First Post on Our New Blog

First, let me say, I broke our old blog.
I'm not sure what I did to it, but it's broken.
I don't have my background, or my music, or all of the
other cool things that were on it.
I accidentally made a new blog.
All of the older postings and pictures are on the other blog.
I set up a new one.
Enjoy.

Our last month has been busy.

It's been both sad and happy.

The kids celebrated their first combined party.

Instead of gifts, they asked people

to bring donations for Hospice.

With pride, they gave their gifts to others.

We remembered my Mom's birthday together.

It was hard.

I missed her.

We missed her.

We wrote notes to her, tied them onto balloons, and

sent them up to "heaven" for her.

On her birthday, we receive a call from our new adoptions case worker.

She was the same worker that we had with our older kids.

Someone that we all really love.

I felt like it was such a special gift on what would have been

my Mom's 59th birthday.

As the one year anniversary of my Mom's death draws near, I have

found that my grief is not as intense as it first was.

I miss my Mom every day, but I have found that it

is healthy for life to move forward.

I think of her daily, want to talk with her often,

and think of how much she would be enjoying her two new

grandsons right now.

I also think of how much she would love to see the kids

still having fun.  Still enjoying the traditions that we

shared before she became ill, before she died.

This year, we took our boys with us to pick apples.

It was so much fun to include them in our family's

yearly apple picking tradition.

This year, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom went with

us to the orchard. I couldn't help but think, as

we shared our day with them, that God knew just

what He was doing when he

brought them into our lives and our family.

As the weather has changed, and the leaves are dropping,

as the pumpkins, apples, and scarecrows are decorating our house,

I realize that it's almost been a year.  It's been hard to think

that this is one year without her, and that there will be many

more years without her.  Although my grief is not as

deep as it was, it is a dull ache of loss.  I think of last year,

at this time, when Mom was looking at a glass window hanging in her house.

She looked at me, with tears in her eyes, and said,

"I think that's what my mansion in heaven will look like.

I look at that, and I think of how beautiful heaven will be."

I know that she has celebrated this past year without pain, illness, or grief.

I know, without a doubt, that one day I will be there with her, in her

mansion, and we'll be chatting away just like we always did.