Ever Singing For Joy

Much the same as me posting the obituary in the previous post.  I'm posting a draft of the eulogy here.  Though I made some last minute changes on the stage and rearranged how I presented some of the address, this is the shell of what I said about my bride.  And yes... I wrote out the thank you  comments   and the hello/goodbye statements.  I relegated myself to reading this as much as possible and not trying to orate from memory.  Kept the emotions somewhat in check and provided an opportunity to say what I wanted to say and not leave something out.  I wanted to post it for record keeping purposes more than anything.  Should the day come where my girls come back and read this, I want them to see it without having to search too hard. ========= Good Morning.   Thank you for being here.   Today is certainly one I’ll remember. If for nothing else then to see a room of people for which Ashley made an impression.  There’s certainly...

For the purposes of record keeping and to keep those up to date on things that don't have social media otherwise... I'm posting a copy of Ashley obituary. I'll also post a copy of the eulogy I delivered at the memorial service in a separate post. ======== Ashley O’Sullivan Huffstutler was born August 11, 1987 to Mary and John L O’Sullivan, Jr. in Longview Texas. On May 14, 2022, Ashley met her Lord after a courageous battle with brain cancer.  x Ashley attended Pine Tree High School in Longview where she graduated in 2006. She pursued a double major in Christian Studies and Sociology at Ouachita Baptist University where she graduated in 2009. On January 2, 2010, Ashley married her best friend and the love of her life, David Huffstutler. In 2011, they moved to Hoover, Alabama to allow Ashley to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham to participate in their Physical Therapy program. In 2014, Ashley, graduated with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. Her passion was pe...

The changing of the seasons is always a welcomed experience in Alabama.  To go from the exhaustive heat of Summer to the crisp (albeit brief) chill of the Autumn air to landing the plane in the cantankerous, somewhat unpredictable Winter... the narrative of the changing seasons parallels life so well.  As a family, we've enjoyed some really great, memory filled moments over the past 6 months; we've also had some really tough, also unforgettable moments during that time as well.  The main takeaway is that much like the seasons, changes in life are inevitable and with each of life's seasons there are ups and downs and, yet, everything keeps moving forward. Undoubtedly, it seems that some of my recent, relatively vague facebook posts have generated a little bit of curiosity so let's shoot back to a little over a month ago (right before Christmas) and recap what's been going on. This stands to be a fairly long post catching everyone up so if you really don't want to...

I love Easter.  I love it so much.  I love ALL of the miracles we are reminded of during the Easter season.  I have no idea what the bunny is about, but, I do know that Easter Sunday of 1995 is when 7 year old Ashley gave her life to Christ.  BEST. DECISION. I'VE. EVER. MADE.  Seriously, the BEST! Please enjoy the picture.  It makes me smile from the inside out.  The missing tooth, the homemade Easter dress (courtesy of my mom), the glamorous red carpet, my mom's radiant smile AND (even though you can't hear it in the picture) the organ playing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. Ok, all giggles aside, becoming a Christian course corrected  my life.  It wasn't a dramatic change on the outside (at least for me).  It was a precious first step.  Repent.  From there, God continued to work on my heart.  I grew in my faith .  Slowly.  I didn't have all of the answers overnight, but the growth in Jesus I experienced w...

There are moments in history that change the course of life.  A year ago today was one of those moments. Realizing that we haven't updated the blog in a while, we thought that this would be a perfect time to jump back into the fray. No doubt that I'll have a pretty lengthy write up soon to recap some of my thoughts, lessons learned, current struggles, recent victories, etc. but I thought it appropriate to ask Ash to give me a write up to commemorate the day (especially given that this time last year, the last thing I ever thought she'd be doing was writing a blog post).  Below is her letter.  Thanks for reading it. I hope you'll take a minute to reflect on  your  past year and that you'll see how God has worked in and through you and those around you to bring you where you are today. To recap on last year's surgery day post: Go Here (Unexpectedly Expected) Struggles and trials are often presented to us as things we need to avoid or minimize as ...