Birthday

It has been months since I have been on this blog, months filled with numerous trips between Georgia and Mississippi overseeing house renovations, firing a contractor, hiring a real estate agent, lawyer and painter, dealing with shingles (the sick kind), sorting through 39 years of memories, packing what was going with me, discarding what was not, going through probate court, and moving . . . just to mention a few of the highlights. The one constant during these months was keeping the Internet mission work going whether I was at home or on the road and sitting in McDonald's with my laptop.  But all this activity just drained away any thought of writing.

Yet today would have been Jimmie's birthday so here I am, blogging once more.

My daughter, Julie, wanted us to celebrate the day and it turned out to be a wonderful idea.  She fixed a birthday dinner of Jimmie's favorite foods, decorated with numerous pictures of Jimmie, and we all told our favorite story about him. She also asked us to write a short note to Jimmie which we then attached to helium balloons that Cole released into the sky.  I must admit that watching that brightly colored bouquet of balloons drift upwards into the heavens was an awesome sight.  We all stood gazing until they completely disappeared.  Still, this was certainly not a custom I would have ever thought of doing.

But Cole loved it.  He loved doing something special for Grandad and he had decorated his heart-felt message with a drawing of the two of them fishing.  Of course Jasper was just excited to scribble on paper and I enjoyed watching him.  Then as I began my own note I realized there were quite a lot of things I wish I could tell Jimmie.  I wish I could tell him how well Julie and Bronson are doing in their new home.  I wish I could tell him how Cole is leading prayers so easily now, and that Jasper is not only walking but trying to run. I wish I could tell him that he did make it back to Africa one more time after all because the IBTM campaign team took some of his ashes with them to Zambia.  

I think Jimmie would be pleased by knowing all of these things.  But as Julie said so truly earlier today, the thing that would please Jimmie the most would be knowing that the mission work he loved was still saving lost souls.