Friday, June 5, 2009

Laughter and Tears...

Thursday my friend from New Orleans, Ashley, drove up with her two girls for a visit.  Ashley and her husband, Page, teach at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  Page also serves in the Army National Guard Reserve as a Chaplain.  He is in the midst of a three week training at Camp Shelby here in Hattiesburg.  All that to say, it was such a treat to have a few hours together yesterday.  My girls absolutely LOVED Karis and Thia!  I love this picture with Karis peeping over the back of the sofa...
Following another first - "corndogs" for lunch - my kids played with Karis in the sprinkler.  James supervised as a good big brother does...
Before naptime, each of my girls took turns multiple times holding baby Thia.  Angela was especially attached to little Thia...
Ashley and her little ones left before 4 PM while we prepared for a farewell dinner for "Babushka".  Honorary Uncle Barry, Aunt Kelly and Aunt Amy joined us for dinner.  All the while, Jana was starting to run a fever from one of her immunizations.  She loved on her daddy...
One thing is certain, whenever Barry, Kelly and Amy are around the energy level soars!  They brought clip on earrings for the girls and played basketball and fished in the side yard...

We enjoyed some laughter last night and then the two youngest were ready for rest.  Jana's temperature was up and Victoria was running a low grade fever.  It was time for more Motrin and bed.  Jana slept with "Babushka" and was sickly through the night.  Her fever broke sometime early morning, thankfully.  Victoria slept with Angela and seemed much better this morning as well.  I went to bed around 10 PM and slept hard until 7:30 AM!  Wow!  I needed it!  
This morning we all piled in the van and went to have our TB tests read.  All are good!  Yay!  The kids were especially happy that was all the doctor's visit consisted of this time - ha ha.  Then it was time for tears...
As I type, I have the two youngest in my bed watching a Princess movie while Tony is driving my mom with the two older to Chic-fil-a in Gulfport and then the airport.  Needless to say, there were lots of tears and hugs as we all said "Goodbye" to my mama.  Jana cried the most.  Then when the other girls saw mom and I crying, they started crying.  

What a blessing it has been, I can not say it enough, to have had my mom here for these three weeks.  It will be strange to not have her around anymore.  Virginia is rather far away.  However, I am so grateful for the ONE who is ever-present... who knows our needs before we even speak them...  who "opens His hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing" (Ps145)... Thank you, Jesus... to God be the glory!

4 comments:

Priscilla said...

i'm sad for you that mom left, but i must say i'll be glad to have here home!!!! :) haha LOL p give the kids a kiss for me.

Debbie said...

I hope you will remember me. My name is Debbie Pressley. I am Andrew's mom. I have been trying (without much success!) to keep up with the excitement in the Merida house through Andrew. When he told me Tony had called him, I started in with the Pressley version of 20 Questions. He finally said, "Mom, read her blog!" If he had only told me you had one sooner!!! So, I have spent the afternoon looking back at these wonderful chapters in your lives. What else can we say but that God has done exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you could have asked or imagined?! We are rejoicing with you at His provision and goodness. We will continue to pray for you all...and continue to read your updates (now that I know you have them-ha!)

Elsie Hall said...

I know I live close to my mom (compared to you), but we don't see her often...I never knew I'd miss her so much until I had a little one around...I can't even begin to tell you how many times I called her at work with a dilemma (especially that first year!) and she took the time to talk me through it--and somehow, even if she didn't have an answer, the problem was solved soon after hanging up...I think she must pray after she talks to me...ha ha ha...Maybe I should just head straight to the One who does have the answers ;-)

Unknown said...

Hi Kimberly, George & I just returned from 2 weeks in Maryland for grand daughters graduations in Towson & Annapolis. Zittle's are attending another church now so we went by their house on Mon. Mary was napping but we talked to Mr. Zittle for a while. Steve has "9" children now. We thought of you so often while we were there and Oh so missed our Temple services - Thank you so much for sharing your family with all of us. It's especially fun & exciting for us old-er folks so please continue. Lucy