We Feel Blessed

Hey, Y'all,
Our daughter, Carol, each year composes a letter to tell of their year, and her two daughter's-in-law do the same thing. This is mine and Gramps letter this year. So here goes:

We began our year with the laying to rest of my sister, Margaret. You may ask, "how does that make you feel blessed?" We feel blessed for having known her and having her in our lives. Margaret loved the Lord, and she lived her faith for all to see. She did not flaunt her faith, but lived it quietly. She was a good role model, and she is sorely missed. Many times I have things I would like to talk to her about and questions that only she could answer.

Gramps and I moved into a new home January of this year and we continue to be blessed by that. We are living on land that once belonged to my family, and the portion we live on was sold to a neighbor in 1963 so that I could begin my college education at Carson-Newman. Our good friends, Mark and Allie (our adoptive children), bought the land back from descendants of the neighbor that my parents sold it to. We continue to be blessed just knowing Mark and Allie. We feel like we have come home at last.

We feel blessed by the new additions to our family this year. We added three great grandchildren this year. Our grandson, Will, and his wife, Tasha, had a baby girl, Alyssa Peige, born on January 9th. She is beautiful in the pictures we have seen. We have not yet seen her in person. I have a picture of her grandmother, Teresa, holding Alyssa as wallpaper on my computer. I am filled with love when I look at the two of them.

We feel blessed by the addition of Elizabeth Maria-Vanessa, to our family by way of adoption in January. Our grandson, Daniel, and his wife, Whitney, adopted her as their fourth child. She is beautiful and we got to meet her and hold her in August of this year. To know her, is to love her. We feel blessed in having her brothers and sister as great grandchildren, as well. Our hearts swell with pride and love for them.

We feel blessed by the addition of Alyssa Faith, born to our grandson, Andrew, and his wife, Julia. We haven't met baby Alyssa yet, but we love her and look forward to holding her. We are proud of Andrew and Julia and how they are living for the Lord as well. They are both active in their church.

We feel blessed by how our son-in-law, Daryl, is being taken care of in his illness of cancer. He and his family are trusting in the Lord to keep them strong and to deal with problems as they develop. They are looking ever to God and keeping Him in their sights.

We are blessed as the Lord cares for us in ways too numerous to tell. When we traveled this year, He watched over us. I believe we must have guardian angels who watch over us. I know that we barely avoided accidents that could have taken our lives as we traveled and do travel. We are so very thankful for that protection.

We feel blessed that we were able to visit our grandson, Daniel, and we got to spend time with him and Whitney and their four children. We got to meet our new great granddaugher, Elizabeth (Ellie) and to get to know her. She is a delight and full of joy. We wer also able to see the new church they worked in planting and are pastoring.

In June we traveled to Texas and visited Carol and Daryl, and their family. We feel blessed that Carol set me up with this blog, and that we have been able to keep in contact with family, friends, and make new friends. i feel especially blessed to have made so many friends. Gramps loves hearing about the things I read on other blogs as well.

We feel blessed when we hear of the good things that are happening to our extended families.

We feel blessed knowing that they are accomplishing things that make their lives meaningful, and they make us so very pleased for them and proud of them. For instance, our daughter, Teresa recently completed work for a college degree in business administration. She could have quit working on it, and have been thought no less of, but she persevered and completed it in September. It was an accomplishment that gave her the satisfaction of completion and made us so very proud.

We feel blessed in knowing that Tom and Teresa are so close to us in proximity, and that they were able to visit us this year. We feel blessed that they are such caring people, and have looked after us so well over several years.

We feel blessed knowing that our daughter, Carol, has a job that is bringing her great fulfullment and she is able to use the degree that she worked so hard for back in college a long time ago (well, not so awfully long ago). We are proud of her as well.

We feel blessed that our grandson, Will, has grown into a fine young man, serving his country in the United States Air Force, just as his mom, Teresa, his father, Bill, and his stepfather, Tom, have done. He is carrying on a proud tradition.

We feel blessed that our grandson, Matt, and our granddaughter, Emily, have almost completed their college degrees and have grown into fine young people.

We feel blessed to have gotten to know Imazo's sisters, and nieces and formed friendships with them.

We have been blessed to meet some womderful people in Ohio who took care of Gramps while he was in the hospital and in the rehab facility up there. I know it was in God's plan for us to be there when we were.

We feel blessed that Gramps has such wonderful nieces who care so much about us, and are willing to do whatever they can to help us. We are blessed that they can read the blog and know what is going on in our lives and keeping in touch with us.

We continue to be blessed just by going to Knoxville and spending time with Hugh, Imazo, Mae and our nephews and their families. We are blessed by getting to see David and Andrea sometimes and by keeping in touch with us.

We are blessed knowing that my brother, John, had such a good family out in Phoenix, and that they loved him. We are also blessed in knowing that they took such good care of him. He enjoyed life, and loved seeing us when we could go out there. He and I had a lot of good times growing up, and I am blessed by memories. We are blessed in knowing that he is in Heaven waiting for us.

Gramps and I are blessed that we have a roof over our heads, food in our pantry, clothes to keep us warm, and a Lord who loves us unconditionally. We are blessed that we have each other to look after and to be looked after. We are blessed that I can still take care of Gramps and have a reasonable amount of health left in my body.

Gramps and I are so very blessed in having so many good friends who care about us. We are blessed that we have a wonderful support group of people in our church and a good pastor who shepherds his flock.

We are blessed with good neighbors who keep an eye out for us and are always ready to help.

We thank the Lord for our lives and for the good in our lives.

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for the day, and trusting each of you will have a wonderful and blessed New Year.