This is beautiful! Hope it inspires you as it did me.

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.

"Your son is here," she said to the old man.

She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes
opened.

Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw
the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached
out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old
man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the
bed.All through the night, the young Marine sat there in the poorly
lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love
and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move
away and rest awhile.

He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was
oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking
of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging
greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.

Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said
nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now
lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she
did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympat hy, but the
Marine interrupted her.

"Who was that man?" he asked.
The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.
"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my
life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed
his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too
sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed
me, I stayed."

The next time someone needs you ... just be there. Stay.

WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS GOING THROUGH A
TEMPORARY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY
HUMAN EXPERIENCE (I love this line)

PLEASE PASS THIS ONE ON AND GOD WILL BLESS YOU!
THIS IS WHAT WE ARE PUT ON THIS EARTH TO DO ANYWAY. RIGHT ?
HAVE A GREAT DAY AND BLESS SOMEONE ELSE IN SOME LI! TTLE WAY TODAY!
GOD IS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD.

I'm waiting to see IF Branden will have three faces...PRAY!!!

There is always hope!!!
Granny

Now you just gotta love someone like this...

Happy Easter,
Granny

But who is counting. That is what Branden said to us today. He is getting very excited about coming home. I have no intention of ruining his excitement by telling him of the problems. He will find out soon enough. What happens then will be up to him.

He has not had a hair cut since he has been in there and I think we are going to have a bit of a problem over it. His hair hangs in his face all the time. ICK!! I have an appointment set up for him on the 23rd to get it styled. I told him he can keep the length, but he is going to have some kind of style to it. He is much to handsome to have it hanging is him face. It is nice to be able to have this kind of arguments again.

Billy decided to get his hair all cut off!! It is about 1/2 inch on the top. the sides look like a normal male haircut. I can deal with it!!

Everyone have a blessed Easter.

Bye from good old Washington.
Granny

Posted 11:18PM PDT

I find it interesting that my Pastor knows that we are hurting and confused and everything else all at once and we get no call. I find it interesting that our child has been locked up for 7 months and no visit, no call. Not even a card from the church during the holidays. Something is wrong here. Now they are still sticking to not allowing Branden to attend worship services. Something is VERY wrong here.

I am still hurting so bad because I had placed so much trust and love into this church family. Now as far as I know only two people are on our side. Of course this is suppose to be a big secret. This action is not to be public as it might make people look poorly on the church. It might hurt the body, the member of the church. What are we chopped liver??? We are members!!!! We continue to give to this body with service.

I do understand the need to feel safe with a sex offender around. But this child only committed one offense. We turned him in so there would not be another. His PO says that he has to stay line of sight with us when we are not at home. But that is not good enough for them. They seem to believe he needs this big mentoring program before he can be allowed to return to worship.

I DON'T THINK SO!!!! God wants us to worship him and Branden will be allowed to worship. If not at our home church, then we will go elsewhere and worship.

Pray for us all.
Granny