Welcome Gloria Noelle!!

On December 17th, at 9:48 pm, I had the beautiful privilege of witnessing the birth of my fourth grandbaby, Gloria Noelle. What a little darling, she is!! Here's a video of her when she was just 24 hours old.

My time in Orlando was delightful. Before Gloria was born, I got to spend a good bit of time with her big sister, Grace. Grace has a joyful disposition, with a ready smile and shining eyes. We had so much fun playing. Here are a few pictures of her.

Grace received a fun little "Garden Playset". She loves putting mail in the mailbox, going in and out of the gate and planting the vegetables in the garden. She played in here for such a long time. It's so fun to watch her begin to "pretend".

Gracie loves to snuggle and wrestle and rub her head against your head. This is one of our giggle sessions.

Gracie got her own little set of table and chairs; however, I think she enjoyed the box more than the set.

Here's a picture of the three generations of girls. I didn't have a chance to catch it in a picture, but Grace was so sweet to almost always give Gloria a gentle hug. She loved at us as though to say, "I just LOVE my baby sister!!"

I feel so blessed to have these sweet ones in my life. Scott & Kaye are wonderful parents. I witnessed and experienced lots of laughter in their home. Thanks to them for letting me spend the last week and a half with them and to share in the joy of welcoming Gloria.

Blessed Beyond Measure

October has turned out to be a month of huge blessing. We got to travel to Orlando to celebrate Gracie's first birthday. Then, on the spur of the moment (actually 40 minutes before we had to leave for the airport to return home), Kaye decided that she and Gracie would join us on our return flight. Amy was a good sport and kept the secret. You can't imagine the surprise on Jon & Sally's faces when Kaye & Gracie walked thru the door!! It was so much fun. It was a great time together. In a day or so, Mary and Chloe joined us. So, unexpectedly, we had all four girls and all three grandbabies here once again before Sally, Jon & Jude leave for overseas. Below are pictures of those 2 weeks. They don't begin to capture the fun and laughter, but hopefully, you'll get some idea of the great blessing it is to be together once again.

September Bliss

For the past eight months, we have had the awesome blessing of having our daughter, Sally, son-in-law, Jon, and grandson, Jude, living with us. They will move overseas soon, and we'll be fortunate then to see them once a year. It has been a delight for us, more than I can put into words.

Here are some pictures from September that give evidence of our joy.

An Example for Leaving

The other day as I had my quiet time, I asked the Lord to randomly select a passage of scripture for me...I needed a word of encouragement from Him. I opened my Bible to Acts 21. Oh my goodness, this won't do; this is the middle of the narrative of Paul's third missionary journey. I said to myself, "I don't need a narrative; why didn't I turn to a meaty exhortations in one of Paul's epistles instead?" But then I looked at the first verse of the first chapter that started on the page.

Now, if you know the Achgill clan, then you know that we are familiar with saying goodbyes. Our oldest daughter, Amy, has spent extensive time overseas, and we have a daugther, Kaye, son-in-"love", Scott, and granddaughter, Gracie, who live in Florida. Closer, but still not here in town, we have daughter, Mary, son-in-"love", Matt, and granddaughter, Chloe, located in San Antonio.

Now, within the next 2-3 months, we say goodbye to our daughter, Sally, son-in-"love", Jon, and our first grandson, Jude. They are heading out to work overseas for 2-3 years (or longer). What makes it even harder is that they have lived with us for the past 7 months. By the time they leave, saying goodbye to our sweet little guy will be a real heart-breaker.

One of our son-in-laws sometimes teases us about being together "one last time", and for our tearful, long, drawn out prayers and goodbyes. Lately, I have begun to feel a little embarrassed and self-conscious about all our tears, but after reading this passage, I now think it's just fine. What's good enough for Paul is good enough for our girls.

As I read Acts 21:1, my heart was stirred. Then I looked at the verses before it and was even more moved. Here's what the verses say starting in Acts 20:36:

"(20:36)When he (Paul) had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him...

(21:1) After we had TORN ourselves away from them, we put out to sea..."

(emphasis added)

Paul had to tear himself away from his friends. Even he had a hard time leaving his brothers and sisters in Christ, and they had a hard time saying goodbye to him, too. Their heartfelt, emotional farewell was ok.

So, next time, as we stand in a circle beseeching the Father for His hand of protection, provision and strength for our beloveds, noses dripping and sniffling, eyes red and swollen, hands clasped together and arms around shoulders, we'll know we are in good company. We have the example of the apostle Paul himself. Besides, he tells several times in his epistles to "follow my example".

So that, we shall do.

Lakeside Fun

This past week all the Achgill clan got together at Lake Conroe for a family vacation. (Thank you, Martins!!)

We had fun jet skiing, bobbin' in the water, reading on the porch, learning Ucher, eating lots of food, but most of all hugging on babies!!

Here are some fun pictures of our week.

OUR GANG

Four lovely daughters!!

Three awesome son-in-laws!!

Three sweet grandbabies!!Thank You, Lord, for a terrific time.

Grandbabies are way too fun!!

We had a wonderful time with all the grandbabies these past couple of weeks. The house was a busy place, but it was also full of lots of laughter.
Three babies sure do generate a lot of dirty diapers!!
Here are a few pictures from the week.

Thanks to Scott and Matt for sharing their wives and babies with us for a time. We really missed you, and we're looking forward to plenty of Settlers, darts and fun with everyone in a few weeks.

Tagged by someone who I thought loved me...

I've been tagged!!! Oh no...I hate this kind of thing!! 5 things that others don't know about me?

Well, here goes:
1. When I was younger, I wanted to be a comedienne like Carol Burnett, that or a billboard painter. Billboard painter, you ask? That was back in the day when they used real paint and the "artist" sketched and painted the advertisement himself, high above the ground. Now that's talent!! I've always regreted that I didn't study art more seriously.
2. When I was in junior high, I hit 72 out of 75 freethrows for the season. In seventh grade, 5'1" was average height for a girl, and I was a star player. My career game high was 30 points (39-9 Spring Jr. High vs. Trinity Lutheran School, Dec 1971). I was shooting 3-pointers before there WERE 3-pointers. Alas, by the time I got to high school, all my BB friends had grown 2-6 inches taller and my coach was prejudiced against short girls. So sad, but I still LOVE THE GAME!!
3. Don't tell my girls, but when I started college, I had decided that, if and when I ever got married, I didn't want to have any children. Man, am I glad that I didn't stick with THAT decision. I can't imagine my life without my precious girls.
4. The summer between 5th and 6th grade, I won the talent show at church camp by doing an imitation of a DRUNK!! I learned the routine from my dad. The things you learn from dads...
5. I have composed about 63 songs, music and lyrics. Almost all are praise and worship songs, dedicated to our Lord and declaring His attributes and grace through His Son, Jesus. I wish I hadn't given up piano lessons when I was in 8th grade. I wish I had time to play more often now.

Praise the Lord for Chloe Ruth!!

We are overjoyed that the last of our current round of grandbabies was delivered safe and sound on Sunday, December 17th at 12:22am, 6 lbs, 8 oz and 19" long. Her mom & dad are doing a wonderful job of taking care of this precious treasure!! She is soooo beautiful and we can't wait to shower her with plenty of snuggles.

Here are a couple of pictures of her proud Grammie & Pop!!