We took a day trip to Columbus to visit Jay's granddad (his dad's dad) which is one of his spiritual heroes...get to that in a minute. But FIRST, we had to get there. We had been gone maybe 15 minutes and the kids were already asking the dreaded question, "Are we there yet?" Because it was a 3 hour drive, we knew we were in for a long ride. SO I pulled out one of the tricks my parents used to do with us...the quarter game. We gave the kids a handful of quarters and told them that anytime they ask "how much longer" or "when are we gonna be there?" they had to give us one of their quarters. Any quarters they had at the end of the trip they got to keep. Karis and Brayden both lost only one quarter and got to keep the rest. Overall....pretty successful trick. We will try that one again!
Jay had also put several of their movies on some ipods of his and they each got to pick out what movie they wanted. Here Karis is watching "Princess and the Diamond Castle" and was jamming! It was so funny to hear her singing SOOO loud and had no idea we could hear her but not the music. OH I wish I had a video of it!
I think Brayden was watching High School Musical...he was so into his movie too!
Finally we got there and had a great visit with Pawpaw and Grace. It is always great to see them because they always have such amazing wisdom about life (and LOTS of stories haha). Pawpaw is so special to Jay for so many reasons. For a little background Pawpaw used to be an alcoholic and has had a very ROUGH life until God saved him later in his life. God changed his life completely and he did a 180. He then became a pastor and anyone who knows him knows that the Lord is THE most important thing in his life. Because of his past lifestyle, he and his son (Jay's dad) haven't been in touch for over 15 years and haven't see one another in over 10 until this past summer. Remember this post?
Recently he has been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and had several weeks of chemo but they have since determined that it is not working or shrinking it like they had hoped. There is nothing else they can do for him and the cancer continues to grow. Every time we talk to him he has such a positive attitude and always says things like, "Don't cry for me! This is just my ticket home!!!!" He wants to see Jesus so bad and give up everything to see His savior. It is sad to know there is nothing else that can be done but ultimately God knows what He is doing...even when we don't understand. We both have learned so much from him and are so glad that the kids have gotten to spend time with him recently. It is so sad to leave family when you don't get to see them very often, because you never know when it will be your last.
I will always treasure these pictures!
We love you Pawpaw and you will never know in this life the impact that you have had on us. God has used you in so many ways and hope that someday we can have that impact on someone else. You are and always will be one of our HEROES!
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