"We all have a role to play and joy awaits each one of us. The Lord appoints and anoints as He chooses and we should delight in our individual callings."- Patti Tingen, A God For All Seasons.
It's the Christmas season and we are busy getting ready for the holidays.
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.
(Here is my husband with four of the kids when we started cutting our own Christmas tree at a nearby Christmas tree farm in 2008.)
It's a tradition we started because we didn't have the extra money to buy a tree one year, so we cut one down in the woods behind our house on my parent's property. Now we can't imagine buying a tree when cutting our own has turned out to be quite a lot of fun!
(Here is our "second chance clan"all ready for Christmas.)
So our tree is up inside. I made a wreath from its trimmings and hubby hung it on the front door. He hung lights on our growing fur tree outside. Every year the tree grows and we need to buy more lights for it. It looks magical in the evening when the moon shines high above and is then reflected by the crisp, white snow. Magical indeed. I love that tree!
Our kids are growing too. All seven of them, each with different talents and gifts and abilities. There's never a dull day here homeschooling these precious kiddos for sure! (I love it when they try to help each other too!- They don't know they are actually learning MORE by teaching their siblings!)
(My oldest daughter, age 7 helping her younger sister, age, almost 5)
Two police officers were executed in New York for simply doing the job they signed up to do, to protect and serve. My heart is broken for the families having to get through the holidays without their beloved officer. It's so hard to understand. I watched the wife of one of these officers sobbing on t.v. and my heart was with her. I may not know her personally, but I know her. Every time the phone rings in the middle of the night and my husband puts on his uniform, I pray. We are sisters in these moments.
(May these officers lives not be forgotten. R.I.P. Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos)
I don't write about my husband's job on my blog usually. It is his chosen profession and his calling. I have supported him through 21 years of marriage while he worked as a military policeman and then as a small municipal officer, to where he is currently serving as a Maine State Trooper. We've been through a lot together. I know what it feels like to have officers show up at my door and not know whether my husband was going to survive.
(This is the car accident my husband survived in 2006
with thankfully only a broken arm and leg and cuts and scrapes.)
So as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and prepare to ring in the New Year let us remember the fallen as well as the officers out there working around the clock to protect us so we can sleep in Heavenly peace. They are NOT monsters, and hateful people. Many of these officers are like my own husband, just trying to come home safe to their wife and kids at the end of each shift. Just trying to carve out a little peace, a little hope, and spread little more love than hate.
We leave a candle glowing blue in our window each night to remember the fallen and those who currently protect and serve our great country nationwide.
How will you show your support to your local police and stop the spread of violence and hate?
Thank you to all our officers who put on the badge each day to protect and serve our great country!
May you have a blessed Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
