My Daddy's Sending Me a Hug

These are four of my favorite pictures from this summer, maybe of all time! Ryan and his future brother-in-law secretly put together a DVD from Ryan in Qatar that was shown at Bonnie and Aaron's wedding reception. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day, and a very emotional experience for us all. (Aaron really made some points with the family for that one!)
In one segment, Ryan gave his family a hug on the DVD and talked specifically to Lainey and the boys about this long-distance hug. Aaron gave us a copy of the DVD after the wedding, so when we were babysitting Seth and Dylan for two weeks in August, we watched their dad on the computer screen often. I happened to have my camera one day when Seth was watching the video and listening so intently to his Daddy sending the hug. Hence the picture sequence (Look carefully at the computer screen.) Just wish I had taken one more picture when Seth was doing the hug motion. It was priceless!!! We thank God that Ryan and Seth's hugs are all in person now!

Serving Our Country

In May of this year, Ryan was sent on a four-month deployment to Qatar. It was kind of a scary thought at first, but we all adjusted to the idea, and by the time he left, he was ready to go. Now that he's back, Ryan says it's the best experience he's had so far in his 6 years with the Air Force. Qatar was a relatively safe place but it is still in the Middle East. He was a TCN Escort and there was one security situation that arose while he was there that he didn't share with us until he got home. Being the mom, I thanked him for that . . . his dad and I prayed him through the whole four months and have been blessed by how God worked in and through Ryan while he was there and protected his wife and two little boys at home.

"Barack Obama's President!"

Bonnie, Zanaya and Vanessa

An interesting title for a blog, don't you think?? Well, here's the story . . . I was blessed to have my beautiful married daughter here with me this weekend! Bonnie and I had some great one-on-one time together and some time with special friends that we don't get to see often enough. We had a mother-daughter Mexican dinner with margaritas Friday night, then went hot tubbing with Becky and Vanessa. Today Bonnie and I went to church together and then out to brunch with Blair & Gretchen and "Nama." Yesterday we went to the movie, "The Secret Life of Bees" and then out to Hills' for dinner.

Here's where the blog inspiration started - the Hills were entertaining the cutest little four year old that you've ever seen. Her name is Zanaya and she is African-American with quite the charming personality. Before we got there, Vanessa asked Zanaya if she wanted to see a picture of who was coming to their house. She showed her a picture on the refrigerator of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Drake from their wedding, looking at each other and holding up a thank you sign. Vanessa pointed out Bonnie, but when Zanaya looked at Aaron, she said, with lots of enthusiasm, "Barack Obama's President!" She did the same thing when we got there and we pointed to that picture of Aaron. "Barack Obama's President!" she exclaimed. Guess it must have been the lighting??? Aaron, you look so distinguished.

Zanaya touched our hearts with her smile, her curiosity, and her precious 4-year old faith as she sang for us some gospel songs that she learned at her grandma's church. I'm convinced that's why God made grandmas.