#Dreams#God'splan#ourfirstfiveyears#thelastfrontier#ourhappilyeverafter

Dreams

How does a young woman from a small town in the Keystone state (the only one of the original thirteen colonies that does not touch the ocean), who loves sunshine and as a child dreamed of visiting the ocean, meet a young man, blonde with blue eyes, from the sunshine state, serving the last year of his enlistment in the United States Navy as an Armed Forces Police Officer.  ONLY GOD!  

GOD'S PLAN

God's Word tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, a unique treasure to Glorify Him, and a chosen vessel shaped to show forth light in dark places.  He designed each of us and planted us in a season whereby He had a purpose for us to carry out His Plans.  

A few weeks ago, a special friend whom God brought into my life a few years ago asked me when I was going to write my next blog. From the day I met her, I felt a connection and she has been such a blessing in my life.  I told her I was working on it, and had a myriad of thoughts in my heart and soul, but it's always about God's plan and what He speaks to me through His Word and what He reveals to me each day.  As I've journaled quiet time thoughts in the last few weeks, from the first, second, and third Letters of John, the beloved disciple, I have been reminded of the legacy entrusted to us as children of God.  Perhaps as John penned these books, he was reminded of the words of Jesus as He shared with His disciples, "and why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (Luke 6:46)  The assurance of His Grace, as we stumble, seek forgiveness, receive His direction and strive to obey, live and walk in the truths of God's will and Word is a picture of the life of every believer. 

For me, the last sixteen months have been a time of trying to channel my sadness into the life that is now around me.  Time is softening my grief, milestones don't seem so overwhelming, and those difficult "First times " will always be there, as I go and do life without my love by my side, not able to share daily thoughts, reach for his hand, laugh at his silly jokes, read his precious notes, watch him as he poured over scripture, and pray with him each day.  Recent days have seen me sharing or hearing about  the accomplishments of our precious granddaughters, and I know how blessed he would have been to share in these times.  I rejoice knowing he is in heaven, experiencing even greater ETERNAL joy and it must be glorious.  I don't know what he is experiencing, what he sees or does not see, but if he could, he would be cheering me on to endure and focus on Christ, as I experience the sovereign, overflowing grace of Jesus.  "He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 25:8)

Our First Five Years

God brought us into the same room one evening, during the last week of January almost 46 years ago, we had an immediate connection, realized that being with one another made each of us a happier better person and decided we wanted to grow old together.  We got engaged in March, in the car on a ride home from a visit to Patuxent NAS, where he had taken me to meet friends that were like adoptive parents to him.  We got to my apartment, called family to share our joy, and made plans to marry the first weekend in May that he was not scheduled to work.  This month will forever be special to me, as I recall the words of a note he left for me, telling me of his love and reminding me it was "our month," "the one in which we would wed," "pledging our lives to one another."  We shared that we believed in God, had been in church during all of our growing up years, but were not in fellowship with God or part of a Bible believing church, during our first year.  In the spring of 1974, God began to reveal His plan as He led my love to reenlist and accept orders to Adak NAS, in the Aleutian Islands, off the coast of Alaska, the last frontier.  The word Adak is from the Aleut word adaq, which means "father."  We had lost a baby during our first summer and a sweet friend shared the words from Ecclesiastes 3, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.  A time to be born;  and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.......A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;......He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 4, 11). 

God showed Himself faithful and we were expecting a new baby in May.  We had received our official book of Adak and knew what to expect, winter squalls with winds in excess of 120 mph, climate described as precipitation, fog, high winds, a climate with only rare, clear, warm sunny days that reached the high of 50's in the summer, 265-355 days of rain or snow a year (100 inches of snow) per winter season.  Still, we were excited! (my adventurous husband about the halibut fishing and caribou hunting!) We had three packouts that March, one for storage in the US, one to be shipped to Adak, and one which would go with us as we traveled to Tennessee for school, then to California for additional training and would not leave the states (Washington) until October.  

We welcomed our firstborn, a baby boy, named after our Dads, in May (our month), filled with joy at this precious new life God had gifted to us, and then had another packout before going on the road in July.  My love would be stationed at Moffett Field, and I would stay with family near Salinas.  He would visit every weekend he could.  There was a final packout in California, and we were off to Washington State to visit friends before driving our truck to the shipyard to be shipped a few days before we boarded our flights to Anchorage, and then another flight to Adak.  It was fall, our baby six months old, and our Alaskan adventure about to begin.  Shortly, after arriving, God planted me in the midst of a ladies Bible Study, a Sunday school class taught by a man who preached the Gospel and encouraged scripture memory.  I realized I was a sinner, in need of God's redeeming Grace, and that God had sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.  One day as I knelt in my living room, and cried out to God, He gave me the gift of faith, as I surrendered and became His daughter.  Bill gave his life to Christ at Revival services shortly thereafter and we followed Christ in baptism in the swimming pool at Bering Hall!  Hallelujah!  What a Savior! 

Our precious daughter was born in the Aleutian Islands as well, so it will always be one of the best times in our life. She was a tiny joy, blonde and blue-eyed like her dad.  Our lives were changed forever after our decision to serve Christ.  We attended worship in the Bering Chapel, a small building that included a chapel, nursery, a few Sunday school classes, a fellowship hall and a few offices.  We began serving in nursery, childrens' church, and headed the fellowship committee serving coffee, kool-aid, and donuts cut into small pieces which the chow hall donated every week.  We began hosting Sunday night fellowship in our home, and Bill led a men's Bible study.  It was a busy wonderful time in our lives.

As I think of those days, I remember the Thanksgiving of 1975, when with a 3 week old baby and a 17 month old toddler, we took emergency leave to fly home due to the death of Bill's brother, and then God worked a miracle on our return flight and brought me face to face with a former roommate who was now a stewardess for Reeves Airlines, the only airline to service Adak, Alaska.  We had lost touch and she now lived in Anchorage.  In the spring of 1977, we again took emergency leave to be with Bill's mom as she had open heart surgery.  During those days, we found time for rest and relaxation.  Though our toddlers had seen the Bering Sea, Lake Andy,  Lake Betty and Finger Bay as we saw the salmon running, in the Aleutian Islands;  that year they glimpsed their first view of the vastness of God's creation at the Atlantic Ocean in St. Augustine.  Though in the years before our marriage, I had finally realized my dreams of seeing the ocean in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia, nothing compared to my first experience seeing the ocean with my love by my side in his home state of Florida with our babies in our arms, for just a few minutes that day.  We returned to Adak, for the last five months of our three year tour.  I found out I was pregnant, but miscarried in the summer months, as we got ready to pack for our next duty station, Jacksonville NAS.  Though I had relinquished the difficulties of my pregnancy to God, it was still a sad time, but once again God showed me the blessings of our two babies that He had gifted to us.  And though I didn't know it until we arrived back in my loves's sunshine state,  we would be given a new hand in ours in the summer of 1978, another baby boy, born in Florida, and named after his Dad.

OUR HAPPILY EVER AFTER

God is so good!  Our children grew, and blessed our years together.  My love knew of my love for the beach.  It is my happy place.  Through our years, many of our family vacations were at the beaches, all over Florida...Daytona, Treasure Island, St. Petersburg, Melbourne, Clearwater,  Ft Lauderdale, Fort Walton, Panama City, Sanibel Island, Orange Beach,  and Gulf Shores, Alabama and others I can't recall.  The kids and I would go to the beach in the day and he would scout a place for him to fish at night.  And as we reached our senior years, we would watch the sunrise together in the morning and walk, hand in hand, watching the sunset at night.  

God gave us joy in life and strength and grace to endure the hardships that entered our lives.  His Word tells us that He wants to give us the desires of our heart, but they must always be in line with His will for our lives.  We made mistakes, and wrong decisions at times but God worked all things for our Good.  He was ever faithful, and provided for our family.  He blessed us with friends and family and memories that will live in my heart forever.  He allowed us to share in our children's lives, encouraging them in their school activities, chaperone trips, be a part of their high school and college years, and see them make decisions to follow the call of God in their lives.  We saw God's power in opening doors, and closing doors and saying not yet. He gave us beautiful daughters in love and He made a way for us to experience the birth of each of our granddaughters and spend time with them in their first years.  In the past month, God has allowed me to daily journal memories of their Poppa/Grandpa so that they will be able to read them when they are older and remember those times spent with him.  God has always given us inner strength and shown His unlimited resources through His power and that He alone is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.  And He continues to give me future Grace as I now walk another journey.   He has shown me that though I may not understand or get over the pain of missing my love, He will get me through it.  He is allowing me to feel the pain of others who may be walking a path or season of grief, showing me that no matter the color of grief, it is common to all.  Though He has taken me to a place I've never been before, I know His plan is always the best and His Grace ever-sufficient.  When I feel alone, and am missing the bond that marriage brings, that unbroken tie that bound my heart to his, and feel like I am a part of a puzzle that no longer fits, even with friends and family around me,  I need only to search the Word of God for truth, look for a glimpse of His creation, the touch of the wind, the smell of a flower, the sound of a birds's song, and most of all, the touch of His Spirit as He leads, guides, restores and comforts me, that He will bring the sunrise each day, that "in His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." (Psalm 30:5)

So to those who read these words, love one another, wives, love your husbands, husbands, love your wives, don't take any precious moment for granted,  hold their hands as much as you can, pray together,  with your children,  and grandchildren as you teach them to love, honor, and obey God.  "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.  For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."  (Proverbs 4:20-23)