Geneva Katherine Hughes

November 13, 1923 - September 12, 2008


We had the funeral for my grandmother on Monday. Yes, thanks to Hurricane Ike it was 10 days after she passed. I had the awesome honor and privilege to share at her funeral service. I have had several people ask me for the notes I used so I thought I would post them for anyone who wanted them.

Good morning, I have been asked to share with you by the family. You know you can learn a lot about what brings someone comfort as they are walking through hard times by looking to see what they keep near them. My grandmother had a devotional book given to her by her daughter Laura. There were several prayers in the book that were specifically marked.

One particular prayer was not only marked but also had the books’ ribbon marking the page. I would like to read that specific prayer: When I Need Greater Faith – Lord, I need the faith to believe that I can be victorious over everything that opposes me. Give me faith that does not fear death at all because I know that You will be the first face I see in heaven. Help me to believe without doubt that You are my healer and deliverer. Help me to have faith that You will never leave me or forsake me. My faith in You has saved me for eternity. May my faith in you be big enough to save me from myself now.

We wanted to share that specific prayer with you because we know this prayer brought her much comfort and hope as she battled terminal cancer. We also believe that on Saturday, September 6th my grandmother had an experience with Jesus where everything she was praying for was fulfilled.

That morning Laura witnessed my grandmother singing and praising Jesus. The nurse asked her Mrs. Hughes do you know where you are and she smiled and said yes, I am in Heaven. Laura asked her what does it look like and she said it is so beautiful, the flowers are beautiful, Jesus is so beautiful and he has such a bright light around him. Laura asked her momma are you afraid and she said no I am not afraid Jesus loves me so much.
A couple of minutes later Laura asked her where she was she said I am sitting at a table with Jesus and Jesus loves me so much. The rest of that day her face was glowing and she was radiant. Later on that day my mom Darlene asked her about what she experienced in heaven. Grandmother once again talked about how beautiful it was and that she had seen my grandfather Harry there. Grandma became very emotional and said it is so hard to describe to you in words how beautiful heaven is. Grandma said again I saw Jesus and he told me how very much he loves me and that he is waiting on me.

Several days later the Dr. came in and told her that she could not with stand any more radiation treatments. The final step was to call in Hospice or transfer her to their clinic they used for terminal patients. When the Dr. left my mom Darlene put her hands on grandma’s knees and said I love you momma. Grandma held my mom and began praying. She said, Jesus this is a dark time but I know because You are with me I can get through this and then she prayed that her kids would be strong during this time. At the end of the prayer she looked at my mom and said you know honey it is all about forgiveness. Shortly after that she quickly went downhill becoming non-responsive and eventually going to meet Jesus.

We wanted to share that with you for a couple of reasons – everything that she had been praying in those prayers were fulfilled in that encounter. By seeing Jesus he gave her the peace that she had prayed for; she knew that HE was with her, that he was waiting on her and that he was her healer and deliverer. And the most important part was she knew how much Jesus loved her and how important forgiveness is.

I think if she were with us right now she would want to remind us of these 2 main things:
1. First, is forgiveness. She knew that through salvation Jesus had forgiven her and more importantly she knew through the experiences she had with him on that Saturday morning that he wanted her to walk in forgiveness. I encourage you today right now that if you have un-forgiveness toward someone – to forgive them. When we refuse to forgive someone it only keeps us hurting and bound up, it keeps us walking in anger – it really does not affect the person we haven’t forgiven. I know that she would want each and everyone of us to forgive - you know one of those other prayers she had marked was about letting go of anger and forgiving. In honor of her do that today – forgive anyone that you have held anger toward. Release them it doesn’t mean that what they did to you was right but don’t hold un-forgiveness toward them. Make a decision today in honor of Geneva Katherine Hughes that you are going to forgive them and release them.
2. Secondly, we believe she would want everyone here to know that Jesus loves you so much. The Bible says in Romans 8:38-39 –“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Whether you have ever accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior or not does not change the fact that he loves you so much. I know that Grandma would say – accept Jesus today make Him your Lord and Savior. Accept the person who loves you unconditionally, who doesn’t make you get everything “right” in our life before we come to him. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that while we were lost in our sins Christ died for us. She would say accept that free gift of salvation today. She would not want you to miss out on the wonderful relationship with Jesus that she had here on this earth and that she is now experiencing in heaven. No amount of cards, flowers or money could honor her life more than giving your life to Jesus today.

And for those of us who have made Jesus our Lord to understand there is nothing we have done in our past that can separate us from God’s love. No amount of sin or wrongdoing can separate us from God’s love. God loves you so much and she would want you to know that today – that you can walk out of here knowing the vastness of God loves for you, that he is for you, he wants to be a part of your life and he has a great plan for you.

Lastly, she would want us to know that she is truly finally HOME. That on September 12th Jesus met Geneva Katherine Hughes face to face and that she is now enjoying the peace and beauty of heaven. Thank you.

God is so good. Through the experience she had with him she was able to be at peace those last few days PLUS it gave us the family peace as well. God did not allow her to suffer with the pain for months on end - he took her quickly and peacefully. I will miss her immensely but am so thankful she is in heaven free of pain and worshiping her savior.

Spelling Meltdown

I know most of you know how much Caleb LOVES school (of course I am being sarcastic). And since he LOVES school so much you would think he would LOVE homework equally as well (again being sarcastic). So as you can imagine homework time in the Wilson household is not a fun time (unless you are Joel who positively LOVES school and WANTS to do homework everyday). For Caleb homework time is torture - for mom as well. So today we had math homework AND spelling words. Yep, 2 different homework assignments which means double the torture!! So, we got through our math paper with minimal amounts of tears UNTIL mom checked it and found 4 wrong. (Which I thought was great since it was a sheet of 20 problems). However Caleb doesn't think like the rest of us and then to have to correct 4 wrong problems was you guessed it TORTURE for him & me complete with tears (him not me although I was tempted -ha ha).
Okay, so wise mom decides lets take a break and then do spelling words. That was a great idea until break time was over and we had to do spelling words. Complete meltdown as you can see from the picture of him broke down in the kitchen!! Pray for us....ha. ha....this to shall pass - right?!!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Caleb turned eight today! It was a low key day since his birthday fell in the middle of the week. We did take cupcakes to school and his classmates sang to him.

Caleb is our adventurer! He has no fear in him whatsoever. He is always up for pretty much anything (except school - ha. ha). Out of all of the boys he physically looks the most like Craig with his dark hair and brown eyes. He is very compassionate and friendly. He has no problem making friends and enjoys being in a group of kids. He tends to become discouraged easily and doesn't have a lot of confidence but we are working on those ares! We named him Caleb after Caleb in the Bible where it says in Numbers that Caleb had a different spirit than them all. (The story of Caleb & Joshua spying out the land and coming back with a good report). Caleb does have a different spirit and I can not wait to see all that God does through and with him. I asked him on the way home from school if he felt older today and he said not really but that being 8 means he gets to do a lot more things than he could at 7. I said oh really, like what? He replied like pack my own lunch and put whatever I want into it - ha. ha. He is really looking forward to playing flag football and to his birthday party next weekend!

Happy Birthday Joel!

Joel turned 6 on Saturday (9-6) so most of this post is about him! I am sure most of you remember that finding out I was pregnant with Joel was a HUGE surprise to Craig and I. Craig had just decided to go back to school, our house was without flooring because of a water problem and Caleb was still a baby. I remember thinking God what am I going to do and maybe it will be a girl!! From the get go he was our easiest baby; sleeping through the night at 3 days old, very content, and just not an added burden. Plus out of all of the boys Joel is a true "momma's boy" which I love. He WON't go anywhere or let me go anywhere without a hug and a kiss from mom! He is so intelligent and an "out of the box" thinker who can ask the craziest and most thought provoking questions!! God knew exactly what he was doing (as always)! We are so thankful for him and very thankful he was not a girl! Ha. ha.
We began the celebration on Friday when I took cupcakes up to his kindergarten class. The kids all sang Happy Birthday to him and REALLY enjoyed the cupcakes. Saturday morning when he got up we told him he could have WHATEVER he wanted for breakfast. He first said donuts and then the other kids were like donuts Joel lets go to IHOP so then he changed his mind. I finally said Joel you think about where you want to go while we get ready and then tell us when it is time to go. You pick where you would like to go....which means we had DONUTS! For those of you who don't know Joel is a true donut expert. He LOVES donuts!! So I decided let's got to Krispy Kreme. There is one near our apartment and we didn't have one near us in Sugar Land or Longview. This Krispy Kreme was open where you could see the donuts being fried and glazed on a conveyor belt. This was true heaven for Joel! However when we sat down to eat our donuts he took one bite and said these are gross. I don't like these donuts, I like the donuts we had near our house in Sugar Land...oh boy! We left the donut shop and met up with Randy & Sherrie and Craig's sisters and their family. We all attended David's (Shannon's son) tennis match. We then went back to ee Craig's grandmother and visit with their family. It was a great day. Of course he couldn't quite figure out why he had to wait until his party (on the 20th)to open presents but I said this way you get another great day!!

Side Note - My brother and Leanna made a quick trip to Canton (where her family lives) on Thursday/Friday. Kyle called me on Friday afternoon and said they were going to come to Frisco and see where we were building and let my boys see Nicole. (They had never seen her because they of course weren't allowed in the NICU.) I was so excited and so appreciated. First, Frisco is certainly not "on the way" home to Austin PLUS they are traveling with 2 kids under the age of 2 - NOT EASY! My kids were SO excited to get to meet Nicole and I had a great time showing them where we are building. We ate dinner before they headed home to Austin. *Thanks Uncle Kyle & Aunt Leanna we LOVE our new niece/cousin and can't get enough of our nephew!! (Pics - me holding Nicole; Joel holding Nicole and doesn't she look SCARED!; Caleb holding Nicole; the last picture Nicole was really asleep with her arms behind her head so the boys had to lay down beside her!)

Prayer Request - for those of you who are aware please continue to pray for my grandmother. She is back in the hospital and we thought she may have been headed to heaven on Saturday morning but she has since rallied and is coherent and doing well. My mom is back in Houston and is staying with her for now. Also please pray that the permit on our house would come through. They can not start building until the permit goes through and we are "knocking" already on the door for them to hit the projected completion date of November. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to be in the home by Christmas.