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My Biography....Such As It Is

Kathy Dingus

 

 

It all started when Dad met Mom. The momentous event happened in 1958, when he escorted several girls from Clintwood High School to tour the Bristol Herald Courier for a class trip.

His sister Shirley was in the group and so was her best friend, Rachel. Dad would eye Mom in the rear view mirror, because she sat in the back seat. Mom thought he was struck on another girl in the car and was surprised when Dad gathered his nerve and asked her out on a date.

She agreed to the date and was surprised again when Dad proposed. She told him he was crazy, which of course he was, but she married him anyway soon (four days...) after graduating that summer from High School. Dad continued to surprise her constantly in the following years, and Mom always pretended not to be!

My life began much as any one of you. My body was pushed from my Mother on Friday afternoon, June 13, 1959, much to my Mother's relief. The Doctor slapped my bottom and the air filled with my cries and I haven't stopped making noise since, or so Mother likes to repeat, (often....)

Dad was working in Springfield, Illinois on a welding job when Mom went into labor. He made the long journey home to see his newborn baby girl. He named me Kathleen, no middle name, just Kathleen. He took my name from a set of glasses that was given to them as a wedding gift. The song "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" was printed on the back of one of them. I have since been called, Kathy, Kat, Kath-A-Leen, (which I do not like, by the way.) There is no "AH" sound in Kathleen! Also have been called various other names, which I won't burden you with at this particular time.

Mom says that I was a good baby, some of the time, and at a very young age, (two or three months old) Dad would hold me in his lap and read to me from magazines. No, not from People, Woman's Life or Cosmopolitan. He would read to me Field and Stream, National Geographics and Popular Mechanics!

I guess that's why the intelligence test I took in high school, and was given by the army, rated me #1 in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration!
Mom and Dad were young parents, and had the same struggles as many other young couples. Dad was working in a hay field for 50 cents a day when I was still a baby. Life was hard for them but Dad knew that life would get better.

Off to West Virginia they went. Mom was pregnant with their second child, a son named James Oakley, Jay for short. Now there were two young babies in the house to care for.

Mom soon became pregnant yet again. Mom and Dad had the RH factor and this led to a difficult pregnancy. After birth the boy child was given two transfusions enabling him to live. They named him Mark Travis. Now instead of one boy in the house competing for Mom and Dads affections there were two! Oh, woe is me.... I thought life was so unfair! I just didn't know the half of it!!

Through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Dad took their correspondence course to become a Journeyman Lineman. He would work all day on his job, come home and study. This was a four year course and Dad completed it in two. This meant more money for Mom and Dad and of course it didn't come a moment too soon.

I always thought we were better off than most folks, and I think we were. We had a loving home environment, enough food to eat and clothes on our backs, and I had two brothers for play pals... Dad was strict and we learned early never to back talk, and show respect to him and Mom. If we managed to behave (I don't know how Mom and Dad stood it!) we made it through the day without one of Dad's lectures. We'd rather have a spanking from him, most of the time, than to have to sit and listen to Dad teaching the same lesson to us over and over again in about 10 different ways. But we were a happy family and despite our sibling rivalry, we loved one another.

I remember three things pretty clearly. One day I decided to get into Mom’s cosmetics. I thought I was so beautiful! I had lipstick all over me, and it just happened to be red! I just didn't have lipstick on myself either, it was on the sink and mirror and who knows where else! Dad came into the bathroom and rather sternly asked me if I had been into Mom’s lipstick. Of course I denied it, not once or twice, and I stopped counting after that! The evidence was quite clear that I was guilty, and that I had lied. I think I learned that day not to tell a lie, and to be as honest as old' George Washington could be with red lipstick all over his face!

Another incident was when my brother Jay took an overdose of gentian violet pills Mom had on top of the refrigerator. He was all purple in the face and Mom and Dad took him to the hospital to have his stomach pumped! Now that was pretty heavy stuff for a child my age...four! I had no idea what it meant to have his stomach pumped!! You can just imagine what I imagined in my mind!

Jay had to stay in the hospital a few days. Another incident again involved myself. A week after Jay came home I pulled a loose mantle place from the wall, down on top of me. Mom had put me down for a nap, and I had been coloring...the one thing in the whole world I liked to do best! She took the crayons and paper,, pens and pencils from me and placed them on top of the mantle.

Now as I remember it, we were getting ready to move and the landlord had loosened the mantle for some reason or another. The mantle was a concrete slab about 1' ½ _ 2 inches thick, which sat on two ends placed into the wall.

As soon as Mom's back was turned and she had left the room, I tiptoed over to the mantle, reached my fingers to the top of the mantle, and tried to get the pencils she had so thoughtfully left sticking out just a little, enough to tantalize me into trying to recapture them on the sly. The mantle piece shifted and gave way falling on top of me. The top part of me was knocked back under a rocking chair and my legs stuck out. The slab hit my legs and my right leg was broken. Mom came in and tried to pick me up, and in the process my bone came through the skin in my leg. Blood was everywhere, and Mom didn't drive, Mark was on the bed, in mid-diaper change, Jay was asleep, I think, and Mom picked me up and ran out into the road screaming for help. I was bleeding a great deal and she was very frightened for me. A neighbor volunteered to drive us to the hospital, and another neighbor agreed to stay with Mark and Jay. The kind neighbor who volunteered to drive us to the hospital had a new car, white I think...

I still remember the doctor who treated me in the hospital. His name was Dr. Ron Caglion. He was really very rude to Mom. He said she shouldn't have picked me up at the scene of the accident, blah, blah, blah.... I didn't like him much because he lied to me. Yep, he told me I wouldn't have to stay in the hospital or get any shots and I had to do both! I think the first time I was in the hospital it was for about a 6 weeks stay. I was in traction most of that time, with my leg stuck up in the air, just having a miserable time.

Mom had two other children at home and couldn't stay with me at night. She would come and visit as much as she could.

I remember I was in the hospital during Christmas. Santa Claus brought everyone cookies and candy and a gift. I was never so disappointed...the Christmas gift was a book. I couldn't even read. The Book was a Bobsy Twin Mystery. I did learn to read however, and I did read that book! Haven't put a book down since, either....

I didn't know at the time how much I really put Mom and Dad through. They now had Jay's hospital bill and mine to pay. After I came out of traction I was put into a body cast, which covered both legs, had a bar in between my knees, and the cast went all the way up to my breasts, which I didn't have much of at that time!
Mom had to constantly turn me every two hours so I wouldn't get pneumonia. That's what the bar in between my legs was for. I tolerated this for about two months and had to be put back into the hospital to have the cast removed and receive some therapy on my legs.

The doctor came in the middle of the night to remove the cast. You figure that if they didn't want to scare a child they would come in the daylight hours at least! They finally convinced me that the saw wouldn't hurt me, cut me, or eat me. Off came the cast and I was horrified at the look of my legs. They were scaly, thin and white! UGLY!!

Mom constantly put lotion on my legs until they were soft and smooth and pretty again. I was fitted with a set of crutches, and they soon became my best friend. I never went anywhere without my crutches and I wouldn't walk without them, no way no how!

Dad let me get away with this for a while, but one day he took my crutches from me and sat me in the middle of the floor. He removed anything I might could use as support and told me to walk.

I don't remember how long it took me to get my nerve up and walk on my legs. I just knew they were going to break into again and I would be back in that hospital, receiving yet another lousy book for Christmas, that I couldn't read!!

I finally, through much tears, crying and begging, got upon my feet and walk without my crutches, into Dad's loving arms. I was so happy and thrilled that my legs didn't break into. I have tried to walk on my own two feet ever since, but I think I am kin to Grace Lightfoot. I have stumbled through but not without mishaps.

Because of this injury one of my legs was shorter than the other. This has caused health problems for me to this day.

Dad smoked a pipe when I was a young girl. (I missed the smell of his pipe tobacco, and still sometimes wish I could smell that cherry tobacco once again.) I have been known to go in a store, a few times mind you, just to sniff the bags of tobacco. I know that sounds crazy to some of you, well alright…all of you...and the Management probably thought I was just a crazy lady who liked to come in and sniff the cherry tobacco bags, because they have never called security on me, yet! I also have thought that it will be nice to be a spirit because then I could smoke that cherry tobacco pipe and not hurt myself in the process!

I guess because of Mom and Dad’s involvement with working with the youth we got to travel more than the average family. And we always had activities, sometimes we thought there were too many. Mom and Dad became involved in church and we benefitted from that. Mom and Dad moved quite often because Dad had to travel to where the work was. Often he would come home on Friday and would need to be on a job in another state on Monday.

Mom took it all in stride most of the time, and so did we kids, but it was hard. We had to leave friends we had just made, prepare to enter another school, maybe for the second time that year, in the middle of a semester. Mom would have to leave all of her church friends.
Mom became pregnant again. I prayed for a little sister, I really did, in earnest! God must have felt a certain pity for me, and gave Mom and Dad a baby girl. Mom also had a rough pregnancy with her, and the Doctors were threatening to take deliver the baby early because of the RH factor. But Mom and Dad had lots of faith that everything would be ok...and it was.

Also during this pregnancy, Mom and Dad were baptized. Mom was terrified of water, especially deep enough for her to be immersed, but she made it through. Needless to say, Dad raced home one afternoon, drove Mom, who was in hard labor, to the hospital. He left the car on the street running and hustled Mom inside. By the time he parked the car and went back inside to find Mom, she had delivered a little baby girl. They named her Anna Marie.

From that moment on, she made my life miserable! Not really, but that's what went through my head. There are six years difference and two boys between us. They say I was bossy and ordered them around. I don't really remember that part...

Mom and Dad made several major moves during the next few years, but we managed to stay in one area, Charleston, West Virginia.

The inevitable soon came to pass however and we had to move almost overnight to London, Kentucky. I was traumatized! I was twelve, almost a teenager! I actually had a crush on several boys and how could they do such a thing as move at a time like this? We all cried during the move, but all for different reasons.

Mom was leaving an area that she loved, leaving behind many, many friends, and I was leaving behind my new-found loves of my life .

The new church we attended wasn't so bad. I discovered they had boys too! Lots of them and they all seemed to like me.

I was young, but my Dad and Mom had taught me (or I inherited it from them) to stand on my own two feet and act like a lady. I had the time of my life. I actually learned how to dance without holding your partner, this was a new concept, and you could actually have fun! I made new friends fast, and was always busy with some activity or another.
Mom was busy trying to keep me out of trouble, and instruct me in the ways of behaving oneself, acting like a lady, and still enjoy myself! I fell in love for the first time when I lived in London, Kentucky. I met a prince charming. I was 13/14 and he was 18. Oh, the thrill of it! An older man.... He would write me twice a week, he lived in Lexington, 60 miles away, and he would call me once a week, and of course we would meet on the weekends for church socials.

He graduated from high school, and became accepted to Ambassador College in Pasadena California. I was in the 8th grade, and crushed. I was happy for him, but I didn't want to see him go. I dutifully "saw" him off, saying our goodbyes in front of half the church with just a quick hug and a whisper in his ear.

He wrote me on the airplane saying he would never forget me, that he loved me, and that when I graduated and finished college at Ambassador of course, we would get married. He wrote dutifully that first year. I saw him at our annual convention that first year and then I did not see him again!

I do not to this day know what ever happened to him. I still wonder about it sometimes, just because I am curious. I became very depressed and was so unhappy. I moped around for quite a while. Time does heal all wounds, and I soon faced life again, never quite forgetting about him.
Sixteen hit and I was off. I was making friends, dating several nice boys, (it was fashionable to do that, at that time) and having the time of my life.

Dad had changed jobs several times and we had made several moves. We lived for a short time in Clintwood with my Dad's parents, and were going to church in Kingsport, then we moved to Pikeville, Kentucky. We lived “up a holler” called "Coon Creek." Just the name was enough to turn off guys...but not for long.

I made friends quickly, and was happy during those years. I was trying to graduate from high school a year early, because I had picked up extra credits from moving around, and that didn't work out. I quit school in the 11th grade, with all my senior classes and a 3.6 GPA. I took the two day GED test in 4 hours and was finally out of school! I was baptized in the year 1976 at the age of sixteen. Looking back on it now I was really too young and not fully aware of the commitment I was making, but I truly wanted to live my life as I knew I should.

I looked for work, and was hired at the very first Long John Silver's Restaurant in Pikeville. I was good at my job and was soon promoted to Assistant Manager. I bought my first car. It was a Dodge Dart, an ugly brown color, and was about 10 years old but it was dependable.

I soon changed jobs to work in a Lumber Company. I loved this job. The pay was good and I was responsible for the books, inventory, etc. The owner was a lady I liked a lot. She was a widow, young and full of fun.

She introduced me to the disco! I loved to dance! I was good at it too. But some of the disco life rubbed off on me. I met and fell in love, again, with a MAN! He was handsome, smelled good, 6'10" tall, and he played basketball for the College at Williamsburg.

He sold life insurance and was "going places". I attended a banquet with him where he was awarded top salesman for the year! I thought I was really in love and had found the right man.

In the meantime I was the President of the local YOU chapter in Pikeville, Kentucky. The YOU regularly sent two delegates to Pasadena for their annual YOU Conference in January.

I was one of the delegates picked to go, and my girlfriend Debby Bailey was the other. We flew out to Pasadena to attend the conference and were really enthused after hearing all of the wonderful things we could accomplish in our local area.

We heard many wonderful messages at the conference. Debby and I were anxious to come home and implement some of the best ideas into our council.

By the time I had returned home...we had had a major split in our church and this left me with an unsettled feeling inside.

It didn't work it out with Mr. 6'10" either. We parted company and I started dating another man. His was a jeweler in the area and was recently divorced and was just looking for someone to accompany him out to dinner, dancing, see a movie etc.

I thought he was perfect. He was like a teddy bear. Cute and cuddly and no strings, no commitments, just fun. We dated for a few months and he decided to call it quits. He was caring for me too much and he did not want a permanent relationship, I believe that's the way he "stated" it.

I was hurt, but not mortally. I found out that 10 years later he was killed in a robbery. I hated to hear about that for he was a kind and gentle person. He died a violent death. I started seeing another gentleman soon after my breakup. I didn’t stay down for long. . He was a very popular guy about town. He was friends with everyone. His Dad was the town commissioner and he was planning on attending law school. The judges and lawyers all respected and liked him. So did I. I really fell hard for him. We dated almost two years.

We had a difference of opinion on religion and I was really tired of fighting the “single” life. So I decided I would look for someone in the church to marry and satisfy everyone involved.

He found me. He saw me in an elevator at a Singles Dance and said he fell in love. I don't know which of us was more to blame for the following disaster, myself or him. We did become engaged after a whirlwind courtship.

Dad and my friends were happy, I stuck to my guns, and agreed to marry this man I had known only 2 weeks. I figured I would make everyone happy because I was marrying and I would automatically be happy. I didn't know until then how much I had missed her, her comfort and love. I missed her friendship. I just needed my Mother, I guess. No one loves you like your Mother, no matter what a mess you seems to make out of your life.

I timed my exit so that I would have two full paychecks in my pocket. My girlfriends would come to the house and borrow a few items that I would later need. I stashed them at work over a two week period, started divorce proceedings, and made arrangements for him to be notified after I had left the state.

I didn't want him to know I was leaving, and that was the hardest two weeks I had ever experienced up until that point in my life. I just knew that if he found out I was leaving, he would do something terrible to me. He often voiced his fear of my leaving and would become very agitated and violent.

So I kept my mouth shut and planned my escape. He did not know where my parents lived and didn't even know I was gone until I did not come home at 2:30 in the a.m. as usual. He tried to locate me, but he failed. He ran into a brick wall-named Mom.

She gave him no sympathy and told him he was never going to see me again. I was happy to let her be the bad guy! He did write me letters and actually sent me a funeral wreath with a sinister poem in it, and called the motel room we had at the convention that year.

I have never spoken to him since the morning I left and I hope I never have to again. I have forgiven him and place most of the blame on myself. I married him out of rebellion and marrying for the wrong reason never works.

I was a different person when I came home. I was timid, depressed and not a bit like my usual self. I would cry easily, was frightened of raised voices, and still am. But mostly that life now, seems like it happened to another person. Thank God, for His help in times of need.

Friends were great and made me feel welcome even though they didn't know how to handle me or my fears.

I slowly emerged from my shell, started going back to church regularly and found a job. It was at a Spa. I sold memberships, taught classes and got back into shape. I was a new person, just feeling my wings. I moved into an apartment with a girl I worked with and life was happy once more.

I started dating again. Most of the men I went out with wanted only one thing, especially if you were a young divorcee and looking for fun. I am not proud of many things in my life. I suppose you could call it temporary madness for about a year!

I met my husband now-really by accident. A man that had had too much to drink was harassing me at the disco one evening. Tom, my husband now, stepped in and asked me to dance. I saw that he was shy, and bashful, but cute and he had manners (and a nice behind).... A nice guy was almost unheard of at that time. He asked me for a date and I agreed to go out with him. He showed up two hours late for our first date. I had really given up on him. He made amends for himself and we started dating regularly.
We dated for 1 year, with my keeping him a secret from my church friends and parents. My minister actually thought I was in love and had given me permission to group date at the convention as my divorce lacked 2 months being final. I went to the convention that year feeling lonely and depressed but no one knew. I missed Tom.

I tried to see guys in the church but none of them struck my fancy. I loved Tom. When I returned home, Tom was right there. He was so patient with me and he was dependable. I loved him and started sleeping with him. I felt so guilty that I didn't know what to do. Here I was in another mess of my own making. I prayed to God to help me realize what I should do.

Soon after this, Mom became ill. She had suffered a light stroke and needed help. So I said goodbye to him with heavy heart. I had no idea we could see each other again. I moved home and tried to do the right thing. I never had a menstrual period after I moved home, though. I realized that I had become pregnant on our last night together. I called him in a panic. He said that he wanted to meet with me and talk. I convinced one of my girlfriends to take me to meet him. We talked for a long time. I knew that I loved him, but did he love me? I finally had to break the news to Mom and Dad. Some things you just can't keep hid forever.

I told Mom first and that was very hard. She was angry and then upset and then worried. I had to tell Dad. He never said a harsh word to me. He asked me if I loved the father and that I had a home with him and Mom for as long as I wanted. I did not have to get married.

I counseled with my pastor that next week at Bible study. Much to my surprise he asked me if the father wanted to marry me, and if he did, and I loved him, to go ahead and marry.

Tom and I married on January 13, 1984. It was a Friday the 13th!) A snow was on the ground, and Tom couldn't get his station wagon down the long winding driveway. He had to walk in and help me walk out.

We went to Lexington, Kentucky for a three day honeymoon. He did not tell his parents he was getting married. He also still lived with them, so He took me home to meet his parents! What a surprise I was to them!

Tom found work, and I did too, and we settled down and were happy. We didn't tell his mother or Dad right away that I was pregnant, but she soon found it out. We were asked to leave her house.

Tom knew a man that had an apartment in the hometown of Martin, and we stayed there the first night, sleeping on the floor under sleeping bags. I guess we were in love, because I thought it was romantic!

Tom's Mother was very upset with us. It took awhile for things to smooth over, and I had to accept my part of the blame for that. We had to overcome a lot of obstacles.

She was a devout Methodist. She called Tom a "pervert" for looking at a nude picture of a girl, at the age of 16! So you can imagine what she thought of me, a divorced, pregnant daughter-in-law.

We managed to get along and speak a civil conversation to each other just before Hoyt Wesley was born. On the morning after I had brought Hoyt Wesley home from the hospital, his mother came marching up our apartment steps, at 7:00a.m. in the morning, and said she wanted to see the baby.

She took one look, and declared that yes, he did look like the Dingus' and then she left. She accepted me after that. She thought I shouldn't show myself in public while I was pregnant. This shows you what I had to overcome to earn her friendship.

Tom and Dad became close friends, and Mom was looking forward to her grandchild. Dad started making a cradle for our baby, and his first grandchild. It was beautiful and Hoyt Wesley slept in it his first night at home from the hospital and so did Ariel and Holden.

I soon became pregnant again, this time planned, and had my beautiful daughter, Ariel Dawn. Family upsets forced us to move to Florida for a time. Tom's parents had hurt him deeply and we all had to live through a rough time.

We moved back from Florida after a year, and life once again settled down. I became a member of the Norton Church and everyone was so friendly. I felt like I had finally come home.

I found a job at the school where my kids went. I worked for the special education/ handicapped students and deaf children. I also served as the President of the PTA for two years and enjoyed serving the children and the school. I enjoyed this very much but soon had to quit because I became pregnant with Holden. I bled some in my first trimester and I had to be really careful.

Gradually I became a stronger Christian and relied on God to solve my problems. I was growing in grace and knowledge, and happiness.

Mom and Dad were in Florida, happy and secure, all my brothers and sisters were settled and happy. Life couldn't get any better. Our church had started to change some of it's doctrines, from one of legalism to grace filled and I was so happy.

I had wanted to change for so long, I didn't have any problems with this new truth. I embraced it with wide-open arms. I have never felt so loved or so free.

No longer do I carry around guilt from by-gone years and past deeds. Jesus has put them as far from the east is to the west. I don't have to carry that load...and what a wonderful blessing to know that with assurity.

Dad was laid off from his job in Florida and they moved back to KY. They lived in Pound for a few months and Dad was blessed with a job in Missouri. He went, and worked for a short while, and I moved Mom there after Dad found a house, and the rest is history.

The hardest trial I have ever had to face was losing Dad. He was my rock. He always gave me an answer. Even if it was one I didn't want to hear and he was right. I knew I could count on him. Whatever he said he would do, that he did. I miss him and I miss him being with my children. He was a great influence on them and helped them to grow to what they are today, so strong and independent.... I still hear, "But Mom, Papaw said this....and Papaw said that." And I remind them daily of how special their Papaw was.

Even Holden knows who Papaw was, what he stood for in life, and what he did for us. Holden was just over 1 year old when Dad died.

Dad was so strong and had never been sick and it was almost impossible for us to believe that he really was sick. He became ill during the convention, his favorite time of the year. He wouldn't hear of staying home. He had to go to the convention or bust!

Go he did, but the next day he was taken to the emergency room and was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a butterfly glioblastoma, named for it's unique shape. It spread out from the top of his head like the wings of a butterfly.

Dad flipped the covers off the bed and said Rachel, let's go home, when the Doctors told him of his diagnosis.

He faced death with dignity, with grace, courage and a whole lot of love for his family. We discussed his funeral arrangements, what he wanted and where he wanted to be buried, while still huddled in that little tiny hospital room.

Dad was calm and told us exactly what he wanted. We owe him a great debt for that. We didn't have to guess or wonder what he would have wanted, we knew. And we knew he loved us… We had time to tell him that we loved him and how much we appreciated all of his hard work and labors to make us what we are today. And in the words of Forest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that!"

Mom has always been and always will be my best friend. No daughter could ever have a better Mother. I would be lost without her and she knows it. I am continually getting Lost. I have no sense of direction, as Mom can tell you. She is my staple, my mainstay in life and I wish she could know how much I value her. I always thought that my Dad was the strong one, but I found out that through this ordeal, my Mom is made of steel.

I hope I can live my life with as much stamina and love as she has done and I am honored to be called her Daughter. She has handled grief better than I know I could, and has set a great example for those of us to follow.

My direction now and for evermore will be towards God and his Kingdom, and my love for His Son Jesus Christ is unending, just as it is for my family, my Mother and my friends. I trust my Mother to help me stay on that true and righteous path. She is wise, and she is true and I love her more than I can say or ever show her. One day when she is a Spirit, and can know all things maybe she will know just how much....

I only hope I can now be a better example to others than I have been in the past. I realize the important things in life are free...though can cause us much pain, and yet give us much happiness....
Our love for God, love for family, love for friends and love of mankind are the truly important things in this life. These are the things that Jesus most wants us to learn to have. Once we learn these important things we then in turn, give it away to others.

I hope I have become rich enough in a few of these areas to give away just a little…

Since that time I have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, had two teenagers almost killed in a car wreck, and continually serve my Lord Jesus in whatever way I possibly can. I know He intervenes in my life and the life of my entire family on a daily basis. My health future is uncertain, but it will be okay whichever way it goes…my faith is strong. Right now I have had to quit work and am sometimes in a wheelchair. I lean on a cane to ambulate but my reliance on Jesus Christ and His love will take me anywhere I really need to go. His love will get me through anything.

I am still most blessed to have my Mother with me, and she has her health concerns with diabetes, cellulitis and fibromyalgia. She also has high blood pressure and has lost a lot of mobility due to arthritis. We jokingly tell each other we're going to "Shady Pines Nursing Home" together! My teenage daughter teasingly tells us she's going to send us there!

I have hope, joy and Jesus, a wonderful family, children and husband who love and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I love them. I know that I am assured a place with Jesus when I die. Mom and Dad will be there too, along with my brothers and sister. My three children have been baptized which gives me the greatest of comfort. I'm still working on that husband of mine…What better life could one have? Just remember, no matter where you've come from in your devotional journey with Christ, you are so loved by Him…so much more than you can even begin to imagine. He loves you that much! Thanks for reading and sharing........