Your great Nanny--

This year your great Nanny passed away.  Helen got to visit her almost everyday for the first 7 months of her life.  Nanny adored Helen.  She called her Dolly from the start because she said you were just like a doll.  Helen you gave her a reason to wake up every morning. She would nearly run from her room when you arrived so that she wouldn't miss a moment with you. Your uncle Chris took this picture of the both of you, and entitled it "a year in an image".  You spent your first year on this earth as she spent her last.  I remembering one of the first things I thought of when I found out I was going to have you was that my Nanny was going to live long enough to meet you.  It made me cry, and very few things make me cry.
 
Even as a baby she decided that Helen was going to be a strong independent woman.  She could tell that you had a mind of your own, and she thought you were so smart.  She was sure you would be walking by 8 months old. :)  You are incredibly smart, but you waited until 12 months to walk.:)  She passed away when you were 7 1/2 months old.

When I was a teenager I think I wanted to be Nanny a little bit.  I would pore over the pictures of her and her sisters and husbands when she was young in the 1930's and 40's.  You probably know that your mama is a little obsessed with old movies from this time--anything with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, or Claudette Colbert is probably one of your mother's favorites.  Your Nanny seemed to be straight out of these movies.  She had impeccable taste, and looked so full of spirit and life.  I hope one day I can tell you more about her, and share all those wonderful pictures with both of you.

Kai, she never got meet you.  We found out we were going to have you just a couple of weeks after she was gone.  I always thought she would believe that I was crazy even to have you Helen because I was so much older than many mothers, and she comes from a time when you had children early, but she didn't.  She even  told me that I might have many more children just a couple of weeks before she died.  We were probably already pregnant with you Kai.  Maybe she had special knowledge.

How do I even describe to you how special she was.  You had wonderful great-grandparents, but because she lived to 97 I got to know her better than some of the others.  She was still doing the Charleston, and bear walking (down on all fours) well into her 90's.  She would tell you stories about her childhood, and even stories told to her that come from your great great great grandparents.  She has passed on so much knowledge about our family that we would never know without her....I am sure you will know about Dale, and Belcher Road, and Asher, Oklahoma way before you ever are interested in this blog, but I hope you will remember to listen to the stories we tell you because one day you will wished you had paid more attention, and will want to know and there will be no one left who remembers.

You must remember.

Your father I am sure will tease you--I know this because he already does--that something you do must come from the Littles--my side of the family-- because Kluges never do that.  When he does, tell him yes dada, you are right!  and be proud.  Being a Little (or Belcher, Asher, etc)  is something wonderful.  It is a  spiritual legacy that we still feel the blessings of even now.  Today's verse below is a little longer than usual, but it is what I think about when I think on those in our family who have gone before us.

Deuteronomy 6: 1-9 
These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

 I hope great Nanny, and great Paw-Paw and the rest can look down and see how their fear and love of the Lord continues through the generations of our family.  We are part of God's story--our family history is part of God's story, and it is beautiful to see how the prayers and obedience of our family will bless you, and lead you to his love.  I hope that this may be true for you, as it has been for me.
Remember, no matter what you believe or how you are the same or different from us--your mama and dada will love you forever and always.