From June 15-25, Bruce and I flew to Denver, Colo. with his mother to visit family. The visit was filled with meeting family and catching up on what is happening in their lives but it was just a visit and not long enough to really make a difference in anyone's life. I grew up the same way I'm now living; far away from any extended family. I saw some of my cousins a few times and some of them I never saw. While most of this visit was great the not so great part was the fact that my youngest grandson didn't want anything to do with me. I love babies and although I know that I shouldn't take it personally it still felt bad when he protested everytime I picked him up and held his little arms out to anyone else that was around to get away from me. This is one of the disadvantages of families living far apart. However, its a way of life in our country for the majority of families and I guess I'll live. My daughter took a lot of pictures of our time together and she has put a slideshow together that you may want to see. It will take a while for the slideshow to load so be patient.

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I had an experience last night that strengthened my faith in God's loving care. 

Two friends of my husband's from seminary days were to stay at our house last night.  One was from clear across the U.S. and the other was from Ireland. D. was to pick up his friend flying in from Ireland via Newark, N.J., after landing at the airport himself.  after waiting several hours and finding that all flights had been delayed an undetermined amount of time he drove to our house where he continued to call the airlines trying to find a way to contact his friend and find out what was happening.  In the midst of that he received a frantic call from his wife saying, "You have to come home immediately", because their 35 year old daughter-in-law who is dying from breast cancer did not look like she would live through the weekend.  What stress!  D. made plans to return home, all the while continuing to try and reach his friend. 

While he was on his cell phone our phone rang and I answered it.  A member of our congregation said, "Margie, this is A.  I'm here beside T."  I said, "Are you at the airport?"  He said, "Yes, here in Newark."  Here is the amazing story:  All flights out of Newark were cancelled last night due to heavy thunderstorm activity.  A. was flying home from Spain and T. was flying in from Ireland, both expecting to fly to Pittsburgh.  When all flights were cancelled, these two men who didn't know each other from Adam, were standing in a line of approximately 300 people, next to each other.  They started talking and T said that he was in the U.S. to teach a class at a seminary in Pittsburgh.  A.asked which seminary in Pittsburgh T. said the seminary in Wilkinsburgh.  Laughingly A. said, "Oh, are you going to stay with B.H.?"  T. amazed said, "yes, how did you know that?"  A. said, "I didn't,  B. is my pastor. I was just joking!"  As the incident continued to unfold the two of them went to try and rent a car to drive to Pittsburgh.  A's wallet had been stolen in Spain so he had no driver's license or credit cards.  T. had a drivers license from Ireland which was also a difficulty for renting a car.  They were in line behind a young woman who they overheard renting a car to drive to Pittsburgh.  They seized the opportunity and asked her for help in getting to Pittsburgh and when all was said and done the two of them, another man and this girl made the trip to Pittsburgh and T. was dropped off at our house at 5:00 this morning just in time to say goodbye to D who was flying back across country to the side of his dying daughter-in-law. 

I believe that God intentially inserted Himself into this very stressful situation to remind us all that even in the midst of the most humanly difficult experience we ever go through on earth, death, that He is there with us.  D's daughter-in-law was leaving behind a husband and a two year old daughter.  The question of, "why are you doing this, God?" was on all of our minds.  God used this amazing intervention to remind us that even when we don't know why, that He still loves us and is personally very near. 

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Yesterday was the last day for one of our cooks who had worked at the Home for 29 years.  She was a wonderful cook and a friend to all of our long term residents so it was hard to see her retire even though we all knew that it was time and that she needed to rest from her labors.  After her retirement open house I heard a number of residents decrying the fact that she was gone and how the staff that was left would never live up to her example and abilities.  I had to smile to myself when I heard them because I had reviewed her personnel file and knew that she had not always been the ideal employee that she was today.  In the first few years of her employment she had a number of written disciplinary statements and had even been suspended without pay a number of times for the more serious infractions.  I did say to the residents that they needed to be patient and allow the newer employees to grow in their roles. I hope that they are able to do that because if they continue to complain we will lose some of these people.  If they are allowed to grow and learn they will become the loyal, long term employee who is loved by all. 

It seems to be human nature to jump on the areas in a person's life that don't measure up to our expectations.  We conveniently forget that the golden rule tells us to treat others in the same manner that we would like to be treated if we were in their shoes.  I need to remember that more than anyone and give time for learning and improvement to be accomplished.

My oldest grandson played in a piano recital a couple of days ago.  He did a wonderful job and I am so proud of him.  Its been interesting to read about the experience from his mother's viewpoint.  She was as nervous about the whole experience as he was and maybe even more so.  It brought back memoriesof her performances to me.  My daughter played the cello as a child and teenager.  She was very good and did very well at her recitals.  I on the other hand, was on the edge of my seat until it was over.  I knew what every note should be and couldn't relax and enjoy the performance because I was so fearful that she would make a mistake.  I was the same way with my husband early in his preaching career.  I couldn't just relax and be blessed by what I was being taught by the sermon he was presenting.  I was holding my breath that he wouldn't make a mistake of some kind, or preach too long and lose the attention of his audience or not live up to the pre-conceived notion in my mind of what his sermon should be like.  How much time I wasted.  If I could live those days over again with the knowledge that I have now I would just sit back, relax and enjoy the gifts that both my daughter and husband had been given.

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In about a months time it will be Mother's Day.  I've been thinking periodically about being a mother of four adult daughters who now are also mothers of  their own children. I'm at the place in my life where I can look back on my mothering of the girls and see so many things that I wish that I could do over again with the knowledge of hindsight. At the same time I have so much for which to give thanks to my heavenly father. 

I am thankful that in God's providence that each one of the girls knows Jesus.  I am thankful that they are each gifted individually with the talents that they need to fulfill God's plan for their lives.  I am thankful that each married a man who loves them, provides for them and is a wonderful father to their children.  I am so thankful for beautiful, happy, and healthy grandchildren.  Every day I hear about families who are suffering because of major issues of health and behavior with their children and God has spared me those kinds of things so far.

Someone asked me the other day if the time ever comes that a mother ever is fully free of concern for her children and I had to say that if there is such a time that I haven't experienced it yet.  I still wish that I could help each of them when they are sick and need to go to bed and not worry about the demands of their families. I'd love to be close enough to each family to be involved in the lives of my grandchildren on a more regular basis that once or twice a year.  I would love to be close enough to each of the girls to be able to share their hopes and dreams and sorrows and joys and in turn share those things in my own heart with them. 

I can't do all of the things that I wish I could do but I can pray, and I do.  Every day I lift up my girls and their families to the Lord and beg Him to intervene in their lives in the perfect way that He can and I can't.  I'm so glad to be able to place them in His care and know that He loves them fully and will not allow them to be "tempted above that which they are able to bear". 

Thank you, God, for making me a mother and giving me daughters who are also mothers.

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I have a very good friend who has metastatic breast cancer.  She has been fighting the disease for almost ten years and has simply amazed me.  The first time around, she went through the chemo and radiation and suffered all of the side effects but was blessed with a remission.  When she went back for her five year check-up she was told that the cancer was back and she had to start the whole process over again with the added insult of having to fight tumors in her brain, lungs, adrenal glands etc.  I have watched her praise God through it all.  All of her emails begin and end with scripture that praises God for his lovingkindness and goodness to her and she causes me to be ashamed for the insufficient way that I praise him on a daily basis.  Now she has written that the Dr. has come to her and said that its time to stop the treatment because nothing is working anymore.  The tumors are growing rapidly.  Last week she entered a Hospice program. 

I have often wondered why God allows some people to go through so much suffering and not others.  Its not enough that my friend has had this horrible disease that has sucked the life out of her for the last decade,  she has also had to endure an unfaithful husband, lonliness while raising four children alone, and post polio syndrome.  Through it all she has come to understand God's faithfulness in a way that I have not.  Maybe that is part of the answer to my question.  God knew that he would be so glorified by C's suffering.  So many people have seen God in a way through C. that they would never have been exposed to otherwise. 

I pray that C's four adult children will never be able to walk away from the reality of who God is because of her amazing example to them.  They are also extrordinary people and have been gifted  far above many.  The suffering that C has endured can't help but have impacted them.  I pray that instead of being a negative influence that will cause them to be stunted in their use of their gifts, that with God's help that they will be more sensitive to the needs of people around them.  I pray that they will continue impacting the world they live in with the obvious love of God. 

You may not know this remarkable lady but if you happen to think of her because of having read this blog please lift her up in prayer. 

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Today is Saturday.  My whole house is clean from top to bottom but unpacking and putting away all the soft items in the house has been quite a job today and I'm not done yet.  There are still things that I haven't found but I do have six more large boxes to unpack so I may still find them.

To make sure that this doesn't happen again, B, climbed up on the roof Thursday afternoon when it was around 40 degrees and used the chimney brushes to sweep out the chimney.  He said that it wasn't bad so I still don't know why the smoke filled the house instead of going up the chimney.

Thursday evening I came home to wet carpet and furniture and instruction not to walk or sit for 24 hours.  B and I had a meeting to attend at 5:30p.m., then we ate out and then we went to B's office at the church and sat until 10:00 when we went home and went to bed. 

I'm glad that the week is over!  I'm also very grateful for house insurance.

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Last night when I got home from work, I walked into a house without curtains, drapes, moveable carpets, bedding, towels, and clothes of any kind. Every soft item in the house had been removed for cleaning.  Without all of those things we couldn't sleep in our house so we had to make arrangements to sleep at a motel.  It's a funny feeling to know that everything you own will be touched by strangers.  If I had anything to hide I might feel even stranger.  I didn't have anything but the clothes on my back to wear in the morning to work.  I could have washed what I was wearing but that would mean being naked for two hours while the clothes went through the whole washing and drying cycle and without curtains on any of the windows that wasn't an option!  Before I called it a day and went to the motel I had to go any buy something that I could wear today.  Fortunately there are still 80% off sales and I found some clothes that were very inexpensive and I didn't feel badly about spending the money on them.

This morning when we returned to our house at 7:50 a.m. there was a crew of eight people waiting on the front porch to be let into the house.  Today every wall, ceiling, cupboard, drawer, book, picture, hard floor and vent etc. is being cleaned.  I can't even imagine having to wipe every book in our house down.  B. called to say that the clothes for the rest of this week and the bedding for our bed was returned this afternoon so we can stay at home tonight.

Tomorrow a crew will come in to clean carpets and furniture. I have company coming on the 13th so needless to say my house will be ready.

The person in charge of the crew said that I should plan a "little" grease fire in October and get my Fall house cleaning done too.  NO THANK YOU!  This has been a fairly disruptive experience and I would not choose to do it again.

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After my smoke incident last week I foolishly thought that airing out the house would take care of the smell.  Well, it doesn't!  I finally called our house insurance company and filed a claim.  The claims department gave me a list of companies in the area that do smoke mitigation so I called them.  One company sent someone out on Saturday and gave us the bad news.  The whole house has to be totally cleaned; walls, windows, cupboards, drawers, vents, carperts, curtains and drapes and all of our clothing.  Now far be it from me to fight the most thorough spring cleaning any of my houses have ever had.  I'm a clean freak and I love the idea of someone else doing the work.  The down side to all this is the time involved and the deductible we have to pay.  However, I thank God for our insurance.  The adjuster said that the whole job will be around $8000.00. That's more then we spent adding a deck to our house.

This morning I put on some clothes that smelled ok to me.  After I'd been away from my house for about 15 minutes I began to wonder where the fire was.  I was going to insist that I could take care of our clothes myself but now I'm rethinking.  When one gets to be my age there are times that I erroneously think that there are not too many things that I have yet to learn. NOT!  I'll let you know what I learn from this whole experience.

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Last Wednesday evening I was home by myself so I built a fire in the large, rough stone fireplace in our downstairs family room.  We use the fireplace every night during the winter.  It's sometimes a pain to have to clean out the ashes, and carrying wood in from the porch means more frequent vaccuming of the carpet but the warmth, and coziness of a crackling fire is worth all of the negative aspects that go along with it. 

Anyway, the fire had been burning for about an hour and needed replenishing so I brought in some more wood .  One of the pieces I brought in was a large log that had not been split.  It fit into the fireplace so I put it on top of the already burning wood and immediately had a problem. The log must have still been quite green because ugly brown smoke started pouring from the fireplace instead of going up the chimney.  It filled the downstairs and soon the smoke alarms were going off.  The fire was burning so hotly that I couldn't get near enough to try to push the log off to the side.  I went upstairs and found myself choking unless I held my breath.  The whole house was filled with smoke and I didn't know what to do.  I finally turned off the furnace and opened every door and window in the house and turned on the overhead fan in the living room to try to move the smoke out of the house.  When B. came home around 11:00 p.m. it was to a cold, smokey house but by then the fire had burned down and there was no more smoke. 

In retrospect I've thought maybe I should have used the fire extinguisher and put the whole fire out.  I came into work yesterday and today smelling like a campfire.  A frequent question when I am standing near someone is, "What's burning"?  Included in the list of things that reek of smoke are all of our clothes.  We have arranged for a company that cleans up after fires to come in and fog the house with ozone to dissapate the smoke smell.

I now have a much greater respect for the danger of smoke, even when the fire is contained.  The only place the I could breath with any ease was down below the level of the smoke. I could not get up the stairs without holding my breath.  It took the security system company about ten minutes after the smoke alarm went off to respond.  If we had been in bed asleep that could have been a dangereously long interval.  If something like this had happened at the LTC facility where I work, getting people out who cant' bend down below the level of the smoke and move on their own would be much more difficult than I have ever imagined. 

I have thanked God over and over again for protecting me in this situation and for the lessons that I've learned that give me a greater understanding about the danger of smoke.  I hope that I never have to experience a situation like this again in my life!

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I very seldom remember my dreams but the ones I do remember are doosies! I got up at 4:30 this morning to go to the bathroom and when I returned to sleep I had a very disturbing dream. I was living in a highrise apartment with my husband. In my dream we were sitting in the living room facing each other on the couch and he was telling me that he was leaving me. I begged and pleaded with him to stay but with a smile on his face he got up and left. I ran to the door to watch him leave and he went around the corner and down the stairs and I had the feeling that he was going to another apartment in the same building. I spent the rest of my dream trying to get someone to come and change the locks so that he could never get back into my apartment again.

You have to understand...my husband and I have been married for 41+ years and neither one of us would ever leave the other. When I woke up, I woke my husband up to tell him about this dream. He mumbled, "M....., it isn't true and went back to sleep. It is strange that something that has no basis in truth at all can still leave behind real emotion with which to deal.

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A subject that the media doesn't cover in relation to long term care is the whole survey issue.  Every year the Department of Health makes an unannounced visit to every skilled nursing facility and does a three day inspection, longer if there are issues that jeopardize the wellfare of any residents.  If the surveyors don't find anything that is immediate jeopardy to a resident but things that are not perfect then there is the opportunity to correct the "deficiencies" and then for a whole year put into place quality management tools that will make sure that the deficiencies will not reappear. 

The surveyors come sweeping into our facility unannounced and proceed to look for every conceivable digression from the written regulations they can find and even if the complaints they raise are never addressed again after they leave the building in the form of written deficiencies the whole situation is a terrorizing experience. When the deficiencies are listed the left side of the page quotes the whole regulation.  That is followed by a statement that "this is not met" by... followed by a listing of the deficiency and the residents who were involved and a letter "grade" that is a determination of how severe the deficiency is.  The right side of the page is where we must document the plan of correction we will follow to make sure that these deficiencies do not occur again.  Even the most innocuous statement of deficiency looks horrible and does not give a clear picture of our faciltiy and the care that we give to our residents at all. 

Last year the surveyors  who came in gave us a deficiency free survey and praised our organization to the sky.  They even went so far as to say, "we wish we could clone you".  This year after coming up with a whole list of things that we needed to change they left saying,  "your residents have no complaints;" the families have only high praise for your care, but...The survey process is supposed to be outcome oriented.  Our outcomes are obviously good but now for the next year we will be spending time that could be utilized to continue giving good care in paper compliance.  It is a very frustrating process. 

I love my job.  I love the staff with whom I work and the residents God has entrusted to my care.  I do not like anything about the survey process!  I am glad that the Lord knows everything and that I can stand before Him with a clear conscience.

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Many years ago I received a Christmas card from my great aunt whom I knew better than my grandmother because I lived closer to her and because of that had more opportunity to visit her.  The card started, "Dear Margaret, I think I know you."  At the time I thought it was funny.  From my vantage point today it was a bit sad.  

This morning I walked up to the Assisted Living Unit and passed one of our residents and said, "hello, C----."  She stopped and looked at me and said, "Do I know you"?  I get this response every time I greet her so I assured her that she knew me and kept on walking.  In many ways every day here is like the movie Groundhog Day. "Can you take me to the train"?  "I have to let my mother know where I am, she'll be worried ." This from someone who is 93 , whose mother died 40 years ago.  "Help me, help me, help me..."     It takes very special people to give care in this kind of setting.  Patience is  a must and compassion that allows the person to answer kindly every single time a repetative question is asked is a real bonus.  Not every caregiver is that good but I see many who make me proud to be their boss.

At this time of year especially I'm so glad that Jesus gave up the glories of heaven to come to earth and live the life of a human being.  He knows the difficulties that we encounter and is able to understand the hard things we experience in our lives.  I'm glad that the question is not, God, do I know you, but does God know me?  If God knows me, then my forgetting Him because of a disease process will never change the fact that He will never forget me.

Thank you, Jesus.

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Last week, Bruce and I left Pittsburgh and drove to the suburbs of Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving Day and the day after with our second daughter, Loey, and her husband and family.  The main attractions were James (4) and Ana (6).  We hadn't seen them since the first of September so there were changes to be observed. 

James who turned 4 on October 4th, is still into music big time which he is  now combining with a facination with numbers.  He has learned to operate all of the machines: DVD, TV, VCR etc.  If Ana asks him for a particular song he knows what CD it is on and its number so he can put it in the CD player and go directly to that song.  He makes numbers by contorting his fingers to look like numbers and deals with higher  numbers like 73!  He calls digital numbers. "pointy numbers!"

Ana is like her mother in many ways.  She looks like her mother and she likes to dress nicely and is concerned with her appearance.  She is artistic and spends hours drawing pictures depicting current events in her life.  Her major difference with her mother is that Loey is a people pleaser.  Ana is a people manager!  Ana will be in charge no matter what she decides to do with her life!

Loey hosted Craig's family and me and her father for Thanksgiving and did it beautifully.  We enjoyed our time with all of them.  It's nice to see Loey loved and appreciated by her in-laws.  I sometimes find myself struggling with jealously because my involvement with my out of town grandchildren is so limited but at the same time I am glad that their ties with Craig's parents are as close as they are.  God is good to all of us.

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Last Thursday, six months to the day after the Director of Human Resources died here at the Home one of our receptionists died.  Pat had worked here for 29 years.  I think that there were weeks when I had more communication with her  then I had with my husband.  Pat had suddenly ruptured a disk in her lumbar spine which caused excruciating pain down her leg and she was in the hospital scheduled for surgery on Friday.  Thursday, November 16, 2006, she called here to talk to the other receptionist at 1:00 p.m.  At 2:00 p.m. suddenly and without warning Pat died as a result of a massive heart attack. 

We still can't believe that Sandy is gone.  To be faced with the loss of another good friend and co-worker in such a short time is impacting our whole administrative work force.  It is true that we don't grieve as others do when we believe that the person who died loved the Lord, but the  denial, anger, depression and resolution stages of the grieving process still happen. 

I have to remember that everyone grieves in an individual manner and give everyone in this office the right to do that, including myself. 

Pat was a loving wife, mother and grandmother.  She had five children and fifteen grandchildren.  She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was often in pain but remained cheerful and gentle as she greeted everyone who came through the front door of the Home.  I miss her very much and will continue to do so for a long time to come. 

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I received the latest issue of the Readers Digest yesterday and as I usually do read it all in one sitting.  Included in this issue is another article decrying the horrible care given in nursing homes and I just wanted to scream.  I agree,  there are nursing homes that give terrible care but that is not the whole story.  I rarely read or see anything in the media about the wonderful, sacrificial care that is given by thousands of nursing homes all over the country.  As a  result the main picture in people's minds when they think about nursing homes at all is 99% negative.

I would like to say to people who read these negative reports that no issue is black or white.   Every situation that is reported has multiple considerations involved. For instance just because a person gets a "bed sore" doesn't necessarily mean that the care was negligent.  Christopher Reeves who had 24 hour nursing care which was supposedly the best money could buy died because of complications resulting from a "bed sore".  If he had been in a nursing home, that home would have been inspected and fined and the Administrator would have gone on trial for negligence or worse yet been thrown in jail because a resident died as a result of complications from a decubitus!

The facility I have the privilege of administering was started as a home for widows and orphans 109 years ago by women of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.  Since then it has had an unbroken history of giving care, much of it charitable, to people from the immediate neighborhood  and also from all over the country and the world.  It is our goal to treat all of our residents as if they were our godly grandparents and not just give them the physical care that they need but provide them with the kind of care that meets their emotional and spiritual needs as well.  Our residents are not just unknown bodies receiving custodial care, they are individuals with varied histories receiving loving care from employees many of whom have worked here for years and who know these residents as well as they know individuals in their own families.  Many of us who work at this facility laugh, cry and pray with our residents on a daily basis and do all in our power to provide a quality of care that cannot be questioned.

We are in our window for survey by the Department of Health.  This survey process is unbelievably rigoreous. On an annual basis at least three surveyors from the local office plus an inspector from the life safety branch of the Department of Health come unannounced  and look at absolutely everything in relation to the multiple state and federal regulations under which we have to operate.  We are a good home.  Last year we were deficiency free in both our assisted living unit and the nursing unit.  If we are examined under the microscope as we are, I don't understand how homes that are operating as poorly as the homes mentioned in the Readers Digest article can continue to operate at all.  I also feel badly when we try every day to do a good job and then when the surveyors come in we are made to feel as though we are trying to get away with bad care. 

Having this blog has allowed me to vent! That's a good thing.  If anyone reading this blog ever has to be admitted to a nursing facility I can promise you that if you come to this one that you will receive excellent care! All of us, the Board of Directors,  the Administration and the Department Heads desire above all to glorify God in everything that we do as we work towards the goal of providing the best long term care that is available anywhere in the country!

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Several nights ago I was babysitting with my local grandsons which included putting them to bed.  The nine month old was so easy.  After his bath he became a bit fussy. I sang a couple of songs to him, placed him in his bed, closed the door and that was all there was to that.  The three year old was a different story.  I left him splashing in the bathtub while I put the baby down.  I could hear the splashing become wilder and I knew that the water was definitely not staying in the tub!  Before I could get him out of the tub I had to mop up the floor.  Going to bed for him meant reading several books on the couch downstairs, then going upstairs where he stopped at the bathroom to go potty, filling the vaporizer and allowing him to carry it to his room where of course it spilled, reading a Bible Story  to him in bed, singing several songs, getting him a drink of water and then finally saying, "enough already".  As I was leaving Seb said to me, "Grandma, are you my grandson?"  I said, " No, Seb, You're my grandson, and I love you very much".  Then I said, "You say to me, I'm your grandson".  So he did... He said "I'm your grandson and I love you too".  What a thrill to hear my grandson say, "I love you", for the first time. 

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One of the balancing acts in my life as a nursing home administrator is that of getting to know all of the staff in the facility well but maintaining enough objectivity so that I can keep from being overwhelmed with disappontment when bright, promising lives are dragged down because of the effects of sin.  A common scenerio has just occured again with two young women who have not yet graduated from high school but have come to report to their supervisor that they are each pregnant. Both girls are extremely bright and have the potential to do a lot with their lives but now if statistics of the past continue to be true both girls will have great difficulty finishing high school, going to college, and maintaining anything but minimum wage jobs.  Some are able to continue on with their education but not without extremly hard work.  The girls suffer and just as importantly their children suffer. When one of these young women approached her supervisor with her news, her supervisor cried.  The girl said, "don't cry, it won't be so bad".  How little she knows!

Without Christ, there can be no understanding of holy living.  Without the desire to live pure lives there is no reason for these girls to withhold themselves from the young men who use them to fulfill their sexual appetites without any desire for commitment.  It is so sad.  Please pray that God will give me the opportunity and the ability to present Christ to anyone who asks me for a reason for the hope that is in me.  If I could be used in the life of just one of these girls to show her a better way I would feel blessed by God.

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Last week two of my four daughters and their families visited us in our home.  A third one who lives near us spent a good share of time with us also so thirteen of our twenty member extended family were in our house.  Six of them were our precious grandchildren ranging from 6 years old down to 8 months.  Sometimes it was bedlam.  Seldom was it quiet except when they were sleeping! 

I was reminded that being a parent of small children is very hard work.  Every minute while they were awake someone had to be aware of what they were doing and keep them safe from the harm and danger that could occur if they were left on their own.  I very clearly saw again that being a good parent means sacrificing your own wishes and desires in order to provide for the well being of others.  Being a young parent has its advantages; the main advantage being the energy to keep up with the constant activity.  However, I think that it is harder to be willing to be self-sacrificing as a younger person so God uses parenthood to build in that ability.

My daughters and their husbands are such good parents and I praise God for that blessing. I see how God is broadening their ability to love as they care for their children and I know that many people beyond the confines of their own families will be blessed through the years by the lessons that they are learning now.

If I ever figure out how to do it, I'll have to download some pictures of our good week.

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