How Helen's Happenings Began

Even a child shows what she is by what she does. Proverbs 21:11

"She Sings As She Rocks..."

Nov.26, 1950

Just up from a nap, Helen is in the living room looking around for something to get into. Her first action presented a touching little scene. She sat patiently in the big chair while her shoes and socks were put on.. or should one say socks and shoes? Anyway, the routine finished she climbed down and went over to her little rocker. A few seconds later she sat down in it and began to rock and sing.

A little more than 60 years ago my mother, a young missionary wife sat in Mendoza Argentina. As she remembered that time in her life in her later years she remembered being lonely, missing her family in Louisville, Mississippi thousands of miles away. Then there was no e-mail, no Instant Messaging, or Facebook. Telephone calls were very expensive and her parents who lived on a farm in Mississippi still had an outhouse and certainly didn't have a phone. To call her parents she had to ask them to go to her brother's farm where there they did have a telephone. So how was she to keep her parents and my dad's parents connected to this growing family? Since my mother has always been a reader and subsequently a writer, she began a weekly little letter that she would call Helen's Happenings. Many years later after Daddy and Mother moved into Trace Pointe Assisted Living I was able to lay hands on a scrap book with some of the letters pasted there that my granmother Mamaw Whitten (mother of Charles Whitten who is my dad) had saved. What a blessing to reconnect with the thoughts of my young mother especially since those memories are slowly fading with the onset of Alzheimers.

January 1951

BIG EVENT TAKES PLACE

"On December 26, 1950 a big event took place in the life of little Helen. Up until that time she had hesitated to walk alone and wanted her parents to walk around with her so that she could at least hold on to a finger for support. Tuesday afternoon she was standing by Mother's chair in the living room and suddenly decided that she could walk. Since that time she has steadily gained confidence in herself and now she is showing the work that she can walk. Her latest accomplishment is to get up from the floor when she is sitting down without holding on to anything.

It's easy to see how proud she is of her little self. When she first began to walk, she would toddle from one parent to the other and would laugh out loud when she arrived. In this picture Helen is running so fast toward the camera that her hair is standing on ends. She has Mother's measuring cup in one hand and her plastic drinking cup in the other. This picture is on the side patio. "

Discovering our purpose

"I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for." Jer.29:11

It's been a while since our kids were this small. Now Cristina's just months away from having our 2nd grand baby.

Just today I was talking to Anita (smallest in the picture - now 27) and she asked me how long we waited to have our first child. That's Cristina. I remember thinking I had wanted to wait a couple of years to have a baby--wanting time to adjust to being married. I wanted to at least feel comfortable with cooking, and all that went with being a wife.

I heard the phrase here lately, "Life happens" and another one comes to mind, "The best made plans..." Well that is sort of what happened to me. 5 or 6 months into marriage I was expecting. I called to find out the results at the lab, and he said, "The rabbit died." It took me a few seconds to understand that meant that I indeed was pregnant. I remember sitting in our treehouse like apartment in Pensacola, waiting for Steve to get home to break the news to him.

Anita said that she feels like being a mother would give her more purpose in life. From this end with all the kids being grown up and gone I told her that was a temporary purpose, because from experience I knew that they do grow up and go on with their lives. What would my life have been like if I had not had these 4 precious very different individuals in my life. I can't imagine. Much of the woman that I am now was formed as they grew up beside me.

So now we have one more than the picture show's who's now 24. He, Tim, is in the Army in Iraq for a year. The baby in the picture (Anita) was then younger than our grandson Jared is now (14 mo.). Cristina, Philip and Anita are all married now. Life goes on.

I do remember, when we lived in Honduras, after Philip was born ('78), that I was glad that I had been pregnant with Cristina in the U.S. I learned enough about breast feeding and what a baby was like that I was not confused when my first pediatrician wanted to give Philip something for diarrhea when he was several weeks old, probably just because he had not seen the stool of a totally breast fed baby before.

Now it's 27 years or so after this picture was taken and I am still finding the purpose that Jesus has for me. I still am the Helen who wanted to be a blessing to other people's lives. Even in the midst of things that confuse me and the challenges that are before me I am really a blessed woman. There is so much more and "I aim to find out what that is."

So now I embark on the great adventure of writing some of the things that have happened to me and some that are yet to happen. As I write I will understand myself better and you can get to know me as well. Join me!