened it for the first time.  There was the receipt and the message.  You see she had called to Columbiana, AL to the County Extension Office because she needed their 2006 canning book.  Not a new one.  The 2006.  It was the best.  And there laid out are my instructions: Read.  Study.  Prepare for next summer's crop.

Kent, my cousin, sister and I gave the eulogy at her funeral.  Kent said it best when he said, "Farm life suited her."  I am thankful that that life suites me just fine too.  I am thankful this year as the memories flood my heart I will read God's word, study His word and prepare my heart for what is next.
I think the 2006 word is Preserving. 
I think the 2013 word is Preserving.
Preserving memories.
Preserving a legacy.

Road

 Dear Tyler and Marlee Grace,

I want to tell you a story of a road.  The first dirt road I knew connected my house to a dairy farm.  There was a big silo between my house and my Nana and Papa's house.  I could ride my pink huffy bike faster than most girls my age.  Nana's house was always like our second home.  My mother would always say, "Nana fixed (fill in the blank) " and off we would go to eat at her table.  She was known for her cooking and her seamstress ability.  Ask anyone who went to church with her and they would tell you both. I would tell you that there was always ice cream at Nana's and popcorn for M.A.S.H.  Nana always stayed up to watch the 10 o'clock news.  She always had us making something.  We spent hours playing in her sewing room with my cousins.  She loved her flowers and feed a bazillion barn cats outside.  She made blankets for baby calves in the winter  which I now have on my bed.  She has probably made more stuff to sale at a church bizarre than any other human.  When I broke my foot she was worried about me and insisted my family come to her house for supper.  We show up and she has made a standing rib roast, homemade rolls, fresh vegetables and dessert.  If that wasn't enough, she made the place mats and napkins for the special occasion.  I pray you will remember the homemade chocolate heart mini cakes she made you every year for Valentines with red sprinkles.  

I was never the girl in dresses.  That was my sister.  I was usually with an oil can greasing up whatever my daddy and Papa said I could.  Nana still made dresses for me to wear.  Once she entered her dress into a some Alfa sewing exhibit.  I was to wear the dress and model.  Oh I think my mother had to spank me that day to make me smile.  I am sure Nana was so pleased with me.  But what I remember most about the dresses, the hats, the blankets, the cross stitch lessons were each labeled with a tag inside that said, "Made by Nana with Love."  She always made everything with love.  She served on more committees and taught Sunday School longer than I think possible all with love.  Sure she has plaques and trophies and awards that show all her accomplishments.  But it is the people who have filled the halls of the nursing home, sent messages, called and written over the last few months that tell her story.  She was about the people.  Recently she told me at the nursing home, "I don't know needs.  I have never known needs.  Wants.  Yes.  But needs I have never known."  age 92.

I remember Nana finding out we were moving back to the farm house.  She was so excited I would be behind her and my sister beside her.  Once again there would be a dirt road in between.  My mother tells a story of me being lost when I was a toddler.  And her fear was I had run through the pasture with a bull. Sure enough I have braved the pasture and I was found at my Nana's.  History has a way of repeating itself.  Not long after we moved back into the home I grew up in, you Marlee Grace went missing.  You had told your brother you were going to Aunt Michelle's.  We looked for you for 40 long minutes.  To add the thrill factor you had left on your four wheeler.  Uncle Scott was the one who found you and he called to report you were at Nana's.  When I arrived at her house, Uncle Scott said, "don't beat her.  Your Nana is very excited to have her."  Nana gave me a long talking to about how you were fine and were helping her shell peas and there was no reason to be upset.  

I know you both know our time on this earth with Nana is limited.  She knows the road she is headed.  Eternity is real and we are so blessed to know she is headed to an eternity with our King.  I know that you are so blessed to know and be known by a great grandmother.  There are a million stories in my heart and head I will share with you about the person I call Nana and you call Nana Kent.  But remember, I told you this is a story of a road.  The road to Nana's final resting place is the life in front of you.  My children, you will take so many roads in your lifetime.  Some you will choose.  Some will be chosen for you.  My prayer is that you  go to the gate: But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  Matthew 7:14

Love,

Mommy

40 years with Sister

40 Years of Memories With Sister

1.       Our matching twin bed comforters in the Pink Pepto Bismol room.

2.     The year we got an Atari.

3. You playing in a “dirt” pile in lacy socks only to learn it was cow manure.

4.   Your Mickey Mouse obsession.

5.   Letting me sleep in your room until I was 14.

6.   Bath time talks.

7.    Letting me wear your clothes until they were covered in ketchup.

8.   Teaching me how to put on makeup.

9.   You  winning the best hair award at summer camp while I won most accidents.

10. You knowing if I am smiling in the dark.

11.   Your headgear and glasses with your name on them.

12.  Oddie with no ankles.

13.  Going on your dates and you made me lay down in the back seat when we cruised McDonald’s.

14.  Me crying when you left for college – 10 minutes down the road.

15.  You trying to kill me if I sat in the rocking chair.

16. Stealing your makeup.

17.   Writing each other notes and sliding them under our doors.

18. You waking me up and crawling in my bed and telling me about your dates.

19.  The rolling of hair.

20.You and your nose plug.

21.  Us shelling peas and watching General Hospital.

22.Little house on the prairie.

23.The Grand Am and walking away like it was not ours when it made noises.

24.Dogs at Christmas.

25.Flower the Bunny.

26.Making payphone calls home with reasons why I needed to spend the night with you at college.

27.  Showing cows in white keds and white blue jeans with ROLLED HAIR.

28.Sitting on the front porch with a radio.

29. Eggs and hot oil treatments for our hair.

30.Trips.

31.  Graduations.

32.Jobs.

33. Engagements.

34.Wedding Dresses.

35.Husbands.

36.Babies.

37.  Tears.

38.Laughs.

39.Years.

40. Not Finished.

How do people make it through life without a sister? 

 ~Sara Corpening

You can thank me later, the 40 things mother doesn't know about you list I am saving and adding 10 for when you are 50!

From the Littles

My kids are growing up fast.  There are moments I want to freeze and then there are moments I want to run out of the house like all good mommas.  I understand there is also a fine line between being a proud momma and being a proud momma.  So I should preface this letter by saying this is God's work, not me, not them.  I asked the kids to write their own letter of support this year for our trip.  My children have been talking about baptism for awhile now.  They asked us this summer if it was possible to be baptized with their friends in Belize.  Joey and I prayed God would use Belize last year to be a marker in their lives.  We prayed that God would begin to form their world vision at an early age and they would understand the great commission.  We believe God answered our prayer and more. 

Ephesians 3:20 him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.