Everly's 1st birthday yesterday: 1 year old already! and Grandpa didn't want to just give her money, but something special for this special girl on her special day: I wanted to buy her a dress, a pretty dress, one she'd remember as just for her! So I asked where I might buy such a dress... + Sophie reminded me of what we'd found while going through storage bins a while ago: this white dress with colourful embroideries from Guatemala! Erica had personally picked it out over 8 years ago... don't know if she knew she was buying it for her future granddaughter so many years later... but it fits her perfectly, right at this tiime! Erica Grace always had a gift for picking out the right gift for the right person + this time she definitely had supernatural help! Happy Birthday Everly Grace!

#24: Thank you for joining me on this Pilgrim’s Progress! but there’s more… Pt II! Christian’s overcoming story reached his wife + family, still back in the City of Destruction. Christiana now regretted her former refusal to accompany him: ‘I have sinned away your father; I have also hindered you of life. I am now as he was then; nothing will serve me but going on pilgrimage.’ And so she + their 4 boys, joined by Mercy, retrace Christian’s steps, encountering many of his same trials, but also new difficulties + victories of their own. Great-heart guides them through, slaying Giants Grim +Maul +Slay-good +Despair+Diffidence, destroying Doubting Castle once for all. A host of memorable characters join them along their journey: Mr. Humble-mind, Honest + Fearing + Feeble-mind + Ready-to-halt+ Valiant- for-truth + Stand-fast. Each grows in their resolve: ‘to run when I can, to go when I cannot run, and to creep when I cannot go.’ Each fights the good fight + finishes his course, finds his identity + fulfills his destiny in Word + Spirit. The sons even find wives at inns along the way and a new generation takes hold of the promises. Finally the pilgrims cross the River one by one + reach their destination. Each is personally summoned with a word + a token, escorted by Shining Ones + welcomed to the glorious Celestial City, their true + eternal home. Stand-fast’s record rings true: ‘Thy wheel broken at the cistern… please send my 5 children here also to come after me!... The river has been a terror, but now I stand easy, my foot is fixed; the waters are to the palate bitter + to the stomach cold, yet what awaits me on the other side is as a glowing coal in my heart. I have formerly lived by hearsay, and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.’ … and so all pilgrims progress … and so, good readers, I pray will you find it also.