All of life is a journey.... life is one separation after another....trial is to be expected....this world is not our home only a stopping place on the way....we never totally arrive this side of heaven but are instead working out our "salvation" in this imperfect world. The only guarantee we have in this life is that Jesus is the Christ and He is who He says He is... our God and our Savior and that He has overcome the sorrow of this world... (John 16:33)
April 18th, 1993 brought two families together after the difficult and shattering losses of Pam Kirkbride (Hannah and Abby's mother) and Rev. Chuck Westerman (Jeremy, Mick and Charlie father). God took the "ashes of our lives" and brought forth a thing of "beauty" in the form of our Kirkbride Westerman family unit that has taken these 13 years to put together. Who would have dreamed that possible back in 1991?
We again find ourselves in a rebuidling mode after our house fire on April 28, 2006 which burned our lovely Chugwater ranch home and all our possesions and memories to the ground. So once again we turn to the Lord to start the rebuilding and restoration process. We claim our theme from April 18th, 1993 and God's great promises within.....We watched Him do it before and are confident that He will do it once again...this time to bring "beauty" out of the literal "ashes" of our lives. I tell you that one of the most sobering moments of my entire life was seeing all our earthly possessions reduced to 4 huge dumpsters......but I know that ours is a God who promises to:
We would be honored to have you come share with us the newest journey of restoration and rebuilding as we watch with expectation how God will once again put our lives back together after our fire.
The picture above is 9 days after the fire. All the kids managed to come home because the town of Chugwater's fire Department hosted a benefit for our fire and for the fire of a neighbor's house which burned down ten days prior to our fire. Months before the fire Dan and I had been working to adopt each others children. God orchestrated it so that the adoption took place on May 8th when all the kids were home to share the experience! We felt it was a wonderful celebration of the love God has allowed us to share as a family these past 13 years. The boys will remain Westermans but our family is now legally one unit. We never would have been together for this day had not the fire happened. God is bringing "good" (Romans 8:28) even now.
Charlie, Lynn, Raynee and the Midcaps (Jamie Kirkbride's dear family) at the Chugwater Benefit May 7th, 2006
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