January 26, 2011
Dear Friends,
It was such a pleasure to receive your Christmas greetings and news. Thanks for keeping in touch. We treasure that connection between us. Christmas was wonderful in the mountains as we celebrated His great gift to all of us. We drove to Atlanta to the Cottons with our turkey and had a terrific time together. The snow started falling and did not stop for 4 days. We could not get back to the cabin because of the ice and snow (12") and stayed at Comfort Inn for 2 days...a real bonding time for all. Dorsetts drove from TX and loved the sledding and snowmen, etc. Julie's family came for a week of fun and we had great dinners with the Lamberts and Uncle Steve. When a 3rd snowstorm was predicted we decided it was time to head back to Florida. Good decision...as schools closed for another 1 1/2 weeks because of weather. We were greeted with a new year and a healthy January after two previous January's that included surgery. A mammeogram was declared CLEAR and we expect a positive report from Gary's upcoming routine stress test. Yes, God has continued to stand beside us through the peaks and the valleys...just like He promises. Our discipleship Bible study lesson this week reminded us in James 1:2-8 to "consider it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance....so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. When you ask for something..you must believe and not doubt." It would be difficult to say last year was "pure joy"...but God did bring much good out of my trial. Thank you all again for standing by us. We are in the process of planning a 95th birthday family celebration with Roger and Sandra for Gary's Mom who is as spry as ever. What a blessing she has been to all of us. Been attending granddaughter Terri's basketball games where she has been scoring 20, 19 and 19 points in recent games. She is a deadeye with her 3 point shot. It is so much fun being grandparents and watching and encouraging our wonderful grandkids along the way. We request prayers for Pastor Mulder, Suzanne, Judy, Mark, Dawn for health issues and also Christa and Mike who will be on transplant lists shortly. We pray that all is well with you and your families and that 2011 will be a beautiful year for all.
Love and Hugs, Carol Lynn & Gary