Treasures

We went to church with my cousin and his family while we were in KC and their Sunday school class had a good series going about marriage, and wouldn’t you know the week we went the lesson was on suffering.

Smack dab right where we were.  I don’t think it was a mistake we were there.

Before Seth died, we had not experienced any suffering.  Sure maybe some first world problems but nothing that really shakes you to your core, brings you to your knees to get through each day kind of suffering.  We’ve been learning what it means to suffer, and while physically we aren’t suffering our hearts have been taken to a depth we didn’t know existed.  I imagine many of you are familiar with this depth and you too know it’s difficulty.

One of the things I took from that class was not to miss the treasures that are waiting for us in this suffering.  There have been so many treasures through the Word and the closeness to our creator through all this.  One treasure though is pretty tangible, returning to the states for a period of time, we were given so many gifts through that.  Thank you Seth for that, your brothers would not have had the chance to get to know their grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles if you were not a part of our family.

One really special treasure was being close to my family for the 4^th of July.  It’s weird because it’s the one holiday that really gets me homesick over here. 

There’s really nothing special about it, just family getting together, but oh how I miss it when we’re not there.  So thank you Seth for letting me spend this day with my family.  I’m not sure if we’ll get to do it  again for a long time.

We even got to spend it with both sides of my family, even bigger treasure.

Calvin and Micah enjoyed the pool with my dad’s side of the family.  Calvin was a little fish and was a little prune by the end of the day.

Micah eventually fell asleep.  After scooting as far away from Marvin as he could.  He conked out like this.

A couple days later we were able to head to the farm to celebrate with my mom’s side of the family.  The boys loved the farm about as much as I do.  It was just good to be with my family and I so enjoyed our chat girls.  While this year was incredibly hard on so many levels it was good to see you girls, how I wish Seth could be a part of this next group of babies.

On the farm the gravel can entertain my boys for hours.

Water guns, helped beat the heat.

The tractors were begging the boys to climb on in.

I love these two so much, I’m so thankful we got to spend a day with them.

So thank you Seth.  You blessed your mama’s heart.