Life Continues...

Things are good. Several of you have emailed your encouragement...thanks so much. Dad arrived on Monday and will be here until next Wed. The kids are so thrilled! He will then go back to Princeton to wrap up loose ends. Then, he'll move to Siloam in time for Christmas. He's looking forward to being with grand kids. Roger's sister, Joy, lives in Princeton. She and her hubby, Steve, have one 9 year old son, our nephew... So dad has been blessed to be around him since he was born. Now, he will spend time with his other grand kids. Not only are my five children here, but another of our nephews, Jon, also lives in Siloam. Even though he just turned 22, I know that Dad will want to spend time with Jon as well.
So, this week we've eaten lots of meals with Dad, taken Dad to the cabin for some repairs, he's taken the kids out for donuts once, will take them to Cathy's Corner tomorrow, and tonight, we spent an hour around the fire pit eating Smores and telling stories. The beginning of good memories!
In other news, my Mustang is almost done! No matter what Roger says, the color is NOT hot pink...it's called cranberry. It is lovely. I hope to pick it up Monday. I'm sitting here in my fuzzy robe and slippers...it's been a good week and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend.

The Leading Cause of Death

Roger's step-mother, Beverly, (we called her Bebs) passed away Wednesday night after a long battle with colon cancer. She and dad had been married for 11 years. And, even though she is now pain-free and with the Lord, we are very sad...especially for dad. Roger's mother died from ovarian cancer in 1994, so we are so sad to see him have to go through this again. Dad tends to be quite a philosophical man, and one of his many lofty quotes is, "The leading cause of death is life. And we all have a terminal case." I've thought about this many times over the last few weeks as we've known Bebs' time was coming to an end. Even though I understand, and can even appreciate the meaning, it doesn't really make me feel any better. When my mother died, there were several well-meaning people that would say things like, "You should be glad she's in a better place." (What? I should be glad?) Or, "You can be thankful she's not in pain anymore." (I'm supposed to be thankful?) Or, my favorite, "God will always bring good from our pain...perhaps someone came to know the Lord because of her death." I look back now and know they weren't trying to intentionally be unkind... but all I could feel was the pain of her absence. I didn't care if somebody got saved bcause of her death! I wanted her here. Our relationship with Bebs is obviously not as deep as the relationship with my mother, but we are still sad that she is gone and would have liked for her to be around a lot longer. She is the only grandmother my children have ever known.