Clint Asbell and I are putting one foot in front of the other. Our children and their special way of looking at things are good medicine for us. Mostly we are focusing on God's promises, the love of our amazing friends, the joy our children give us, and the blessings of a very close marriage. Grief sneaks up on us now and again and knocks us to the ground for a while, but we are trying to help each other through. We've played games, had a water battle, done yard work, played with puppies and kittens, loved on each other, and thanked God for the many blessings we do have. There are still a few hard things to do next week, but we will manage. Thank you for the overwhelming amount of support, kindness, compassion, cards, emails, letters, phone calls, visits, flowers, gifts, etc. Thank you also to the many who have opened up and shared personal stories of losses that have made us cry, touched our hearts, and given us strength. We are very thankful for all of you.
Someone said joy will return. We shared this:
Joy never left. It was very overshadowed and still gets overshadowed if we allow it, but when we stop to look around, we realize it was/is still here waiting for us to recognize it again. Every where we look in our home, we see how we have been blessed. There is so much laughter and joy in our children that it lifts us out of the hard place and sets us to thanksgiving. We wanted our now 8 deceased children very much, but God said no. We can pout, shout, cry, wail, rant, rave, and let it ruin us, or we can trust that God knows best and keeps His promises. That's not to say we find this easy or that we do not still have tears, but we do find amazing comfort and surprising peace in our faith, the family God has given us, our marriage, and our friends.
