MORE NEWS - WHAT A SURPRISE !

This week, on Wednesday night, Mike and I received a surprising phone call from our middle son and his wife. They were cooking hamburgers on the backyard grill, and hosting their weekly Bible study group later in the evening. Of course our phone was on speakerphone mode, and we both were listening when Matthew and Annette asked us if we were sitting down. We were puzzled, and at first thought this light-hearted couple were joking around about the manner in which we received the news that last week from Justin and Rachel. But we sat down anyway and informed them that we had - and then they told us their surprising news. They are expecting A BABY at the end of the month of October!

Congratulations, Annette and Matthew!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

You are two of the 5 most special persons in our lives... and we send our love and support to you both! Babies born to you two wonderful people will no doubt become such a blessing to us in the future...while we two grandparents(!) just sit and smile knowingly at each other from across the room.

Although we were surprised to hear this news, this kind of a surprise brings a giddiness with it. Oh, what a delight! WE are going to have TWO grandchildren born in October!!!!! Both Matthew and Justin are now fathers, FATHERS! This is something that brings such a happiness to us as their parents!! We have found ourselves in love with our two daughters-in-law, anyway - but NOW... Well, NOW we are just about to burst with love for them and for the babies that they are carrying!!


Annette said that her doctor put the due date for their baby tentatively on October 27th, which is ironically their 1st wedding anniversary. I can't BEGIN to imagine the way their minds must be scrambling to grasp the reality of how fast life can move forward. (These two lovebirds have been married just about 4 months.)

Mike and I reacted with much JOY at the news of our SECOND grandchild on its way to joining our family. We are praying for this tiny little baby in Houston, and for its cousin in Weatherford... that the Lord who loves us so much will richly bless the lives of the children, and all those whose lives will be touched by these children.



You know, we weren't expecting to have grandchildren this year. And we never expected to be welcoming TWO grandbabies into our family within the same year... much less during the SAME month of the year!!! SO... in getting the "surprising" news this week, we have encountered a DOUBLE BLESSING from the Lord! And we now are joyfully anticipating that we will include TWO grandchildren in our family in October!


...

Memories

Memories of sweet times with our firstborn have been flooding my waking hours, and filling my dreams. I have "snapshot" memories popping up daily, reminding me what it was like to have a child born to us... to US! Our son Justin was a beautiful baby boy with the biggest dark brown eyes that I'd ever seen. He was little for only "so long"... and he chose to learn things quickly, really speeding up the rate at which I thought he'd gain those developmental milestones. Walking and talking before we knew it... Justin was such a special baby boy, quickly winning the hearts of all who knew him. I am simply brimming over with emotion at the thought of holding HIS child - Rachel's baby... OUR grandchild !!!

NEWS FLASH !

At the end of the week of Valentine's Day... Mike and I got a phone call which has turned our world upside down in an exciting and joyful way! We received a phone call and request from our oldest son to "maybe try out a video conference". Without the proper hardware on our computer, we had to settle for a regular conversation.

But as we soon found out, this was not to be a regular conversation. At the request of our son and his wife, we sat down... and received the most amazing and precious news of all of our married life. We are to be GRANDPARENTS! We just looked at each other, and... well, it's hard to describe the excitement we felt over the news of a BABY, our grandchld ! We jumped up and down, we squealed with delight, we looked at each other with the "can this really be happening?" look! Then we started thinking about the special times ahead for this special couple and their sweet baby.

After the phone call, we prayed - thanking our Lord for the blessing He has chosen to bring in the lives of two of the most special people we know...

CONGRATULATIONS, Justin and Rachel!!

Both of us had frozen smiles on our faces for a couple of DAYS following the phone call. October cannot get here FAST enough for us!! We are getting used to the idea that we will have a larger family by Thanksgiving! And we've been trying on names for ourselves... we have laughed over all the different names we have heard from friends and family who are already grandparents. We both feel that we will absolutely LOVE being called ANYTHING by a tiny little person who just happens to be the child of Justin and his wife Rachel!! A BABY is on its way! And a baby can change EVERYTHING!

Petty Family 2008 Christmas Gathering

December 28 and 29th, 2007... Christmas at our house included possibly the largest number of "Pettys" ever to gather at the same place. Carol's family were all present except for one nephew and his wife, although their son came with Grampa Bill. There were 26 people... Carol's own little family of 8 (remember the older two sons are married now, and that Carol and Jeanetta "adopted" each other in 1990), plus Carol's 4 brothers and their families, etc - a grand total of _12_ females and _14_ males. If you can name all those present - you can win "FIRST DIBS" on the room for your stay for Thanksgiving 2008. :) All you have to do is be the first to drop me an email with the correct list, and you win !! (So, if you're reading this and haven't tried to name us all... I have one tip for you. Check out the picture below and now give me your best shot at remembering all the names!! )

We typically play a Christmas gift game called "Dirty Santa" which can sometimes end up as a MAJOR all-out tug of war! this year was no different - there were several gifts that were hotly sought after by all attendees. (We even had one who participated in absentia, sending his girlfriend to haggle FOR him. We are considering rewriting the rules for the 2008 version.)

Something new this year was "Petty Party Jeopardy", where the last three females who DARED to become members of the family were selected to choose teams and compete against each other in Petty trivia. Talk about some major haggling! The 2008 version of this game will hope for hosts MUCH more like Pat Sajak and Vanna White! And those two game hosts for 2007 will have to prove they have improved their memory and ability to reason - if they intend to host again in 2008! :)

All in all, the two-day gathering was successful... it HAD to be considered successful if it gathered 26 of Bill and Katherine's "motley crew" all together under the same roof !!

We loved having you all here. It was really a special blessing to Mike, David and I, and you all have an open invitation to come and stay with us for a week or a weekend any time - just be sure to bring your own toothbrush!