Thirty-one years and one month. Cont'd

Thirty-one years and one month. Cont'd

Amy's oldest sister finished college and lived away for a year. Then she moved back home and moved into Amy's room with her. They shared some special times together and secrets. Amy was a good secret keeper.

Even after she got her own apartment, they would still go out to eat, to see a movie or to the zoo together. They always had a special bond.

Amy at 20.

I was busy homeschooling two teenagers and before I knew it, they were off to college also. Amy and I grew closer.  I had more time to just be with her and enjoy her, not just take care of her. Around this time, she stopped putting weight on her feet at all and would not stand anymore, so we carried her everywhere or used her wheelchairs. I would take time to lay down with her after school and listen to her stories on tape recordings from the Library for the Blind and Handicapped. I started reading her stories from the Bible and the books the kids read when they were in late elementary and middle school. Being a book-aholic I have so many more books that I had planned on reading with her, but God had other plans for her life and for mine.
A few years ago, on one of their trips east, my father brought out an old Victrola that he had repaired. I would wind it up and have a song ready to play as soon as Amy got home from her day program.  I would get her out of her chair and hold her in my arms and we would dance back to her bedroom to the old sounds of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," "Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet", "Old Folks At Home," "Oh, Johnny, Oh Johnny," and many others.
Just a year ago at a wedding of a dear young friend of ours, the brides brother asked Amy to dance. I will never forget that moment. How special for her. I wish I had a better picture, like the ones I have in my mind, but this one will have to do to share with you.

Amy dancing at a wedding. She was 29.

Now she dances in the arms of Jesus, but not like this. I imagine her back straight and her arms are held out clasping Jesus' hands and she is on her feet, with strong legs, like a ballerina and she floats as light as air to the heavenly songs that the angels are singing.  And she throws back her head and her hair flows free and she laughs and her eyes sparkle and she is so happy, so very, very  happy.

There was a wedding Amy went to before this one though. It was a very special wedding. Her baby brother got married! He had gone to college 2000 miles away and met a girl out there. When Amy, her sister and I took the road trip west, we were going out to his graduation, and the rest of the family flew out. A little more than a year later, we made another trip out west, This time Amy, my husband and I took the road trip and the rest of the family came on their own. We were going to his wedding! We took a week before the wedding and visited some sites along the way. Amy actually had her wheels on the Oregon Trail. She saw buffalo and big horn sheep and elk right along the road. Of course she wore her Little House bonnet again.

Amy, September 2010

This was such a happy trip. My husband and I figured that this would be what the rest of our trips would be like traveling with Amy. We had it figured out pretty good. We had a van and it was converted with a Braun ramp that would kneel the van and we would just roll Amy in. She had the whole middle of the van and we would use the back seat to change her or one of us could rest there, or sit there and feed her meals if we ate as we drove.  It had large windows that Amy could see out of. She really liked to travel.

Then there was the wedding. Such a very long day for Amy, but she loved every minute of it!

Wedding in Montana

 Now Amy had another sister, who she loved from the very beginning, because her brother loved her.

Reception back home.

Life seemed so perfect.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 

neither are your ways My ways," 

declares the LORD.

 Isaiah 55:8

For I know the plans I have for you,” 

declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 

plans to give you hope and a future.

 Jeremiah 29:11