Winter on the Prairie

What a beautiful wintery day! As I came home the other day, I spotted a sun dog in the sky. A "second little sun" that added the touch of a miracle to the day. A gift from God.

Traveling down the road, winter's beauty was everywhere. The countryside sparkled with white frost and a fine, powdery mist of snow. Weeds and grasses stood majestically on the silent, white prairie. The animals burrowed deep in their holes, awaiting the warmth of the sun. Everything was still.

The Lord kept us safe, as our tires crunch over the snowpacked graveled roads. Plows have long since pushed the hugh drifts, that once made these roads impassible, into the ditch. In the distance, huge bales, now covered in snow, loomed high above the fields, as a reminder of the summer past, when they had stood as tall stalks of grain basking in the heat of the sun.

All things are as the Lord meant them to be. God is good.

Isaiah 55:9-11

9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “ For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Thanksgiving

"Cozy comfort" as the kittens bathed in the warmth of the fireplace. One would think with their fur, they would look for cooler places!






The kids dug a snow cave while they were here. Kat, Andy, Tim and Huimin helped (and got to play in the cave too). It was quite warm and sheltered on the inside, keeping them from the biting, cold wind that continued to blow across the prairie.




Later on, Huimin, Tim and Serena put their talents to work and finished off the Christmas ornaments. Their creations turned out beautiful. The final touch is to add the family pictures to those with frames.


Tim took time out and did some drawings that came out fantastic. It is such a blessing to have a talent! We enjoyed his company and that of his family. It is so good to have a child come home!

Time flew by. It seemed like, except for eating the turkey and ham dinner on Thanksgiving, there wasn't time to get hardly anything accomplished. Everyone came and the next thing we knew, it was time to get ready to leave. On the last night together, Tim brought out his new XBox Kinect game. They took the furniture out of the family room downstairs and then everyone took turns interacting with the game. Well, except me! You have to be able to jump and be quite agile to play. It WAS fun to watch, though.

Everyone went home on Sunday and what a travel day that was!! Tim and family went South, and Andy and Chris went East. They braved snow storms where they couldn't see but inches in front of the car. Tim then hit icy roads going over the Sierra Nevadas. We lived on prayers that whole night. Finally, in the early morning hours of Monday, they got to their homes.

Tim, Huimin and kids, after returning to their home, then went to retrieve their pets. Madison was the pet-sitter for Bane and Lily. She is such a caring person and did such an excellent job!! (Thanks to Victoria and Nick for letting their house be turned into a temporary "zoo"!!)

God is good. I am so very thankful that we are so blessed to know His love.

Getting Home

Tim could not leave in time to beat the storm coming into the Sierra Nevada's so we headed north instead. The heavy rain pounded on our windshield as we took off and soon turned to light rain as we started up the coast. The night was so beautiful. Luminous clouds filled the sky and the world seemed to stand quietly in the stillness of the twilight. Beginning our travels at 11 at night, added to the darkness, with fewer cars on the road.

The miles seemed long as we crept along at the posted 55 mph speed limit--which occassionally slipped back up to 65. But, the good thing was there was no blizzard here!

Finally we got through Spokane and hit the mountains on the other side and here we ran into winter weather. The snow and ice on Lookout Pass put us into 4-wheel drive. It was a hair-raising experience, but we got through and eventually got to Montana.

Traveling clear roads, for awhile again, we enjoyed the respite and stopped for tacos in Missoula. Then, on to more mountains and Roger's Pass. It was not too bad. With the beautiful eerie moon, that seemed to be bathed in a soft white veil, the mountain scenery was breathtaking. Tim had us breathing down his neck to "go slower! go slower!" as we crept around the snowpacked winding curves at about 30-40 mph. The mountains were a dark purple hue. I told Huimin to look out the window and she did, then screamed and turned around and hugged her seat. The mountains were a ways out and between the edge of the road and the mountains was a dark abyss. It was like everything dropped off into a huge dark nothinginess! It was scary. Tim crawled along at a slower speed and we finally got out of the mountains!

It is good to be back home. The dogs were excited, the cats were excited, and the kids were very happy and are now waiting for Christopher. All is good. God is good.