And now I have seen first hand...It was indeed a miracle!

Hopped in the little Ford Focus and headed east into the sun yesterday.  My purpose was to see my grandson, and a few of the great grand kids.  As most of you recall, Joe Seeger-Guebara, my grandson, rolled his car on May 9 of this year.  That was the evening before he was to graduate high school the day before Mother's Day.  He spent May 10-June 2 in a coma in Wichita, Kansas at the Via Christi Hospital and Trauma Unit.  Prayer requests were flying every where and no one gave up.  I confess, I was skeptical.
June 2, he was moved to Linclon, Nebraska, to the Madonna Rehab Center.  He was still in a coma.  After tests the doctor was explaining to Dona Seeger, his mother, that his discharge date would be August 22 and that he would still, no doubt be comatose.  Joe was propped up in a wheel chair at the time that diagnoses was given.  It apparently triggered something in his brain and he began struggling to stand up!   So they helped him stand.  It was clear in that picture that while he was standing between his mom and a therapist that he was still out to lunch!
I am here to tell you that prayer and perseverance will bring results!  3 months of diligence, prayer and sacrifice by his family and a lot of hard work by him brings us to his return home on August 22.  But I had to see for myself and that was the reason for the trip yesterday.  I give you Joe Seeger-Guebara and his grandma.

And true to his dream and the dedication of the fire department, his shirt.

In case you can not read that, it says "Firemen never die.  They just burn forever in the hearts of the people whose lives they saved."  Joey was a volunteer at the fire department and when he came home, they met him with the fire engines on main street.

This is his brother and Aunt.  Oh, and cinnamon rolls grandma made him!

Yep!  Aunts, neice (who is also my great grandaughter), cousin and  mother at his side, where she has been since May 9.  She is returning to her beauty shop in town on Tuesday.  

So the men folk went on the quest of prairie dog distruction, them being all good red necks in that area and the women folk went into town where Dona cut out hair and we finished up at "Flashback" which is in the old Dairy Queen building.  I had a cherry limeade.

And then my little car was pointed West and I hit the road back to Colorful Colorado!  But I did manage a few shots on the side.

But try as I might I can not capture the panorama of the Kansas sky with the low hanging clouds that look like I can reach out and touch them!  I do try.

So, welcome home Joey!  I understand you are going to the community college in Garden.  Never forget the people who spent the summer in prayer and more importantly, do not forget the man who answered those prayers.

If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains!

                                                             Love, Grandma

This was Saturday when the smoke was at its worst at my house.

 

This was the sun about mid morning on Saturday.  I pointed the camera straight at it and clicked.  Normally all I can see when I do that is the glare, but this was filtered through a lot of smoke from the fires all around us.  The air was filled with a smoky smell and a haze hung over everything.

 

 

About 1:00 in the afternoon we caught a break and I got this picture of a helicopter on its way to one of the fires.  See how blue the sky was?  The smoke smell lifted for this period.

 

 

And then in the early evening it all came back.  Guess the cool morning and evening air held it closer to the ground.  My friend, Wanda, lives over at South Fork which is now under pre-evacuation warning and she said they can not even smell the smoke.  It apparently goes straight up and then down to the valley.  Lucky her.  Well, not really lucky her, because she is still in danger of losing her home.  I would not like to be in her shoes at all!

 

I picked Doug up for church yesterday morning and he said it had rained at his house the night before.  He said it was really nice.  I would not know since it did not rain at my house.  I have not even seen a rain cloud;  just smoke clouds.  I have been talking to the good Lord about this situation and I am sure he will remedy it soon.  Think how fast he could put out those fires, if he had  mind to.

 

But you know how this goes.  It is called nature and ever so often the forest fires thin the underbrush and the dead and diseased trees.  When we were down on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, they had a practice of going in and cutting down the dead trees and hauling them down to the road for people to use as fire wood.  Forest fires there are very rare, but of course the naturalists think that is interfering and a fern may loose it's happy home on the forest floor.  I do not know what the answer is.  I do know that there has been very little loss of life this fire season, which is indeed a blessing.

 

But I have been thinking, if I could get all my friends to pray for rain, maybe it would happen.  If you don't do the praying thing, try the karma and send good thoughts this way.  Just picture a nice soft rain falling all over Colorado.  Not a heavy downpour, because we have lots of areas that are now without vegetation.  That would cause flooding.  Just a little soft rain.

 

I would very much appreciate it!