Handfuls of Blessings

Traveling on your birthday may not be the most exciting thing to do on your birthday, but at least that means no school, right? Chocolate covered strawberry "cake" Shae-Lynn's birthday came on a 9-hour trip back to Austin.  But with the assistance of a very special lady at our home church, I was able to surprise the birthday girl with some special things. Birthday balloon, bouquet, and bowl of ice cream! We all loved her "cake" a lot! Then another lady we were recently with gave us a gift card for The Olive Garden, so we were able to treat the whole family there for lunch. Italian meal with the family. We praise the Lord for the very special lady our daughter has become.  We pray the Lord blesses her with many more years as she gives her life in service to Him.

After the New Year, I think we all had the feeling of, "Now let's go home."  Although we are glad to see everyone, now that we have hit the halfway point of furlough, we are ready to be in our own beds and not see a suitcase for a while.   This week I got a letter from "my girls" on my soul winning team that had the following in it: "Right now, we are at the countdown of your return and I can tell you that every one of us has put up a calendar in our sitting rooms just counting the months remaining for your return." However, we are still enjoying some beautiful sights.  We entered New York City during a snowstorm.  But Keith is such an awesome driver, that we made it to our destination with no trouble at all. Snowstorm entering New York City During our last furlough, the 9/11 Memorial was not yet completed, so we were glad to be able to visit it this time.  We rode the subway and the bus, and took in the sights of the 9/11 Memorial, Tim...