Skip to main content

Birthdays and Brothers

Somebody's had a birthday yesterday!  Do you little cousins know who it was?  You guessed right!  It was Dalton.  Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about the days leading up your cousin's first birthday...

When William was about to be born, Grandaddy and Grandma Beckner decided to come to Brazil after he was born.  Granny Atha came the next year.  Together they all decided that they would alternate and that one or the other would try to come every year  Then when we found out about Dalton's arrival, Grandaddy and Grandma thought it would be nice to come and see him be born.  Uncle Wesley came, too.  It was their turn, so to speak, so that all got ready to come.


2007 Trip


Dalton was due around the end of July, so they planned their trip for that time.  There was just one problem with the big plan.  Nobody told the baby!  Grandma and Grandaddy's tickets were good for about two weeks.  Time started running out and there was no sign of Dalton's arrival.  There were only a few days left of their trip and Dalton was already two weeks past his due date.

I went in for a doctor's appointment and told the doctor about my dilemma - relatives from overseas waiting for a baby to be born with only a few days left before they had to go!  William had also been two weeks late.  The doctor laughed and said that my pregnancies must all run late.  With William I went into labor but there were some complications and he had to be born by surgery at the last minute.  The doctor had hoped that Dalton could be a natural birth or that at least we could try.  Instead he decided for the sake of all that were involved that it might be good to just get on with this belated birth, so he set it up for baby surgery for the very next day.  Ah, and there was the fact that I couldn't hardly walk anymore because Dalton was squashing a nerve going down one of my legs!

Grandaddy, Grandma and Uncle Wesley got to be there for the big day.  But you can ask Grandaddy where he hung out while waiting!  :) They got to be there when the baby was brought home from the hospital and were able to enjoy several full days goo-gooing and gaa-gaaing over little Dalton.

When Uncle Byron and I got home from the hospital, everyone was at the house waiting for us.  Uncle Wesley sat down with little baby Dalton in the kitchen on a big bench.  Little William came to inspect the new creature a little closer and decided to give him a little tap on the head to see if he was real!  Real he was and Dalton decided to prove it with a squeal and his first good cry.   Then Uncle Wesley had his first uncle to nephew chat with little William in the bedroom!

Moments before the fateful, first bonk on the head.  William is thinking...
 Nevertheless William and Dalton ended up being the best of brothers.  They often slept in the same bed together and the whole time they were little they shared the same room.  Seems today they are still pretty good friends!


Just a little brotherly loving hug?


The book of Proverbs has a lot of verses about brothers.  Sometime brothers do fight but they can be your biggest supporters and helps. "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." 
When times are adverse and rough, brothers ought to be there!  Remember friends come and go, but brothers are there for life!


2015 with Aunt Waulene Fay

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Everything New

I'm reading a book for old missionaries about all the crazy things people go through in returning from their field of service to spend time in their home country.  One of the chapters is all about how tough it is to "go home."  Things change and the missionary ends up out of sync with what's new since their last "home" visit. "Coming home" this time has been smooth in some ways and a little crazy in others.  Byron and I haven't had a real furlough for six years.  On one hand our recent short visits pathed the way for an easier transition.   But staying for a longer this time around means we don't have to feel as rushed to go and do and see, even though we are always reminded of that the pages of the calendar are passing by. Keeping in touch with our friends in Brazil is uniquely easy nowadays allowing us the privilege of almost instant contact, real time decision making and even seeing regular photos of my cat.  We can send money quickly an...

Sabbatical Time

  Furlough, it used to mean getting my boys all prepped with new clothes, all ready to attend classes in real schools, and all set to interact with Americans.  Today, it means finding someone to take care of our Brazilian pets and hoping the grandkids remember who we are.  I didn't even buy any new clothes! Thankfully we found who I hope will be the best house/petsitter ever, and I think my grandbabies already know who I am.  Tying up all the loose ends of ministry and house took more effort and time than ever, but we made it to the aiport on time and so far so good.  I am sitting unstressed in the largest airport in Brazil this afternoon typing away with few concerns. Hopefully this sabbatical furlough will be just that unstressed with few concerns.  We need to visit around 25 churches, see as many loved ones as possible and go to Walmart as often as we can.  We also need to rally support for the missionaries that are joining our ministry efforts in t...

Quitting

This fall I posted about a camping trip my husband and I took with our boys. Our oldest was getting set to head back to Brazil without us and we wanted to get away together with just the family for a few days. When it came time to get in the car, our middle boy refused to get in. We were leaving for a weekend with reservations in another state. It was a tense moment as he started walking away from the car and house and down the road away from us. It was just one of many such moments that occurred over the past two years as we watched our boy slip farther and farther away from us and our values. I worked literally day and night to find help, look for counsel, and often searching for our missing boy.  Nothing we did seemed to change the direction in which our son's life seemed to be going. Many times my husband and I felt like giving up.  We prayed.  We asked others for help and advice.  I remember one night in particular as I was chatting with a...