About Our Grandparents: Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Lou

We LOVE Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Lou. They are The Professor's grandparents on his mother's side. We don't get to see them more than about once a year because they live in Dixieland and Grandpa's cancer treatments keep him close to home.

Here is a summary of our encounters with them over the past few years:

2009: They came for The Professor's PhD graduation! It was so meaningful to have them there.

 2010: They came to see Sunny when she was born! It was quite the travel experience for them. Our arrangement was that we would call them when i went into labor, and they would hop in the car and drive right over! Except, it was a 12+ hour drive.

2011: We saw them in Zion for Grandpa Mac's 90th birthday weekend. They were so sweet with Sunny. Sunny and Grandma both share an affinity for strawberries, and i think Grandma fed Sunny about 6 pints of strawberries that weekend.

 

2012: They came for Sunny's 2nd birthday, and we had a blast! They got her a pink folding chair, which she still uses to this day.

 2013: We went to their house in Dixieland. That week was the first time that they met Bright Eyes, so it was very special.


The thing that is so impressive about Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Lou is that they truly care about people from their hearts. They are so encouraging in all their conversations. They have faithfully served the Lord for decades, despite numerous hard times. We respect who they are and what they stand for, and we hope to model their faith. Their constant trust that the Lord will provide gives them so much peace. They aren't phased by things, either big or small.

Grandma is the picture of Southern hospitality in that she shows her love by feeding people. When we visited them at their house, we were not planning to eat a meal. Well, Grandma had other plans! She laid out a huge lunch for us. She made sure to have all the things she used to make for The Professor when he was growing up.

While Grandma bustled around in the kitchen, Grandpa played with the girls. He won their trust, such that after lunch was over, Sunny felt comfortable enough with him to invent a game. He was pretending to be a blackberry and she was pretending to be a spider eating him. It was so funny!

After we got back home to the Kingdom of the Cornstalks, Sunny was playing with a toy that Grandma/pa had given her for Christmas. Because she didn't see her gifts again for about a week after opening them, i reminded her who the toy was from. She said, "Oh! I'm so glad they got this for me, i really like it! We should Skype with Grandma to tell her thank you!" But sadly, Grandma has no computer and cannot Skype =[.

Grandma writes us a letter every few weeks, and always includes a check. During the height of our money troubles, those checks were our only spending money. We put $10 in Sunny's pink piggy bank, which goes to her college fund, and The Professor and i split the rest. Having that little bit of "fun money" was such a blessing! We think of Grandma and Grandpa often, and wish that we could spend more time around them so that their good character can rub off on us.