following in my footsteps

I recently saw some pictures of my great nieces playing piano. They were having lots of fun, making memories at Grandma's house (which just happens to be the same home where I grew up.)

Aren't they adorable????

I remembered an old grainy photo that was taken of me when I was a child in the same house ~ a different piano, but located in the very same spot in the house!

All together now.... aawww!!!

After I got all misty eyed about the concept ~

my sister living in the house where we grew up,

her kids coming home to experience family heritage,

her grandchildren experiencing the joy of

the modest little house that love built in 1944

~ I got thinking of something else...

So these little girls are now doing and loving what I used to do and love so many years ago, but does it go any deeper than plunking a childish song on a piano?

If they are following in Great Aunt Judith's footsteps, I pray that it will be the footsteps of a godly woman following Christ as best I can ~

certainly not perfectly, but learning as I grow

Once again I'm reminded of a song...

"may all who come behind us find us faithful

may the fire of our devotion light their way

may the footprints that we leave

lead them to believe

and the lives we live inspire them to obey"

365 days ~ 180 degrees

The other day I was pleasantly surprised by a lightness in my spirit and a bounce in my step. I caught myself thinking, "2009 - it's gonna be a good year."

Then I thought back to just a bit over a year ago and vividly remembered how differently I felt at the time.

It was December 2007. I was so weary of Jim being in Muskegon - a 150 mile drive each way every time I wanted to visit.
So tired... how long could I keep it up?

...and then he got moved.

Closer to home?

oh no - transferred to Kinross - twice as far - 300 miles from my door to his.
I can't do it - that's what I thought - I just can't do it.


Thank God for my wonderful siblings.
We were all together in Mio anyhow, so surrounded and strengthened by all of them, we made the journey together to see Jim.


Even so, it was really awful. I was just so depressed and kept thinking, "I can't do this anymore."
Dark days...

Then in January it got worse.
My beloved brother-in-love Roger died suddenly. Perhaps even more difficult than his death was having to see Marge and their daughters go through such pain.
So hard...

Darker days...

There's a song by Sarah Groves that I love called "Less Like Scars". Some of the lyrics are:

It's been a hard year, but I'm climbing out of the rubble...
I feel you here and you're picking up the
pieces...
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation,
but You are able...

Well a year has passed and

1. I've found the strength to make the long trips to Kinross
2. Marge and the girls are moving through life with God's strength
3. and I have been pleasantly surprised by that bouyancy I felt just a day or so ago.

I'm reminded of another "song".
This one a bit older than what Sara Groves wrote.
Psalm 40ish is one that I always come back to

year after year,

crisis after crisis,

discouragement upon discouragement.

It says...

Why are you so downcast and why is your spirit disturbed within you?
Hope in God because you know you are going to praise Him again!

and back to Sara's song...

Just a little while ago I couldn't feel the power or the hope - I couldn't cope, I couldn't feel a thing

Just a little while back I was desperate,
broken, laid out, hoping You would come

Oh He came of course (was there all the time) and once again turned me around 180 degrees and set me steadfastly facing the future once again.

...hope in God, we will definitely praise Him again.

Yup, 2009... it's gonna be a good year.

Daddy's Memorial website

This website was created in 2004 as a memorial to

Walter Dale Pierce

but it has great old family photos

and memories of both

Dale and Rosamond.

Check it out by clicking on the title above

and enjoy...

Nice coat

Why do I wear black wool pants in winter?
Because they are warm for one reason, but unfortunately they are lint magnets - especially in the cold dry air in Michigan.

So there I am, in Sault Ste Marie, in a WalMart bathroom, using my newly purchased roll of sealing tape as a lint roller (try it - it works great!) when a woman comes out of the stall behind me and says, "nice coat."

Side Note: It really is a nice coat - very warm with large fur trimmed hood - perfect for the 20-degrees-below-zero-weather it was that day.
The coat had been Daddy's last Christmas gift to Momma just before he died in April of 2004. Of course I had taken Mom to Penney's that year to help her purchase a new coat, then when we came home, she modeled it and proclaimed to Daddy that was what he had just gotten her for Christmas!!
The next winter, after Momma died, I decided I would wear the coat as a constant reminder of the warmth of Momma and Daddy's love for each other as well as for me.

Okay, back to my story...

Barely turning around, I started to say thanks to the woman, but then immediately noticed that
she was wearing my coat
- well actually it was a coat identical to mine.
I chuckled and commented that "they really are nice coats aren't they?"

As she replied, she pulled her coat closer around herself and said,
"It was my mother's coat. She died last year."

I looked at her and said,
"This was my mother's coat. She died 3 years ago."

Two daughters ~
Two coats ~
Two hearts full of love for the wonderful women who loved them.