Easter Blessings

This Easter season gave me many opportunities to testify of my faith in Christ and in The Resurrection.

I was first asked to share in Primary Sharing Time, then the next week I was asked to share in Young Women, and of course Seminary gives me several opportunities, and then Easter was here to remind me.

I have a hard time bringing my thoughts and words together to make sense and struggled to want to share my deepest feelings.  I knew I should so after prayer and pondering I came up with a presentation using the photographs and plaques around my house.

It has remained on my mind for weeks. It is important to me so I decided to write it down.  It is a "feel good" memory. It's a "feel good" trust and faith in our Redeemer, and I share it now:

I call this a love story.

Between these two people -

Terry and Elaine Hebdon

We met 39 years ago.

We were married 38 years ago ...,

Because we were married in an LDS temple by a man with the proper Priesthood / Sealing authority, the two of us and all the children we would have could be together forever.  

A couple years later our family began to grow, and in time, the Lord had sent us a total of nine children.

The last time all 11 of us were together was after Gregory came home from his mission and before Brandon left on his mission (the last week of July 2003).  

(The opportunity to be together at this time was a tender mercy in itself.  Brandon was to leave almost a month before Gregory returned, but I sent him for one last dental cleaning before he left for two years without one.  The dentist was not supposed to take x-rays but fortunately he did, which allowed him to find a hole in Brandon's jaw bone.  An elbow in the face could have broken his bone, so it needed repaired before he left, meaning Brandon's mission would begin a couple months later than he was first assigned, allowing some time between their missions. )

The next time we had an opportunity for us all to be together was in December 2014.

You will probably first notice that there are many more family members in this photo.

Then, as you look closer, you will notice one of the original 11 (or the original 2) is not pictured.  

In December 2014 there were 27 family members and one of them (Terry Wayne Hebdon) had passed away.  

More family members have been added - in April 2018 there are 35 members of our family, and this summer we will add 4 more grandchildren, making a total of 39.

At this point, Terry has not met two daughters-in-law and his son-in-law, and a third of his grandchildren, and they have not met him nor will they see each other in this life.  More than half of his grandchildren won't remember him, even though he has loved them and held them in his arms.

After the birth of our grandchildren this summer only half of his grandchildren will have met him, and of course this number will continue to grow, and some day we will also add another daughter-in-law to those numbers.  

However, because of another love story this separation will not last forever.

Our Heavenly Father sent His Only Begotten Son to earth to make eternity possible, and Jesus Christ accepted this Plan of Redemption - a Plan of Happiness.

Because of Jesus Christ's acceptance of this plan, His birth, His life, His teachings, His Atonement, His death, His Resurrection, and His love we will all see each other and live together forever.

I am grateful!

Because of Him our family is eternal!

I did not add this next picture (that has been hanging on our wall for many years) to my presentation, but I do add it to my testimony today.   And it's all because of Christ.

  (I loved the saying and created a visual using a picture from our wedding collection.)

The Promise

-

Across the years I will walk with you ~

Love in our hearts; adventures new:

And when our time on earth is through,

You'll have my hand in heaven too.

I Feel My Savior's Love in All the World Around Me!

I am remembering a line from Alice in Wonderland -  "so much to do, so little time".

That seems to be my mantra for the last couple weeks because of all that is piling up in front of me.

The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get!  (I don't know where that comes from)
;)
That's just the way things are around here lately.



With all that is going on, my time has been filled and my yard has been suffering.
Last week a friend came and helped relieve some of that stress by helping me wash plates and goblets (I am talking hundreds), and helped weed some of the yard too. (There was still much to do - I have a big yard!)


My home teacher saw a need, sprayed some weeds and called upon the Priesthood and Relief Society members of our ward.  They scheduled a work day in my yard, inviting all who could come.  And they came!  Men and women and youth of our ward and community.  It was awesome!


I was on an emotional overload that day and didn't make it outside,

but I saw people out every window or heard them on every side of the house, and I know they were here.

Thomas and Dana helped me count up how many people came and helped, and we came up with 50 people. . . 50!   They came and went right to work in any area in the yard they saw a need.  Cars were lined up the road in front of the house.  They worked and they left just as quickly as they came. And they left me with a beautifully cleaned yard, having done in 2 1/2 hours what I could not in 2 1/2 weeks.

Every where I look is a testimony of the love of the friends and family that love to serve the Lord and bless the lives of those whom they do serve.  And my life was certainly blessed!

Thank you, everyone who came or babysat for others to come.  THANK YOU!

Because of you
I FEEL MY SAVIOR'S LOVE IN ALL THE WORLD AROUND ME!




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SURPRISE!

I have wanted to post about this, but I couldn't ever find the right words to say.  I'm afraid that I will not say it the right way, or leave something important unsaid.
However, now I am beginning to fear that there is too much left unsaid and that is worse, so here is my attempt to share what took place at our house on one splendid weekend in April. (15th-16th)



I received a call from my parents saying that they had heard about my brother telling me he would paint our exterior house walls.  He had visited several weeks earlier and offered to do it - I agreed, telling him I'd much rather pay him than someone else.

My problem was that I would need to get it prepared and I was not certain how I was going to accomplish that task, but I don't recall sharing those concerns with him.  Well, my parents asked if they could come and look at things and help me get an idea of what needed done.  That visit sounded wonderful, and of course I agreed.

They came Thursday evening (14th April) and seemed almost in a hurry to get things started.  I tried to get the doors I wanted to have replaced before painting, but there were some unforeseen problems with that and I didn't get it done.

After seminary Friday morning I was feeling a bit stressed that I hadn't gotten things done for them and yet I was still in my "I just don't care" frame of mind.  I'm embarrassed to admit that has been my frame of mind for a few months now.

Well, I was outside with my parents when Brian, my brother from Wenatchee, walks out of the house to the back, where we were.  A couple steps behind him is Thaoe, my brother from Moses Lake.  Something was up!

I learned that they were there to work on my house that weekend.

SURPRISE!

Then I learned that they weren't alone.  Soon there would be more coming to help - My sister, LeeAnn, and her husband, Brian.  There were nieces and nephews with their families coming.  And my children who lived in the area would be there as well.

I was overwhelmed!

I wasn't prepared.   I had no idea!

But guess what?  No problem - they were!

Brian had talked with Thomas and they had been planning this thing for a couple weeks.  They were going to scrape and caulk and tape and prepare for painting.  We had several people Friday and more came on Saturday.

I was concerned about food and paper plates and .....   

No worries!  They had taken care of that too.

Thomas had asked me if I would want to grab some hot dogs and hamburger patties for when my parents would come.  I said that would be good and we could invite other family members over too.  But, as I have said before, I was in an "I don't care" mood and I never did do it.  Whatever!

Well, not to worry.  Thomas told Brian and Brian told LeeAnn, and LeeAnn took care of it for me.  I happened to find out about that when I saw a piece of paper she had with my name written beside those items.  So, promptly I paid for those items that I had neglected to purchase.  MY BAD!  But they had my back! They were watching out for me!

And my dad also mowed the lawn.

BrittanyJo had done some cleaning inside the house, and changed sheets on the spare bed.  She has always helped out with things so why would I wonder what she was up to?
I never suspected a thing.  This was indeed a surprise.

And - everyone else knew about it but me.  However, I began to hear about times when people thought they had said something that gave it away.  I guess it should have, and I could see that it should have as I thought about it after the fact, but I have been brain dead and this is proof that I still am - it never did make me suspicious at all.   OH BOTHER!    I didn't know my kids could keep secrets so well.  But, then again, they didn't think it was that well kept, so again - MY BAD!

But,

WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE!

I don't recall a time when my parents and siblings have gotten together to do such a service for someone, but then, there has never been a situation like this up to this time either.  I am sorry that the circumstances are what they are, and I wish they weren't, but I am so grateful for loving family.  They saw a way to help and they came to my rescue.  It wasn't just a good idea -  they acted on that good idea and it became a good deed.  This was no easy task and there were aching bodies the next few days.  I thought I had hired Brian, but somewhere along the line, he decided payment for this task was not acceptable.

I am so grateful for each one who helped make this the wonderful weekend it was. Surely the Lord is pleased and can say to them - Well done, thou good and faithful servants..., in as much as you have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Me!

I see love in the color of my house, even though it is called Dusty Lead.  :)  Maybe it should be Lovely Lead or Dusty Love or ???

I loved the color when we chose it, but I love it even more now.

THANK YOU MY DEAR FAMILY!

This fact remains -

YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!


PS - we had almost 50 people here, but half of those were little children.  Still impressive!
LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday to/from Terry

It was brought to my attention a few weeks ago that I hadn't been posting about the birthdays in our family this year.  I guess I just neglected every one of them.  As reality would have it, I had a hard time even thinking about the first several ...  they just all of a sudden were the next day.  My mind has just had a hard time wanting to work..., it's getting better little by little.  I was thinking that it would hopefully get back to normal, but if I keep having birthdays it might mean that normal just isn't going to happen anymore.  ;(   We all know that age has a way of affecting our minds too!   Okay, that isn't what I was going to post about, so on with the topic at hand.

Terry's birthday is the only birthday I've had on my mind all year.  It has been on my mind more than not.  I was so excited for it because I got Terry a present.  It wasn't really to him, as much as it was part of him, and it is from him (if I may be so bold as to suggest that).

I sent Terry's shirts away to a woman who makes things with them.

Some of these shirts are from many years ago - he hadn't worn them for several years, and others were more recent, but I can see him in every shirt.  I wish I could keep every one of the sweet creations.  They looked so awesome all together because each one of them made me think of Terry ... over and over again.  They were all him.  I LOVE THEM BECAUSE I LOVE HIM!

This woman doesn't make just anything out of shirts, but she makes the most adorable memory bears.  She calls them Tammy Bears.

 I have changed their names and lovingly call them TERRY BEARS.

I thought about making some bears myself, but didn't think I would have the time and knew I wouldn't be able to do them in secret. I also knew it would be a lot of stress that I wasn't willing to go through.  It was worth the fortune it took to have them made - at least it was for me.

This Terry Bear is for me :)  It's a bit larger than the others.

I couldn't help but hug it when I took it out of the bag and walked back to place it on a shelf, and as I did I was smiling inside and out.  I felt like a little child hugging her teddy bear, but I was really a 55 year old woman hugging her husband's shirt that was made into a Terry Bear.  Sounds silly doesn't it? But I'm okay with it!  :)

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much 

that you just want to pick them up from your mind and hug them.

This bear will sit in a cabinet stuffed with Terry's things, where I can see it and smile back at it anytime I wish.  I can even take it out and hug it if I ever feel the urge again.  (The cabinet it is going in is on it's way to the house and should arrive tomorrow, so maybe you'll see this bear again sometime when I post about that cabinet.)

I ordered one for each of my children (they share with their spouses) and I refer to them as Daddy Terry Bears

There is also one for each of my grandchildren that I label Grandpa Terry Bears.

I quickly got them photographed and made my own tags for them.

The original hope was to get them to my family on Terry's birthday (born 58 years ago TODAY), but they didn't arrive to me in time to do that like I wished so I have one box to send and I'm saving the others since they will be here next week for our family reunion.  They get to see a photograph for his birthday and then they can hug it when they get here.  Something to look forward to!

These Terry Bears truly have a heart and they brought a wonderful smile to my heart when they arrived on my doorstep.  I thought it would have been lovely to just put them all on a shelf and keep them, but I am finding that it warms my heart to give them away too, so it's a win win situation. I'll have pictures and this post to remind me of all of the bears and all of his shirts.

21 Bears in total - 1 larger one (photo above) and 20 smaller bears.  Each from one of Terry's shirts.

It's a great way to celebrate Terry's first birthday in heaven.  That, and carrot cake and ice cream for breakfast.  :)

It's going to be a good day!