Happy birthday, Elise!

This is a treasured picture of Elise with Don when they came and spent a night with us in Branson last winter. I'm so glad I caught this picture of them hugging as they were leaving to head home. Don could not have been more proud than he was of Elise. Happy birthday to the most compassionate and caring 12 year old I know! God bless you!

Today has been some better I guess. I finally was able to post on Facebook the pictures that we used in the video at Don's memorial service. I could never have limited them to only 56! I would have made it all the pictures I have of Don! Gretta went through all my pictures and found as many as she could of Don with others in the family. Then her son, Garrett, put them all together on a video and he ran it at the service! He was also in charge of running a cd of music during the photos that was made by the Richland Hills Church of Christ. It was really beautiful to watch and to hear.

We had congregational singing during the service, and Gretta chose those songs, too. I was totally overwhelmed and couldn't make any decisions. Gretta sad right down with our songbook and dug in like she was taking a college entrance exam that she needed to ace. She came up with these songs and these reasons why she chose them:

How Great Thou Art: God is bigger
Anywhere With Jesus: obvious reason
It Is Well With My Soul: we've accepted
Have Thine Own Way: God's plan
All To Jesus I Surrender: trust - always could trust Daddy
Just As I Am: forgiveness - Daddy taught
Great is Thy Faithfulness - courage - we all need
Our God He is Alive - pure memory of Dad belting this out with fun

Thank you so much, Gretta and Garrett, for really pulling together the details of the service! When I left the Altus hospital, knowing the helicopter was on the way to get Don to take him to OKC, I called Trish and told her what was happening. She dropped everything and went to the hospital and found where he would be in surgery; where his room would be, etc. She was there to meet me when I got there and took me right to where I needed to be. I also called Davy and he was on the way home from Tulsa. He called Jeff and Gina for me and then he and his wife Susan, got to the hospital just shortly after I did. They were there almost 24/7 with me. Jeff and Gina got there as quickly as they could, as did Don's sister, Doris. I guess I called Doris on the way to the hospital. I really forget. I just know what tremendous support they all were and we built even more awesome memories during those worst days of our lives. I called my precious friend, Terri, who calls me Sissy because we are so close. I asked her to please tell all our Facebook friends, because they were all concerned about Don as he'd had a high fever the night before and several days of angina, which we thought was muscle spasms; anyway, I needed their support and got it, too! I thank God for all the wonderful love everyone has shown. For a horrible experience, this has been one to treasure because of all the love.