IT'S A WONDERFUL "EARLY" LIFE

I'm reminiscing tonight folks!
I had an absolutely wonderful childhood......
I spent so many years growing up, with parents who created an environment filled with love and caring. I was the baby of 5.(3 brothers and 1 sister) I was spoiled rotten, according to my brother,Jeff.I was sick, with Epilepsy, so much, growing up, but I didn't really realize it all that much.( I just thought I had an electronic brain!) Daddy instilled in me the ability to draw and a love for creativity in stories. He was the "apple of my eye". Mama gave me a huge desire for gardening, and flower arranging, and pretty much, all that I "look like". My basic temperament and character is another story altogether.....
Daddy's Father,"Pa Ray", or more affectionately, as he was known,"Sunshine", was my other sweetheart.He was as deaf as a doorknob, and was the sweetest man, I ever knew! He told me all the 'Brer Rabbit stories, (and a few of his own), and we would often take walks in our local cemetary at nightime. He gave me my acting and story telling abilities, I do believe, and he was a sweetie! Grandmother Ray, on the other hand, would NEVER, and I do mean never, be the one stuck holding the "Old Maid" card either!!!
Now, Grandaddy Bouterse (Mama's Daddy) knew the Bible backwards and forwards. He was a retired Dutch Baptist Pastor, who shampooed carpets on the side, but he was the "hell-fire and damnation" type, and I wasn't all that crazy about this type, growing up. He was big,tall, and bald.....
Now, the reason I am who I am today, is because of his wife...... a precious little lady known as Reina Ryskamp Bouterse......
My,my,my, did she ever love our Lord! "If" ever there were someone who could love you into the Kingdom, then she was it! She had a smile on her face from the day I first saw her; She took her teeth out at night, and let me use her chamber pot, in the little trailer, since they didn't have a bathroom;She taught me scripture, by example, amidst making Guava Jelly;She had a little placque above her bedroom door, that said:"God First".......and it is in my kitchen window today.
Oh, too many things to tell you, but she is the one, who took the time to tell me about the love of God, and His Son, and how He died on a cross, for me..........
And how He was going back "Home", to prepare my very own place, so that He could come back again, and take me Home again, to be with Him......
Pretty simple logic for a 6 year old.......
But I never forgot it either.......
I can't wait for you all to meet her someday. You'll see what I mean. God surely knew what He was doing on that one!
Becky