Is it just me??

The year I was born my parents lived in Eugene. It snowed over 3 feet that year. It never snowed like that again...until this year...I moved here in August. I hadn't lived in Oregon since my parents moved away before I was a year old... could it be a coincidence? ha ha ha

Anyway -- the real reason for my post....God is good and He DOES answer prayers...

Here are some pictures of the crazy winter snow that has fallen in the Salem / Keizer area since Friday (it is crazy -- as you can see from my post last Thursday, it was looking like spring) -- but for now I am truly thanking God and my WONDERFUL husband.

As a surprise Christmas gift for my children, I bought my dad an airline ticket to come and spend a week with us. I bought the ticket a couple of months ago. As you know, he lives in Pocatello, so had to fly out of Boise which is about 250 miles away. Saturday, early morning he hit the road to be sure to get to the airport in time for his 5 pm flight. It ended up being canceled. Of course, Southwest (which I will NEVER use again) was far from helpful...so, to make a long and frustrating story short -- after 2 days hanging around in the airport with flight after flight getting canceled, lots of crying (on my part) and TONS of prayer - we were able to find a flight with a different airline and my dad finally flew into Portland 2 days late. Darren drove the 52 miles to the airport to pick him up. It took nearly 2 hours to get to the airport and over 2 hours to get back home. (He had left Salem a little before 3pm and got home after 7).

Anyway, while we were watching the news they were talking about how many flights had been canceled and so forth. I told the kids, "If this keeps up you won't be able to see your dad after Christmas." The kids all shrugged then Patrick started to be upset. I asked him what was wrong (he had said earlier that he didn't want to see his dad) - and he said that if he didn't get to Pocatello that he wouldn't get to see his Grampa, then he began to cry. He went on and on about how much he missed his Grampa and how if he didn't get to see him during Christmas break, when would he get to see him again and so on. It was really hard to not say anything. But I just told him to don't worry about it, that it would work out ....you know - the "mom thing"

So, I expected that Darren and my dad would return around 7, so I finally put dinner on the table and everyone sat down. I said the dinner prayer and everyone began to eat. We have started a new "tradition" at our house; every night at dinner we will take turns saying something we are thankful for, happy for or something good that happened that day. The kids began to go around the table (my girlfriend Jennifer, her husband and 2 children are staying with us, so they are also part of the "game") -- as they were saying their "happy things" there was a knock on the door. I went to answer it and, of course, it was my dad. I whispered a hello and helped him to get off his coat. As we were walking to the dining room the kids said, "Mom, it's your turn. What are you thankful for?" I said, "I can't really tell you, but I can show you." as we walked into the dining room. Emi screamed "Grampa!" and she and Aaron jumped up from the table. Patrick turned around and the look on his face made it all worth it! Eventually my dad and Darren got to sit down and eat dinner. They shared their adventure driving back from Portland and we all enjoyed yummy pot roast (that had been in the crock pot for over 24 hours (it was SO good) ) with potatoes, celery & carrots along with mashed potatoes and gravy.

My dad will be with us until Saturday (longer if the storm sticks around). It will, indeed, be a Merry Christmas after all. Today is proof, if anyone ever doubted, that God DOES answer prayers!

God bless you and yours -- He has sure blessed us !