Your Desk, Your Grand Daughter

Daddy,
She does her homework at Mom ma's desk.  We sometimes have tracings marked on our pages because of deep lines that are there.  We have to rearrange her paper around them but I don't mind because I know that Momma, or you or I put them there.  I have all the cedar furniture you made in one room, our family room,, where we live.  We all like it.  When I open the drawers of the desk I sometimes catch a scent of the cedar.  Sarah Morgan and I twirl the knobs on the drawers just like I did when I was a child and when we touch them I tell her you whittled them.  I have to get the screw driver and get them tight again like you did.  Right now there are Boxtops, lip gloss, chewing gum packs, Happy Meal toys, drawings, and homework papers on top.  The drawers are filled with pencils, glue, watercolors, paper, glitter, crayons, flash cards, erasers, and silly bands.  I try to keep my mind in the present and toward the future but I miss you so and I sometimes don't know how I'm going to stand not to be able to talk to you as time goes on.  I want you to know Sarah Morgan and how much Jon and I love each other and her.  The years never take that missing away.  I sit writing this with tears blurring the keys in front of me.  I love you.  I need you.  I have so many questions that I need answered and you always helped guide me.  Sarah Morgan needs her Grandparents. She has people that love her, yes, greatly.  You are gone and I must go on.  We tell her about you and always will.  I just don't know how I could ever make her know how wonderful you were.  I show her pictures and tell her stories and I try to live like you taught me.  She would follow you every step I know. And I keep trying to.

Kindergarten

I just completed my first week of an 8 week fill- in position in kindergarten where Sarah Morgan goes to school.  The teacher , out on maternity leave just had a wonderful baby boy.  She is an excellent teacher and had prepared so well for leaving her "other" babies.  She said she felt her "nesting" instinct transferred to her classroom.  She prepared them and their environment for her leaving.  I'm just trying to not mess 'em up for her!  The first day she left we went to the carpet and one little girl started to cry.  She put her head on my shoulder, one "little Mother" came and patted her shoulder and another little boy went to get her a tissue.  She started feeling better.  I then thought maybe I should give "the speech."  About 30 seconds in, I realized by their eyes, my words were not working at ALL!  Finally, one of the little girls held her hand up and I called on her to stand up and tell the class about the next activity.  She stood up and gave one of the best speeches I'd ever heard.  In the end she told them that it was going to be hard but they were just going to have to keep strong while their teacher was away having her baby for"eight weeks or eight months!"  That was it.  I learned a lesson.  Let them talk!  Everyday this week I have been blown away by the conversations they have to share with me.  I don't know what they are going to learn in the next 8 weeks/months, but I have a pretty good idea that I am going to learn a lot, if I'll just listen. 

Favorite Mini Series

OK, I wish I hadn't been as smug when I told Jon on his favorite movies that it had to be ONLY our top ten and that yes I would count Godfather I and II as one choice.  Well, I didn't reckon the choices of mini series as this difficult.  I had to CUT several that I LOVED and that people will never forgive me for cutting.  I must say in my own defense that I have yet to see  Lonesome Dove and  John Adams.  This is hard but here it goes-Jon's will follow shortly and Sarah Morgan is sitting this one out.  She will be back when we post favorite TV series and favorite TV events and specials!

Donna's Favorite Mini Series 

1.  Centennial (1978-1979)

2.  Thorn Birds (1983)

3.  Roots (1977)

4.  Band of Brothers (2001)

5.  Pride and Prejudice (1995)

6.  Little Dorrit (2008)

7.  Cranford (2007)

8.  Great Expectations (2007)

9.  Our Mutual Friend (1999)

10. The Civil War (1990)

Favorite Movies (Came about because of Family Debate About Favorite Brock Books!)

Donna's List

1.  To Kill a Mockingbird

2.  A Christmas Carol (1951 version)

3.  Sense and Sensibility

4.  The Shawshank Redemption

5.  Forrest Gump

6.  Wings of Desire (German with English subtitles, 1988)

7.  Driving Miss Daisy

8.  Little Women (1994 version)

9. Tombstone

10. Gran Torino

Jon's List

1.  Singing in the Rain

2.  The Godfather I/II

3.  Casablanca

4.  It's a Wonderful Life

5.  Field of Dreams

6.  Tombstone

7.  The Shawshank Redemption

8.  Glory

9.  Raising Arizona

10.  Ocean's Eleven (Yes, Clooney instead of Sinatra)

Sarah Morgan's List

1.  Barbie Princess Charm School

2.  Barbie the 12 Dancing Princesses

3.  Barbie The Princess and the Pauper

4.  Barbie Sing-A-Long

5.  Barbie The Nutcracker

6.  Barbie Island Princess

7.  Barbie Diamond Castle

8.  Barbie the Three Musketeers

9.  Barbie Thumbalina

10.  Barbie Swan Lake

COMING SOON: 

FAVORITE MINI SERIES

FAVORITE TV SERIES OR SPECIALS

Favorite Books

Donna's List ( Subject to change with the reading of each new book!)

1.  To Kill a Mockingbird- Nell Harper Lee
2.  The Bible-New Living Translation
3.  All Quiet on the Western Front- Erich Maria Remarque
4.  These Happy Golden Years- Laura Ingalls Wilder
5.  Redeeming Love- Francine Rivers
6.  For the Roses- Julie Garwood
7.  The Stand-Stephen King
8.  The Killer Angels- Michael Shaara
9.  All Over But the Shoutin'-  Rick Bragg
10.  Far from the Madding Crowd- Thomas Hardy



Jon's List

1.  A Christmas Carol-Charles Dickins
2.  Moby Dick-Herman Melville
3.  Ransom of Red Chief-O Henry
4.  The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaverus County- Mark Twain
5.  The Right Stuff-Tom Wolfe
6.  I Never Played the Game-Howard Cosell
7.  Instant Replay-Jerry Kramer
8.  The Love You Make- Peter Brown
9.  The Beach Boys:  heroes and Villians-Steven Gaines
10.  The Andy Griffith Show Book-Jim Clark



Sarah Morgan's List

1.  Dark Day in the Deep Sea (Magic Tree House # 39)- Mary Pope Osborne
2.  Bad Kitty Meets the Baby-Nick Bruel
3.  Christmas in Camelot (MTH #29)-Mary Pope Osborne
4.  Goodnight Moon-Margaret Wise Brown pictures by Clement Hurd
5.  My First Study Bible- Paul J. Loth Illustrated by Rob Suggs
6.  There's a Fly in My Ear- by Susan Larson illustrated by Keith Jones
7.  Dogs in the Dead of Night (MTH #46)-Mary Pope Osborne
8.  A Crazy Day with Cobras (MTH# 45)- Mary Pope Osborne
9.  Day of the Dragon King (MTH# 14)- Mary Pope Osborne
10.  Dinosaurs Befor Dark (MTH# 1)- Mary Pope Osborne



Christmas in China

I suppose this is another day in China.  Maybe a pause of work for the weekend but no holiday.  New Year will come soon.  There will be a terrible crush in the bus and train stations as town workers try to get home one of the few times of the year they may travel back from their work places to the home sites they financially support.  I saw the train stations and bus terminals when it was just ordinary traffic and I can't imagine what it would be like during a holiday.  My thoughts turned to China today as I watched Sarah Morgan make our Christmas so wonderful.  I tried to picture her not in the orphanage but in one of the homes.  I wonder if her smile would be the same.  What was her birth Mother doing today?  Does she know where her baby is?  Does she think of her?  how many times a day?  Are there Brothers or Sisters around a table?  Surely a Grandparent.  China is so far away.  It has become my country, too. I love it and I hate it.  Will we go back?  Will she want to go? When will the really hard questions come?  I know they will.   Today was a day of believing and trust.  Santa would know to bring the right toy even if she said Mario Cars instead of Mario Kart (she worried about this) when she sat on his lap.  As she announced this morning at 6:15, Santa DID come and he brought the right one Mommy, he did!  I know though about life and I know that there were many old and young for which Santa did not come, and they are just as precious as my little one.  Where the next meal is as blessed a gift as any around our tree.  13 hours ahead they are starting the work day soon.  For us, more Christmas is on the way.  Cousins with which to PLAY!  Other Mother, she is a wonderful girl.  Good night.

Christmas Confetti

This is for Bev-the sender of that card so many years ago!

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.-Matthew 2:10 (NKJCV)

            Upon opening the Christmas card glittering bits of green and red confetti began to drop from between the card’s pages.  With a smile I picked them up and tucked them inside the folds of the card.  This routine happened throughout the season.  Time after time as I enjoyed our collection of cards, out fell the whirling images of “Happy Holiday!” and “Merry Christmas!”   Jon and I even the cat would chase them.   

            Preparing for Christmas gatherings I displayed our cards.  I secured the wandering seasonal confetti with a strip of tape inside the card’s leaf.  As our house filled for Christmas dinner and the card display was examined, the pieces could no longer cascade down. I found myself missing the metallic wishes of good cheer.

            I learned a faith lesson.  God sends us signals of His love.  His plan is to make us notice His grace, care, and love, like the falling Christmas confetti that I had to retrieve.  Sometimes we bind up the will of God in our lives like the steps taken to place the colorful cut-outs where I thought they should stay and in doing so we miss the opportunities to react with attention, gratitude, praise, and ministry.  When we find we are missing the joy that God can bring, we are moved to pray that His Spirit can be loosed in our lives again and cause us to restore that excitement of “exceedingly great joy!”

Prayer:  God, help me recognize Your Spirit as It flutters down and into my life.  May I be attentive to respond to It with exceedingly great joy