Hello Friends,

Two years ago, we posted this news about our fella. “Early in the morning on May 21, 2022, Bob Finamore stepped across Home Plate.”  Baseball was Bob’s game and a true metaphor for how he lived his life.  Always part of the team, but when crunch time was on, Bob wanted to be the one at the plate.  It wasn’t arrogance or cockiness.  It was an honest confidence in the talents and skills that God had given him. He wanted to use them for the good of others. And not just on the baseball field.

One of Bob’s favorite movies was “The Sandlot.”  We watched it a lot.  Bob told us that was his childhood—playing ball all day long.  When Bob was coaching girls softball, there were occasions when he couldn’t get a “real” field for a practice.  On those occasions, we headed to the field at Ducktown Park.  It definitely has a “sandlot” feel to it. That’s the field in the photo.  Just looking at it, you can picture pickup games happening, big kids playing, family reunion re-matches year after year.  In a nod to another great baseball movie, “Field of Dreams,” you stare at the field and wonder if, if you could “pretember with your imaginator*” just strong enough, would you see the players and hear the thud of the ball against a glove? Would you see an 8-yr-old in a white uniform throwing faster than any other kid in the league? Would you see an 18-yr-old in an orange uniform going 3 for 4 with 3 RBI’s? Would you see a coach teaching and correcting and finally doing “the walk” to get closer to the player so as to better demonstrate his point? Or is that just me longing to see our fella doing something he really really loved?

Two years—seems both like yesterday and a long, long time ago.  Perhaps that is the timelessness of genuine love.  Perhaps that is why Paul says, “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.” (I Cor 13:13)  Our faith lets us know that Bob is with Jesus. Our hope is that we are honoring God just as Bob honored God. Our love knows that we really really miss him, but moreover knows, we would not have wanted him to suffer one moment more than he had already.  We are guessing that many of you understand this as well.

We Fin Fam girls are doing okay.  Biggest news at the moment is that Olivia and Ella are currently helping to move Angi out to Las Vegas.  She accepted a job promotion that required this relocation.  God wink is that the last time Bob and I were in Las Vegas was January of 1999.  We knew we were expecting our first baby.  Months later, baby Angelina arrived. 25 years later, she returns. It will be great to see what she brings to her co-workers and new friends.

Time to wrap this up. Always good to have a story and a song, so here you go.

Two links for you to check out…

https://youtu.be/lXjz-M_6eN8?feature=shared

(This is the closing scene/story of Field of Dreams—have the tissues ready)

 https://youtu.be/z0dMYEJEOEg?feature=shared

(This is the song “The Ball Game” by Wynona Carr—be ready to nod and smile)

 Thank you for continuing to love on us and pray for us.

 God be with you, the Fin Fam (Liz, Angi, Olivia, and Ella)

 (*For the record, “pretember with your imaginator” is a phrase created by our Olivia long long ago. The girl has a way with words!)