Happy Belated New Year and
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Changes, Tears, Joy, God’s Faithfulness…
a few words that marked 2016 for
us
· One year has passed since my mama was suddenly taken
from our lives and our home. Oh, how immensely we miss her presence, her wisdom,
her love, but we know she is safe in the arms of Jesus. For that we are greatly
comforted!
Jimmy's 7 months of rotator cuff surgery recovery from January through July gave us lots of special time together as a couple. I LOVE this man so much! His faithfulness to the Lord speaks to all his relationships.
· Mom/Granny Bollinger turned 90 on June 1st
with a big family fish fry celebration. We are so glad we had that special time
for her since it was the last birthday she had on this earth. God called her
home just three weeks ago. We are still grieving my mama, and now we add the tears
of missing Jimmy’s sweet mom. (Empty chairs at the dinner table each night make
it hard.)
· A special phone call came to Jimmy from Andy Patterson
in early summer asking if he could pursue an intentional relationship with
Chiree. There were certainly tears of joy with this phone call! Yay! God was
truly The Orchestrator of it all!!
· September found us helping prepare a huge Mexican meal
to celebrate Dad Bollinger’s 90th birthday. This party brought over
40 family members, and we made some great memories. What a godly patriarch he
is!
He and Mom Bollinger celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in October. This saying, “All Because Two People Fell in Love,” is certainly true for them, as the current count of the Bollinger Clan is 78 loved ones.
· A summer trip and fall trip to Michigan to be with
Nathan, Katie and our precious two grandchildren were full of laughs. Grace is
all little girl with kisses and hugs and loving clothes. She is just beginning
to talk at 1 ½. Caleb (our builder, thinker and communicator) at 3 ½ is talking
away. He comes up with some great lines. Example:
Katie was teaching him from Matthew 7 about the wise man building his house on
the rock and the foolish man building his house on the sand. Caleb piped up
saying, “And we built our house on the grass!!”
Nathan and Katie just completed their seventh year serving with Revive Our Hearts and are grateful for the opportunity to serve in a ministry that seeks to get the gospel and God’s Word out to all people groups.
· A memorable trip to Colorado in October with Chiree
ended up with a beautiful diamond ring on her finger and a promise to marry
Andy and serve the Lord with him for the rest of their lives. Fun trivia is
that Andy’s grandparents and her grandparents have been the best of friends for
50+ years. And, Andy’s mom, Nancy, was in our wedding 38 years ago. Though we
have been family friends for all these years, because he lived in Colorado and
we lived in Missouri, they have had little time together in the past…but God
brought their lives together and they will be married on April 8th! (You can read their story at: Visit their wedding website at:
· November was a month I spent suffering through
shingles. Wow, do I never want to have that again!! The pain was beyond
anything I had ever experienced, but the Lord helped me through it all, and
from this experience, I learned how to pray better for those in chronic pain. I
thought often about those who have never placed their trust in the Lord Jesus
as their Savior from sin. The Bible says they will experience hell for all
eternity with no relief from pain. May we all be found faithful sharing that
precious gospel of salvation with all we know and meet along the way!
The new year of 2018 arrived and on January 21st, the Lord called my dear mother-in-law home to heaven. Though we knewshe was ready to go, it was hard to tell her goodbye.
All 8 grandsons were pall bearers.
I am so grateful for the precious mother-in-law she was to me and the great mom she was to her six kids. Again, we rejoice that she, too, is safe in the arms of Jesus! As Katie so beautifully wrote...
There were 13 of the 14 grandchildren at the funeral.
We missed Christy (below)
as she was caring for sick ones.
Above Mom and Dad's bed are the graduation pictures of all 14 grandchildren.
· As we celebrate this Valentine’s Day and wish each one of you, our family and friends a special day, Jimmy and I both
agree that the greatest love shown to us is God’s love…But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. –Romans 5:8
