The last few weeks have been busy but lots of fun! On May 1st I turned the big "30". Yes, I am officially not in my 20's!! At least I don't feel any older yet! John surprised me with a yummy cake Mrs. Beth Robinson made and I got lots of fun gifts!!
This past weekend was Mother's day. Several months ago, John and I got this idea where we thought it would be fun to plan a surprise visit to His parents for Mother's day. In order to pull this off we had to involve his dad, sister and Nanny. Now, if you know my Mother-in-law, you know that she freaks out about having a super clean house and has told me many times not to just show up unannounced!! Now, knowing this made me a little nervous as to what her reaction might be. I was hoping she would just be happy to see us and not worry so much about the house!! To be honest, I never thought we would be able to pull this off, but to my surprise we succeeded!!
On Friday, after work we piled in the car and headed north to Cordova, Al. In Tuscaloosa, we stopped and picked up John's sister Krista. At about 9:30 we were pulling in the driveway and the whole house was dark. Since we are all such pro's at pulling off surprises we already had a game plan of what to do next...NOT!! Oddly enough we all sat their in silence wondering what to do next... I mean do we ring the door bell?? Call their cell phones since the house phone was still not working due to the recent tornado's?? Well, we finally decided to ring the doorbell and after standing their for what felt like 15 minutes, John's mom finally came to the door. She was in her house coat and had her hair full of rollers!! You could tell we had just woken her up, but she was still all smiles!! I wish I had thought to get the camera out, but lets just say the smile on her face was definitely priceless! We could all tell she was so happy we had come!!
The next morning, Nanny cooked the best breakfast I have had in a long time! Her homemade biscuits were finger licking good!! During our visit, we got to see Aunt Betty, Aunt Peggy and Uncle Steve, Cousin Kelly and Dusty and their sweet new baby Emma! While at Aunt Peggy's house, we got to see a 1 day old calf and lots of cows! I honestly have never seen a calf that close or been that close to a cow! Mallory thought the cows were so neat!! Sadly though She kept saying ruff ruff, which as you know is what a dog says... I guess we need to work on the distinction of the MOO MOO sound from a dog barking! Ha Ha.. I promise we have tried to get her to MOO MOO, but she much prefers the ruff ruff sound!!
We had such a great time and I am so glad we were able to pull of the wonderful surprise visit!! Seeing John's mom so happy and not so worried about food and a clean house was great!! I am blessed to have the best in laws and am so thankful for each one of John's family members!! After Church with the family at Nanny's church on Sunday and a 4 hour drive back to Hattiesburg on Monday, we are back to reality and our regular schedule.
Even though we are back to reality, I still can't get out of my mind all the tornado devastation we saw in John's hometown. We were able to drop off some items these people needed, but I wish I could have done so much more! There were so many people that lost everything and even family members! It really puts in perspective whats really important in this life! All of our material things can be replaced, but living for God's glory is much more important! I can't even begin to understand what it feels like to loose everything, but I do know that with the help of our fellow Christians and faith in God these people will get through this this tragic situation and be a stronger person because of it! I challenge every christian out there to have the attitude that we were put on this earth to Serve and not be Served! You never know when you could be in this situation yourself! Praying for all the many people that were affected by these terrible storms!
One of my favorite new songs is Blessings by Laura Story. Here are the lyrics. It is a very true and powerful song. Just think how powerful trials in our life could impact others around us if we looked at them the way this song describes!
"Blessings" by Laura Story
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise
When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise
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