One Picture of Excitement!
October 12, 2024
One Picture of Excitement!
(Granted, this is an old picture, and not the one that made me get excited, but my phone is being stingy and won’t let me upload the real photo! – so picture with my smiling eldest girls at a previous family get together it is.)/
My sister, who was planning to host our family’s Thanksgiving get together, lives in North Carolina. Her little community was hit hard with hurricane Helene and we prayed the roads would open as our google maps showed us two days after the storm that her address was inaccessible due to road closures. We saw images of roads slid off the mountains, bridges totally washed away, and homes floating in river overflow. We googled the locations of some; several were near where she lives.
I have three siblings and their families who reside in North Carolina and Louis has several cousins and at least two aunts in the eastern TN area. Louis’ mom was even up there visiting her sister.
One brother I heard from quickly. Then my sister a few days later. Finally my other brother through his fiance. Louis’ mom was texting us through the storm.
I had given my worries to God as I knew they were all in His hands. Everyone is safe and good. Praise Jesus for that!
Today, I received an amazingly beautiful picture from my sister and a text saying she would see us on our get together date! I can’t explain how excited that text made me! I love my family. I prayed from the time I could remember that our family would always stay close. Time and distance may separate us, new members add in and some have gone home, but we always have stayed close.
I love them all forever.
Over the years my birth family of seven plus parents has grown to add new brothers and sisters (through marriage & adoption – I got an entire new set of parents, two brothers, and a sister instantly thanks to Louis!), new nieces and nephews for this Auntie to love, and soon (should I say this and totally date myself?) a son – Lucas says he’s his big brother even if Christina doesn’t marry him (what better approval from a 9-year-old?).
Sometimes my mind is shocked at how quickly I went from bringing my guy to the family gatherings and now it’s my daughter bringing hers. Honestly, it has been more than half my lifetime but as mothers, we all know, the days seem long but the years go quickly.
I’m so thankful for God’s provision for my family. For the strength my family has held going through so much together. I’m thankful that my children have aunts and uncles on both sides they can talk to and learn from. I’m thankful my children know their cousins. Although I hate how my teens have to fight being addicted to phones, I love that they can text their cousins and call their Grandmothers and chat with uncles at any time. Technology is a tool. Using it for learning and connecting is using it for good.
I’m so thankful for all God has given us. For His amazing love and the comfort I felt even when I saw the images of total devastation, google maps said the addresses to both my sister’s family and my brother’s family were inaccessible, I knew God was holding them in His hands. I was comforted that even if I would never see them on this Earth again, we would see each other in heaven. The same peace God has given me when Daddy, Mary, and my babies went to heaven before me. I know I will see them. Jesus is the reason I don’t worry about life or death. I know the end.
Thank you Jesus, that I know the end! Thank you so much that you kept them safe so we will see each other this November to hear amazing stories, laugh at silly games, and enjoy each others’ company!
Thank you, Katy, for the one picture that made so much a flood of rejoicing and gratitude flood into my mind and fill my spirit with thankfulness and peace.
Thank you for reading!
Type at you later!
~Nancy Tart
