A Bittersweet Anniversary - Dad

Today's anniversary is a bittersweet one.  It seems so hard to believe that it was one year ago that Dad went home to be with His Lord.  This year has been a whirlwind one to say the least.

Dad, there is hardly a day that goes by that I do not mention your name, remember something about you, look at something that reminds me of you.  Just yesterday for example, I was approaching an intersection and there were two big rigs (18 wheelers, aka Semi-Trailers) - one was stopped and one was coming across the bridge and I stopped several meters before the stop sign to allow the rigs lots of room to drive by and around.  The one guy gave me a big wave of thanks and I immediately thought, "Dad would be proud."

And on Sunday Mom was talking about how Dad could park our trailer in any site in the campground - the people would stand around and watch in awe of his manoeuvre skills.  An amazing Dad, my Father!  A man of many talents.

Love you Dad and miss you and in my heart forever!

Happy 7th Australian Wedding Anniversary - WOW!

Link to testimonial on ChristianCafe.

A lot of people reading my blog would be familiar with Peter and my story about how we met....but reflecting today about seven years ago, even I have enjoyed re-reading my story that I wrote as a testimonial for the ChristianCafe website where Peter and I met.

BRENDA AND PETER’S LOVE STORY

Here is a little history about how we met.  If you had told me that I would log-onto a Christian Singles Internet Website, I would have never believed you, but never say never.  On June 23, 2002, I signed up to the Christian Café as a trial member just to check it out; you know, a different way of meeting people, maybe make a few more friends.

The short story is that Peter and I started chatting within a day of each of our joining the café.  I remembered my trip to Australia in 1989 and thot, hey, I should say "hi" to this guy from ‘down under’.  Well, that was the beginning of the end so to speak.  We hit it off and chatted lots via the website (our record typed conversation is 5 hours) and then we started talking over the phone, but not before I put my Private Investigator Hat on and confirmed that Peter really did exist.  After many more chats & phone calls, we discussed next steps because we were definitely going somewhere with this relationship.  Both of us had told a few close friends to be in prayer with us and to be accountable to as well.  So, I traveled to Australia in September 2002 and had the most amazing 5 weeks of my life.  I stayed with friends of Peter’s from his church who also were amazing.  God is so Good!  I felt a peace from the moment I arrived at the airport & met him for real.  We became engaged on September 30, 2002 and below is our engagement pictures we had taken while I was there.  Check us out!

So, we were planning our wedding in Canada on April 26, 2003 & then I’d move to Australia.  Well, Peter came to Canada for Christmas 2002 and met my family & friends.  Peter’s itinerary was very full and it was not until January 1, 2003 that we had time to just “sit, chat and veg”.  As we reflected on 1) our two trips, 2) his returning to Australia on January 10, 2003, 3) the 15 hour time difference between continents and 4) our being apart again, Peter re-proposed to me and asked me to marry him and return to Australia with him as his wife.

So, we were married on January 7, 2003 at the Hess Village Wedding Chapel in Hamilton, Ontario.  The candelit service was attended by immediate family and friends and was followed by a Chinese dinner.  We accomplished a lot in a very few days—in fact, we both believe that if we could survive those few days of 1) packing up my apartment and office, 2) arranging the marriage license (which is a story in itself), 3) organize a wedding, honeymoon in Niagara Falls (honeymoon capital of the world) and 4) move to a new country, we can survive anything.

My parents and Sheeba (family pet poodle) saw us off at the airport on January 10, 2003 and we arrived in Australia on January 12, 2003 with our winter gear on to surprise Chasely (Peter’s daughter), and his family and friends.

As I am writing this, Peter & I recently celebrated our 1^st Anniversary and we are both very happy and know in our hearts that God brought us together.  Like some other testimonials I have read, my (Brenda) family found it hard to understand my meeting someone over the internet and discussing marriage so soon after meeting and I believe that unless you actually experience it for yourself and know God’s peace, it is not easy to comprehend.  To others reading this that may be experiencing similar challenges, let us encourage you to allow your families time to adjust to the idea and pray that God will confirm this in their hearts, too.

We look forward to holding a post-wedding in Australia in June 2004.  We stay connected with family and friends in Canada and Australia via the internet, e-mail, phone calls, webcam videos and by good old-fashioned snail mail, too.

Thanks to Christian Café for making our meeting possible.

Brenda (Canada) and Peter (Australia)

talkinghands252 & grimsey828

Since that was written in early 2003, we held our post-wedding renewal of vows celebration and it was a lovely day.  I reckon I will blog a bit more about that another day; but for now, I have included a photo of our wedding favour from the day and one of the happy couple.

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad

This is the template of what appeared in their local paper.

Mom and Dad were married 50 years to the day of their Golden Anniversary!

They were married in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  Those are the Falls in the background of their wedding picture.

The above is a picture I organised as a gift for mom on Mother's Day a few years ago.  I gathered all of the newspaper articles that were written about her wedding and the bridal showers that were held in her honour and had them framed as a keepsake to ensure they are preserved!

FAMILY CELEBRATIONS! ALOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

What a great cake! Happy 70th Birthday Mom (Bev), Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad (Bev & John) - top left, Happy Retirement Uncle Gary - top right, Happy Recovery Karen - bottom left and Welcome Riley - bottom right.
Aunt Barb gave a lovely speech and handed out celebratory Hawaiian lei's to the special people. Aunt Barb said it beautifully, too - our family had a lot to celebrate and to be thankful for! Yes, indeed...life is too short!

Aunt Barb - can I post the picture of you giving the speech? Thanks Aunt Barb.


Aunt Barb had a beautiful bouquet with flowers from her garden and I love these 2 pictures... The photo of mom and dad was taken by me - we were going to a wedding that day...I'll have to look in my album when I return home to work out the date. The other picture is mom and her siblings with Grandma Mason. God bless Grandma, she is still living, but has recently been placed in a nursing home in Simcoe - I'm hoping to get to see her.


This is a picture of mom and dad I took on the day of the party. Love you mom and dad.

SURPRISE!!!!

Who doesn't like surprises? Well, I have got a good one to share with you.....

My Mom and I were co-conspirators in the plan to surprise my dad and family and friends for a very special occasion. You see, it is Mom's 70th birthday this month, Aug 5 to be exact and Dad and Mom celebrate their Golden Anniversary this month - 50th - on Aug 29.

So Mom's sister Barb was organising a special day for the family to get together on Aug 16 and mom sent me an email on a whim back the middle of July hoping that I may be able to make a special trip to help celebrate this momentous occasion. Well, God blessed me with His favour to allow the plans to work out and yep, the surprise was successful.

We couldn't tell many folks because we did not want to risk any information leaking out and someone writing something up on facebook, and nope, dad nor my brother John could believe it when Mom told them the news of my arrival.

Thursday morning Aug 13, Peter and I headed to the Brisbane, Queensland, Australia airport at 8:30 am and after 24 hours of travelling, I arrived at my parent's apartment at approximately 11:00 pm the same evening in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada (yeah, do that math, eh?).
Stay tuned for tomorrow when I post a follow-up article and more pictures of my trip so far and the big day we had celebrating with family several significant happenings.


Also, more details to follow, but I'm planning an open house at Mom and Dad's for friends and family this coming Saturday to pop in for visit if you are free.

Well, it is late now here in Canada....12:44 am to be exact; so I'll wish you all a good night or good afternoon depending on which time zone you are reading this post in!