Merry Christmas and 2022 Review

To say that I have been remiss in blogging for basically the last two years is . . . well, in a word, accurate. You would think that with the "home time" due to the onset of Covid in early 2020,  I would have found (made) more time to sit, reflect, pontificate, put down in words the "goings on of the Turners." I didn't.

But . . . here we are in the week leading up to Christmas in 2022 and alas, I find myself sitting down, reflecting, pontificating (in my head) and putting down in words the recent (ish) goings on of the Turners. Sit back, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and be ready to be amazed! At least, hopefully entertained! 

For the uninformed, we moved to Rome, GA in June of 2020 after living in Nashville for 30plus years! We left many friends with little to no fanfare because most things were still shut down due to Covid. That was a weird end to our time in Nashville in many ways. I took a role a WinShape and get to work alongside a team of incredible people where we partner with ministry leaders in training college aged young adults to lead bible studies in their context (school, work, church, neighborhood). I have had some pretty great roles in ministry, but this is the most rewarding and fun role that Lord has allowed me to steward. (Call me when you have an hour or so and I will catch you up.)

We live 2 blocks from Mark/Shelbi/Josiah and MacKenzie. Sondra and I having the role of Granna and Babu is so much fun! 

2022 - 

Who can remember all that we have done? It is a bunch.

Sondra continues to be on staff at Hermitage Hills Baptist as the bookkeeper along with some HR duties. Remote work is amazing and she works roughly 15 hours per week.

Sondra's mom and aunt are 89 and 93 and live about 10 minutes from us in a memory care facility. Sondra does an amazing job keeping up with all the things related to them. Truly, watching her serve and love them is nothing short of beautiful. As with any memory patient, there are many highs and lows, laughs and cries and at times joyous and other times agonizing experiences. The Lord continues to be faithful and while Joyce and Nola are both physically very strong for their age, the memory loss issues continue to progress.

My dad continues to live in the Kansas City area and came for a week in June to visit and hang out. He is 82 and really enjoys some pretty good health. My brother, James, lives a few miles from him and checks in on him regularly since he works at the apartment complex that dad lives. All in all, they are doing pretty good. Mom passed 15 years ago this past week and time sure flies and crawls at the same time. She was a good one for sure.

Mark and Shelbi are doing well and are great parents to Josiah and MacKenzie. They do all things little kids do like catch all the latest funk at daycare and try to share it with everyone they meet. Mark is about to begin the Executive MBA program at the UT-Knoxville and continues to work at a financial firm. Shelbi is a big deal at Atrium Health/Floyd County Hospital here in Rome in charge of nurse education.

Wilson and Morgan are living their best life in New Zealand! They moved there in November of 2020 and really have thrived! Morgan does online coaching with Faster Way and Wilson is serving patients suffering from kidney malfunction and needing dialysis. We were able to go to New Zealand in August/September and spend some wonderful time with all of us together. There are just too many stories to tell from this trip in this blog but if you go back through my FB or Insta you will see many pics from our time there in NZ. Morgan and Wilson will be moving back to the States in early May 2023. Let me also add this - Wilson is a tour guide extraordinaire! I love the way got input, planned and executed. One of the other hidden treasures of the trip was to meet so many of their friends how have cared for them while they have been in NZ.

I posted our Christmas pic at the beginning of this post and if you are wondering "who is that  young woman on the right?", that is Addie Grace Trejo who is a family friend of Mark and Shelbi (and the rest of us too). She went along with us to NZed to help with Josiah and MacKenzie. Addie Grace is a recent graduate of the University of Georgia (but not an obnoxious fan), works at WinShape and is getting married in April. When we took this pic (some random lately snapped it for us), we thought "this very well will be our Christmas pic for this year" and it was the best of all that we had. So Addie Grace is "officially a part of the family"!

Our snail mail is 29 Royal Oak Drive NE, Rome, GA 30165 

You can call at 615.403.3138. I probably won't answer if you are not in my phone address book but leave a message and I will call you back.

Come see us some time and if needed, make checks payable to Paul Turner or I can send you my Venmo account too. 😏

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We love most of you, like some and tolerate the others! You can decide where you fit!

Thank You Dana and Tom - And Thank You God

Recently there have been a couple of our friends who have passed away. I think at times like these, I can quickly do a half-hearted attempt at grieving and not really slow down enough to allow the loss to really sink in. Some of that might be a defense mechanism on my part.

As I reflect on the death of each of these people, some of the first things that come to mind are:

1. What amazing people each of them are. 

2. The immense number of people who credit each of them with having an influence in their life (including me).

3. The similar values that each of them held and lived consistently.

4. The way that each of them is remembered by their family.

5. The fact that each of them had a significant influence in my life yet they never knew one another or even that the other existed.

6. They both loved Jesus well and their love for Him was the reason that they served and loved Him and others so well.

Dana Hacker was a beautiful soul that Sondra and I had the privilege of getting to know back in the early to mid-80s. She taught at the college we attended and lived in the neighborhood close to Sondra's parents. She and her husband, David (a local dentist) were super kind and inviting. Their two children, Emily and John, were young and just fun to be around. Actually John was the ring bearer in our wedding in 1985. 

Dana could pretty much do anything. EVERYONE was important to her. If she didn't know how to do something she would soon find a way to learn it and least have a general understanding of it. The interesting thing is that Sondra and I really had limited personal interaction with her over the years but the way she loved and cared for us as an engaged couple and early marriage impacted us greatly. We kept up with her on visits back to her town and in the last few years of social media kept up with her more intentionally. This past year she started having some physical problems and seemed to be turning a corner. We were shocked when her daughter posted that Dana had passed away. Sondra and I cried. It was punch in the gut. We can easily get our heads that she is no longer suffering and is seeing her Savior face to face but our hearts hurt. And our hearts go out to David and Emily. He son, John passed away a couple of years and we were both struck by the sadness of the passing of Little John, our ring bearer, and the sense of loss that David, Dana, Emily and John's family was experiencing. 

Tom Carter was a friend and a true gentleman. Our paths crossed while we lived in Nashville and we instantly hit it off. Tom was a runner, a cyclist and we would talk about particular races that we had both run but never together. We attended the same church for a few years, served at the same local Christian school in volunteer roles; worked out at the same local YMCA. Tom loved his family and served them very well. His gentle nature, genuine love for people and his desire to serve were intoxicating. He was such a model of grace and love. Tom was one of those guys who was just easy to love. His sweet wife Pam, his daughters and grandkids all knew that he love Jesus and that he loved them well.

Thank you God for allowing me to be influenced by these two people who loved You deeply and yet never knew one another. Because they know You, they both are experiencing You in the fullest way now and throughout eternity. Be with their sweet families as they grieve the loss of their wonderful loved ones. Be their strength, peace and comfort in a before unimagined way for each of them. Thank you God for allowing me to know more about You by allowing me to see two of your servants up close and personal.