For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.
Today is April 4th and we are on the letter D.
Daughter and Dad
Our daughter, a photo before digital. And here is one after digital with her dad on her wedding day, a couple decades later.
Another Milestone Birthday is on it’s way (March14th). Boy we’ve aged in 10 years but…that’s the way it is supposed to be. Cheers! The photo above is from one of my 60th birthday celebrations.
Time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and Jo From This Side of the Pond has some deep questions for us this week.
1. March 9th is National Get Over It Day…what’s something you need to ‘just get over already’?
For years we’ve all been able to live under the radar when it comes to people not holding the same convictions as us. Today there is blatant disagreement on how to live our daily lives. I’m working on how to respond to those who are polar opposites. Most of the time no response is the best response. Sometimes it is good to engage in some dialogue. Wisdom and discretion are needed.
2. Something you’re currently ‘over the moon’ about?
I’m looking forward to March 14th through the 22nd when some celebrations will be happening on this side of the mountains. See #5.
3. What’s something you’re ‘chewing over’ these days? (meaning-thinking over carefully)
Christ’s substitutionary atonement for believers; “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21)
And…
“God’s gift of redemption brings salvation from both sin’s oppression and sin’s consequences-and one day from its very existence. Hence, we no longer need to fear our former master; neither should we fear the wrath of God. Christ defeated sin and Satan at the cross, and He also bore the full punishment of God’s wrath for all who believe in Him. His death set us free from sin, condemnation and fear.”
Quote from the book; Slave-The Hidden Truth About Your Identity In Christ by John MacArthur
4. The last thing you cooked or ate that was overdone?
Can’t think of anything. We have had some under seasoned meals at one of the restaurants in town.
5. In celebration of hitting volume 411 in the weekly Hodgepodge, give us the 411 on something happening in your life in the next 30 days.
On Sunday, March 14th, I’m hitting a milestone birthday, turning 70! How did that happen? Dear and I will celebrate with a couple nights in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho at a nice Inn and with some nice meals out in open restaurants. On Friday the 19th our Coast kids are flying over and we will meet up in Spokane for a birthday meal with all of us except for Andrew who has to fly somewhere for his job. Then on Saturday we will celebrate little Addy who turns 4 on the first day of Spring. The kids will be around for the whole weekend so there will be lots of fun and frolic. It will be good to be together.
In the next few days we will have a new grand niece join the world. She’s due on my birthday but she’ll probably come sooner.
Also within this time frame Spring arrives! Aren’t we all ready for Spring?
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These photos are from March of 2011 when we celebrated my 60th birthday. We had a delicious meal in downtown Seattle. Our son Dan hadn’t met his bride to be yet. Our daughter Katie was in North Carolina marrying Andrew at the Justice of the Peace before he was deployed to Afghanistan.
We had a wedding for them a year later on their anniversary in Seattle after Andrew returned from his tour of duty and got a few days leave. Their 10th Anniversary is tomorrow, March 11th!
Happy 10th Anniversary Andrew and Katie!
This last week our daughter and her husband celebrated 9 years of marriage. Katie and Andrew were legally married at the magistrates office in Jacksonville, North Carolina before Andrew’s 1st deployment to Afghanistan. We planned a marriage ceremony and celebration one year later in Seattle. That weekend in March of 2012 was packed with gatherings of family and friends who came from near and far to celebrate. We were so grateful to God that Katie’s Babushka and Dzedushka could travel to be at her wedding and that Andrew got back in time to get leave to come to his wedding ceremony!
It was a lovely wedding on a cold clear windy March 11th in Seattle on Lake Union.
Moisi, Katie’s Dzeda (grandfather), prayed a blessing over Katie and Andrew.
These were all of Moisi’s people at the wedding.
Did I mention it was really windy?
Katie and her Dzeda (Moisi) at her first Christmas and birthday.
Moisi and Nadia were able to attend our niece Debbee and Lenny’s wedding in 2013 and that would be the last grandchild’s wedding the two of them could attend before our mom was ushered into Heaven in September of 2013. They watched some of grandson Caleb’s wedding in August of 2013 from their apartment via the internets. It was too far for Moisi to attend our son Daniel’s wedding in 2015. Moisi was able to attend grandson Joseph’s wedding in January of 2017 since the wedding was in California.
A good word from Spurgeon during these trying days of the COVID-19 Pandemic:
God is with the true, the just, the holy, to deliver them; and he will deliver you. Remember how Daniel came out of the lions’ den, and the three holy children out of the furnace. Yours, is not so desperate a case as theirs; but if it were, the Lord would bear you through, and make you more than a conqueror. Fear to fear. Be afraid to be afraid. Your worst enemy is within your own bosom. Get to your knees and cry for help, and then rise up saying, ‘I will trust, and not be afraid’.
HT: Jeremy Leffel Photography
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
Refrain
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Refrain
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Refrain
Words: Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Leffel Photography
Their wedding was in Iran (Persia) in 1943.
Here’s what they’ve got to show for all their years together and what they cherish along with the love they have for God and each other.
Add 15 more to this number for the more accurate count of their legacy which continues to grow.
So raise your glasses and toast to my mom and pop for all these years that God has been faithful to them!
Second through fifth photos were all taken by Jeremy Leffel our photographer and good friend at Andrew and Katie’s wedding.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 