Happy Birthday Patty, Happy Birthday Jesus!

Today would have been my late sister Patty's 49th birthday. Patty went to be with the Lord on April 27th, 2003; after a 2 year battle with breast cancer. She was a great sister and a wonderful mother to 11 children. We all miss her very much, but I know that I'll see her again someday in heaven. Every year since she passed away, most of her remaining 9 siblings have gotten together on her birthday to remember Patty and celebrate her life. I suspect we will do that again this year, but not until later on this evening. There's something else we have planned to celebrate first tonight.

It's Wednesday, which means it is AWANA club night at church. My husband is our church's Awana Commander, and I help out in the nursery. Every year around this time, we celebrate another birthday too. We have a "Happy Birthday, Jesus party", with cake and ice cream for all of the kids, their parents, and AWANA staff. Seeing as how I'm the Commander's wife, and a former professional cake decorator to boot, I get the honor of decorating a birthday cake for Jesus each year, and then I usually ice a couple more sheet cakes to serve to everyone. This year, I opted to bake and decorate one cake and 12 dozen cupcakes. Sound like fun? It actually was. And as an added bonus, it warmed the house up nicely too, having the oven going for about 5 hours straight.

Here's this year's model. The only thing is, I used a "Christmas Red" paste food coloring, that turned out a little more like "Barbie Pink". Oh well, pink poinsettias are pretty too.

A Tribute to My Sis

This is a picture my sister, Patty and me. Patty fought a brave battle against breast cancer for at least 2 years, but in the end, the Lord took her home to be with Him. Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of her death. The picture was taken almost 6 years ago at our parents' 50th Anniversary party, which turned out to be a little over 11 months before Patty passed away. Patty was a wonderful Christian wife and mother of 11 children...yes, you read that right, 11 children. At the time of her death they ranged from almost 4 years old to 21 years of age.

She was a year and a half YOUNGER than me, but was always the one I turned to when I had questions of a spiritual nature, even though she was my little sister. We all miss her greatly, and I still have moments when I think I'll just call Patty on the phone and ask about something that I'm sure she'll know the answer to.

Here is a picture of her husband, Randy and ALL of their children, taken about a year after her death.

Shanna, (standing next to her father in this picture), joined the Army after graduating High School. She spent a year in Iraq, and is now stationed in Alaska. She is also the mother of Patty's first grandchild, Ja'lyn, who turned one year old 3 days ago and sadly, never got to meet her her wonderful grandmother. Happy 1st Birthday, Ja'lyn!!!

Their oldest child, Tonia is now 26, Shanna will be 22 this Thursday, and the rest are as follows: Thomas is 19, Isaac 18, April 17, Sarah 15, Zach 14, Christina 13, (yes, there are 6 teenagers!), Zion 12, John Jacob, (JJ) is 10, and Isaiah will be 9 in May.

Yesterday, our pastor was preaching about how we all need to let ourselves be emotional at certain times in our lives. It brought me back to exactly 5 years ago, (which coincidentally was also a Sunday), when I went to church just hours after the call from my mother that my sister was gone, and bawled throughout the entire service. I was certainly being emotional then. I also remember that my cousin, Channing and his wife Dawn were there for the service, and Pastor Tom told me that morning that my cousin had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior that very week. I told Channing the sad news about Patty, and added that I was sure she was jumping for joy over his salvation, up in heaven. Patty was all about spreading the Gospel and trying to get everyone she knew saved. I miss you Sis, and if you have any "pull" up there, could you possibly arrange for me to have the mansion next to yours when I get there?