Love One Another

Today was a day full of the body of Christ living out this command from Jesus to love one another. Twenty people showed up to help Jord move this morning and while people were helping them move, a sweet family from church that I haven't gotten to know well came and visited me for several hours--Tonino, Kat, and their sweet little guy, Teddy. We had sweet fellowship and also discovered a small world connection--Tonino and his family lived in Salinas, CA which is where Papa (my Grandpa) had a really good friend who owned a farm and Papa did some of his agricultural research and development. When I was a young teenager, Papa and Grandma took me on a trip to see them and help with some of those projects....it's such a small world! I also got lots of baby loves from Teddy--he had never met me, but he warmed right up and sat in bed with me and ate chips and snuggled and we watched "Jesus Loves Me" and "Hippopotamus" which are songs I sang with all my kiddos back home and of course, my fingers got "itchy" and we had tickle time and got a video of that sweet baby laugh! SO much fun!

They left and 20 minutes later, my friend Cass, who I met volunteering at Victory Alliance Ranch in Huntsville two years ago, came to visit. She came in and I laughed and said, "I don't recognize you all cleaned up with makeup on cause I'm used to seeing you all sweaty and covered with horse stuff at the ranch!" She brought me a perfect care package--all in a huge adorable doggy bag from Marshall's. A soft blanket, a robe, a journal, some pens, and of course some yummy snacks. She had a childhood cancer and is a living miracle--she lost her left lung and half of her heart--she really shouldn't be alive, but the doctor that saved her "just happened" to be in Birmingham and a leading researcher in the field. One of her hospitalizations was 11 months long so she gets being in the hospital and what helps make the days better. We started talking and oh my word! Her sister worked for my best friend's mother in law in Tucson AND her brother-in-law works for a police department in my old stomping grounds and probably knows my brother-in-law and my brother didn't recognize the name but they have probably run scenes together. (For those that don't know, my brother is an EMT/Firefighter and my brother-in-law is a paramedic.) We also have mutual friends in Tucson (according to facebook lol) from totally different areas too--one was Sovereign Grace (our old church) and the other was a girl that is my sister's age and was in our 4-H club....just CRAZY! We talked for almost 4 hours before she finally headed out and found out besides all that stuff we have a lot more in common than health stuff and our passion for horses.........Last night was so rough and today was a day filled with sweet fellowship and just the encouragement my heart needed. To our GCC family--I cannot say enough how grateful we are for you--the love and support you have poured out for us means more than you'll ever know! I'm super excited to get to see my honey tomorrow. I'm joyfully exhausted tonight so gonna sign off for now. Here's a few pics of Cass and I and what she brought me:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." ~1 John 4:7-11~