Introducing our First Girl Grandbutton!!!!!

Here is our daughter in law that we love so so much Amy holding her new babygirl Julie Anne!!! 6lb. 11 oz. 20 1/2 inches long .

This is our son Christopher's hand , he is such a proud daddy!!!!

Franceska sitting in bed with her sister in law! These pics are smaller because I got them off of photobucket and I dont know how to make them bigger :((
Great Grandfather Poppy holding Julie for the first time.
And her Meme (that's me) holding my first granddaughter for the very first time. Oh my gosh it was incredible and the love, oh the love!!!!
Proud Grandmother and Great Grandfather
Our sweet Julie!

The first pics of her in the NICU holding her daddy's hand.
The first time her Meme got to see her! It's kind of great being a grandparent, you get special privilages!!!
Our Sweet Babygirl......

Our first Grandbutton Josh, his mommy and his Aunt Franceska!
Poor Amy, she wanted up in bed with her "Me"!
Eating Me's food!

We are so blessed and so in love.........

BLACK AND WHITE WEDNESDAY

UNCIE AND ADDISON
I decided to follow Gail's lead and do B&W Wednesday......

This is my Mister with our brand new neice Addison!!! It is Frank's little brother Mark and his wife Michelle's first babygirl....we have waited 15 yrs plus for her!! She is absolutely precious!!!! Oh how we love her!

13 MORE DAYS TILL OUR 1ST GIRL GRANDBUTTON JULIE ANNE GETS HERE!!!!!!

THE TRUTH IS....PART 2


THE DAY WE WERE BLESSED WITH OUR FRANCESKA DANIELLE


On the evening of July 3rd, as we were preparing to leave Beijing bright and early the
next morning to Nanchang , Frank went out to bring something to eat back to the room,
so weepy. I couldn't get my sisters to answer their phones or any of the kids, but
who I really wanted to speak to was my parents....my daddy. All of you know my
momma cannot speak on the phone anymore, although we tried but it just doesn't
happen anymore. When I called my mom and dads house I got the lady who sits
with our mom when my daddy has things to do. My daddy was helping his brother,
my Uncle Freddy and my sister Kerry, the girls, and Astrud were at the lake for the
4th of July and my other sister Kim was working. When the lady answered the phone
it was so hard to talk because I had a lump the size of China in my throat ....I just
needed to let the floodgates open but I told her it was me and she was so sorry
but I had missed my daddy by about ten minutes!! Here I am in my hotel room, feeling
very homesick, very "neglected", you know like my family should have all stayed home
just waiting for my phone call!!! LOL! And if I would have gotten to talk to my daddy anyway
it would have been horrible, I would have started crying like a big old baby, it would
have made him feel horrible because he knows I need to talk to my momma, he would
have started crying then I would have cried harder......you get the picture right. So
God knew exactly what needed to happen.

So Frank walks in the door with something for dinner and I know he was thinking, oh gosh
she is freaking out or something, but I ended up putting my big girl panties on , we ate
went to sleep. Neither one of us slept that much. I think we needed to have our bags
in the hallway and be ready to leave for the airport at like 4:00 am or something like
that.

July 4, 2010

So we all got out the door and to the airport, all of us just kept looking at each
other with these faces of anticipation , all we could do was smile at each other.
And as all of you know I am a crier so it was best to keep my mouth shut!!
We flew into Nanchang, and after we arrived we had a pretty good ride to the
hotel. It was pretty eye opening. There are so many people that have been
to China and back that I know that say they loved Nanchang. I didn't but you
have to remember it was the dead heat of summer and from what we could tell
every male person from the age of about 11 to 100 smokes, they smoke in hotels,
in the elevators, at your breakfast, lunch or dinner table, everywhere you look!
So my throat was raw the whole time we were there, I guess because of the smoke
and the ventilation systems and a/c are not really good. But none of that mattered
to me or Frank , we were there for one reason and one reason only. Our guide
Michelle which I must say was absolutely PERFECT had told us that around 3:00
that afternoon our babies would be in the hotel lobby. We did some group touring
and then we got back to our room, I think at about 1:00 to cool down, clean up
and get ready. First I have to tell you when we actually arrived in Nanchang
and went up to our room for the first time it was amazing when we opened the
door and saw the crib in our room!

It just made it so real, one would think that after almost five years that real feeling would just naturally happen....well I think for most people you are just waiting for that other shoe to drop, for some other government official to tell you to jump thru another hoop, so yes
that crib made it real!!! So I put her things in it , got all ready for her and
to our surprise at 2:30 Michelle called our room and told us that our baby was
HERE! I looked at Frank and told him that I would not start crying now, and all
we could do was look at each other, I started shaking, we kissed each other,
and headed for the elevator. As I am typing this I have the same exact feeling
I had that day. When we came out of the elevator, you turn a corner and as
we took the two steps down .....THERE SHE WAS, we knew her immediately!!
She was sitting on a nannies lap so calm and peaceful, she looked sleepy and oh
so tiny!! All I could think was , Thank you God, oh thank you God for loving me
the way you do, for giving me this gift. And just like that a calm feeling came
over me , I was very anxious , but I was not sobbing. I grabbed Frank and said
look babe, there she is. He said I know babe! Oh gosh just look at her! We
thought she was a million more times beautiful than her picture. I always had
this fear of not knowing her when I saw her and my sister Kerry told me , yes
you will! And I did!

We were second in line, when our turn came , they ask you your name and your
baby's name and just like that the nannie walked over to me and handed me our
baby. She immediately laid her head on my shoulder , we were a perfect fit!
I looked over at Frank and I will never forget the look on his face, it was a look
of complete content. And my immediate thought was , WOW he has everything
Kellie is back in our life, not only her but a wonderful soninlaw and two grandsons
with another on the way and now he has Franceska, I just kept thinking how our
wedding rings , the circle had closed, our hearts were red, full and pumping
gloriously! And all of that glory goes straight to HIM up there!!! Straight to
our Lord!






We stayed downstairs in the lobby for a while , but honestly I just could not
wait to get her up to our room, to be alone with her, just us three!
Her daddy took her, held her , loved on her , showed her off , gave her back to mommy
and we headed up to our room. When we got there the first thing I did was
make her a bottle, I sat down in the chair and from the first bottle her and
I made eye contact. She knew she just knew I was her mommy. Frank had
the camera to capture the first time I ever fed her and he told me, look how
she knows us babe. I said I know ,is this just too perfect , should I be scared?
And he told me no, because for the longest time I have been praying that the
Holy spirit would introduce us to each other and my prayer was answered. And
from that moment on she was a changed baby. Her personality just exploded out
of her,our whole travel group tagged her as the 'HAPPY BABY".................






She wanted both of us all the time, of course Mommy was the one she
did not want out of her sight , but her daddy had complete equal billing. She
loves us is all I could say! Any of you who know me personally know that it did
not take long for me to get her cleaned up , fingers and toes counted, dressed
up with a bow to top it off on that perfect little tiny head!
And from that moment on our lives have never been the same!!(After about 2 hours this is what we got from then till now)



We thank God every day for incredible blessing. She is loved by so many , so loved! We still cannot go tothe store in our hometown and not have her treated like a Rock Star! Peoplejust randomly come up to us, football games if I walk around I never get back to our seats, anywhere we go people want to meet Franceska. She is a feisty
stubborn, spoiled rotten , beautiful, rambunctious , can drive her mommy crazy,
hurt her big sissy's feelings, did I say stubborn, knows what she wants and don't
want , has her Daddy, brothers, Uncle's, Aunt's , cousins, Poppy, Grandma, and friends just everybody wrapped around her finger kind of girl!

And we can't even remember our lives before she was there! She is a sponge
for learning, she walked on November 28th the day we had her dedicated at
church really good for the first time, she will now repeat anything you tell
her to say in the cutest little voice ever! She is so smart and we look so forward
to see what the future holds for us, we can't wait to see what God has planned
for her!

As for the trip to China, no I was not crazy about China, Frank liked it and hopes
to go back one day, but to be fair , there was so much going on with me health
wise (hormones) and it was so hot that I do think that if we had been there during the
winter my outlook would have been better....alot better! But I do know that it was
all in God's perfect timing and to those of you still waiting.....hold on your perfect
plan will be revealed and I promise you it will be ever so sweet......we pray daily
for each of you and for each of your babies.

There are a few people that were in our travel group well more than a few that
we hope to be lifelong friends with, we shared a day together that tops no other
and that is a bond that is so strong. So if any of you are reading this and I
know you will know who you are, thank you for sharing your family with us, you
are our family and we love you!

As for all of you who have followed our journey thank you for being so loyal, thank
you for your support and love. Now the real journey has started and I hope you
are here for as long as we are ! Thank you to all of you. God has blessed
me beyond belief on this journey and I will be forever grateful!

While we were in Guangzhou we got a phone call from our son Christopher and
DIL Amy telling us that they were pregnant, so now our family stands as is....

Daughters Chastity, Astrud, Franceska, Kellie, husband Jon, 2nd grandbutton Liam,
3rd grandbutton Rory and 4th grandbutton just born on 12/27 Avry.

Sons, Craig and fiancee Traci, Steven (Bubba) and wife Megan,
Christopher, wife Amy, 1st grandbutton Joshua, with our first
girl grandbutton JulieAnne coming 2/22!!!!

Yes at our dinner table that would make 18!!!! OUR CUP RUNNETH OVER!!!!
(19 with Astruds boyfriend Anthony)

p.s. Thank you God so much for giving me and Franceska the moments
with my momma, her Nonny that you give us everyday. Your love and
your Godwinks amaze me always!


p.s.s. I hope all of you enjoy the pictures, I tried my best to pick the ones that depicted what part of the story I was telling, it was so hard to pick because I took over 3000 pictures over there!!! And I really don't know why my sentences are all cockeyed, I tried to fix them but everytime I did , it still came out this way.....sorry

An Alzheimer Poem...

My Daddy handed this to kerry and I yesterday at the house and he spoke no words other than I found this the other day and wanted to show yall.

AN ALZHEIMER POEM

DO NOT ASK ME TO REMEMBER
DON'T TRY TO MAKE ME UNDERSTAND.

LET ME REST AND KNOW YOUR WITH ME.

KISS MY CHEEK AND HOLD MY HAND.
IM CONFUSED BEYOND YOUR CONCEPT.

I AM SAD AND SICK AND LOST .
ALL I KNOW IS THAT I NEED YOU
TO BE WITH ME AT ALL COST.

DO NOT LOSE YOUR PATIENCE WITH ME,
DO NOT SCOLD OR CURSE OR CRY
I CAN'T HELP THE WAY IM ACTING.

CAN'T BE DIFFERENT THOUGH I TRY.

JUST REMEMBER THAT I NEED YOU.

THAT THE BEST OF ME IS GONE.

PLEASE DONT FAIL TO STAND BESIDE ME,

LOVE UNTIL MY LIFE IS DONE.

Every single day I look at my 67 year old momma and think , just what is she thinking ??? She jibbers with her words all the time , she is anxious beyond comfort when the "babies" are around because she constantly thinks someone is hurting them. Noise she cannot handle even though at one time she was the loudest of all!!! Dancing which is something my mom lived for is something that we now do far and in between, Elvis someone she loved more than life....she rarely says his name when she hears him anymore......she calls my daddy...daddy now , Harold is rare.....when we walk in the door she looks at me like I am her saving grace and she hugs me and cries sometimes, well alot of the time, but the word Kristy in the last month or so has also faded a little bit more....I could go on and on BUT what I do know is that our God the creator of Heaven and Earth every single day blesses us with the momma, the Hun, the Aunt Sudie, the Nonny, or just plain Sudie that she once was.....

There are those times that there is music playing that she will start dancing around the living room or kitchen, and my eyes immediately go to her feet and it amazes me that those are the same feet that taught my sisters and I how to dance and that danced with us so often. We knew on saturdays as we were cleaning house and her 50's records were on the record player that if we started dancing , she would totally forget about the house and 3 hours later we would all be exhausted , and she would say let's take a nap!!!! It still amazes me how as I am looking at those tiny size 5 feet that they are not missing a beat, her brain still knows exactly what to do, it doesn't matter if it is a waltz, a two step, a jitterbug whatever it is , her feet and her little 80 lb frame can still bust a move.....HE blesses us with that moment we have Sirius Elvis radio on and she does hear his voice, that she will say something like , oh I love that man, or the usual there will never be another Elvis (which I might add that we all think the same, lol). HE blesses us with the moments like yesterday my daddy which has always called her "Hun" was irritating her and we know that he will still do it not just because it is just the way they were, but we know that he just wishes and wants so badly to have some "normalcy" or "some the way it was" before Alzheimers moments with her. Some people would call it denial , I call it "LOVE".

No matter how sick she gets he still see her the same way they were on their wedding day.(Im sorry I know that I get off track). Anyway yesterday he was irritating her and she went after him calling him "HAROLD" not daddy and was slapping him on his arms , all the while daddy is laughing , and Kerry and I are cracking up just to fight back the tears because oh man how we wish it was still that way all the time, but when she was doing that her words were so clear and she was saying the same exact things that she would say to him for so many years. And trust me not all the words were nice, my mom was not known for her sweet tender language!!! lol There are just some things the mind never forgets!! :)) At the very moment she was basically cussing my daddy out , I looked at my neice Rayn, you see she is 6 and she has never known her Nonny without Alzheimers, and the look of delight on her face was just priceless, she thought Nonny was soooooo funny!!! So you see to me that is a "God wink", then there are the days that I walk in and she walks really fast over to me and lays her chest on mine and I hear her say "Kristy", without me having to ask her what my name is. I was always made fun of because apparently as a child I was always having to be told I love you all the time. My mom would make fun of me as a teenager, Oh Kristy we love you, Kristy did you hear me???? You get the picture....so yes I have to admit I am guilty, I will still ask her momma what's my name? Momma do you love me? I don't think we ever truly grow up when it comes to our parents, and yes I do ask her because I know one of these days she won't be able to answer me at all, so for now I will just get made fun of by my sisters and everyone else...that's okay! HE gives us bits and pieces everyday and for this I am truly grateful, thankful, and humbled.

I am from a big and close family, we don't always like each other but we always love each other. And I am talking about my extended family there are alot of us. I have my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob, Aunt Margie and Uncle Richard, Uncle Freddy and Aunt Joyce, Aunt Sara and Uncle Bill that all still have each other....healthy. These were the brothers and sisters that my parents were with all the time, they raised all of us kids together and when things come up like this weekend New Years Eve and I know that they are all going to a New Year's Eve dance just like they have done for years, and like on Christmas Day when my daddy leaves at 4:00 to relieve the nurse we have staying with mom , you can see all the looks on everyones faces, you see my daddys sisters fighting back tears , you see cousins fighting back tears and you even see uncles clear their throats, look away....things are just different without her there. Then I know they are watching out the window as daddy and his three girls, Kim , Kristy and Kerry walk out to the truck with him and we also know that they know there are hardly any words spoken because if your mouth opens you will start to cry so you just all look at each other , hug each other , love you daddy, I will talk to you when we get home...and then you watch him drive away.....those are all the things that make one think, this just isn't fair!!!! My daddy still like to go out dancing , but he can't get a nurse, what is he supposed to be...the third leg???

I do know that it would hurt him to much to be there without her, it would hurt all of us , so me personally I just choose not to go. Im the crier in the family, you remember the one that has to be told she is loved all the time. I don't blame my aunts and uncles for living their life, they have to and my mom would be so mad if they didn't go on with their lives.

know alot of you are wondering why is she telling us all of this????? Well one, it is part of me, it is what I feel everyday, amidst all of the happiness that God bestows on this family , there is always this, it is always here, she is my Momma, the first human being who ever loved me. Maybe I do it because I want to keep her alive in everyone's mind, you see not to many people come around anymore, but the main reason is to bring awareness to this disease that is a thief in the night. I don't want any of you to ever have to go thru this disease and if we all just maybe once a year go to alz.org and donate a little bit, a dollar, ten dollars, one hundred dollars , to research maybe just maybe this disease will go away. I don't want to die like this , I don't want my husband, children and granchildren, neices and nephews to have to go thru this , and how I pray that this disease does not get me or one of my sisters. So if you can just once please donate to the research for the cure of Alzheimers.

Just one more thing.....there are some people that tell me thru emails, or private FB messages or other ways that I inspire them, that I am always so positive , it seems to be that alot of you out there think I have it all together. In all honesty I need to let you know that 1. I am a christian and I feel that it is my job to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, and if I am ugly or sour all the time nobody is going to want what I have...and what I have is salvation and we are told to bring as many people into the Kingdom of Heaven as we can. The Lord gives me everything I have from the polish on my toenails, the the home I live in ....everything and the least I can do is just be pure and thankful.

2. I AM NOT PERFECT , I am a sinner too! I have days alot of days that I am just getting by, I fail and fall everyday of my life !!! BUT I love people and I love to love so if you are one of those people out there that has told me that I lifted them up, or if you are having a bad day and something I say makes you feel better , then I am doing my job. My prayer is that everyone could just be healthy and just plain ole' HAPPY! When our time here on earth is over I really just want to be there with all of you. God bless you all in 2011, let's be kind, let's be helpful, let's love each other , and let's pay it forward. I love you all. Thank you for listening to me, I know Im a talker.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!

I have a feeling that it is going to be a very very happy and blessed Christmas around here. Thank you for always following along here, I love and care for each of you and appreciate you.

We are feeling so blessed , we have our babygirl home with us finally after waiting 5 Christmases, we have two grandbuttons on the way, our grandbutton , Avry will be here in the next couple of days whenever he decides to show up, and our grandbutton Julie will be here February 22nd!!!! We also have a neice Addison, and a great nephew Eli that make their debut in January!!! It is raining babies over here!!! God is so good and He is so faithful.

To all of you who are reading this and you are still waiting for your child, please don't give up, he or she will be home soon. I know you have heard this a thousand times, but their little self is just so incredibly worth the wait...there is no greater love! Be strong, be faithful, be trusting, and ask for patience and endurance, HE will take care of you. Merry Christmas and a Happy Happy New Year!!!! May God bless each and everyone of you.



P.S. PART 2 OF "THE TRUTH IS" will be here next week.....