Photo Catch Up (1)

Ben, our son, has been making a trip to see us approximately every three to four months since his dad has been ill. His most recent one was the end of October. What an encouragement it was to have two days together!

This time we were able to meet Debby and Clarke for lunch at Petra's. We had been wanting them and Ben to meet for such a long time. But, I forgot to take a single picture!!

Pictures from the rest of the time, though:

 A ten minute stop at Towne Lake for a few father and son pictures before going home for a nap.

              Evening spent with Amy and family was filled with laughter, LOTS of talking, remember -when stories, and charades.

                                           

There was also a special first dance for Shi with her Uncle Ben...

(Even though Stew was a bit unsteady on his feet, tired, and not feeling his best, he tried dancing, too.  Little did we know that two days later he would begin running a high fever and become very ill. It is times like those captured in these two videos that help keep us anchored in hope and thankful.)

and a time of worship with prayer.

Our hearts were full and our smiles huge!!

Thankful!

Hello dear friends and family,

It has been a long time since writing and we are truly sorry. We could give a lot of reasons why, but the truth is there aren't any really good ones, just real ones.

At first it was due to a couple of unexpected crises in our lives.  That was then followed by the in-the- face reality that each time I sat down to write there were no words waiting to be written.

I kept hoping it would change. For a while though, it didn't. Words just weren't coming together for a blog post.

When they finally did, we could no longer access our blogsite account. At that point, we wondered if it was time to stop the blog. We knew the posts had been going out for over a year and a half and that was a long time for others to keep reading about people who are in a battle that on the surface does not seem to be improving.

The original purpose of "Face to the Wall"  was to keep those who followed it informed and for prayer for Stew. It grew into sharing about our lives, the many kindnesses and hope God has brought into our days, and hopefully encouraging others about God's loving presence in their own life situations.  We are currently praying for wisdom to know if the blog is now only meeting our need to have a journal, in which case it can be written as a personal dairy instead.  Or, is it God's purpose for us to continue on as is with the hopes that others are reading it and being encouraged as they prayed for Stew ?

Waiting for wisdom.

In the interim, and now that access has been restored to "Face to the Wall", we will create a few picture filled blog posts with mini updates from the past couple of months. We have missed you.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and that you have entered into the New Year with the God given gift of many hopes and dreams for the days to come.

With hearts of gratitude to the One Whose loving kindness still has us here doing life together, and for each of you who have shared your life and His with us,
Stew and Deb