Happy 87th Birthday Grandpa Collin!

Yesterday Joe and I drove over to Norfolk, VA to celebrate my Grandpa Collin's 87th birthday!  We packed the hospital bag, just incase, but thankfully didn't need it!  We had a wonderful time with family, short, but sweet.  Literally and figuratively.  Aunt Janine made a killer coconut cake.  Baby girl had to have it with ice cream.  She's so demanding.   I think Grandpa Collin had a great time.  There was a great turnout for his party, good friends from his church and family all came in for BBQ Ribs and then come cake!  He got ALOT of chocolate and coffee as gifts.  We all know the way to his heart is through his stomach!

Yeah, thats Collin.  He's pretty much the man.

I wouldn't be surprised if he still looks like the above.  Thankfully he's modest!

Baby Girl getting to have lunch with Collin and Aunt Janine before she's born!

Collin is amazing.  He isn't my biological grandpa.  My grandpa, Harry Deschamps, died when I was two.  My grandma Ethel remarried Collin in 1995.  They were 70 years old.  They thought maybe they'd have one year together, but God gave them 11 years of wedded bliss.  They were incredible models of how to love your spouse more than yourself and then how to love God more than your spouse.  God took Grandma Ethel home in 2007 after a pretty traumatic illness.  Collin was heart broken but said that he believed God had more for him to do on this earth still.  He has loved and missed her daily, but he never let it slow him down.   You'd think that the stroke he had at 35 would have slowed him down too.  Nope.  He was Mr. Universe and a beach gymnast in his hay-days and at 70 when he married my grandma, he took me and my brothers to the gym and SERIOUSLY put us to shame w/ his weightlifting.  Now at 87, he can hardly walk.  His heart is failing and it's hard to understand him, but he keeps on going!  He sure can still put down a pot (or two) of coffee, and he'll whip you in a fierce game of Rummikub.  Up until a week ago he was serving in a prison ministry, leading men to Christ.  He is active at his church and never misses a Sunday service.  He meets weekly with his pastor and and another friend for breakfast.  He faithfully emails anonymous people around the world and points them to Jesus through an online organization called GMO (Global Ministry Outreach).  He is a powerful prayer warrior and spends time in the Word every day.   If there is anyone I want to be like, it's him.  He has had many trials and heart aches, but he dies to himself everyday in order that others may live.  His heart is for his Maker.  I know he yearns to go home to Jesus and his bride, Ethel.  But I for one am thankful for the times I can be with him on this earth.  I thank God for the blessing of having a grandpa, who has pointed myself, and my family to Jesus through the dedication of his life to Jesus!   Happy Birthday Grampie!