Grandma Linda

Sorry, I suck and have no pictures of her with the baby. Or my kids. I was tired. A lot. While she was here.

But I thought I would share a quick story about how God plans for us far ahead and how my story involved my Aunt Linda.

Linda is the oldest of my maternal Aunts. She was the first child for my Grandpa Cotton (Harold) and Grandma Violet. She was born pretty much 9 months after they got married so it's safe to say she was a honeymoon baby. Her father was away, fighting in WWII when she was born and for awhile after that so she wasn't so keen on him when he first came home. I hear she eventually warmed up to him.

Linda has been married forever (okay like 40 years) and has/had 3 children. Jon, who has passed away, Jenny (who is 33?) and Jodi (who is 31). She is fortunate to have both of her daughters living near by to her and is an active participant in MOPS for her community.

When I was a small child my mother and father (mostly my mother because my father wouldn't have bothered to care) decided that should something happen to both of them they wanted Linda and her husband Jerry to take me. Like Godparents but a)related and b)without the Catholic ceremony.

Luckily that never happened and I became an adult with both parents intact.

When Lizzie was born Brian also got orders for us to move. Those two things happened about 2 weeks apart. We received orders to Colorado, someplace we had never even asked for (Japan? yes. Italy? Sort of. Germany? Heck YA! Colorado, not so much.) We could not, for the life of us, figure out what purpose we had going to Colorado. It snows there you know.

It also happens to be 6 hours from my Aunt Linda if you don't have to stop 100 times for a potty training toddler to pee.

5 months after Lizzie was born we found out my mother had terminal, stage 4 lung cancer. I was about to be Motherless. And I am essentially fatherless anyways since he sucks so I was about to be an orphan.

Except that God knew that. He knows everything. So he moved me as close as he could to my Aunt Linda while working within the confines of the military and also the destruction of my marriage which was still a couple of years off.

My Mom and Nana used to come for Easter and Thanksgiving without fail. Now I'm able to drive to my Aunt Linda's and have holidays like nothing ever changed. *

God moved me to be close to my family. He moved me so that I would find the love of my life. He moved me to my new home and I never even knew it at the time. Because God is such a miracle worker. That is someone who is very good at his job. *wink*

*Okay, that's not true. Growing up holidays meant horribly inappropriate movies to be watched after the meal but before games. Think "Silence of the Lambs" for Easter and you'll see why I am the way I am.........