Tender Mercies

Even though this trial is hard Dave and I have been so blessed to know that we are a forever family and that we will be together someday soon.  We are grateful for the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord.

I want to share with you about one of our biggest blessings, which is our 15 year old son, Brett.  Brett has always been his daddy's little boy.  Ever since he was a litle boy he wanted to go whereever his daddy was going.  He would always walk around the house wearing his daddy's shoes. He shares alot of the same things that his dad enjoys, sports, aviation, riding horses, hunting and camping.  His dad taught him so many things.  He misses his dad tremendously but at the same time he is trying to make his dad proud of him.  He is trying his best to be a great helper while his dad is gone.

I have been so impressed with Brett lately.  He amazes me with his strength and courage everyday.  Every day he talks into his phone and is able to save what he says into a word document.  Then at the end of the week he prints out what he said and mails it to his dad every Monday.  He wants to make sure his dad knows what is going on in his life.  One day I read one of his letters.  I was thinking he would just tell him the basics like I went to school, went to football practice, ate dinner and went to bed.  But I was so impressed with his letter not only did he inform his dad on what he was doing but he shared scriptures with his dad and gave his dad a wonderful sermon about having stregnth and courage to carry on and not give up.

He watches over our little three year old and makes sure he tucks him into bed everynight.  He helps me with all kinds of different jobs and tasks.  There are some days that he might hesitate in wanting to help but he always ends up helping.

 

Another example was last week when our eight year old sons flag football team lost.  Brett was actually the referree for the game.  Brett could tell that his brother was discouraged and having a bad day.  So as we were headed home to have dinner Brett says, "well lets go get ice cream."  I told him, "we can't because we have dinner waiting at home."  Brett said, "Mom when I was Bronco's age dad would always take me to Dairy Queen to get ice cream before we came home to you for dinner."  So I better do what dad would want me to do.  Not only did we all get ice cream but Brett totally paid for all the ice cream with his own money.

Yesterday, as we were driving home from the fundraiser we stopped to get a bite to eat.  Brett helped his little brother with his plate and everyone was busy eating.  I looked over at Brett and he had his arms folded and his head down and was praying before he ate.  This made my heart swell.  What a great example Brett is not only to his brothers and sisters but also too dad and mom.

God has blessed us and has sent us some tender mercies through our son Brett.   There are so many times that Dave and I feel so badly for our children.  We feel that they have been robbed of experiences with their dad and also have to suffer during this trial.  For instance, Dave wasn't here to take Brett on the deer hunt.  He hasn't been able to help him train his horse. He isn't here now to watch Brett play football and cheer him on.    But I can honestly say that our son Brett is following in his dads footsteps of becoming a fine gentelman and that is one way of how God is blessing us during this trial.  I am also amazed at how coruageous all of the children of the Political Prisoners are.  They have such strong faith and they know that their daddy's and grandpa's are good men and God will bring them home soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook

Last week after talking with Dave we decided it was time to deactivate the facebook account.  There was alot of good from being on facebook but then there were alot of unnecessary distractions also.  I am going to miss seeing and hearing from all of you wonderful supporters.  I will also miss seeing friends and family members post about their families.  Those are things that I enjoyed reading about.  But I have realized that at this moment in my life that I need to shut down any unnecessary distractions and use that time to focus more on our children and Dave.  I will continue to update my blog on a weekly basis.  I definately don't want people to forget about my dear sweet husband and the other political prisoners. 

Lately, I have had people ask me if things are getting any easier or better.  Well, it is actually the complete opposite.  Each day seems to be only getting harder and harder.  We miss our daddy/husband dearly.  We want to be together like we were before.  We want to be building our home together.  We want to be able to spend the upcoming holidays together.  We want to be able to make memories together.  But so far my husband has not been able to come home and these moments that I have been talking about experiencing have been stripped away from our family for the time being.

I know that I must stay strong for my husband and our children.  It is not easy.  One night last week I became overwhelemed.  All within one hour I had our eight year old son wanting to play football with him, then I also had people coming over to pick up fruit, then my daughter needed help with her volleyball and my one year old and three year old needed dinner.  I tried my best to help each one of them but I felt like I fell short and wasn't able to help them in the way I wanted too.  Dave and I love our children dearly.  We only want the best for them.  We pray everynight for them that they will be strong through this trial we are experiencing.  Dave and I pray for each other several times a day that we will be able to make it through the day and be able to stay strong for each other and our children.

I ask all of you to look at your family situation and if there is an unnecessary distraction that is taking away from your family time then get rid of it.  Do all that you can to make memories and spend quality time with your family.  Those distractions aren't imortant but making memories with your family is what is most important.

Below is a picture of our family doing something that we loved to do together, CAMPING!

I pray that next year we will be able to take another camping picture with all of our family together.

Events to Support

Below are two awesome events that are being held to support the Patriot Political Prisoners.  We are grateful for the support that fellow Americans are showing towards our families.  Please support these events if you are able to and if not then please keep on praying for all of the Political Prisoners and their families.  Especially remember to keep the Prayers coming for all those that are involved in the Oregon trial.  We know that God is ultimately in control but we must never stop praying and putting our full faith in God.  God Bless America.

Flying

It has been 6 months now since Dave was taken away from us.  It seems like forever to my sweet companion and I.  We know that trials can help us to grow in areas that we might need growth.  We know that God is with us constantly.  We know that he sends angels to watch over us.  But even knowing these truths it still is extremely hard being seperated from my forever companion.  Dave and I have learned from this situation that you can either be angry and mad all the time or you can try to make the best out of the situation.

Dave does try to make the best out of this situation.  And I am so proud of him for that. This last week Dave was so excited because someone new had come into his pod that was interested in learning about Aviation.  Since Dave has been imprisoned he has not met one person that really wanted to learn about flying.  But this last week he met a young man that wanted to learn more.  If anyone truly knows Dave, then they would know that his first love in life of course is his family and God and his next would absolutely be aviation.  This gave him a boost this last week as he was able to teach this young man how exciting aviation can be.

Ever since Dave was a little boy he enjoyed reading aviation magazines.  He even had little metal airplane toys that he would fly around the house and pretend he was a pilot. He always dreamed of being a professional pilot.  He worked really hard after high school graduation to obtain his pilots license.  After we were married he was able to accomplish many of his goals in aviation.  He obtained several ratings, licenses and two years ago he became a flight instructor.  It took Dave several years to accomplish these goals because he always put his family first before anything.  He made sure his family was taken care of before he would spend money on aviation.

I have asked Dave many times what he loves about flying.  I remember him saying that when he is flying he feels he is above the worries of life.  He feels closer to God because of the miracle of flight.
 

I am proud of Dave and the goals that he has accomplished in aviation.  He made goals and he went after them.  He teaches our kids the same philosophy today.  That you can become or do anything you want too.  You just have to put forth the effort and have the determination and heart and go after your dreams.  Dave will fly again, but for now he will have to borrow my wings to get through this turbulence that we are experiencing.