Christmas In Heaven

This year I have many loved ones who are for the first time experiencing Christmas in Heaven. 

I miss them so much, but am thankful that they are in God's very presence...they are truly blessed.

Heaven Needed Him More

Today is the birthday of my dear friend, Aaron Williams. He would be 39. However, God chose to take him away from us 5 1/2 years ago. He was a Marine. And the most awesome, Marine in the world. Ah, how I miss him. God chose to take him Home, not through war, but through a brain tumor, giving us time to say "good-bye." The six months that the doctor gave him stretched into three years, and for those three years we watched as Aaron struggled through multiple surgeries, chemo, alternative medicine, and finally he came home to die. We knew that each moment could be our last with him, and so we cherished each day and memory. I will never forget holding his hand the night before he went to Heaven. Standing at his beside, tears rolling down my cheeks as I told him how much I loved him and how he would always be my favorite jar head. I realized that would probably be the last time I would see him alive on this earth, it was.

Dealing with the death of a loved one is hard. It's been 5 1/2 years and I still remember his birthday, and wish I could call him up just to say hello. He was one of the finest men God ever made, and his memory lives on in the hearts of those who were privileged to know and love Aaron. Heaven needed a hero so God took ours, leaving us behind to mourn our loss. However, we know that our parting is but for a moment, and soon, we will see him again in Heaven.

September 11, 2001

"America was targeted because we are the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve. I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us spoken in Psalm 23, 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." ~President George W. Bush, September 13, 2001

September 11, 2001

America Remembers

I'm Crying for Me

This year seems to be a "year of death." So many loved friends and family have passed on to eternity. Some were "expected" others were quite sudden and tragic. Often when I cry at a funeral I can't really explain the feeling I have inside of me. It's a feeling of awful heartache and utter sadness, but not for them, it is for me. Each time that I lose a friend I'm losing a part of me. There is a new hole ripped into my heart, over time it will become a scar but will always be there. Last night I was talking to a friend about all of this and I said, "I'm hurting for me." To which she responded with the line of this song, "I'm not crying cause I feel sorry for you, I'm crying for me."

Don't Take it for Granted

I am sure that by now most of you have heard of the tragic deaths resulting from the collapse of the stage for the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair. Perhaps you have seen the video, or read the articles, or seen the pictures of the aftermath of that sudden, awful twist of nature. For those in it's path there was no advance warning, no time to do anything but watch their lives drastically change, and for some it was the end.

As I watched and re-watched, and re-watched the footage of the collapse there was but one thought that ran through my head, "That could have been anyone, including me." Those people didn't have time to go back and make their wrongs right, or to say "good-bye" to their loved ones. There was no opportunity for them to get things settled with God, that was their time, their last breath, their final call.

Often I find that it is easy for me to take life for granted. I just blow through it without a care or thought, not worrying about the consequences that it will have on my life or on others. I leave things undone or unkind words and actions left unforgiven. It is very easy to forget that eternity is only a heartbeat away. In the matter of a second I could be on the other side of life and never have the chance to forgive, ask forgiveness, finish what I started, or simply say, "I love you." We never know when our number will be called, make sure that your account is settled in Heaven. God desires for all to become His children, He wants us to have a home with Him when it is our time, but the only way for that to happen is for each one of us to personally admit our sins, realize we are in need of Savior, and to accept God's Son, Jesus into our hearts and ask Him to wash away our sins. Only then will any of us truly be prepared for eternity.

Update #9: Visitation

This evening was the visitation for one of the greatest, most amazing, awesome, terrific, fantastic, fun, daring, cool, adventurous person, it was for my cousin, Greg Seftick. So many emotions flooded me during the evening that it's nearly impossible to put anything into words. The outpouring of love for Greg and his family was immense. He loved and was loved greatly. In the short thirty-one years of his life he packed more in than most people would in eighty years.

Greg was one of the most unique people I have ever met. He was constantly doing or planning something dangerous and adventurous. From skiing, to hiking, to rock climbing and way beyond, his life was full of never missing a chance to try something and anything new. Every time I saw him he was always full of a never-ending stories which would keep you enthralled for hours on end of his crazy adventures that most of us can only dream about, but he put into action.

Most of all I remember Greg as a wonderful example to all of his younger cousins. He was a leader by nature, he was strong, outgoing, ambitious, loving, and just totally awesome. He was my dearly loved cousin. RIP Greg.

Update #8: Obituary

Linked to this page is the obituary for Greg Seftick.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/twincities/obituary.aspx?n=gregory-seftick&pid=150597415&fhid=3348

Update #7: Arrangements

As copied from Chris' Facebook (Greg Seftick's brother) arrangements are as following:

Sunday, May 1: Visitation probably from 4-8 pm

Monday, May 2: Visitation probably from 10-11 am, Service at 11 am.

Lunch to follow service.

Guardian Angels Church, Oakdale, MN

Update #6: The End of the Search

Today the bodies of Greg Seftick and Walker Kuhl were found this afternoon. Words escape me as I write this...please just keep the family in your thoughts and prayers.

http://gtnpnews.blogspot.com/

The Next Day

The past few days I have seriously been thinking about how quickly life changes. With the sudden death of Mrs. Williams life has taken on a whole new meaning. I keep thinking of Proverbs 27:1

"Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

Friday afternoon she was babysitting some of her grandkids. I am sure that she was planning what she would fix for dinner, what time she was going to put the baby to bed, what she was going to be doing the next morning, and so on but none of that happened. Instead she ended up in the emergency room, flying to a bigger hospital, having surgery, and ultimately going Home to be with her Lord.

For some unknown reason to us, God chose to take His servant to Heaven with Him Saturday morning. He chose to take her suddenly, without giving any of us a chance to knowingly say our good-byes. I honestly don't remember the last time I spoke to her, but I do know it was in the past two weeks. I don't remember what our conversation was about, or how long it was. I do know that I did not have a clue that I would never speak to her again.

I have learned that taking life for granted is really a sin. We don't know what will happen to us, in a minute, an hour, a day or a year. Make sure that you leave no hard feelings, no sadness, and no wrongs that have not been made right. Most of all, make sure that you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior, and that you have a short account with God.

None of us knows when it is our time to die. For some, it may be a prolonged illness, where we know that our days are short. Although some major suffering may be included, at least those have a chance to say good-bye to their loved ones. However, others may go in an instant with no extra chances. Only God knows, He it is Who knows our moment of death.

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make profit'; whereas ye do not know what will happen tomorrow.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'"

~James 4:13-15~

A Time to Die

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

~I Corinthians 15:22

The past few days have been insanely hectic. My former pastor's wife had a massive heart attack Friday night and went to be with Jesus Saturday morning. This was incredibly shocking to everyone because she had no prior heart problems. She left behind a husband of many years, 8 children, 38 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a son and a granddaughter.

Her husband is now an evangelist and on the road preaching most of the time. Thankfully he was home the night of her heart attack and with his wife most of the time, except when she was flown to a heart hospital and in surgery. Several of her children live in the area and were also able to be with her during this time.

Visitation was Monday and her funeral service was Tuesday. My mom is her husband's secretary, since she is still not up to par from her surgery, I stepped in and was able to do most of what Mom would usually do. I made a zillion phone calls, made food, watched little kids, and helped with the funeral dinner.

Thankfully all eight children, most of their spouses and children were able to be at the funeral service. It was one of the longest I have ever been to, it lasted well over two hours! Each of the children spoke as well as the oldest grandson. A few close friends and people that she had touched in her ministry also gave a testimony of how she impacted their lives for eternity. There was lots of music and then a dear pastor friend gave a clear presentation of the Gospel. God was honored in all that was said and done.

"When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have refuge."

~Proverbs 14:32

Day 23: A Way in Which I Want to be Remembered

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, "I desire to so conduct my life that when I leave this earthly body and stand before my Maker to make an account for all I have done, if I have no other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, that will be the friend down inside me."

My greatest desire is to be remembered at a woman who loved God, her family, and others. One who was determined to finish with a full, happy life. I want to be remembered for bringing love and laughter to all around me, not as someone who sapped joy out of everything. I do not want to be remembered as one who simply went from day to day with no point to living. Rather, I want to be remembered as a girl who had goals, met those goals and then went on to higher aspirations.

I want to be remembered as one who did what was right no matter the costs. Who wasn't afraid to do something because it went against popular opinion, but rather did what I felt agreed with the Bible and my conscience, even at the cost of friends, money, relationships, and all.

Most of all, I want to be remembered by God as one of His children who faithfully lived life according to His precepts. When I have reached the end of my journey on earth I want Him to say to me, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

R.I.P Sherwood

Sunday, May 2, 2010, Sherwood "Woody" Drazich died of a broken neck. He lived a short, but amazing life of six years. He was my friend, companion, and most of all a fellow partner in crime, my cello.

No one knows what happened, only that I opened my case to play in the church orchestra on Sunday morning and he was broken. I cried many tears. Several people were standing around and no one knew anything about it. I put him back in his case and left. I got to church Sunday night, and the high school band teacher came to me and said, "Hannah, were you messing with your cello this afternoon?" My response was a resounding "No!" She said, "Well, come look at this..." I walked back to the music room and my cello case was laying on the floor, closed, but not latched shut, and I could see the strings hanging out of the case. I knelt down next to Woody and opened his case. His neck was completely broken off and the tail piece and bridge were also off. Again, no one claimed to know anything.

I took some pictures which were emailed to a repairman, and the estimated cost for reviving poor Woody is not worth the money. In other words, my dear Woody is dead forever.

We shared some good times together from the first day we met until his final hours. From running all over creation together, zillions of lessons, hours of practicing, many times of playing in church, at special events, in nursing homes, weddings, and just goofing off with friends, our times together were always filled with much enjoyment.

My favorite memory of Sherwood is the time that I was playing an offertory one Sunday in New York. The end pin wasn't quite right, so I moved to adjust it. Apparently, the music director, who was sitting right behind where I was playing, moved at the exact same time. Suddenly there was a loud CRACK!!!!!!!!!! Good old Woody had hit the music director in the head - HARD! It was hard enough to knock the strings horribly out of tune. By this time my pianist had already started playing the introduction to my song. Well, I unsuccessfully tried to tune him, but it was of no use. So, I played, or rather, I attempted to play. It was quite disturbing, but I made it through the song. What happened to the music director, you ask. He had a knot on his head for almost an entire week!

Woody will be missed forever and ever, but his memories will live on in the hearts of those who loved him.

*************

The Good Times!

***************************

***********

Sadness!

*******************

Heaven was Needing a Hero

This is one of my favorite music videos on YouTube. It always makes me think of my hero, Aaron (click on his name and you can read my blog post about him)

My Wonderful Week By Myself!

This past week my family deserted me for parts unknown. Well, actually they deserted me for Wisconsin! So I spent 8 wonderful days ALL BY MYSELF! :) Let me tell you, it was a very nice experience. :)
Sunday morning I spent as usual in the jail. It was kinda interesting cuz Peggy was gone and I didn't know that before hand, so there was no keyboard, or anything to accompany the music, and naturally, since Peggy wasn't there, I was put in charge of the music. That was interesting. On top of that John put me on the spot and had me sing a solo, OCAPELLA!!!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! When he first told me to do it, I just stared at him like he was a fish out of water, then I said, in a very scared/shocked voice, "Are you serious??!!" He said, "Yeah, you can do it!" I was like, "Uh, ok...." So I did it! UGH! Everyone said it was really nice, whatever! Sunday night was the "premier" of "Israel 101," the big graphic design project that I was working on this summer. I hadn't seen the finished project up until then, and I thought it was really nice! Dave Ditton, who was the guy who took my graphic work and put it all together on the DVD, and I were trying to figure out how many hours combined just the 2 of us put into it, and we figured it was over 200 hours! That's not including everyone else! Talk about craziness! All of that for a presentation that is just over an hour long! It was a lot of work, but well worth it, and I know that through the hours upon hours that i put into it, that I was able to learn a lot about Israel.
Monday and Tuesday were spent going through all of the stuff that I brought back from college last year and figuring out what I wanted to take with me to Shawnee this year, and what I didn't, and what needed to just be thrown away, etc. I can tell you this much, I know that I'm not taking nearly as much stuff with me this year as I took last year! I well remember how packed the minivan was when I went to NY!! LOL! Fond memories...
On Wednesday I had a show, and sold a Rainbow!! I was THRILLED!! :)
Thursday I drove an hour to go to a show and didn't sell a Rainbow...sigh...Oh well, it was a nice day, so it was a nice drive....
Friday I finished up my first scrapbook, it's not very good, but I enjoyed doing it, and I think that I will continue working on those skills! :) I like doing it cuz I can be scrap booking and watching a movie, or talking on the phone, or doing a million other things! I hate just doing one thing at a time, my mind moves too fast I guess...I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy! :) Oh yeah, I got to talk to Jason on Friday night, which of course was WONDERFUL! :)
Saturday I cleaned up the house and then my family got home about 9 at night! I got a box in the mail from Jason as well, and that totally made my day!
It was really nice to have those few days to myself. I got some extra Bible reading done, and lots of time to pray! I was more than ready to have my family come home because during the week a really good friend of mine's mom died, and I had gone to the viewing and stuff by myself, and some other things had happened, and I just needed a really big hug!

Aaron Williams (December 7, 1972 - June 22, 2007)

"To Where You Are"'

Who can say for certain

Maybe you're still here

I feel you all around me

Your memory, so clear

Deep in the stillness

I can hear you speak

You're still an inspiration

Can it be

That you are mine

Forever love and you are watching over me from up above

Fly me up to where you are

Beyond the distant star

I wish upon tonight

To see you smile

If only for awhile to know you're there

A breath away not far

To where you are

Are you gently sleeping

Here inside my dream

And isn't faith believing

All power can't be seen

As my heart holds you

Just one beat away

I cherish all you gave me everyday

Cause you are my

Forever love

Watching me from up above

And I believe
That angels breathe

And that love will live on

and never leave

Fly me up

To where you are

Beyond the distant star

I wish upon tonight

To see you smile

If only for awhile

To know you're there

A breath away not far

To where you are

I know you're there

A breath away not far

To where you are

~Josh Groban

Today is the two year anniversary of the home going of my hero, Aaron Williams. Some of you may know his story, but others of you may not yet know it, so I will at least attempt to explain the type of man he was and what he means/meant to me.

Aaron was born December 7, 1972, I think he was the 4th of 9 children, but don't hold me to that! All of his life he was a jokester! He loved to make people laugh and feel comfortable around him. Aaron was one of the few people who had no enemies!! He was a friend to everyone.

I'm not quite sure of his entire timeline, but I do know that he joined the Marines (sometime when I was pretty little), and HE LOVED HIS COUNTRY! My favorite thing in the world used to be to tease Aaron about being a "Jar Head" in which he would always reply "I'd rather be a jar head than a squid like your dad!"

My mom is Aaron's dad's secretary, I remember the day that the office got the discharge papers from the military for Aaron. I can remember wondering who was going to have to hand those papers to Aaron, I wasn't there when that happened, but I can only imagine the look on Aaron's face when he was given those papers. I know that was one of the hardest things for him over the entire duration of his sickness.

In 2004, shortly after completing special forces training in the Air Force, Aaron was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and told that he had 6 months to live! Thankfully, God gave him to us for 3 more years. Those were years full of sorrow and tears, but also full of laughter and joy.

Throughout those 3 years Aaron had his ups and downs. He had to have surgery and something went wrong when they put his scull back together so his head was sunken in! That didn't bother Aaron, he used to make jokes about his head. He often would forget things, yet another thing that didn't drag him "down in the dumps" he made jokes about that too.

There was never a time when you were with Aaron that you weren't laughing. I have so many memories stored up inside that would take forever to write.

Probably one of my favorites is a phone call I got from him about a month before he died. He was driving to his home in PA after spending several times in IN with his family. I had asked him when I saw him at church the day before to stop by the office on his way out of town to say good bye, he had assured me that he would. Well, he forgot. I really wasn't surprised, or hurt because I knew that most of his short term memory was gone. Several hours later, I was at home when I got a phone call. It was this guy who had a strong Kentucky accent claiming that he had just moved to the Warsaw area and he had a teenage son who went to school with some friend of mine and this son had a huge crush on me and he wanted to take piano lessons from me. I was freaked out! I had NEVER had anything like that happen to me in my life. We spoke for about 5 minutes about how I taught piano lessons and what I required, etc. I finally got him off the phone and immediately called Mom. She calmed me down, and then said not to worry about it. A few minutes later my phone rang again. It was Aaron, laughing hysterically! He had made that whole thing up and had figured that I would figure out his fake accent like I always had before. He had seriously called to say that he had forgotten to say goodbye, so he was calling to say bye. That was the last time I had a coherent conversation with Aaron. From that time on he went down hill REALLY fast, it was about a month after that that he died.

The following month or so was very difficult on Aaron. It included a trip to Mexico, grasping at last straws, hoping that maybe something would work. Finally it was obvious that he was not going to make it. So he came back to Indiana to die.

I remember going to see him soon after he came back. I went into his parents home, and was SHOCKED!! Aaron had always been a strong, physically fit, healthy, big Marine, in fact that is why doctors think he lived as long as he did, because he kept himself healthy. Anyways, he was sitting on a recliner, and he looked awful! He was pale, and weak, and his memory was shot. He didn't even remember a lot of his family members. My family walked in together, Aaron thought my dad was one of his brothers, but other than that he remembered the rest of our names. We spent a few minutes talking, then he some how remembered the whole piano lesson thing! That was amazing, even his family was surprised that he remembered that story. The two of us went back and forth about it for a few minutes, before deciding that I would bring a keyboard in and teach him how to play! :P On the outside I was laughing with Aaron, but on the inside my heart was breaking. I finally had to leave so I gave him a hug (which was the last hug I ever got from him) and went for a walk, I hated seeing him that way!

I think that was on a Friday or Saturday. The following Wednesday we got a phone call from his mom, Aaron wanted to see my family. We went over, and he was in bed, which is where he had been for several days. By this time, he couldn't talk, and he kept his eyes closed for the most part. The only response he would give to someone was to open his eyes, or briefly squeeze a hand. When I walked in the room, death was almost a tangible feeling. My family each took a turn holding Aaron's hand and talking to him for a few minutes. My turn was last. I walked to his side and gently picked up his hand, it was so pale and weak, and clammy. I just stood there for a few minutes, the realization that this was probably the last time I would ever see him on this earth alive was sinking in, and my tears flowed. I told him who I was and he slightly squeezed my hand. After just standing there for a few minutes, I told him that he was my hero and that he was my favorite Jar Head and he always would be, he opened his eyes and squeezed my hand. That squeeze continued for almost 5 minutes, and there was no way I was letting go! That was the last time I saw him alive.

At approximately 12:30 AM on June 22, 2007 Aaron Andrew Williams went home to be with his Lord. He had fought a good fight, he had touched so many lives, and now it was time for him to go home. In his short life, Aaron touched more people than most people who live to 90 touch. He was amazing!

At his funeral so many people came who loved Aaron. Some had met him, others had not, but all were drawn together because in some way Aaron had shown them love, and in return all loved him. I really don't remember much about the viewing and funeral. I do know that he was the first and only dead person that I've ever touched. :) The funeral procession from the church to the cemetery was almost a mile long!

Aaron's life brought so much glory to God, and when it was time for him to go, there was no fear in his heart about dying. He was very peaceful. The tears that I shed were not that he was going to Heaven, but that he was in so much pain, and also that I would be losing a dear, dear friend, and my hero.

I feel so blessed that I knew Aaron for the first 16 years of my life. His memory will live on in my heart forever!

What a craaaazy week!!!

This has been one of the most INSANE weeks of my life!! I'm not even sure where to start, so I guess I'll start at the beginning:
Monday: I had to work in the morning with Wes on the PowerPoint. At times it seems like he wants miracles worked, but I love him to death, and have a hard time telling him that it won't work. I guess I will just have to try to work miracles...lol! In the afternoon I had more advanced training with Rainbow. I had a chiropractor appointment and then a dumb half hour session that is held every Monday night at the chiro's for new patients called "How to stay young for the first 100 years" it was interesting and BORING!

Tuesday: I had a demo at a chiropractors home at 11:00 on Tuesday. I was a little unsure of myself, so I had asked for somebody to go with me on the show. Rob, who is actually the guy who hired me, was assigned to go with me. What was going to happen was he was going to do the show and I was supposed to take notes and pay close attention...pretty much first hand training. We met at the office at 10:30 and got everything together before heading out about quarter til 11. We get to their house and he comes out looking very disheveled. Apparently the doc had no idea about the appointment and his wife was still in bed cuz she wasn't feeling well! Company policy is that both the husband and wife have to be present in order for us to show the machine. UGH! Soooo....we went back to the office. I had some errands to run and then there was more advanced training at 1:00. That went well then I had to work for Wes later in the day.

Wednesday: My demo from Tuesday got rescheduled for Wednesday at 11:00. So once again Rob and I hit the road on our way to the show. This time however the results were quite different. :) Both doc and Mrs. were awake and ready to let us show them the Rainbow. Rob did a great demonstration and had both of them convinced that they needed/wanted a system. However, doc had to open his office at 12:30 so he had to leave, thus we did not get a sale!! :( T'was sad....if there had been 1/2 hour more for us to demo we could have sold them one soooo easily! :( Oh well I guess... There is always training for the Rainbow at 1 that is optional to attend, so I went to that and then had a chiro appointment, and then worked for Wes. Then the day began to get REALLY exciting, let me explain:
My best friend's mom had died the beginning of December. They are missionaries to Italy and she had been buried over there. Faith had just begun her second year of college at Northland Baptist Bible College in WI when Mrs. Pieri was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She got so sick that Faith went home to be with her. Within about three months Mrs. Pieri went home to be with Jesus. Faith did not go back to school, but instead stayed home and helped her family through the hard time. Joseph, who is the Pieri's son (they have 2 children) graduated from high school this year. So the Pieri's came back this summer so Faith and Joseph could both go to Northland, and they had a memorial service on Friday.
So.... we were planning on leaving Thursday morning to drive to Antigo, WI which is where the memorial service was to be held. Well, mom came up with the idea of leaving late Wednesday night so that we could get through Chicago at a decent hour. All well and good, but I still had a LOT of work that I needed to do for Wes, and I had not even begun to pack, on top of that I was exhausted. I finally completely lost it, and just cried for a LOOOOOOONG time!! I was totally overwhelmed! Mom came into my room and held me and let me cry for a while, then she ended up doing most of my packing, cuz I couldn't even think about packing at the time! LOL! We left around 9:00 for Zion, IL which is where the hotel that mom booked for us for the night was. I convinced dad to let me drive through Chicago which was FUN!! We hit some construction, and traffic, but it really wasn't that bad! :) The hotel was really nice and since we didn't have to drive the whole way on Thursday we got to sleep in a little bit! :)
Thursday: We drove through Milwaukee and right outside of it is Menonomee Falls, which is where Falls Baptist Church is, and part of the church is Baptist College of Ministry where several kids from our church have gone to school. Right now two guys from my church are on their singing tour group this summer. They happened to actually be around the entire week, so we got to swing by and see them. :) It was nice. None of us had ever been there before, so we got a tour of the church and classrooms. We also stopped at the Wings as Eagles airplane hangar in Oshkosh, WI. Dad and Mom are going to be putting in an alarm system in August while Samuel is up there for flight camp, so dad needed to check a few things out. I think around 4:00 on Thursday we pulled into Antigo, WI which is where we spent the rest of our time. Probably around 6 or 7 the Pieri's came over and spent the entire evening with us! It was really nice to see them again (the last time we saw them was when they brought Faith to the U.S. for college 2 years ago), but it was hard without Mrs. Pieri.

Friday: The memorial service wasn't until 2:00 so we were able to sleep in, which was WONDERFUL!! Around 10:30 we left so the cleaning people could clean our room. My family ran some errands, but I stayed at the hotel working on the work for Wes. It was nice to get some things accomplished. :) Originally the plans were that we wouldn't see the Pieri's until the service, but plans changed and we ended up meeting them and some of the other family at a restaurant for lunch. It was really nice. The memorial service went really well. There were so many people who were able to give testimony to her VERY close walk with God. There was a lot of praise and glory given to God, and all in all it went really well. Friday evening Bro. Pieri's brother from Michigan stayed in the same hotel that we were in, so the Pieri's came over again and stayed until around 10:00. That was our good-byes to them...it was sad. :( However, they are supposed to be coming to IN sometime in July, so we will get to see them again!! :) :) :) YAY!Saturday: We got up earlier than the 2 days before, but it still wasn't too bad. We were packed and on the road about 8:30. No excitement on the trip home. We got back safe and sound about 6ish.

**********

*****Falls Baptist Church*****

*****Mom at Wings as Eagles*****

*****This was on the floor*****

*****Sorry this is up side down, but its cool*****

*****I'll admit it was tempting*****

*****Me and my bro******

*****Faith and Joseph Pieri*****

*****Bro. Pieri*****

*****Joseph at the funeral dinner*****

*****I was sitting on Angela's lap cuz she decided to sit in my chair!! :-*****

*****Me and Faith...best friends*****

*****Angela and Sasha, they are sisters who were adopted from the Ukraine*****

*****Chicago=traffic*****

*****This cop kinda startled me cuz I thought he was a taxi and then all of a sudden I saw THE cop!!*****

*****This truck had a really funny license plate considering one of my nicknames!!LOL!!*****

*****U.S. Cellular Field, formerly Wrigley Field, where the White Sox play...GOOOO SOX!!!*****

Memorial Day

Aaron Williams - My hero!

As I sit here on my great-grandma's couch in her sun room in the heart of Michigan I'm thinking about how blessed I am that I live in America, the "Land of the free and home of the brave." I was SO blessed to be born in the United States, a privilege that billions of people do not have. The only reason, besides God, that I'm living in the freest country in the world is because of the brave men and women throughout the centuries who have stood for freedom, and truly believed in their country and everything she stands for and were and are willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING so that I, as an American, can sit in comfort, sipping coffee, and writing this post. These are the truest Americans, the ones of whom we should be VERY proud. My grandfather served in the Army in World War II, along with his brothers. My dad was in the Coast Guard for seven years in the late 70s and early 80s. I have other family who were in various branches of the military, all doing their best to serve and protect and defend the country that they love.
I also have friends who were and are currently defending my country. I'm thinking of one in particular who is in Iraq right now as I write, before that he was in Afghanistan. Ray is young, only 20 or 21, why in the world is he willing to his life on the line? While Ray was in Afghanistan, his father, Raymond, a Lieutenant Colonel (I think) was in Iraq. Their family sacrificed a LOT!
I have other friends who have also been in the Mid-East, Seth in the Navy, and Paul and Steve in the National Guard. Paul and Steve had families back home, yet they were willing to go to a foreign land and fight an enemy that they may not have heard of before September 11, 2001.
One soldier that I didn't know, David Fribley, a graduate of Warsaw High School in 1996. He was content with his job until the terrorist attacks of September 11, it was then that he decided to join the Marines so that he could fight for his country!
On March 23, 2003 David was killed in Iraq, only three days after the conflict began. He was the first soldier from Indiana to die, and one of the first to die in the nation.
There were hundreds of people at his funeral, and even more who lined the road on the way to the cemetery. Some of Warsaw's biggest corporations stopped operation in honor of David and the employees lined the streets. The schools bused students to the funeral procession route, and all were waving flags, and most were weeping. We were all sad, yes, but VERY proud.
In a letter to one of his friends David wrote:
“The greatest gift one can give to another is the gift of service. I do not know who said this but I’ve heard this saying before. The following is my gift to you; may I honor you and our fellow countrymen and women. I will earn the privilege to wear Eagle, Globe and Anchor for all those that cannot. With all the strength of my fellow Marines, we shall always provide you with the comforting feeling of safety that you have each day.”

I simply want to say a great big THANK YOU! to the men and women in the United States military! They are the ones who give us hope in these time!