Family and friends

Here are a few pictures from our trip. So many things happened that we are still processing on the awesomeness of how God guided and directed.

Many years ago my younger brother helped Dad 'remodel' a home for the folks to move into.

A few years ago my brother lost his home - just after our step-mother got killed from an accident.

The rest of the family agreed that he and his lovely wife should move into Dad's home. He was also able to update it including extending the front out to provide a more comfortable living room/dining room area. Here is a picture of the front of their house. I thank God for my brother and his very special wife and I am so happy they have this place to live.

From the time I can remember, my brother has been a lover of music. Even though he is younger he seemed to be able to place music after hearing it once or so. He 'inherited' our old piano after all us kids left home - the upright in the picture. Our step-mom also loved to play a piano. After she died and my brother moved into the folk's place, he sort of 'inherited' the baby grand that had been mom's, which I also think was very nice.

After we left my brother's place we stopped to visit another friend in Ohio, as mentioned earlier.
Here are a few pictures from there.

Our friend has two very affectionate dogs. They acted almost as though they had known us all their lives. I guess that is a good illustration of how God wants real friends to be.

Our friend has done a wonderful job of making her 'front' door look inviting. She planted a 'snowball' plant by her door this spring. By July it is putting on a fabulous display of blooms. She also had some other lovely blooming flowers but for this time I'll just share these.

It was so good to be able to spend a little time sharing what God was doing in each of our lives. She has also known my younger brother for many years. When he was in academy he helped take care of her 'babies' so their friendship goes back a ways as well.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that God's original plan for family included relating to others as friends, not only as 'siblings' or other 'family' relations.


The more I have been learning how that experiencing 'joy' and 'peace' with another mind increases a person's capacity to cope successfully with stress of all kinds, the more I am understanding why God encourages being friendly and having friends who can encourage us along life's way.

It is getting late so I will leave you with a wish that you will receive a special measure of God's peace and His joy which is YOUR strength as well as experiencing a similar experience with a human friend as well.

Bringer of Peace