Holidays Done!!!

Good Morning Company Girls!

Well, we've come to the end of our holidays...we've been at our trailer for the last two weeks and tomorrow we plan on heading back home. It's been a good two weeks.....we've rested, except for one day that we had to go home for appointments. That's been good because we really needed it.....too much has been going on in the last four months.....I'm eager for the next month to go by and hopefully , as school starts on the 7th of September, things will get back to 'normal'...whatever that is!

Some of the grandkids were here last weekend which meant the trailer was hopping! They love coming to the trailer...sometimes, in a very crazy thot I think it would be great to bring, just one at a time though, (I'm not that crazy) to the trailer with us.....oh maybe when we don't have kids of our own here...believe me that's a handful and a half as it is! The contract that Emma and I signed at the counselors' office, before we came up here seems to have worked well.....whenever she started becoming 'unlivable' we reminded her of it and she seemed to smooth out. While we've been up here we heard about an 'intern' program, associated with this retreat centre and two others, for kids graduated from highschool...we encouraged Maya to apply and she decided to try it out...now we just have to see if she's accepted. If she is, she will be away from home for 8 months...just coming home at Christmas...something like going away to college but with a little more supervision..which will be good for Maya in her maturing process. We are and she is, hoping she gets accepted. This past week Maya went golfing and shot a 34....from the mens tees! That's pretty good! Unfortunately, yesterday while being the goalie in the staff vs campers soccer game, her hand stopped the ball and the ball won. So ...off we go to the nearest town and hospital where the doctor said she had torn some ligaments...not good but fortunately she had her arm brace from basketball, with her, and has been wearing that. She said today it just hurt a little and when her dad said it was a good golfing day (weather wise) and he might go out...well, she was all eager to join him!

This week it has been very interesting. The speaker/preacher that we have is from a big church in Ottawa. I've heard him before a couple of times and was looking forward to hearing him again. During one of his sermons, he talked about his dad......he said he was out on the golf course the day before and was reminded of the last time he had been out..about five years ago...his dad had been with him. At that time his dad confessed to him that he was having some problems with his memory....a couple of years later his dad was officially diagnosed with Altzheimers.....my grandma had that...it's a terrible disease......now, he says, his dad doesn't remember a lot...I know that after awhile these patients don't even recognize their own family.....I could see the emotion in the pastor's face as he spoke......at that moment I was filled with gratitude that even though my dad left us before I wanted him to, that right up until the end...he still knew me,...he could still tell me that he loved me....what a gift! Up here, at Fairhavens, I have a very good friend....her name is Anne.....Annes' elderly mother lives in a nursing home and for some reason in the last few weeks her mom has gone rapidly downhill...her mom, at the age of 87 still smokes...every day....now they've found spots on her lungs and just the other day, after she fell out of her bed...they did a cat scan and found spots on her brain.....this wee little scottish lady doesn't have very long...she also has dementia......Anne told me that the other day when her daughter was visiting the grandma that the grandma spent the whole time talking to her spoon......what the saddest thing about this whole thing is that Anne has been faithful in talking to her mom and dad about the Lord and before her dad died five years ago, he did accept Jesus into his heart....but her mom didn't and still hasn't. Anne is in despair at the thoughts of her mom dying without truly accepting the Lord....and now, how do you have conversations about it with someone who talks to a spoon. Anne wants to see her mom again, in heaven, with her dad.....We can only pray that the Lord will grant her mom some moments of clarity before she leaves for good. Once again, I thought of my dad.....I told my hubby that I'm so glad that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I will see my dad again...another gift, isn't it...a wonderful gift of assurance....I'm indeed a fortunate woman to have received two such wonderful gifts in one week. I am blessed.