Dear Jamey me boy, my beloved son,"Hoppy" Easter! From the Easter Bunny on your belly, or from your father the former "frogman" who hopped from the porch in Mount Vernon area of Belleview of the little house your Papa fixed up and fashioned into a cute little "love cottage" for your Mama years before you were given by God the Father to bless me and I pray someday, this world.
Can't keep my self from saying about this photo of us together in a.d. 1999, "Jamey, YOU are such a cute kid! Bundles of hugs and kisses to you my boy. Our Father God knows how much I love you!"
As described in a post below, you were born a month pre-mature, and suffered baby jaundice so had a special respirator at our home your first days and weeks until you became healthy enough to do without it. Then months later after breast feeding was stopped, we discovered you were allergic to cow's milk with the symptoms being misdiagnosed as "asthma". You suffered 8 breathing attacks in 5 months until my reading and research discovered the likely problem and so I switched you to Soy Milk formula, and almost immediately the "asthma" attacks stopped so you had no more for the next 12 months while I was working from our home and providing your daily care.
Three days ago my son you had your 9th birthday, and sadly, I was not invited to be with you on that day, or many other special days over the past six years. Yet, son, know that when our time together is "Resurrected", every day will be special, every day a joy.
I pray this Resurrection Son-Day for you my beloved boy, and for all boys and girls to have the blessing of being with both their parents together on this Holy Day and every day of the year.
On "Easter Son-day" in the Year of Our Lord Jesus 1998, a week after you were born on Palm Son-day, your Mama was back in front of the church leading the choir and your PaPa was at our home together with you. Jamey, know that Jamey is the Scot nickname for James, your Christian name. And Jamey, know too, that your PaPa is named for the last of the Scot Covenanters martyred for their fervent faith in Jesus, the Reverend James Renwick, who died in a.d. 1688 at age 26, who once wrote "Let us be Lions in God's cause, and Lambs in our own." Also know, my "little lamb", you are named for your father James Renwick Manship, Sr., so you are James Renwick Manship, Jr. -- James One and James Two.
In Our Father's Word, James 1:2 says, "Count all joy your trials and tribulations..." and James 1:4 "for it leads to a perfecting of the faith." As your father, I pray that your faith is being perfected while we are separated from one another. Always have faith, know in the core of your heart, that your father and Our Father both love you with every cell of their being.
As I cradled you in my arms, I had our "Red Renwick Bible" Grandmother Ruth Renwick Dunlop Conger's King James Version study Bible balanced on my knees from which I read to you the entire Bible book of the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapters 1 through 24 which includes the Resurrection Story. I read it with faithful fervor, and you listened, not falling asleep, just reveling in the embrace of your father's voice reading Our Father's Word. You are such a beautiful Child of God my son, as every child is, especially in the eyes of a loving PaPa.
Son, your "mother's milk" as a tiny infant was your Father's Word, the Holy Bible. His son Jesus is the "Living Water", the Truth, the Light, and even the "Air that I Breathe." I pray this day, this Resurrection Son-day, that the same Spirit will enfuse your life as Our Father in Heaven prepares you to make a difference in God's World.
Love, your PaPa, (PaPa, is short for Pater Patrae, or "father of His country", and like George Washington was THE "father of His country", I and many other patriot PaPa's are "fathers of His country", where "His" does not refer to GW or George Washington, rather "His" refers to Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior of Man, where Man as defined by Genesis 1:27 includes male and female, and from the birth of Jesus the birth of America is measured in the last paragraph of "tHis Constitution FOR the United States of America".)
In GW - God's Will and His Son's service,
"Jamey GW"
