Ready for the Baby!

Kara just messaged me saying she's in labor with her first-born and asking me to pray it gets easier (I imagine she means the labor pains), so I am!
As a man, it is impossible to imagine what it is like to physically give birth to another human being, but I DO know that her own mom was thrilled to have gone through it!

Eddie and Kara have the little fella's room ready... can't wait to meet him!

Another 10th!

This is the 10th birthday that Lana is celebrating in Heaven!

"The righteous perish,    and no one takes it to heart;the devout are taken away,
    and no one understandsthat the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly
    enter into peace;    they find rest as they lie in death."

-Isaiah 57:1-2

10th Anniversary

Dad took leave of this earth exactly 10 years ago today at 11:50 a.m.  He accomplished a great deal in the 79 years he spent down here, in large part because he spent 51 of them married to my mother.

Mom has long had a saying hanging on the walls of her home that states: "Two things parents should give their children: roots and wings".

Frank & Anne Kynast did that for the five children they raised, of whom I am blessed to be the eldest...

Thanks, Dad... I miss you!

Tim is 25!

Once again, I am not able to be there for his birthday, but thankfully I have these people standing in the gaps for me... and Grace and I WILL be there for his wedding in 34 days (to the sweet young lady front-and-center in this photo)!

My Dad's Birthday

Born on this day in 1928, this would have been his 86th birthday were he still with us...

This picture was taken before I was born (first of his five children)... Mom says this is one of her favorite pictures of him in those early years of their courtship and marriage.

This world could use a few more like him these days!

Kara's Big Day!

Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Kelly and their parents just before the ceremony.

Pretty cool getting to be the father of this beautiful bride!

OUR Anniversary

Five years ago today, Grace was passing through Asheville and had lunch with Kara, Tim and me... she had been a close friend of their mother's for over 20 years.  On the second anniversary of that "date", we got married, making today our third anniversary!

It hasn't been "a pirate's life", but no less an adventure! 

We're signed on for at least one more year in China, and after that, only G knows! ;-)