Then...November 1986
Now...December 2007
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us: whereof we are glad. Ps.126:2-3
Then..... at the very begining when our house (family) was being built by God, then there was laughter and our tongues were singing....even then the Lord had done great things for us. Now......the Lord is doing great things for us. This verse has made me think of our past, the grace and mercy of the Lord has been overflowing, Nothing has changed from then until now. Then, God was with us, he is with us now, he was with us then in our ignorance and immaturity, he is with us now as our hearts are being made better through sorrowing and mourning. There are no "ifs" in God's kingdom and this thinking is likely not sound, yet I thought it......if I could have had Joel without the trial of his cancer that would have been my desire, maybe thats selfish, but if the trial was destined and linked to having Joel (which it was) then I would take it a thousand times over verses not having Joel and not having a trial at all. To not have the opportunity to love Joel and to know Joel would break my heart more than this trial has broken it. To be Joel's mommy has brought fulfillment and joy unspeakable. The love he gave to his family, his sweet personality, his funny expressions, and of course his smile are forever pressed upon our hearts. And oh, what a full heart for Terry, to have the honor of having 9 sons, to be able to stand and fight for Joel's life, what love. His brothers and sisters would have never known a love that exceeds even death, a love that gives sacrificially in helping and serving a weaker vessel. We still love him! The gift of his life to our family outweighs any pain we have experienced. So even now, we laugh, we cry, we sing because we have known and loved a little boy named Joel. Ps.126:4-5 Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. We have sown in tears, I look forward to the reaping. It is a principle in scripture and in nature that when a seed is sown into the ground, it brings forth fruit, a harvest. I am offering up a prayer to the Lord as in v.4, the south streams makes me think of a soothing, peaceful, healing stream verses the north stream which might represent a cold, difficult stream. Let the south stream flow to our family.
I thought it might be fun to see "then and now," believe me I'm humbling myself posting some of the pictures (of me) they are scarry!!!! The hair do's look like a birdnest on top, why did not anybody tell me?? The Lord has brought us and growed us and we are still "growin and learnin." What an honor we feel from the Lord to recieve all these precious gifts from him. The memories are priceless!!! Now don't double over too much as you see all the BIG glasses and funny, long hair (on Terry) You have to remember the styles of the times :) Hope they will be a blessing and you don't laugh tooo much!!!!! I have one from each year starting with the year we were married 1986. These are pictures that we took,(except the wedding and the top three) and some we used as Christmas cards. Warning....LOTS of pictures below, like 20!!
1987 Caleb and Daniel came 10 mo. after we were married 
1988 pregnant with Bethany
1989
1990 Arkansas
1991
1992 Elijah is with us now
Oklahoma 1993, Anna is here!
1994, Micah is here, moved out to the country
1995 pregnant with Andrew
1996 Andrew is here!
1997 pregnant with Joshua
1998 Joshua is our little papoose!
1999, back to a traditional looking family. :)
2000 Jeremiah is here!
2001
2002 Hosanna is here!
2003 pregnant, (didn't know yet) with twins!
2004 Joel and Josiah are 13-1/2 months old
2005 Joel and Josiah are 2, pregnant with Mercy
2006 our last family picture with Joel, him and Josiah are 3
2007, the cow punching crew!
P.S. Do you know what my blessing was today? Bethany helping me with these pics, many had to be scanned, down-sized and reformated....it took her a looong time! Thanks dear daughter!!!
8 comments:
I think you are beautiful in all the pics and thank you so much for posting them. What at treat it is to see some of your older ones when they were younger. I never knew that Joel and Josiah looked so much like Caleb and Daniel! But that second pic goes to prove it.
You have the most beautiful family, what a blessing they must all be.
Lori
What a fun post! Love the hair and glasses! I guess I can't talk because my hair was so big when we first got married, it was hilarious! I had no idea that you had Caleb and Daniel 10 months after you were married!!!! What a wonderful way to start off a marriage. What a blessing that you embraced the idea of letting God plan your family right away in your marriage.
Love,
Cindy
What a wonderful post! Thank you for sharing! Thank you Bethany for all the work you did in getting those pictures "postable" so your mom could share. I know what a chore that must have been!
What a beautiful family~ not because you all look so sweet (girls) and sharp (guys) :), but because of the love of Christ which you all have radiating in your lives. Thank you!
love,
Jaynee
I think, if we're honest we'll all admit that we've all had our "big hair" moments. Mine was in high school, for some reason it was fashionable to take your bangs and curl them sky high over your forehead and then cement it in place with as much hairspray as you dared! Ugh, what were we thinking? LOL
Thanks for sharing all the pictures. It was fun looking at them and seeing your family as it grew. I don't know how you did it and still look so great. That's a lot of pregnancies, births and babies for your body to go through, but you still look wonderful. I only have three so far and I'm wondering how my body would make it through another pregnancy!
Annie in CA
Grinning!!!
Great pictures! I think the first one HAS to be my favorite one!!!
Cindy,
I can't tell you how much of an encouragement your family is to me. I LOVED seeing all of these pictures and how God blessed you with a new addition (or two!) every couple of years. Your family is beautiful and you are one of my role models. I wish I could get to know you in person. We have four children (4 and under) and are praying for more. My husband and I hope to be in your shoes one day. :)
Cindy, it was such a blessing to see all of the photos that you guys have posted. The family has sure changed since I saw you personally when Caleb and Daniel were babies. The last thing I remember was spending time with the four of you at Siloam Springs church camp the summer of 1998. Those were sure some fun times. Thinking of you often, Carol Sue (Alexander) Wilder
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