A Blog?

A Blog?  I'm going to try it!!!


So many of you have been so faithful to keep our family and especially Hardin, on your lips and hearts before God!  Your wings of friendship have carried us when we couldn't walk.
Your notes, phone calls, cards, surprises and visits- all the way down here,  have been the sunshine in our days.


I have meant to be better about up dates and keeping you by our sides in all this information driven society. . . but my 'mean to's' and my 'doing's' have been as far apart as the definition of 'thought about it' and 'did it'.   I'm up by 7 or 8a.m. after going to bed between 2 and 3.
You'd think in those 17-18 hours of awake time I could achieve everything.  Not!


So, I'll give this a try.  I also need to inform you of a GREAT UNtruth I printed in yesterday's thoughts . . . you'll now know for sure of my lack of 'fishing knowledge' . . .
it is NOT a Rainbow Bass but a PEACOCK BASS Hardin wants to fish for.  Well, they both have a lot of color!!!


Love to you all and if this doesn't suit your fancy . . . we can always send out emails!!!


Gratitude for God's Love . . . Grace . . . and YOU!!!






Good Morning Houston!!!

The twin towers outside our MD Anderson window are cloaked in the mist of the unknown.   What lies below the glowing spikes is not clear.  But as it has for the past month, this mist of the unknown will be dissolved by the brilliance of a south Texas sun which reflects the hearts and souls of it's citizens.

We have been in Houston since Oct. 8.  This was not a  trip I ever dreamed of.  I did not plan it.  I did not buy a plane ticket.  It is a trip I never wanted anyone to take and certainly not one of our sons.

We arrived by air ambulance from Little Rock, Arkansas and have not left the boundaries of this "City of Compassion" since!  We've celebrated All Saints Eve, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day,  St. Patricks Day and before we know it Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and perhaps even the 4th of July within this city's boundaries.

The outline of the surroundings buildings are beginning to wake up to another day.   It's the week-end so many of the eyes of the hundreds  of windows will sleep til Monday morning.  Yet past the immediate buildings the mist is still shrouding the world in nothingness. 

The moon last night, being 33,000 miles closer to earth, made it a wonderful night for a moon dance.  I can only imagine the magic from the Houston Rodeo with it peeking thru the ferris wheel and shining down on the midway with the illumination of real magic.  How exciting to be in the city of NASA & experience the moon in such glory.  I am told by some that 'man never walked on the moon', it was all a ploy!  But the truth of life is the moon is a welcoming magical place, as is MD Anderson and the city of Houston . . . so I know that man continues to walk on this moon! 

As my eyes drift from the outside view they fall on the shadow of one of the heart beats of my soul called 'son' and I see the most magical and mystical site in the world.  A gift lent to my being for an unknown time.  I am so grateful for this opportunity to be apart of his spirit for today.  The past six months has been a journey of terrible, horrible, very bad chemicals being pumped into his body to fight the battle with AML Leukemia.  The battle is being won but there will be consequences, as with every decision in life.  There of course has been hair loss, nausea, diarrhea,  water retention to the point that his feet won't fit in his shoes and his face appears to be double in size.  There have been days of dreams that left him in tears for fear they were actual events.  Now his body is covered in a rash that is of unknown causes with many possibilities.  But through out this journey/battle  I continue to see his spirit glowing from within and there is peace and joy in my being.

This is a man-child who is at home tracking a deer, calling in ducks, reading the signs of broken twigs and shifts in wind & clouds,  who finished 8th in the world in team roping and is hoping to one day fish for "peacock" bass . . . yet with the business sense of a Fortune 500 Company executive . . . and with a love for his son that is second only to that of his own dad.  I look at him and see the curly headed child running through the Destin surf. . . the young boy at his first Pony Club Rally clearing jumps with the smoothness of a duck gliding over a still pond . . . the teenager rebuilding an old Chevy blazer to have ready for his 16th year. . . standing with his Catholic High School senior class singing, "Here I am Lord, It is I Lord.  I have heard You calling in the night.  I will go Lord, if You lead me.  I will hold Your people in my heart." as they awaited the presentation of their senior rings . . . the daddy holding his 23 hour old son, who is now four, as he awaited the first of five major surgeries . . . and now a man in this battle with cancer, with the armor of faith and the spirit of hope.

Oh,  daylight has broken and the reflection of golden pink, from a building across the way, tells me that Houston is aglow with the activity of it's people.

That's what all this rambling was to say . . .

I know you, the city of Houston, have many nicknames you have been known for, most based on geography and economic facts, but my favorite and the one that truly is about the people of Houston is "The Big Heart".

May I add a personal name for Houston, Texas?  The City of Compassion!    

"Thank You" Houston for taking us in as one of your own . . . for being so kind and considerate (except in driving!) for each and every one of our needs - from directions, to white blood cell donors, to coat hangers . . . for being a city that never sleeps - in activity or COMPASSION!!!  

Houston, we are grateful for your 'journey' in science, health, business, the arts, natural wonders and being an international home to the world.   Your journey and God's Grace has paved the road for our family, and so many families, to travel into this day with faith and  hope and "Thank You" for sharing your heart!

On behalf of all the people who are full of "gratitude" to this City of Compassion . . .

"Thank YOU"!!!