So many celebrations...

 It is really amazing how many celebrations our family can cram into just a couple of weeks!  It used to be that January and February were not big months for us, but things changed with two birthday's just a couple of days apart.  Eight years ago Anna was born on January 30.  And then five years ago, Grace decided February 1 was a great day for a birthday.  We all know that the last couple of years have been anything but normal.  Grace, sadly, doesn't  remember ever having a real birthday party.  Anna has been waiting for a party at a family favorite gymnastic facility, since she has been to many sibling parties there.  To add to the celebrations this year, Lia's Confirmation was on Anna's birthday.  

There is something so amazing about seeing your grandchildren publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus. Lia has grown into a wonderful "Disciple that Makes Disciples" (the motto of their church).  She is a leader in her youth program, friend to so many, teacher to young children, and servant to her church.  On any given Sunday she might be found leading games for the kids in the Rock (Sunday School) during the Discipleship hour, having conversation in the coffee house during fellowship time and then sitting in the "booth" doing slides for the Sunday Morning worship. Lia has a heart for missions and I will not be surprised to see her continuing to serve others in the future.  

I am so proud of Gwen and Tim as I have watched them parent their kids.  Seeing Lia declare her own faith in Jesus, to confirm her Baptism, makes this grandma reflect on the generations of our family who have made this step of faith.  Yes, Lia is the continuation of a long spiritual legacy that goes back generations.  She is the descendent of many who faithfully served Jesus.  

I got to celebrate Anna as she turned eight years old.  While we didn't actually celebrate on her birthday, it was the day after.

While I got to be with Anna on that day,  her big (long awaited) gymnastics party was two weeks later due to scheduling issues.  I love getting to be with the kids one-on-one, especially on these special days.  Although it wasn't a "big party" that day, it was special sharing with Anna, my memories of the day she was born.  The next day, I got to do the same thing with five year old Grace.

I happened to be watching Grace and James on the actual day of Grace's birthday.  Her "cousin sleepover and BIG party" (as Grace called them) were the next weekend.  I brought her five small gifts and we celebrated her birthday all day!  It as especially memorable for me.  Again, this time alone with the kids is just the best.  Thankfully, the days past quickly till the sleepover and BIG party! 

Yes, Susie and Doug actually braved a cousin sleepover with Ellie, Zeke and Anna spending the night with Grace.  They had a great time and there was actually sleeping that night!  The next day was the BIG party!

She was so excited to have an Encanto party and the cake was just unbelievably decorated and tasted wonderful as well.  Susie's family came, including her brother Scott (who we have not seen since Covid) so it was really nice for our families to be together, 

I love that we always take these photos when the kids are together.  I have a great collection of photo's showing the kids growing up together.  And then I casually snapped this photo of Gwen and Doug with Doug's kids.

Grace was so excited for the candy from her Pinata!  The Pinata was one of the things that she was most looking forward to.  I love seeing my adult children together enjoying each others kids.   There is really nothing better!

FINALLY, it was time for Anna's gymnastics party.  She was so excited to FINALLY be the birthday kid for this party.  Honestly, they do such a good job at this location and the kids jump, swing, run, and have a blast on all the equipment for an hour and a half and then have cake.  It is so much better than having the wildness at your house and so much more fun for the kids.  

As I was writing this blog and looking through my photos, I realized that the celebrations actually started one day before Anna's birthday.  Susie, Grace and I were able to help celebrate a coming new baby, with my great niece Angela and her husband David.  Angela is my sister Julie's granddaughter.  

This shower was an outdoor, drive by kind of event, thanks to Covid.  This is totally understandable since the Covid numbers in our area have been really high.  Even so, we loved being able to help celebrate this new expected little girl.  We had a chance to talk about Angela's grandma Julie (my sister).  Sadly, Julie died the next day.   It really felt like this was another way that Jesus helped me represent Julie and be there for Angela. Family ties are just so important.  

I am preparing to travel to Minnesota for the funeral for my sister Julie.  Each of these events has my mind going with memories and thoughts.  Being together to celebrate Julie's life will be a time for me to connect with her children and grandchildren after many years.  I remember my mom saying that so often families only saw each other at weddings and funerals.  Sadly, this is still true today.   But I welcome this time to visit and support Julie's family.  I am going to also be able to visit with my brother Jerry and his wife Thoralee.  Again, we just don't see each other often. The ties that keep us bound together as family don't depend on physical closeness or even times that we can see each other.  I have been remembering that my family - my extended family - included immigrants in both my mom and dad's family.  They left all of their family in countries across oceans and begun new lives.  

Covid has taught us all that being together and celebrating are extremely important. All of these events- birthdays, confirmations, baby showers, funerals - help us to keep our eyes outside of ourselves.  Being isolated so much the last couple of years has certainly turned us inward.  Since Ken died I have had to be intentional about going out and looking outward.  Doing these blogs has helped me to remember that I have been successful!  I have been connecting and making memories IN SPITE of Covid.  

After Lia's Confirmation, Gwen and I were talking about our own Confirmation days. Pastor Dave did something at Lia's Confirmation that was so amazing.  Before the Confirmations, there was a Baptism and the Baptismal Font was at the front.  As Pastor Dave prayed for each of the youth being Confirmed, he took water from the Font and "Blessed" them.  What a powerful reminder of the purpose of Confirmation - a "Reaffirmation of Baptism".  Here is Lia at her Baptism.

And I will leave this blog with Lia's Confirmation verses, given to her by Pastor Dave.

        And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel 

of your salvation.  When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised

Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those 

who are God's possession - to the praise of His glory.       Ephesians 1:13-14

Jesus, thank you for celebrations with family and friends.  Holy Spirit, help us to keep our eyes off of ourselves.  Remind us of the Spiritual legacy that fills our families.  Most of all, let us see things from your perspective, Jesus.  Thank you for your love and care.  Amen

When God knows exactly what you need.....

I had one of those hind-sight experiences in the last couple of weeks that has me knowing that God knew exactly what I needed.  Two weeks ago, I got a call from my sister Julie.  I could tell that she was not doing well.  That day, she had gotten on a bus to start a four week tour in Florida.  By lunch time on the first day after leaving the Minneapolis/St.Paul area, midway through Wisconsin, Julie realized that she was not well.  The tour stopped the first night in the Chicago area.  So she was asking if I could pick her up and work with her kids to help her get home.  It was an easy thing for me to do.  By the next morning, arrangements had been made for her to get home. I got to spend several hours with Julie, helping her pack up her things and then drove her into Wisconsin to meet her daughter Staci and her husband Aaron.  I am so thankful for those hours that I got to spend with Julie.  It was clear that she wasn't well.  She was a bit confused and complained of blurry vision, a headache and just not feeling well.  In spite of that, we had a wonderful time talking our kids and grandchildren.  She was excited to be welcoming her 5th Great Grandchild in March.  Julie was so excited to have found a dress that her daughter Chrissy had worn and she gifted it to this new baby, who will be Chrissy's first grandchild.  She even talked about finding a picture of Chrissy wearing that dress.  Julie talked about all of her 19 grandchildren and her (soon to be) 5 great grandkids and about her 4 daughters.  It was so good to talk, face to face.  We had frequent phone conversations, but actually being in the same room, was so good.  Staci and Aaron brought Julie directly to the hospital, upon getting back to the Twin Cities.  Because of Covid, her kids couldn't be with her.  It was discovered that she had indeed had a serious stroke.  And the recently diagnosed liver cancer was progressing much quicker than expected.  Her girls made arrangement to bring her home.  Sadly, she was only home a few days before her death.  

I have been talking about going to Minnesota to visit her since Ken died.  However Covid was still very much around and our family was still being cautious about exposure.  By the fall of 2021, I was actually trying to plan a visit with Julie, but her schedule was full.  Also, she had not been feeling very well and I thought I would wait until we could really enjoy the visit.  I knew that she had several trips planned so thought we would just delay until this spring, when the weather was better.  But God knew that I really needed to have this last time with Julie.  

I searched my photos for the last time we got together (just the two of us) and it was May of 2019. She made a trip to Chicago to see her granddaughter Angela.  We had a couple hours to visit and I snapped this picture.  We did see each other in September of 2019 at a small family reunion that was held in Iowa.  There were many people there and we didn't get much time to visit.  

 

Pictures are so important to me, especially family photos.  If you could see around my home, you would know this!  I treasure each and every photo and I know the kids are pretty sick of me always taking pictures.  The next picture of Julie and I was taken in September off 1954.  Newborn photos were not taken at all.  Because I am the 5th child in the family, there were not many pictures taken at all.  So I am so thankful that my dad decided to take a series of pictures of me as a newborn on the front steps of our home.  There is one of my mom holding me, one of my sister Karen holding me and this precious picture of (soon to be) 8 year old Julie, holding me.

In the car on the way to Wisconsin, Julie was dozing and clearly just working at getting through the time until she could get home.  We were talking about how much we loved being with our grandchildren and then she dozed off to sleep.  She suddenly woke and announced "you know, I was really close to her".  I was startled and asked who she was talking about.  I wondered if she was talking about our mom.  She was always very close to her.  Julie seemed surprised that I didn't know what she was talking about, and answered, "Well, Aunt Anna, of course".    We had a brief conversation about Aunt Anna and Julie seemed surprised that I wasn't close to her.   Aunt Ann was my mom's aunt who raised her and her sisters after their mother died. She was certainly a "grandmother" to all of the children of those girls, that included me.  However, Aunt Anna died in 1956 when I was 2 years old.  Other than the stories of others, I really don't have many memories of her.    I am sure that Julie was thinking of all the loved ones that she was longing to see again.  And that moment, it was Aunt Anna.

Grandpa and Aunt Anna were taken care of by my Mom and Dad.  Julie grew up with them and it makes perfect sense that she would have been close to Aunt Anna.  I just had never thought about that!

This photo from 1956 is (left to right), my mom (Nona Johnson), Eunice Ries, Aunt Anna Toensing, Arnold Toensing (their father), Phyllis Turnquist, Beatrice Nelson.  

I just love how personal and real Jesus is when you have an experience like this.  It would have been much harder for me to lose Julie, without this unexpected visit.  I almost feel as if she got on that bus specifically to see me.  Those conversations, the things we talked about, will stay with me.  I didn't know just how much I needed to make this connection.  But Jesus did.  So now, I am at peace, knowing that Julie is not sick any more.  She was at home, surrounded by all those she held so close and loved so much,  when she died.  I am thankful for the peace that Jesus brings me, knowing that He holds the number of our days in His hands.  And for the hope and joy and comfort for all who grieve.   

Jesus, thank you for knowing exactly what I needed.  Holy Spirit, please bring your comfort and peace to Elise, Chrissy, Sara and Staci and all who grieve the lose of Julie.  Bring your assurance, hope and joy to help us remember your promises.  Give us all courage and boldness to reach out and support others who have lost loved ones.  Amen