​Tommy and John boy have been traveling somewhere almost every weekend for the past 30 years or more.  They used to fly everywhere until the airlines got so wonky and miserable.  Now they drive.

Since they started driving, I have been going with them a lot more.

 The past two weekends they were in Indiana. The first weekend was a seven hour trip. The  second was a nine hour trip!  They went up on Saturday for the nine hour trip, and back on Sunday..18 hours in two days.  I opted out!

This weekend they are headed to Georgia.  They go down on Saturday, and again, back on Sunday.  This, however, is only about a 4 hour trip.

Once again, I had decided not to go. 

When I went to bed last night, I kept going over and over in my mind.."should I go, or not."  Finally I said "well, maybe I will have a word from the Lord in the morning" and I went to sleep.

When I got up, I told Tommy I was wrestling with whether or not to go.  I asked him what he thought.  He said "the person who goes on a journey, has a story to tell."

A word from Tommy? ....or....A word from the Lord?

I hope you have lots of stories to tell today.  P.S.  The name of the church where we are going is "Journey"!

​I told you in yesterday's blog about 9/11,  that I would tell a story about the couple we met at the World Trade Center.  Here it is!

As we were standing in line for half price tickets, the wife told us a wonderful story.  She and her brother were separated when they were very young and sent to live with two different families.  She was, at the time we met, probably in her 50's.  She never knew where he went and had never again seen him. She lived in 14 different foster homes growing up!

Her husband and their daughter had been training to do the Iron Man Marathon in Honolulu, Hawaii.  She went with them even though she wasn't going to participate.  One morning before the marathon, the husband and daughter went for a run.  She stayed at the hotel, and for some reason decided to look in the Hawaiian phone book, which was very thick.  Her maiden name was a very unusual name...Native American.  As I recall it was Mankiller.  She thought to herself "I wonder if there are any Mankillers in the phone book?"  There was one!  

She then thought, "I wonder if it is my brother?"

She then decided to call the number.  A man answered and she panicked and hung up.  She sat there for a few minutes then decided to dial again.  The man picked up on the first ring and said "Is this my sister?"

True story.  She told us that they were reunited after all those years and it was glorious.  She also said that he knew where their Mother was but she told us that she was not ready to meet with her yet.

​I am writing this on September 11, 2024.  It has been 23 years since the fateful day the twin towers were hit in New York City.  We were living in Brooklyn at the time.  Two blocks from our house we had a perfect view of those huge towers.

We were to be in Tennessee the day it happened.  We had come home for Tommy to have open heart surgery.  The car was packed and ready to go back to the city, but they weren't allowing anyone in so we had to wait a week before we could go back.

We often went into Manhattan to purchase half price tickets to Broadway plays.  We always went early so would have been there about the time the towers were hit.

One day we had gone into the city to purchase tickets and were standing in line with a woman.  We started talking to her while waiting,  We found out she was from Boston but was living in the city because her husband had been hired as security for the towers.  She told us she missed Boston and was anxious to go home.  As we stood there waiting for the TKTS Booth to open she mentioned somewhere in the conversation that she had only brought a credit card to get her tickets.  We told her she had to have cash at the half price booth.  We also told her that we would loan her the money.  (Sometimes we aren't real bright!)  

It turned out well though and she gave us a check that didn't bounce.  She also invited us for supper at the apartment she and her husband had rented.  It was down at the south end of the Island where one had a good view of the statue of liberty.

We had a wonderful time that night and I will tell you the story she told us that night in my next blog.  

We assumed that the couple were Christians, but the more we talked over supper at their apartment, we realized that they were Mormon.  

He told us that he would take us up to the top of the twin towers sometime and we wouldn't have to pay.  There was a fee if you went past a certain floor.  I have thought many times "what if we had picked THAT day to take him up on his kind offer?"

The day the planes hit, I tried all day to call them, to no avail.  I never heard from them again.  I have often wondered if he was up in the top part of one of the towers that day and wasn't able to make it out.  I wonder if she ended up going back to Boston.  So many things I wonder but will never know.

I don't even remember their names now, but every time I think about 9/11 I wonder.

​Many years ago, when our boys were very young, we lived about 2 hours from Mother and Daddy.  Daddy sort of knew, when we left after a visit, about what time we would arrive back home.  So, almost without fail, as soon as I walked in the door, the phone would ring.  I always answered "hi Daddy" because I knew it would be him.  It always was.  (This was in the day before cell phones and the name of the person who was calling popped up!")

Our son, Jason Amos, and my sister, Teresa, have inherited my Daddy's talent.  When we are gone on a trip, which is often because of Tommy and John boy's work, invariably when we walk in the door, the phone rings.  I always answer "hi Daddy" even though I know it will either be Jason or Teresa...sometimes both, one right after the other.  

My time on this earth is limited now, but I have a feeling that as soon as I walk inside the gates of glory, my Daddy will be waiting (and my Mother).  He will still have that sixth sense of when I will be arriving.  I will first say "Hi Daddy" to my heavenly Father, then right behind him I will say "Hi Daddy" to my earthly Father.  What a day that will be!