"Though you have made me see troubles,

many and bitter,

you will restore my life again;

from the depths of the earth

you will again bring me up."

~Psalm 71:20~

Attention!!

We plan to work at the site Friday and Saturday afternoon. Join us if you like.

After our house burned, our niece, Elsie, drew two pictures of our house to remind us of what it used to look like.

Thanks to Elsie we have plans to work from.

And another little friend, Elise, drew this special autographed picture which she presented to us when she and her mother brought us a tasty dinner.

Today Debbie called to see if she could bring us dinner. We happily accepted. What a blessing! Because of her delicious generosity we were able to work from 2:00 until 9:00 without leaving the site. (By 11:30pm, it's just starting to get dark here in Alaska.) The lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and banana/chocolate chip cake tasted so good to our hungry crew. Thanks Deb and family!

Last year, Doug and some friends hunted black bear. This special knife, the Grayman Mega Pounder, one of Doug's favorites made by Mike of Grayman Knives, attended him in the field to help with the heavy work of skinning, butchering, and wood chopping. One of the photos taken during the hunt was published on the Grayman website. It sported a beautiful, menacing black bear clutching in warrior fashion, the big, equally menacing knife in its mouth.

After the fire, to Doug's delight, while crews were cleaning up debris, both a life size tanned black bear hide and the knife were recovered. So was born the photo below. It was sent to Mike to let him know what happened to our family and the knife.

So Mike & his wife, Sue, sent a wrapped package in the mail....

Two beautiful knives! The 15 inch long, 9 inch bladed Mega Pounder 9 and the Suenami 4. God's kindness shown through His people has truly been incomprehensible, yet so much appreciated. I encourage you to look at the Grayman Knives website at graymanknives.com.

Doug now sports cherished gifts given by his friends: Major Casey's Major League sweatshirt and Mike & Sue's handmade knives.

After Seth worked for five hours today he was thrilled to find the remains of his Mac laptop.

Psalm had received this night light from the Alaska State Fair last year.

Beethoven finally met his match ~ Micah's piano bag since he was seven.

Amazingly, more salvageable photos were found after more than two months under the dirt; a few are shown below:

A polaroid shot taken when Darlene and I taught Micah's Sunday school class at Wasilla Bible Church. (Wendy is holding Kenton while Micah is third from the right.)

Even though this seems like only yesterday, the years have flown by.

In college I spent one summer as an Alaska State Park employee in Kodiak.

My mother and her two oldest siblings; her brother was later killed by a car when he was seven years old.

My maternal grandparents on their 60th wedding anniversary.

Though somewhat damaged, it was a joy to find this snapshot of my father and his dad.

What a great find: Our missionary "matchmaker" Florence, from Kodiak.

In the Statue of Liberty when my sister and I were on a family summer vacation a few years ago.

Tracy and I in New York.