Whew! It feels as though I haven’t taken a breath in a month…I literally exhaled today as I thought of the hurricane that has been the last thirty days for this tired, old girl (ok, so everyone over twenty-eight wouldn’t agree with the old part, but everyone under that, including my own children, certainly think that thirty-eight is as ancient as the pyramids).
At the end of March, we celebrated the thirteenth year of life with my beautiful daughter, Devaney (teenager? yikes!), and a dance/slumber party. A week later, we celebrated the eleventh birthday of my second daughter, Destiny (she thinks she’s a teenager too). We threw her birthday/slumber party the following week due to spring break. Ah yes, spring break; in the midst of everything else, I lost the regularity of the older kids going to school.
I also had the unique, humbling, and emotional honor of sitting with the very important women in my life, on my beautiful grandmother’s final bed, caressing her gently as I watched her take her last breath. This was a short two days after Destiny’s birthday. To celebrate the life of, and to mourn death of, such loved ones in the same week…an indescribable conflict.
The day following Grandma’s passing, I celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Even as I quietly snuck back and forth between the beds of my sleeping children, gently laying out baskets full of chocolate and jelly beans, I thought also about the Resurrection Celebration taking place that day in Heaven…what a way to welcome her to Heaven…what a glorious time for her to be returned to her parents, husband, son and daughter…I love you Grandma. Grandma’s memorial took place the following weekend. It was a good time to see and catch up with “long-lost” family. Unfortunately, our Matriarch was in attendance only in spirit.
This past Saturday, I tried to shift my focus and concentrate on life. Fifteen years of life to be exact. It’s been fifteen years since God blessed us with our first-born, a son; our handsome and amazing son. We had a Wii party (a bunch of boys stayed over, but I’m not sure they’d call it a slumber party since no one slumbered) resulting in about four teenage boys thinking they all broke their wrists (take it easy the first time, it’s a workout ya’ll).
So, deep breath in and…e x h a l e.
Thank You Lord, for each of these experiences, the laughter and the tears, the pain and the relief, the sunshine that kisses my face and the rain that, although is sometimes hard to deal with, always cleans the air and brings more life to the world around me.
I love being alive…
