Happy Heavenly Birthday Son!

Good morning son! And I do mean, good morning! It's 4:00 a.m. Why am I up so early you may ask? Probably because I laid on my hind end all day yesterday and watched the entire 5 episodes of Jeanette Oakes Love Comes Softely series. Well, I did get up and down through out and did some mini projects, but the heavy moving of things and painting eight foot walls has come to an end. Dad and I have put in quite a couple of weeks and it was drippy and cold yesterday so we drank coffee, relaxed, talked, watched the movies and did odds and ends. A perfect Fall day. But, to counter balance that, my body said this morning at actually 1:10 a.m. I'm rested and ready to get up. I managed to fool it off and on and make it until 4:00 but that was it. I couldn't fool it any longer. Just about the time I got stretched out on the couch to check out Facebook, here came dad with Jamison right on his heels. So, I decided to chat with you instead as Jamison goes back to sleep and dad checks out the Ducks score on the Internet.

October 2, 2012

Tuesday, October 2nd will mark your first heavenly birthday. I know you know that! I'm just saying I can't believe it's been a year. What happened to this last year? If I had to actually give a time line for this last year I don't think I could. Oh I know the "main events" but what happened all the time in-between? Those minutes and seconds. I know you've heard me say it before, but time is moving so fast. (Just a side note, Jamison is asleep on the end of the couch and is snoring. Must mean all is well.) He is such a comfort to both dad and I. God is so wise. He even cares about and knows the exact time to add a pet to our lives. How amazing is that!

As dad and I were talking about this last year yesterday it occurred to me that I've been perfectly content these last several weeks to just be at home. I've not cared if I've left the house. As you know, I've been working on all the projects I have backed up and they're getting done one by one. Dad and I are both content. He's right there beside me when I say, "I'd like to do this" and away we go. Yesterday I cleaned up and painted a mirror someone had tossed in the trash when they left. It fits perfectly on the wall behind dad's chair. It took more cleaning than painting. I think the tape and stickers all over it had been "burned" into it by the sun, but I managed to get it all cleaned up, added a coat of my signature blue paint and it worked perfectly. I painted the small, round oak table at the same time. I have it between two chairs in front of one of the windows in my studio. I still have work to do on the chairs but they'll get done. But anyway, dad and I were talking at some point yesterday about how in just a few short weeks since I've been home we've managed to turn the house into a home. I didn't realize how much I hadn't done in the last year. We sit in the living room now with it's blue accent walls and as I add piece by piece we feel more and more like home. As you know, dad's favorite picture is the "Roses" great-grandma painted and gave to dad. I usually hang that first thing but it's been 40 years and "several" moves and that poor frame and picture was showing some real wear and tear. As do we! So I took the picture from the frame, scrubbed the frame really well, added a coat of gold glaze to the entire frame, re-inserted the picture and ta da. It's beautiful. I hung it between the two living room windows and it's perfect. I told dad yesterday, "I think I'm 'nesting'". I'm finally feeling like I have the time to make this a home for dad and I. We've scrubbed and cleaned and vacuumed and washed windows, polished floors (still need to do the studio), painted, hung curtains....today, the Fall decor appears!

Aaron Matthew Jamison - After God's own heart.

You'll be happy to know that as all of this has taken place over the last several weeks, and no, I'm not through. Are you kidding? This is your mom you talking to. Well, actually I'm "talking" to you, but it doesn't really matter. I mean this is our conversation and we just let people share from the sidelines. Just between you and me, I hope they get the fact that I'm not actually having a conversation with you. This is just from my heart to your heart.  Anyway, as I was saying, you'll be happy to know that as I've been making changes one thing I took particular note of was that I am slowly but surely removing items from the "Aaron shrine" I had unwittingly created on the mantel. Oh hush! I know you don't like that. I didn't even realize I had done it. As I was taking things off the mantel so I could paint I realized what I had done. I had several pictures, your first hammer, your baby shoes, your "Choose Joy" bracelet, your teapot, and some some of your books. I caught myself smiling and thinking, "I'd best get some of this stuff off here or Aaron is going to be_ _ _ _ _ _ when he sees it". So, now, those things are dispersed throughout the house and we have your picture in the living room. I think your dad is wearing the Choose Joy bracelet again and he doesn't think I've noticed. We'll just let him have his little secret.

You dad has always said, "the only thing constant in life is change". I think he's right. Life really is about change; some good, some bad. Some good choices, some bad choices. God doesn't promise us a perfect life. God doesn't promise us life...as you well know. But God does promise us that through it all He will be right there beside us. It's funny, all my life I was taught that faith is based on fact, not feeling. During this pas year I can honestly say I didn't feel God close to me. I don't think I felt God at all. But the fact is, God was right there beside me the entire time. I know because He said he would be. What was dad's saying that you used all the time, "faith is believing it's so, when it's not so, so that it can be so".

Life will keep changing, some changes will be good, some...not so good. But through it all, God will be there, whether I feel Him or not; walking beside me, smiling with me and crying with me. Yes, and sometimes crying because He knows I'm headed for a brick wall. As your grandpa said to your dad, "she has a mind of her own". I never figured out if that was a compliment or a warning! All in all dad is here, change is inevitable, good or bad and in the end I'm in God's hands. So is dad. So are you. Right now your life is a little more "sparkly" than mine, but what the heck, we'll all share in it sooner or later. 

Well, Happy 1st Heavenly Birthday son! I'm sure the celebration is going to be all that you ever anticipated and more. We cherish the 38 birthdays we shared with you and thank the Lord for all of those.

Until next week, be Aaron, love mom