The Storm--The Disaster--The Repair

  Shortly after Jonathan and Danny left their work on the multi-purpose building for the day at Martin, a storm came through that area. National Weather Servicemen who visited later said that at least seventeen tornadoes had been spawned by this storm. Winds estimated at 80 mph swept through, and this is the picture Pastor Poff sent Jonathan.

The guys had worked so hard.  

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Day after day. 

Trusses, purlins, etc.

Braces. Crystal's boyfriend Ricky (in the red shirt) helped on the days he was here.  

Now the wind had blown metal sheets around parts of the building and snapped temporary bracing.  

 The whole thing was blown off kilter.

Jonathan got several guys, vehicles, and ratchet straps and ratchets together, and they started working to right the disaster.

Someone took this picture of all those straps fastened to various vehicles or a trailer. Little by little, over the course of a few hours, the guys got the building pulled back upright.  The Lord had not alllowed it to be badly damaged.

Two days later another storm, just as damaging, was forecast in about the same area--between Martin and Mission and beyond. The possibility of tornadoes was forecast, as well as bad hail, damaging wind again, etc. The native community in Martin shut down about 3 o'clock and went home to wait out the terrible storm that was supposed to come.

In Mission,  President Keith Lavery and fire crew made sure the tornado siren was in working order.

And everyone held his or her collective breath.

Only to have nothing happen.

Absolutely nothing. 

North of us that evening lightning streaked through the sky over and over, but hardly a drop of rain landed on us. 

No wind caused any damage in Martin.

No tornadoes happened in Mission. 

The fire station siren could remain silent. 

I think the whole world is in God's hand, and that night it seemed He decided that the devil had done enough damage to the unfinished building in Martin, and He said, "That's it, storm. Stay north of the interstate."

And it stayed.  

A Six-Year-Old's Love for God

It's been a long time since I was six years old, 

or since any of my children were six years old.

But a couple weeks ago Jonathan and I checked out a post shared by a friend on Facebook.  It was a post about a pastor's family who were in the hospital with their six-year-old after a tragic situation where the child's skull had been accidentally pierced by a piece of metal from a broken raquet on the sidelines while her siblings were playing a game. 

  The child's life was hanging in the balance, and when I searched for any new news a couple days later, I learned that God had chosen to take the little girl Home.

She was just six years old. But exactly one month to the day before she died, she had asked her mother what it meant to believe in Jesus for salvation, and her mother had explained as best she could, though she wasn't sure the child understood.

The little girl had not wanted to pray with her mother, but said she would go pray by herself. Whatever happened there by herself, no one knew. But after her death, the family looked through a little journal that the little girl had begun to keep after her little tryst with God.

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And in that journal, there was page after page of drawings from this little girl's heart. 

Drawings of hearts,

clouds (God), stick figures, and more hearts.

In her own way, the child was expressing, day after day her love for God.  

 If I were six years old, I thought to myself recently, what kind of pictures would I draw?

Last night, I wrote a little of this story down in my own journal, with a pencil, while my feet soaked in an ionic detox soak.

And I drew a little picture. 

It's not any better than a six-year-old's. 

But I hoped it would show a little of my love, too, for my God, and my desire that His love, through me would be shown and felt by others.

And I pray that my love will not just be a picture, but will be lived out in daily living, as I, though an adult, learn from a child how to love God simply and freely and with all my heart. 

 

Birdseed Send-off for Rose and Tom!

 From beginning to end, Rose's wedding was a pure delight. 

 

It was a bit of heaven! For me, it was such a joy to have my younger sister Joella and her family (the lady in the far right lower corner of above picture) with us for the wedding. She came around at just the right moments to just be a sister as I enjoyed this wedding to the fullest. She and I both experienced having the first one of our children getting married within about four months of each other! Her Susanna married Daniel Hunter in February.

Even the awkward moments were part of what made this wedding fun!

Like this one captured by the photographer Ezra and captioned, "That awkward moment when nobody knows what to do next!" 

This happened when the preacher forgot the kiss!!!!!!

How we did laugh both then and now--since someone captured it on photo.

Someone--we shall not say who--said before the wedding that he or she hoped their own wedding would not be perfect. Because it just wouldn't be real. 

Well, this one had plenty of imperfections--from the flower girl and Bible bearer not making it (due to Frontier canceling the tickets for my brother Gabriel's family at nearly the last minute) and having to quickly substitute Jed Morley's two little ones

 (who did a fabulous job!)

to having the outdoor rehearsal promptly rained out. 

 

(Everyone did a terrific job of being flexible and rolling with the punches.) The Hagerty family is just tops when it comes to being flexible and dealing gracefully with whatever comes our way. I feel like we couldn't ask for better in-laws. 

We ended up practicing the rehearsal indoors the horse barn-turned-auditorium.

A scene I cherish. 

And one I don't have a picture of to share--the moment when Tom's mother Mary and I took our roses up to place in vases beside the three-fold cord, and then turned around, smiling at each other. 

I thought, "I am so glad we are friends and not thinking how we have to do this and try to get along for this wedding!" I was so thankful for Mary, my friend, that I wanted to hug her. Maybe I should have. I wanted everyone to know that we loved each other dearly and were so happy for this occasion!

 Well, I think I titled this post "Birdseed Send-off," so maybe I better get to that.

I don't know if the bride and groom had any idea what they were in for.   

I caught this awful blast of birdseed on camera! It was in their clothes, faces, hair, and even ears!!!!

And then! The two had hoped to get by without some kind of prank being pulled on their truck, but no.

Some (mostly) bachelor cousins had other ideas.

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After the cellophane had been cut off by the capable groom and he had seated his new wife in the truck, he got a hug from his father-in-law and me, and then he headed for his side of the truck. 

Crystal, Hannah, and Tim take turns giving Rose a final hug.

"My prayers will always be with you," said the mother, as she stood on tip-toe to reach the happy bride about to go away on her honeymoon and to a new life.

All Abuzz--Wedding Prep

 Just for fun, I'm throwing in a few pictures of scenes before the wedding...

 such as when Danny and Jonathan were shopping for new cowboy hats at Tractor Supply in Denver.

We heard one of the groomsmen had found a nice hat at Tractor Supply for less than $40, compared to many hats that cost much more. Jonathan's poor black felt cowboy hat has seen its better days, and thrifty as we are, both he and I decided that Rose and Tom deserved for the father of the bride to have a new hat!

Even Danny squeezed some money out to pay for a new hat, since he was one of the groomsmen. 

It didn't have to be top of the line, but Tom deserved for his groomsmen to have nice hats for this special occasion.

Thursday, after Jonathan, Crystal, and her boyfriend Ricky picked me up at the Denver airport (having flown up from Phoenix after cancer treatments) he and I went shopping for menu items for the wedding meal we were hosting Saturday.  One problem was that we had limited space in the back of Jonathan's truck, and the weather was hot! We had to try to get dozens of cartons of potato salad, pasta salad, and coleslaw into coolers or under bags of ice to last until the next day, since we were staying overnight with friends. 

By Friday evening, we were arriving at Ranch Haven. Ricky was such a help with unloading. Crystal gave him the honor of carrying Rose's wedding dress up to the bridal quarters. Somehow, miraculously, our family had managed to get that wedding dress all the way from Missouri to South Dakota to Denver to Ranch Haven--without a rip or a spot of dirt or an oil spill on it!

Whew! If you knew our family, you would know that was a Herculean feat!

Friday morning every available person, young and old, boy or girl, pitched in to help with things to do. I even delegated kitchen help to the boy cousins and Ricky since the girl cousins were dealing with gathering flowers, decorating, and preparing for the wedding in other ways.  I had Samuel Morley chopping onions with a chopper for the meatball sauce (thankfully his family had just purchased a chopper like this recently so he knew how to operate it), Danny helping with food for lunch, and Ricky cutting up watermelon.  Over all, our family hosted over a hundred people for the wedding meal and 40 to 60 probably for 8 or 10 meals before and after the wedding! 

We were grateful for the ways God provided and for all the help from the young people.

Rose had asked Fern Lefever to oversee the cooking for the wedding meal. 

 

She and Robert arrived Friday evening as well. So while Fern got a couple hundred rolls rising and sauce mixed for the meatballs, I mixed up a chicken/cheese sandwich filling for Friday lunch, and Carrie spread it on a bunch of slider buns that were offered Friday morning that had been leftover from another group at the ranch. They were the perfect fit for what I'd brought.

My niece Elisa Miller arrived at the Montrose airport Friday and came in to be one of the servers and kitchen helpers.  

Tom's sister Shelby made the wedding cakes Friday.

She is decorating the cowboy boot cakes.

Her aunt helping her make the sheet cake for extra cakes. As it turned out, we had lots of cake leftover!

 

Rose going over plans with her cousin Susanna, whom she had asked to be wedding coordinator.  

  

Susanna had just gotten married in February and Rose assumed she was a pro!  She was!

 The dining hall, already rustic with unmatched tables and chairs of all kinds, was being turned into a wedding reception hall by cousins Natasha, Pearl, Krissy, and others! Above, the cousins are deciding how to arrange the tables for the wedding party.

Below is a photo before it was all done. Our family brought all the wooden wheels we had, and Rose brought boxes of things she had collected and then turned the decorating over to the cousins.

Those burlap-looking bows (on the front of the table) I got at Lowes long after Christmas when they were marked down by about 75%. I thought surely they would do for some kind of decor for Rose's wedding, and sure enough! 

She and all of us were keeping an eye out for decor that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. I am so proud of Rose and Tom for trying hard to keep wedding costs low yet come up with a totally delightful wedding.

I loved how the girls put some of the wagon wheels we brought in the windows.

 

Krissy drew the menu items on little chalkboards I took from home.   

Rose had punched holes in tin cans in heart shapes, and we used those for decor on each table.

At the last minute, Tim found out from Rose that the one arch he had already built for the wedding ceremony was not quite enough. She also wanted one for inside the reception hall. 

Soooo---all the bachelor guys (and otherwise) gather around and help put another rustic arch together.

David has the honors of leading the way for the arch to the reception hall.   

And up on the hill in the sunny field that Tom and Rose had picked for their wedding clear back last winter,

the guys set up chairs, and Rose had Candace supervising the girls with setup and decor.

 Then too soon it's time for the rehearsal.  

Candace practices making Rose's hair for rehearsal and wedding.

The girls practice their hairstyle for the next day.

Mother of the bride sits down in a rocker to try to calm her pounding heart. 

After all, it's one of her worst days just three days after her herceptin infusion at the cancer clinic.

But it's so wonderful to be well enough to be part of everything--I just had to sit down every once in a while and take some hawthorne berry capsules which always work to settle my pounding heart.

 I also accepted a ride on the four-wheeler when one came by and a Hagerty boy offered that I could ride with him! I hopped on, hung on to the groomsman with one arm, and onto my hat with the other, leaving father of the bride and Ricky in the dust! 

While we were in rehearsal, elk came out to graze on the hillside a little to our left.  And a meadowlark, upon hearing "The Lord's Prayer" sung by Krissy's beautiful voice and accompanied sweetly and gently by David Morley's guitar, flew up on the tip-top of a nearby tree--

as if listening to this strange new lark!

Just before the "Amen," the meadowlark flew away.

But for Jonathan and me sitting there, it was a very special moment--

crowned by our Lord with one of His humble, beautiful little creatures!