Closing thoughts

I have fast frowarded to 2025. I'm 60 in a few weeks and saved 24 years! A lot has happened since writing out my story here in Blog format. Yes, I still love the Lord and I still love my hubby, Niall. Looking back I can say that when I became a true Bible believing Christian my life moved very quickly, and in truth, it hasn't slowed down at all. I love the Lord and His the Bible as much as I ever have and have bought and given out thousands to people. I think it's what God wants me to do. I have been asked many times to go to women's metings and different churches and talk to women there about how I became a christian. This story you are reading? I condensed it into about a two page story and over the years had the oppertunity to have it translated into different languages and put them into the same format as this. I stayed in Dundalk Baptist Church for 10 years and I also went to the Baptist College part time for 5 years. Niall went full time for 3 years for a BA in Divinity and through a placement he was put on we ended up going to Cavan Baptist Church and eventually joiing that church, which in turn led us to move to a small town in Co. Cavan called Belturbet to help start up a new church there. The church, Belturbet Baptist Church constituted three years ago and Niall, along with two other men were called to be elders there. We're very, very happy here and are convinced we're right where God wants us. Now for the bad news... For many years life with our son was what I would call ideal. He was a lovely wee fella and we adored him. still do! Over the years we continued to allow his grandmother to have access to him. When he truned 16 he went to a college in Newry to study A Level Art and Design. because of this we encouraged him to spend one night a week with his grandmother. We had been encouraging him to stretch and grow. Niall taught him to drive. He was out and about on his bike for longer and longer cycles. Things like that and we thought it would be good for him to spend regular time with his grandmother and we thought it would be good for her as she was getting older. I'm sitting looking a the screen on my lap top wondering how to put into words, even part of the horror that followed that awful choice we made... He met a girl in college. You know, first love! Bad influence. Both she and granny started to persuade Sean that he should live with his granny so they could spend more time together. Within a few short months our lovely lad became less and less lovely and we just couldn't figure out why. It all ended with granny taking him from the family home into Northern Ireland and within weeks all our lives were turned upside down. Because Niall had adopted Sean and Sean's grandmother was no longer legally so, the technical term for what happened was the international abduction of a minor. In a shockingly short time Sean had been turned against us. His granddmother persuaded him to change his name to hers. She went into his college, isisted they take our names off as next of kin and put her name in our place (couldn't believe they actually did this without our knowledge). He dropped all his friends. He dropped all his sports (he had a beautiful sailing boat that was left in the sailing club unused, stopped swimming, powerkiting and javlin), dropped all church activities and lost his faith, lost contact with his familly down south and turned his back on everything he once knew. Sadly he replaced all this love and wholesome living with everything that was the opposite. There is a term for what has happened. It's called Parent Alienation. Normally its when one parent turns their child against the other parent. In this case Granny turned Sean against his mum and dad. It was a very dark time for me. Some pretty terrible things happened and it seemed like every week brought with it another terrible blow. You know, there were some great times in my life and some tough times. Loosing Dave was very tough. Loosing Sean's father was awful. But nothing could compare to loosing my son. Not just physically, but seeing him being lost. Seeing him being changed. Seeing somebody who should have loved him and protected and cherished him in effect say, "There's nothing about you that's acceptable. Not your name, not your faith, not your family, not your sports, not your education, nothing," and then deconstruct him. A different kind of identity theft. For some weeks I couldn't read the Bibe. Every time I tried I just cried and cried. Every time I tried to pray I just cried and cried. I couldn't cook for three months and I couldn't do my weekly family shopping for a full year. I just couldn't go into a supermarket. I became concerned about not being able to pray and read the Bible and then I remembered that I was ok. God had me. He kept me safe during this tough time. ALl the times of grief and loss and tears and yes, deep mourning, God was right there with me. Slowly I was able to pick myself up enough to pray adn be comforted by Him through reading His Word. Needless to say, Niall was greatly affected too. I can't tell you just how well those two got along. He was and is a great dad and everybody was astounded by how easy and how quickly Sean had been turned against both of us. We both went to great efforts to lovinglly and gently reach out to Sean. No heavyhandedness. Lovingly and gently we tried to draw him back. We tried to reach him but every-single-time we reached out to him it had the opposite effect. After some really hard contact from him I eventually rebuked him two times over his befaviour towards us. Nothing helped... He never came back home to us. There has been contact over the years but as soon as we started to get close his grandmother would hear of it and stirr up trouble again... But there has been damage done and a hardness has set in. It's been ten hard years. There's been a lot of praying, soul searching, fasting, turning to friends and a lot of tears. God hasn't answered those prayers, and time and again He brought me back to the truths in the book of Job, just like He did when I met little Lacey in America. Sometimes God allows very hard things in our lives. We can't see why. We don't understand why. But we are assured that there are very good reasons and God is doing what he promises; He is working out all things for our good and His Glory. You know, theres knowing that truth and theres living it. Like Job said, "My ears have heard of You but now I have seen You with my own eyes." Job, through no fault of his own, lost his 10 children, his wealth adn livelyhood, his reputation and his good health. At the end of this appalling tryal he was able to see, understand and love God more than he did before these dreadful things happened to him. I believe this is where I am now. So, it's been almost three years since I met and saw Sean. I have come to terms with this reality. God has given me peace about it. It took a long time to come to this place but here I am. It's done nothing but strengthen my faith and understanding of God. I still trust him with my life, whatever that looks like. 24 years later and I'm more focused on God, His family and heaven to come, more than ever. Can I encourage you to reach out to Him if you haven't already done so? Can I plead with you to stop and take stock of where you are in life? Can I encourage you to read through the book of John and pray and ask God to reveal HImself to you and save you? I hope you do...