In the spring of 2006 we took a ballroom dancing class along with our son, his fiancée and two friends of ours. It was really fun. But in the middle of the semester, our son died suddenly. It was and still is very difficult. We decided that although it would be hard, we would continue with the class. It was bittersweet because he and his fiancée' should have been there and they weren't, but our minds were distracted when we danced so we were able to enjoy it. It was something we've always wanted to do. So Benjamin, our dancing will forever be dedicated to you and what you might have become! 

Another thing I did in Benjamin's honor was to redesign one of my gardens to be an Asian style garden. Benjamin loved anything Japanese. I know nothing about Asian gardens, but I did some reading and began to work on this project right after he died. Hannah bought a Japanese flowering cherry tree and my friends at Piney Run Park bought us a Japanese Black Pine. I was surprised at how many plants I already had in the garden were appropriate for an Asian garden. Here are some recent pictures taken of this garden, which is a work in progress.

   

  

In fall of 2006, Ken and I joined a prayer ministry training class and throughout the winter and into the spring we went to these classes weekly. Toward the end we began to practice with one another. During one of these sessions I received a significant healing in relationship to the loss of my son. In October I testified in front of my church that this healing has held. I wanted to expose the people at church to this form of ministry and ask for volunteers so we could practice, at the same time as testifying of my healing. If you would be interested in hearing this testimony, you can download the PODCAST here. My new favorite book is The Shack, by William P. Young:

Check it out!

When I'm at home, I use the computer a lot, as I said. I taught myself a lot of what I know and had help from a friend when  I couldn't figure out things out myself. I got my first computer, a Gateway DX2-50, in 1994. I had never used a computer before that, except to find books in the library. I started by learning to use MS Works, which had an interactive tutorial with it. Soon I was doing a lot of creative things with MS Works and MS Publisher and then MS FrontPage, among other programs. 

After that I began to learn about the inside workings of the computer. The first thing I actually did myself was replace a modem. The inside of the computer is a lot harder for me than the outside, so even though I know enough to get by, I am not doing that sort of thing so much anymore. I am still actively using the different programs and learning new things, though. I have built several WebPages over the years. Some of them are posted online and some of them aren't. Here's a list of some of the pages that I have built, for you to see, if you're interested.