It has been a while

Well, I thought I better sit down and let everyone know some details about the memorial bench and tree. On Saturday October 11th, at 11:15 a.m. we will gather on the sidewalk outside of Lynn Memorial on the campus of Central Methodist University. At that time we will have a dedication service for the tree and bench. I am really kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this since I have not planned a great deal to happen on that day. I am hoping for some good serendipity to come along.

It took me forever, and a lot of sleepless nights, to try to figure out what to put on the bench as a memorial for Debbie. There are no words to express all that she was and still is in our hearts. I read through her journal and have been reading the same Bible study she started back in January. What kept coming to mind was her desire to take time to be with God, to rest in His love and spend time in His word. Entry after entry in her journal referred to coming to God in times of difficulties and in times of joy. Finally I decided to go with Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I figured that is perfect for a bench, and for the way Debbie lived her life. She went full throttle each and everyday, and yet knew that she could always come to God and find peace. The tree will be a hard maple that will change to a wonderful fall foliage each year around our anniversary. We always loved the fall and in fact that is why we chose the fall to get married in.

Anyway, if you have any ideas on how to pull off a good service on the 11th let me know, otherwise I am planning on just showing up, singing some songs, saying some prayers, sharing some stories of Debbie's life and closing with a prayer.

After the short ceremony I think several of us will head down to Emmet's for some more times of sharing, crying and laughing together. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the memories.


As a short update on how the kids and I are doing:

Well school started kind of rough for Megan, lots of separation difficulties in the morning, but that has gotten a lot better. Ryan has been doing great at school, but does have the occasional sleepless night. He is a trooper and has been known to lay in bed for hours before going to sleep on the most difficult nights. I will rub his back and pray with him and eventually he drifts off to sleep, thankfully that is not a nightly occurrence, but it does seem to happen on nights when we have been thinking of mom a lot. I continue to have good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours, and some times good moments and bad moments. Mostly very lonely and missing my best friend.

With the speed of everything going on during Debbie's illness I just took things one day at a time. Now as I have time to think and run through things in my mind it can get a little overwhelming. The reality of being a family of three is hitting home. As I find a new path for us we are enjoying trying new things. This past Friday night we went to watch the Hickman v. Rockbridge football game. Ryan absolutely loved it! If he is anything like me he will surely play in high school and maybe even college. Last night I took Megan to a father daughter dance to help raise funds for Amanda McDaniel. She is still fighting her cancer and has left today to go back to Houston. (you can follow her treatment at www.cheersforamanda.blogspot.com) Megan enjoyed getting dressed up and wearing the corsage (not sure if I spelled that correctly, it was the flower! :) ) I had fun once again trying to figure out how to blow dry her hair, still have not been successful with the curling iron! :)

So pretty much we just keep on keeping on and put one foot in front of the other. I want to thank you all for your continued prayers, and I know that many of you have been checking in to see if I post. I do still receive messages from this blog directly to my e-mail and if some of you would like to e-mail instead of posting that is fine. You can always reach me at andy@coyotehill.org and you can see what is going on with Coyote Hill by going to www.coyotehill.org I am currently working on fundraising with the 50% tax credits, so if anyone has a business interest and would like to donate to the Hill with tax incentives let me know.

I will probably be posting a bit more for the next couple of weeks so keep checking in. It sounds like the Boonville paper will be running an article on Debbie. I will let you all know when that gets published.

Thank you all again,

Andy