Wow... it's been almost 8 months since my last blog post.  Not really sure why... I just haven't taken the time to do it.  Feeling a little melancholy tonight and thought writing might help.  I am sure that most anybody that may be reading this knows that my dear mama finally went to heaven in November.  Bill and I were at Sarah's after one of Jeremy's games and my phone rang in the middle of the night.  I almost didn't answer it, thinking it was a wrong number, but I was in the room with two sleeping boys and I sure did not want them to wake up!!  It was a phone call I had been waiting a very long time to receive... years and years but somehow it wasn't as I expected.  The nurse said she had gone in to check on mama at 11pm and she was sleeping peacefully, when someone went back at 1am... she was gone.  I think I thought that there would be some kind of sign that it was about to happen and that I would be able to be there.  As it was I was two hours away and not able to go to the nursing home and be there when they came to pick up her body.  It was rather strange but when I think about it now I am sure that it was best and of course it was the way God planned it.  My mama... the one with the beautiful smile and the laughter that filled a room, the one who loved to cook and be surrounded by her family while she did, the one who taught me how to love people and enjoy life, the one who rocked my babies and bought them dolls, the one who loved my daddy so much that she defied her parents to marry him, the one who taught me about Jesus and right from wrong.... that mama had already been lost to me for a very long time.  I had prayed for God to take her home many, many times and that night I was so very thankful that He finally said yes...it's time Jessie Davis... come on home!!!  What a welcoming committee she had!!  My daddy, her parents, her brother, her mother and father in law, and so many other family members.... her dear friend Mary Frances and other dear friends, and the best of all JESUS!! Because of Him... the best part is... I will see her again... and she will be well and she will know who I am!!!  I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am.... that I know.. that I know .. that I know this is TRUTH!!! 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with our family and friends.  Then in February Sunny and Bud gave us the blessed news that our 7th grandbaby is on the way :) :) :)  We are so excited!!! The baby is due the first week in October and we are hoping to find out about the middle of May if Silas will get a baby brother or baby sister.  Mimi would love for him to have a baby sister but all I really care about is that the baby is healthy!! 

 Sarah and Jeremy are moving to Brookhaven which makes us so happy.  We can get there in 50 minutes!!! Jeremy will be the offensive coordinator at Brookhaven High School.  It's a great job and they already have good friends who live there.  Sydney and her family are doing good.  Skyler turned FOURTEEN at the end of March.  He is working on Friday and Saturday nights busing tables at a catfish restaurant close to their house... he likes making money!! 

 Bill just finished up his 3rd round of maintenance chemo.  One more to go in September!! Praise God his cancer remains in remission.  He is still having problems with pain in his legs, feet and hands and he think it probably neuropathy from the chemo drugs. We are trying a regimen of vitamins that have given some people relief.. please pray that will be the case!  We are headed to Destin next Thursday with a group of good friends to just enjoy a few days away.  I can't wait to sit on "my beach"...we are also looking forward to a fun summer with the kids!  We will be at Becky and Kevin's condo at Orange Beach for a week with all the kids in July.  Then we will go to Destin for our week with John, Edith, Kenny and Tamy in August.  I am SO very thankful for the many opportunities I have to go to the beach.. I KNOW that I am blessed!! 

Guess I will finish this up and go to bed... I think it was good therapy for me!!! Prayers and blessing to those who read this and to your families!!

Long time - no blog!!

Wow, I have been a terrible blogger this year!! Just posted a post a started in June and never finished.  Oh well...such is life.  We have had a wonderful summer with several great trips to the beach!!  Bill and I went to the MS Bankers Assoc. annual convention in May.  We went early and enjoyed several days of relaxation before the convention started.  It was in Destin so relaxing was easy to do!  Then in June, Bill and I and Kenny and Tamy along with all of our kids and grandchildren spent 5 days at Orange Beach in my sister and brother-in-law's condo's.  It was fantastic!!!  Got some great pics on the beach.  Let's see, in July my sister and I met about 10 of our cousins for our annual Cousins Gone Wild trip, although we are so old now there is really nothing wild about it!  We enjoyed being together but a phone call on Saturday night changed everything.  We were all at dinner and our cousin Donna got a call from her son telling her that her daddy, my sweet Uncle Loody, was unresponsive and the paramedics were there.  Uncle Loody was my daddy's baby brother and like my daddy, was one of the most wonderful men I have ever known.  Uncle Loody had suffered a major heart attack and died a few days later.  We celebrated his life that Saturday and rejoiced that we know where he is and that he is reunited with his brothers and his parents and other loved ones!!

Then just last week we had a wonderful week in Destin with our dear friends... the water was absolutely gorgeous and we had perfect weather!  It was very relaxing and we were very thankful for it!  My girls, and all the kids except Skyler(dove hunting) and I were going down for a last "hurrah" at the beach tomorrow but the tropical system has put a stop to those plans :(
 We are so very blessed to be able to go to the beach and enjoy God's creation, be with our family and friends, and relax so often!! Looking forward to my "girls trip" with dear long time friends in October!

Bill is still doing good, praise the Lord!! He had scans in July and is still in remission - no signs of cancer!!  We are SO very thankful!  He begins his second round of maintenance chemo on Sept. 19th.  Please keep him in your prayers... he has been under a good deal of stress at the bank and doesnt feel like he is in the shape he needs to be in to start the chemo.  It wiped him out in March and he was in better shape then.  We SO appreciate your prayers!! 

Tomorrow it will be 2 years since my sweet, wonderful daddy went to heaven.  Oh how I miss him!!!  I still miss hearing his voice on the other end of the phone, I miss going to his house and climbing in his lap when I just needed him to hold me, I miss seeing him enjoying his great grandchildren - how his face would light up when he saw them, I miss being able to ask him things that I want to know about my childhood or his childhood.....I just miss him!!! Mama is still just lying in the bed in the nursing home, mostly in a fetal position, with no communication....I miss her too!!  So many times things happen and my first thought is, "oh, I need to call mama."  As I have said many, many times before... Alzheimers is a horrible disease. 

As I think of these things, Bills cancer, missing daddy, mama's condition....I am still so very grateful for all the amazing blessings in my life!! Blessings beyond measure... a relationship with Jesus - a happy marriage after 37 years - children and grandchildren who "walk in the truth" and are healthy and happy - God's provision and protection -family and friends that love us and pray for us and so many more!!!  It is impossible to understand the hurt and pain in life... but...it is possible to know and feel God's presence through it all...you just have to trust Him!!  Knowing that He is truly in control and that if we have trusted Jesus that we win in the end... makes it all worth going through!!

Long Overdue Post

Started this post back in June.. never finished.... just going to go ahead and post it now...


Okay... so I have been a horrible blogger. I can't believe it's been over 3 months since I last posted. I really don' t know why other than my laziness! Well, let's see... we had a wonderful Spring Pilgrimage. Mylie was one of the Royal Pages to the Pilgrimage Garden Club's King and Queen. I never dreamed that we would have Pilgrimage Royalty in our family but it was such a great experience. Our reign this year was the first two weeks so it hit Mylie's spring break or she could not have done it. She, Skyler, and Sydney were here for 10 days and Tony came on the weekends. I was a little worried about her being from out of town and not knowing anyone. I thought she might act shy and not talk but she was precious!! She spoke to everyone and was very gracious. I was very proud of her. Skyler enjoyed it too. He loves the pageant and anything anyone asked him to do he did. He was in the Hunt most nights and filled in as an indian one night and flag bearers two other nights. We really enjoyed the entire experience immensely!!

 

Mama

I am sure that anybody reading this blog knows that my mama is in the last stage of Alzheimers.  She has been in the nursing home almost 9 years now.  She cannot communicate at all and is mostly a fetal position.  I saw her today... it is heartbreaking and very hard to see her like this.  I have been praying for awhile now that God would take her on home.  I know that sounds wrong but I do not think it is.  She has absolutely no quality of life.  We are singing a song Sunday morning that we were rehearsing in choir tonight..."Bow the Knee"... it says "when you don't understand, the purpose of His plan, in the presence of the King, bow the knee.  Well, I sure do not understand His purpose in my mama being in the condition she is in but I do trust Him and I know that he loves mama even more than we do. I came home after seeing her and searched for a old video just so I could hear her voice and see her smile. I miss her smile and her laugh so much.

 If you feel like it is something you can do, would you please pray with me that God would take mama to heaven at any minute!  I would be most grateful... also pray for my sister Becky and me as we continue to go visit mama.

I know this isn't my normal type of blog post.. hope you all understand.

Much love,

Martha

A New Year and a look back at the old one

Well, here we are at the beginning of a brand new year - 2011.  Wow, how did that happen!  Time is going by so quickly these days.  It really is true that the older you get the quicker time goes by.  Since I have not updated this blog since September I guess you all know that I didn't too very well blogging last year.  We will see how this year goes - no promises. 

We had a wonderful Christmas with all of my children, grandchildren, and all of my sister's family at my house for Christmas Day.  Of course we missed my daddy.  It seemed harder the second year without him than the first.  I guess last year we were still in a fog having just lost him in September.  We miss mama too.  She is just so pitiful.  It gets harder and harder for Becky and I to see her in the shape she is in. We know that God is in control and that He loves her even more than we do and that there are many things in life that we just do not understand...this is certainly one of them.  We are praying for Him to take her to heaven just as soon as He sees fit.  We also still miss Bill's parents and other loved ones who used to be around our Christmas table but we rejoice knowing they are celebrating with Jesus and that one day we will be with Him and them!  The kids stayed for a few days after Christmas and we loved them being there.  After they left we had one day with an empty nest and then our dear friends Tommy, Carren, Parker and Ryan Quinn came in from GA.  They got there on Thursday, Dec 30 and left on Monday, Jan 3rd.  We also loved having them here.  We did a lot in a few days.  Welcomed the New Year, had Tommy lead in worship at Parkway which was amazing, and then we celebrated Tommy's 40th birthday Sunday night! He was a very young 25 when they came to Parkway in 1996.  We have enjoyed watching how God has grown him and used him over the years.  We just wish God would move them back to south MS!! So, our holidays were rich and full with family and friends and we are very grateful!

Bill is doing great - no sign of cancer at all.  He will have another ct scan the end of January so please pray with us that it will still show he is in complete remission.  He will start his first doses of maintenance chemo in March.  He will have four treatments, one each Monday.  This time last year we had no idea what 2010 had in store for us.  It is amazing to look back now and see how God went before us preparing us.  His provision for us since Bill was diagnosed has been amazing!  We are so very grateful for all of you who have lifted Bill, me and all of our family up in prayer many times.  God answered prayers and we were able to go through the last 9 months with His peace knowing that He is in perfect control no matter what.  Chemo and radiation treatments and all the diagnostic tests are very expensive.  One bag of Bill's chemo is $13,000.00 and he has had 18 of those so far.  I wish I could aptly explain how very much God has provided for us.. through insurance and through Dr. Rodriguez getting Bill in a program because one of his chemo drugs is a newer treatment for lymphoma.  It has been absolutely amazing and we can never thank Him enough! 

Many people make New Years Resolutions this time of year.  I never really have done that.  Oh sure, I always say I am going to eat healthier, lose weight, and exercise but I never have said those are my resolutions..just things to strive for.  And yes, those things are on my list this year too but for 2011 I want to be more mindful of what God wants me to do.  I want to spend more time studying His word.  I want to enjoy His creation - yes.. at the beach.. as often as possible!  I want to get my house decluttered and organized.  I never want my children to have to go through what Becky, Kevin, Bill and I did cleaning out mama and daddy's house.  My mama never threw anything away and while I am thankful for many things she saved there was A LOT she could have gotten rid of!  I want to enjoy every moment I have with my sweet husband and my wonderful children and grandchildren(when I say children that always includes my  son-in-laws - FYI) and the rest of our family.  I want to laugh lots while making more memories with good friends.  What a blessing our friends have been and are to us.. thank you God for answering my long ago prayer to give us good Christian friends!

Here's wishing you and yours a very happy 2011 and may we trust and obey our God like never before!

I am in a hotel room in Washington, DC.  Bill is here with the MS Bankers Assoc. Board of Directors and I get to come along and enjoy!  We got here Saturday afternoon and we fly out tomorrow at noon.  Having a great time and the weather is beautiful!  Been eating way too much delicious food but also done tons of walking!  Yesterday, Bill and I and two other couples who are banking friends of ours... well we met because of banking but now they are just good friends....went out to Arlington Cemetery which is one of my favorite places here.  One of the couples had never been before so we did the tour which Bill and I have been on several times before...we visited the Kennedy's graves, Robert E. Lee's home and saw the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.  That is something that you can see over and over again and still be awe struck everytime.  Once we finished the tour, my sweet husband and good friends accompanied me on the real reason I went out there this time, to find and visit the grave of my sweet friend Tammy Summers' husband, Sev.  Sev lost his life last August while serving our country on his second tour in Afghanistan.  Finding a gravesite at Arlington is not hard, you type the name in a computer and it prints out the section and number of the location, but getting there is a different story.  We walked and walked and walked... up and down rows and rows of graves of men and women who loved our country so much that they fought and gave their lives for it!  It was worth all that walking to find Sev's grave and honor his memory by visiting there and to take a picture for Tammy.  If you come to DC to visit, Arlington would be the #1 place I would suggest you visit. 

 

So, completely changing the subject, tomorrow is my 56th birthday.  I know that age is just a number, but that number sure is getting on up there!  It is very hard for me to believe that I am only 4 years away from turning 60, if the Lord allows me those years.  The thing is, I just do not feel old!  My body sometimes feels old...but not all the time...but ALL the time in my mind, I am young!   I guess that is a good thing!  I am so very blessed to be celebrating another birthday.  Life is short and we are not promised our next breath.  So, I want to live each day celebrating and enjoying my life... Praising God and thanking Him for all the JOY in my life!  It's not always easy to do.. there is much sadness.  Just this week my sweet friend Sheryl went to heaven at the age of 59.  My dear mama is still in a fetel position in a nursing home unable to communicate.  I lost my precious daddy just a little over a year ago and I miss him everyday!  There are many around us suffering with cancer... some little children...so it's not easy.. BUT...then ... there ... is JESUS and so there is JOY!!!  Joy watching my grandchildren play, joy being with my girls, joy having a wonderful husband who's cancer is in remission!!! Joy having a sister to share memories of my childhood, joy loving two nieces who are like daughters to me, joy having a generous, caring brother in law, joy having lots of loving extended family!  Joy having been blessed with amazing, wonderful, fun, kind, friends.... some that are close by and some that live away but are still close at heart!  So, dear friends.. I choose to celebrate the JOY and trust God to give me strength and comfort for the pain that must come along with living life!

 

About time for a new post!

Guess it's time for a new post. I have not done very well with my blogging lately, not promising I will do much better, but I will try. My last post was the first of July, so I will just catch you all up on what has been happening since then.  Sarah and Jeremy got moved to Simpson County and are doing great.  Sarah got the job teaching at Simpson Academy High School and starts tomorrow!  She will be teaching Chemistry 1 and 2 and A &P.  Please pray for her.. she is excited but also nervous.  Will will go to Mendenhall Kindergarten so he will ride with Jeremy every day, Macy will go with Sarah to the preschool at SCA, and Wesley will be staying home with his sweet new babysitter, Angie and her 3 year old son!!  Here again.. God has provided!!
 We spent July 2 - 6 at Orange Beach with all the kids, except for Tony. Had a great time and took some good picts.. will post some here.  We are so blessed to have access to a condo on the beach there and also a house in Destin! 
 Our BIG new of the month we got on July 13 - I am sure most of you have already heard..but BILL'S CANCER IS IN REMISSION!!!  We are so very thankful and we are giving God all the glory!!  Bill has two more rounds of chemo, 3 days next week and then 3 days the second week of September.  He will then have to have 6 weeks of radiation, 5 days a week....not looking forward to that.  Once that is done he will have maintenance chemo 4 days a month, every 6 months for 2 years and then we hope and pray this will all be behind us forever!!!!  We cannot begin to say how very much we appreciate all of your prayers, love and support. The peace God has given us is amazing and we know it's because of our family and friends praying. Tomorrow is our 36th wedding anniversary and we thank God that we can celebrate knowing that there is NO cancer in Bill's body now! 
 The last two weeks of July were spent with me directing a wedding, giving a wedding shower and taking a short trip back to the beach with my cousins and sister for our girls trip! And now.. here it is August!  And my goodness it is HOT!!! It scares me to death for kids to be practicing football in this heat.  Our heat index today was 115!!  Why would anybody want to put pads on kids and have them out in that heat?  I don't get it.. they could skip a practice or two!  The school year really needs to be moved back to start the day after Labor Day!!!
  Didn't finsh this post last night.... Just returned from a lovely dinner with my sweet husband, sister and brother in law celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary!!!  So hard to believe it's been that long.  The years really have flown by.  I am so very thankful that my life has been spent with the two most wonderful men I have ever known...I was blessed to be one's daughter and am blessed to be the other ones wife.  Bill and I married when I was 19 was I went straight from my daddy's arms into his.  Through all the ups and downs and joys and sorrows of life.. it has been and continues to be such a privilege to be his wife!!  Praying and asking God for many more healthy years together!!

Here are a few pics from the beach!!