A LONG-TIME FRIEND!!!

[I'm sorry that I didn't write very well, but I tried.  I'll try another month or two just to share re: how the Lord has been so special to and for me.  That's a miracle!!]  
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    Way back in Redwood City, CA, area, I was down from Tacoma, WA, with my former husband who had been born and raised in that direction, and about 4 months after we were married he suddenly took me down.   I was 23 to 28 years old down there.
      I had a friend, through church in Redwood City, Denise, who, for about several months, was babysitting my daughter and son

Her sons and my kids and their dad and me.

way back then, especially when I was working.  Renae was 4-1/2 years old and Steve was 16 months old when I was sent out of that place.  Suddenly,   through an amazing way, she was given a gift of about $600.  When I came for my kids, Monday, May 19th when I was off work, and she asked where I wanted to go sometime. I told her that I wanted to go to Omaha to see a long-time friend.  My friend, Susan, and I hadn't been together for several years, and had been friends at high school in Klickitat, WA.  I hadn't been told about her $600 gift right then, and, when I indicated where I'd like to go, and it would be nearly $200 on the plane for me and my kids, Denise said she'd give ME $300.  WOW!!   Because of Denise's gift of money, I and my kids were on the airplane to Omaha, May 24, '74. Thought I'd be in Omaha for about a couple months and then back to Redwood City.  Renae was going to be in school for the first time and that's what I anticipated.  Well, he indicated through a letter and a phone only a couple months later, that I could not come back.  He did not want to know or see me any more.  WELL, about 1-1/2 years later, a pastor had called me about his spiritual situation, and that husband talked to me and drove out a few weeks later.  He arrived December 5, '75.  Denise had seen him several times for a couple years before I left and about a year when I had left.
      I've lived in Omaha most of the time for 42 years.  I've been in Oklahoma for a couple years, when my former husband had gone down there in '82 to be a roof fixer and he was wonderful at that. Well, we ended up divorced in Oklahoma in Sept., '84, and I was back up in Omaha with my kids, in early September, able to be with lots of friends in that town, and special schools for my kids that they've loved being there.  Suddenly, and surprisingly, I had been married in September, '85. Now it's been 30 years... in September it will be our 31st anniversary ...  and he's been a wonderful person for me and my kids.  My kids and grandkids LOVE him!!
       OK!  This is the amazing situation.  I've always thought about Denise and wondered how to get together.  I was not back living in those western states.  I've driven out or been flown out to see my sisters and friends for about 38 years.            

Renae and Denise at our house

      THEN, Denise was here July 12th.  My husband and I picked her up at the airport and had wonderful time.  We've never known or seen each other in those 42 years.  The amazing piece that it occurred was through Facebook, b/c she connected somehow with me a couple months ago.  She decided to come to Omaha to be with me and to meet my kids.   She got to see Renae and Steve.  [BTW, my husband was a real blessing to and for her, too.] 
      She was here for a week and went back on Tuesday the 19th.  We put her at the airport and gave her lots of hugs!!
     

      Anyhow, it was a blessing to have her here.  She's about a year younger than me.  I'm 71 and she's 70.  
     Now I just wanted to tell how wonderful it has been.

MY BIRTHDAY!!!

      Oh, on Saturday, July 9th, I was officially 71 years old.  I

woke up a bit and walked around the house a bit.  But, normally, I struggle much.  A few hours later, nearly 2 in the afternoon, my husband came home from his job at our church and picked me up and took me to my daughter's home.  Was a blessing to see her and her husband and some of my grandkids, and my great-grandson.  Then, munching food pieces and hugging and kissing is all I could do for about 2 hours.   
       THEN my husband drove many of the areas outside of Omaha to the towns and the acres and the hills where for about a year, when going around that whole area,  I've been a

worshiper and a prayer and I praise and sing.  It took about 2 hours.  Then I was home and Saturday night I had a few wonderful phone calls. 
       NOW, tomorrow a special lady is coming from Washington and we've never spent time together for 42 years.  When I was in Redwood City, CA, when I was 23, we ended up in a church.  She, a few years ago moved up the Washington.  She'd been in that portion of California for MANY years, since she was a kid and in her early 60s to get to Washington.  Now she's flying out and being here in Omaha for a week and it's a HUGE blessing.  We'll be picking her up at the airport tomorrow.  My son and my grandson will be taking us to lunch in a couple days re: my birthday, BUT they won't know what a blessing this is until we're together.  When she was babysitting my kids when I was working, she was very special for me.  Until I was 28, and being a special friend with and for her and her kids,  I suddenly flew out here, which was a miracle.  My daughter was 4-1/2 years old and my son was 16 months old.  So, adding 42 years to their ages means they ain't young and they both have kids and strong jobs.  Can hardly wait to see her tomorrow and hope to spread her to my kids in a special way.  I'll show her lots of other things in the Omaha area re: what a blessing this was.    It will be a wonderful situation during this week.  Then she'll be flying back out to the west.
      Anyhow, I don't know when and how I can read your things, b/c I'll be doing much with my friend for a week.  BUT I'll try to look at all your writing portion.  She, I hope, can be reading something... maybe when I give her "The Annie Project"... I'll attempt to read your things during that time.
      As I've said to you in the past, and it's much of the present, my dementia has increased and my body issue is a challenge.  The Lord healed my heart very strongly when I was 28, 39, and 42.  And He protected and kept me when even as a kid and adult in a variety of places in our nation and other places when I could have been murdered easily.  Obviously, I'd have been in Heaven a long time ago!  Well, I worship and pray and glorify the Lord and rejoice and look at Heaven much of the time when I see clouds.  
      Bless you all.  AND you're a blessing for many people.  AND the picture of me and my husband was at the lunch time at my daughter's.  

MY 1ST JULY 4TH...

      I wrote most of this a few years ago.  BUT every time of this stretch of 4th of July has always entered my attention.  It was a very strong and different time in and for me when I was a young kid.  As I often say, I would be 5 years old on July 9th, in spite of the fighting situation.  WELL, next July 9th, next Saturday, I will be 71.  I can't be on here often b/c of my dementia and body issues and how I can't read or write.  BUT many of you are special to me in my heart, if nothing else.  So, I'll share it again! [AND my Dad came to the Lord officially when he was 59 and went to Heaven when he was 65.  Mom officially came to the Lord when she was 82 and went to Heaven when she was 90-1/2.  SO, when I'm there, I sure hope to see them.  Can hardly wait!!!]
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 MY 1ST JULY 4TH...

     I was NOT only 1 year old at the time, but it's the first main one I remember.  I was turning 5 years old near the 4th of July, because my birthday is on the 9th.
     My Dad hadn't been in my life on a regular basis until about a year before that. 

     In April, 1950, we moved into Kenton, Washington, near Vancouver, which was a slummy area and we lived in an ugly little house with brown asbestos siding.  The neighborhood had pigs and chickens running loose, and rats, and lots of dirt.  The kids were mean, too, and I was littler than most of them, having been born as a preemie.

      One day, shortly before the 4th, a 7-year old boy, a bully, came up to me and poked me under my chin with a firecracker punk and burned me.   When he took off, I ran to my parents and told them, crying, of course.
     My Dad made a decision.  The best thing that could be done was to teach me how to fight.  So, he spent time coaching me on the "old one-two" boxing punch.  He worked me hard, believe me.
     Then, a few days later, between the 4th and my birthday, the 9th, "Bully" came to the fence in front of our house and stared at me with a kind of mean look on his face.  My Dad happened to be in the front yard with me.  Dad nodded at me to go outside the fence.  He backed under a tree and watched.
     I walked out, looked at the boy, walked up to him, and took my right arm and swung it at him the way my Dad had said to do it.  I hit him in his stomach with swing number 1 and immediately hit his chin with number 2.  I said each number as I was swinging my arm.
     What did he do?  He ran away.  The bully had been bullied by a skinny, short, young GIRL.  Don't think he could ever have imagined that.  [And I bet he didn't ever tell anyone about it!]

Now, the results.

#1 -- Dad was pleased with how I did it.  Despite the fact that in our present day, a dad usually would approach the bully's family, back then my Dad handled it differently.  He had been raised as a fighter, period.  Family battles were constant in his life.  He didn't see a better way to deal with these tough situations.  So training me fit right into his view.  Seemed the safest thing to do for me.

#2 -- The portion of Satan planted thoughts in my heart that stayed there until I was 20 years old and came to the Lord.  And even then, it did not change immediately; it took some time.  The thoughts/lies were:  You're on your own.  You fight for yourself.  Can't trust anyone else to take care of you.

     And, this was the beginning of a life-style for me.  Yes, as you would see on some of my posts, I was a fighter, physically, from that point on.  [Some parents and kids considered me a bully!... Hmm!]
     The good result?  Now I am a "fighter" for our Lord and constantly focused on the spiritual warfare.  Fighting is not uncomfortable for me any more.  Why? Because my Spiritual Dad is now my Heavenly Father and when I obey Him, moving into a battle, fighting spiritual "bullies" for the sake of other struggling people, the results will be eternal.

                               Happy 4th of July!