Birthday blessings...

Today is my fifty eighth birthday.  (How did I get here?  Wow!  Life zooms by too fast!) My husband is in Ghana, West Africa with a team from our church that includes, among others, my second born daughter, our oldest granddaughter and our youngest grandson.  As you can see, our grandson is quite a hit and seems to be a natural born missionary like his mama and siblings.

I was dreading this birthday with my husband so far away, but my family, friends and church family made the day so special for me.  I received cards, flowers and a gift card from the people in our church.  My oldest grandson who, along with his daddy, were unable to make the trip to Ghana with the rest of their family due to work/sports,  brought me flowers and a card just from him.  They went to lunch with me after church along with my nephew and his family and some friends.  I got lots of calls and texts throughout the day from my daughters and siblings.  I'm so thankful that communication is so worldwide now, so I talked to and texted my husband, granddaughter and daughter in Ghana and received a text from my far away missionary brother as well.

Today resulted in a much needed shift in my focus.  As we are going through the transition of selling the home we've lived in for over 16 years and buying a new to us home in Vancouver, Washington my focus was too much centered there.  Today my focus was brought back to how richly blessed I am to have open access to Father God through Jesus Christ and to be blessed with love and relationships with family and friends.  I am blessed.  I have so much to be thankful for.

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Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little green journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#6386-#6414

7-27-15-

-a family of raccoons in a parade across the street

-a fun dinner to look at the wedding photos with our youngest daughter, son-in-law and his parents

(photos by Sweetmint Photography, Portland, Oregon)

(youngest daughter and her husband)

(oldest granddaughter)

youngest grandson

(middle granddaughter)

(our three girls)

(youngest granddaughter)

(our son-in-law and oldest grandson)

-listening to our son-in-law's old Keith Green album on vinyl record

7-28-15-

-an afternoon with our middle granddaughter while our daughter brought her little sister to the dr.

-taking her to the same park I grew up playing at

-telling the grandgirlies stories about when I was a kid

7-29-15-

-finishing the book of Ephesians and starting the book of Acts with the 365 days of truth Bible reading plan

-the amazing Word of God

-a not too bad inspection report on our house

7-30-15-

-a good heart talk

-putting an offer on a house 

-a good lunch together

-a birthday celebration with the family before the Ghana trip

-tickets to go see the Broadway show "Wicked" with my girls

7-31-15-

-time with my brother

-our house offer accepted!

-my sister's heart procedure going well

-helping my oldest daughter with house chores and the girls since she caught the youngest one's strep

8-1-15-

-a phone call from my hubs saying they arrived safely in Kumasi, Ghana

-taking the two youngest granddaughters to the splash park so my daughter can rest

-going to bed early after a hectic last few days

8-2-15-

-my 7am text from my hubs to wake up, just like he does every Sunday morning from his church office,

 even though today he's in Ghana

-flowers and a birthday card from Malachi

-birthday cards, flowers and a gift card from our church family

-birthday lunch with friends and family

-birthday texts/calls from all my girls

-birthday calls and texts from my siblings

-a dear friend that I haven't seen or heard from in almost 20 years finding me on Facebook

-our oldest granddaughter's lost luggage found

gratefully yours,