Sweet Love Story

This morning I did an initial assessment at the hospital on an elderly lady in the hospital and she shared the most incredible love story with me that I just thought I'd post in hopes of bringing a smile to your faces! I asked her the general questions: how she gets around at home, if she has help bathing, cooking, cleaning, dressing, taking her medications, blah blah blah... and then I asked her who she lived with and her face lit up and she said "My sweetheart. My sweetheart of 40 years." Throughout the rest of the conversation whenever she would mention him, this 80 year old lady's face would light up and she would say, "He's my sweetheart. My sweetheart of 40 years." Finally as I was getting ready to leave she mentioned him again and I said, "How did you meet him?" And she said, "Oh honey you would never believe it....

...He was 12 years younger than me. I played in a band: bass guitar, guitar, and (some kind of horn... I forget), and he played guitar and piano. He walked in that day 40 years ago, spotted me and said to his friend "I'm going to marry that girl!" His friend said, "Well, you don't even know her!" And he said, "I know, but I will. I'm going to marry that girl." I had five children. I was a widow... they were ages 16 to 8 years old. He started talking to me and I brought him back to the house and the first child said, "He's cute, Momma!" The second asked him straight out, "What are your intentions with my Mother?" The third said, "Are you going to be my Daddy?" And the fourth said "We don't have a Dad." The fifth said, "I don't even remember him." And he said to me later, "I didn't even know what to say to that." He sat down on the sofa and two of my little girls crawled up on his lap, wrapped their arms around his neck and told him they wished he was their Daddy. He said right then to them that he would marry me and 5 weeks later we married and have been sweethearts ever since! And I had five children!! Five children... can you imagine that? What kind of a man would marry a woman with five children!?! And then... this is amazing. He took me to his home to meet his mother and we pulled in and I'd been there before! When I was 17 I had a friend who's mother was good friends with his mother and we went over to his house and there was the most precious little blonde haired blue eyed 6 year old there and I gave him a ride up on the basket of my bicycle. When I told him I'd been there before with my friend he said he'd remembered her and that once this brunette gave him a ride on her basket. He realized it was me and said, "Oh my goodness. I looked for that girl over and over after that day and swore I wouldn't marry until I found her. It was you!" And so he married me. And I love him. Lately I've been down. My sister died two weeks ago with COPD and I'm in the hospital now with COPD and have been struggling to breathe. I was praying yesterday down on myself, missing my sweetheart, and I realized this and am keeping this my motto for the rest of my life. You can adopt this motto too: "If you look at life through the eyes of love, you'll only see beauty."

Hearing her story sent goosebumps up and down my arms. Two people loving each other like that, still, after 40 years... It makes me excited to love. I want to have that. And I hope that she'll have a good many more days with her precious sweetheart before God calls her home.


"If you look at life through the eyes of love, you'll only see beauty."

why

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
-Hebrews 11:1

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."
-Hebrews 10:36-39


We live by faith, not by sight.
-2 Corinthians 5:7

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
-2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I don't know if I can explain what is going on inside of my head. My heart is heavy. I have a friend who simply impresses and encourages me with her faith to the extent that I want to grow in my faith like her. But my heart breaks because of the situations in her life and sometimes I just ask God, "Why?" I think it's ok to express that frustration to God along with a deep longing to understand... but I don't think that I will ever be able to understand. I look around the world... at my dear friend, at the thousands of people affected by the floods and storms here in the US, at the people in the Middle East that my heart is so heavy for who face unrest and fear daily, at those in the far East that suffered from the horrible earthquakes and other storms that changed their lives forever. And I get so frustrated and just ask, "WHY!?!" Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do storms root up lives and waters destroy futures? Why are people suffering and food prices keeping the poor from eating? Why is our world in the state that it is?

And then my dear friend tells me about how God spoke to her this week in her situation and gave her hope that He is still in control whether or not it makes sense, and daily He is walking with her, strengthening her and her family and looking for ways to speak his truth, grace and love to her life. And then I hear the pastor this morning talk about being in a storm in an airplane realizing that the plane had been built for the storm and could not be broken, and I realize that we are built for storms too. We are built to endure hardships and persecutions... it doesn't make sense, but yet we have hope. Jesus said, "Do not lose heart, I have overcome the world." I put my trust in his promise and I have hope. I don't want to be one who shrinks back, but I want to persevere and to have faith despite my broken heart and frustration at not understanding. I want to allow God to take me places in my life that don't make sense but where He can speak truth and hope to my heart like He spoke to my friend's this week.

amy davis. that sounds so sweet!

My Amy got married this weekend!!

I went to Ohio last Wednesday after work and stayed with the Slonecker's all weekend helping get ready for Amy's wedding Saturday. Then Wes and I drove to Indianapolis and stayed with his band, Before Tomorrow, at the Agan's house and then I went to Westside COTN and hung out at Camp Camby the next evening. It was a lot of fun. Here's some hot shots from the weekend...

This was Friday afternoon

Wes and I sang "The Love of God" for the wedding

Ok, so I'm sure this isn't legal to have displayed online... so shield your eyes... but dude, this was totally my favorite part of the weekend!! She took the last piece off... I made this for her way back in April. :) How hot is that!?! SHE'S GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALRIGHT!!!

Here we all are on the big day!!

He loves her so much!!

My family came to the wedding... this was funny. I picked Anna up and so Caleb wanted to pick me up but I told him he couldn't unless Dad helped him... and so Dad did!! Ahh!! :)

My Wes and James... James was my hot date. :)

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Chris Davis!!

Dad and Mom Slonecker are so awesome!! I love them so much!!

And there they go... off to Tennessee!! :)

Here's a hot shot of Before Tomorrow practicing for camp.

And this is Dad and Momma Agan who let me stay with them Saturday night and fed me Sunday! I love them so much!! :)

:)

just a little note to say...

MY BEST FRIEND GETS MARRIED IN TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
eek!!! :) yay amy michelle slonecker!! (and christopher allen davis!! ha.)

and, and, AND!!!
my hot cousin tim got married last weekend!! :) here's a couple hot shots...

me and the burkey boys (minus jonathan in italy) :(


kim and kara... now there's two kbs!! :)

and this is us at the end of the big day...
THEY'RE MARRIED!!!
yay mr. and mrs. timothy burkey!!

shabang.

little update...

You know, it's been a while since I updated this here blog. I've started mimicking my supervisor at work and saying the phrase "you know" a lot. It's kind of annoying... not when she says it, but just because I never used to start sentences like that and now I can't seem to stop!! :) Anyways... about the update... :)

The hospital field placement is going ok. You know, (crap I did it again, ha) it's not really what I want to be doing and sometimes it's really hard to get up in the morning, but I'm doing it. This past week I started walking around the hospital on my own, meeting with my own patients, and doing some documentation on the computer. They tell me I'm doing really well. I just wish I could put my whole heart into it. I'm working on it, but it's really hard. I catch myself counting down hours constantly and reminding myself that it's only 8 more weeks, and I just don't want to do that, you know what I mean?

In the meantime... I'm working at Barnes and Noble: I LOVE IT!!! :) Seriously it's the best job ever!! Saturday I was trained on the whole floor for the first time, and I'm starting to feel confident and competent in helping people find books. I even think I know how to order them online for customers!! I've been pretty steady in selling memberships (I have quite the speal), and I let them know that I'd love to be a part of storytimes and I started to be trained in the Kids and Teens section and some Friday soon I may be able to read a story to the little kids around!! How hot is that!?! Next week on my way to Amy's wedding I'm going to swing by a Barnes and Noble in the Indi area and put my transfer application in. That would be great to still work at Barnes and find a Social Work Job as well.

Also... I'm really looking into applying for a job working with the government overseas. I'm really struggling with the idea of living in America for the rest of my life and I have such a desire to learn language and culture and work with people that I almost think, if I have this strong passion and I can get a job at an Embassy or in some other organization overseas, then why not? Especially if I would find something that I would love to do and just have an incredible opportunity to live life with persons I normally wouldn't come into contact with. That's my dream. We'll see where it takes me.

These are some pictures from last weekend when I went home to be with my family and my Amy. It was SUCH a refreshing Memorial Day weekend. I LOVE being outside... we went fishing and I caught a 32 inch catfish!!! How freakin amazing is that!?! :) This weekend was really nice too... I got to sleep in on Saturday and then I worked out, tanned, and then worked at Barnes and Noble. Today I went to People's Church where Before Tomorrow played and my friend Nate invited me to a cook out tonight. I took my friend Bonnie with me and we had a blast just chillin at the State Park watching the guys try to no avail to light the fire. (We girls had to save the day and supply paper and then we went on a search and borrowed lighter fluid that did the trick.) Ha. It was awesome. So... here's some hot shots from last weekend.

meet alfred. the 32" catfish i caught. it took me like 10 minutes to reel him in!!

last picture with jonathan and kate...
world travlers on their way to ghana (kate) and italy (jonathan)