Grandma turned 80

So the pictures below are of my Grandma's 80th Birthday in January. We wanted to have a BIG family bash for her, but different one's schedules could not get matched up so we each just did our own thing with Grandma.. My cousin Chris brought his family out to see her after her Birthday, and my sister and her family, our family along with Mother, celebrated one night with Grandma. We had a GREAT time together enjoying and celebrating Grandma and what her 80 years on this earth has meant for all of eternity. I made Grandma a Scrap book photo album. Not a regular Scrap book , but a leather bound photo album with cloth inside the covers, and pages. of snippets from her life ... Started out with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Lee, her siblings, her life with my Papa Johnson and my mom, uncles and aunt and cousins, her 2nd marriage after papa died.. to Grandpa Simmons and different memories they had with Steve the girls and I.. I didn't fit all the pictures I wanted, but with having surgery in my heart, and everything else that was going on, I managed to get copied over 254 pictures... I enjoyed every bit of it..

While I was doing that, I thought back to my child hood up until now, and what an AWESOME heritage I have, and how Blessed to pass down to yet another generation this awesome heritage. Just like with every family, some of us have drifted apart, but Grandma is the link for us all.. She is the rock.. I have prayed since I was a little girl that Jesus would help me be just like my Grandma.. I will never be able to be JUST like her for I am who God made me to be, but I do have lots of her traits and characteristics, and that is so special.. She helped raise me, and has been a part of every important event in my life. Miles meant nothing to her, she would fly to hold my hand before surgery.. Drop what she was doing to come pray for me, or just let me lay my head in her lap and cry while she would rub my head and assure me that with Jesus and her I would never be alone, and it would all be OK. She has always been my greatest cheerleader, seen my potential, even at my worst, she believed that with Jesus I could become something great in HIM.. And I am so grateful to God for allowing her to live long enough to see me living for Jesus, and living out my dream.. To be a stay at home Wife and Mommy... NOTHING on this earth has ever been so fulfilling to me as this.. I love that my girls have been able to spend so much time with her and learn from her just as I did on how to be a woman for Jesus!!  
Every inch of our life has Grandma;s legacy etched into us to the core. I prayed as a little girl that Jesus would never take Grandma from me, but to let us all go up in the Rapture together, now I hear my girls praying that same prayer.. ( I still do) 
It has not been easy to see Grandma age, and the health scares we have had with her, to think we could loose her.. but this one thing I find hope and comfort in, is, this will not be the last time to see her if Jesus would take her home before us... We will meet again on Heavens shore!! 
SO this I am very thankful for, a Godly Grandmother that loved me unconditionally, prayed without ceasing, and has and is teaching me to love like Jesus wants us to love. ..


I love you Grandma!!