Day in Nordegg

We were home on the long weekend and took a day-trip with our friends Travis and Joanna to Nordegg, a historic coal-mining town that closed in 1955. It's in the Rocky Mountains.

Joanna's grandfather plus several of his brothers were some of the miners who worked there. The town is being restored.

We looked up the house where her grandparents lived.

We checked out old buildings...

and old cars...

and old bridges and barns and mine shaft entrances, etc.
All in all, it was a great day!

More pictures below.

Nordegg Collage

Click to enlarge.

Happy Anniversary to Darrell and Jess!

Ten years ago!

It was a happy day and a great wedding.

Hope you have a great day today!

Photos by Bill Ginther

Spring in the North

We were in Slave Lake area this weekend and I enjoyed photographing some birds like this purple finch. I noticed this year, as in some other years, that the leaves emerge earlier in the north. Their elevation is lower than the foothills and their weather not as erratic.


Red-breasted nuthatch.

They are fun to watch as they walk upside-down.

Blue Jay.


Evening grosbeak.
I always enjoy these big, colorful birds.

Happy Mother's Day to our Daughters-in-law!

To Magan...
who bore our first grandchild,
who promptly had her life turned upside-down
by a baby who didn't seem to need sleep,
and through it all mothered with love and devotion
and has emerged a confident mother of two.

To Juanita...
for whom pregnancy meant extreme illness,
weight loss and hospitalization,
yet has counted motherhood worth the cost
and has mothered with ease, practicality and humour.

To Jessica...

whose longing for motherhood set her on a long,

heart-wrenching and terrible path,

yet has endured until she was called "mama",

and this year for the first time we can say, "Happy Mother's Day"!

We love you all and are thankful that God gave us

daughters-in-law who value motherhood

and who love our sons and grandchildren.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Love,

Mom

Have Patience!

I was amazed to see this article in a weekly community magazine:

VIRTUE OF THE WEEK:

PATIENCE

Patience is quiet hope and trust that things will turn out right.

You wait without complaining.

You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes.

You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals.

Patience is a commitment to the future.

You are practicing patience when you...

• Calmly tolerate a delay or confusion.
• Are willing to wait for things you want.
• Set goals and persevere until they are met.
• Do something now that will help you in the future.
• Accept things you cannot change with humour and grace.
• Are tolerant when mistakes are made.

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
-John Quincy Adams

"Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains."
-William Penn

2002 Virtues Project International Inc
http://www.virtuesproject.com/

This article is from a secular source, but I thought there was a lot of good insight shown. I would add my own observation that I really don't know what guarantee we have that things will turn out right apart from God.

This is our guarantee:

"The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one.
He was apalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him."
Isaiah 59:15b,16

"In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."
Isaiah 42:3b, 4

I love the line, "He will not be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."
Who else can work endlessly for justice without being discouraged?
That is our assurance that ultimately things will turn out right!

Today I need patience - we're in the midst of another spring snowstorm!

We're Grandparents to Twins!

Today Mary and Martha legally belong to Darrell and Jess.
We now have 5 grandchildren with the 6th on the way.
At Christmas time we just had 2! God is good!

Our African children!

It was in February 09 that they first got the referral of twin girls.

On April 23/09, exactly a year ago today, they got a phone call from Social Services to come in for a meeting. They went the next morning and were told the orphanage was shutting down and the adoption would not go through.

That day Jess blogged, "We feel sick and are hoping this is just a bad nightmare and maybe I will wake up from it... Please pray that we will be able to bring our girls home. I am trying to just trust God knowing I have no control over any of it."

The title of that blog entry was "Very Bad Day".

Well, today is a "Very Good Day"!

Today, a year later, the girls are theirs!!!
Don't you just love how God does neat things like this?

It reminds me that Darrell was born a year to the day after we got word that Social Services had a little boy for us (Jon) after 5 years of waiting for children. After seemingly endless waiting, we had 2 within a year! and I don't believe the dates were coincidental.

I believe that the dates of a year to a day is God's way of reminding us that He is in control of everything, including waiting times, and He has a set date when our prayers will be answered.

Thanks be to Him!