December 13, 2010 I am driving in my car this morning and the roads are kind of nasty from the snow we got yesterday. I finally plug in my iPhone so I can listen to my iPod. Last night on the way home from work I decided to play Steven Curtis Chapman’s CD “Beauty Will Rise.” This CD was written and created after the tragic death of his youngest daughter Maria. Maria passed away on May 21, 2008, only a little less than 2 months before Mari did. His CD is one of the ways he dealt with … [Read more...]
Memorial Day
As we approach Memorial Day many things come to mind but at the forefront of my mind is our beloved Mariana. No she never served in our nation’s Armed Forces but she had the privilege of being buried in the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. How might you ask is this possible if she was never a veteran as only veterans are allowed to be buried in a national cemetery or the veteran’s spouse. Well there is one loop-hole that my husband Keith and I found out the hard way: If you have a child that … [Read more...]
Then it hits ya
Since moving to Kentucky, I fell in love with a program on the Style Channel. The program is called Clean House. If you've never seen it before, they take people who are clutter fanatics (and man there are some that are so nasty) and help them clean out the clutter, sell the stuff in a yard sale, and then give them a makeover in the rooms they cleared out. Well, they have a couple of shows that came from the original called Clean House: Search for the Messiest House in the Country and Clean … [Read more...]
Strength…
Strength: Where does it come from? Everyone always wants to tell me how strong I am for how I am today with dealing with the death of Mari. And I used to think the same thing when I saw a parent and how they were dealing with the death of a child. I would think to myself how incredibly strong that person must be to be dealing with the loss. The strength they have inside themselves must be so incredibly strong to be able to get through this incredibly hard time. I know I could never be that … [Read more...]
Mari’s Dress
I’ve spent the day trying to unpack the spare bedroom/office area. It's such time consuming work. Once in a while I run into something that was Mari’s. For the most part, all of her stuff was packed away and is in the storage unit we rented as our place is just too small to hold all of our stuff until we get on-post housing. I was going through one of the boxes we'd packed back up after the movers just half-assed put our stuff everywhere and was a big mess. As I was going through this box, … [Read more...]
Moving Time…
Well, the move is finally done. They packed up our house last month on the 14th, moved it out on the 15th, left for Kentucky on the 19th, ended up having an abscessed tooth from a root-canal from over four or five years ago, had oral surgery on the 22nd, finally started looking for places to live on the 23rd, found a place to rent on the 28th and put deposit down, signed a new lease on May 3, transportation delivered our stuff on the 6th, had massive asthma attack in middle of night on the 6th … [Read more...]
The dreaded deed has been done
It seems like recently everything has been going okay. I've been doing okay. We left on Thursday to go down to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Keith just received his orders to report there on April 26. What we found out is that housing is of a valued commodity. We only saw two places, and those two may not even be available by the time we get down there. I guess it is what it is. On the way back home on Saturday, Keith and I talked about how we need to seriously start thinking about getting a second … [Read more...]
That Empty Spot
Have you ever wondered if something really existed or was it just in your mind? Something that seemed to be so real but then one day you wake up and it’s like it never was? That’s how I kind of feel sometimes. My new computer has Windows 7 and one of the new features with this operating system is how you can set up your computer’s desktop. I decided to have mine kind of like a slideshow. A new picture gets displayed every ten minutes. All of the ones I have chosen are of Mari. Well, … [Read more...]
That Hideous Doctrine by John Thomas
I wanted to share this with everyone. It was given to me while my husband and I were taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church over two years ago. I just recently found my copy of it and wanted to share it with all of you. From Moody Monthly/September 1985 That hideous doctrine of hell is fading. How often have you thought of it in the past month, for instance? Does it make a difference in your concern for others, in your witness? Is it a constant and proper … [Read more...]
Justing Sitting Here…
As I sit here, I am readily thinking of Mari this morning. I sit here with a smile on my face at how that little angel could uplift the lives of so many while at the same time I have a dog at my feet just whining to get up on my lap and have some attention. It amazes me sometimes at how much my life has now changed from over a year ago. I was a stay at home mom taking care of a severely autistic child. My life was almost all-consuming with making sure Mari was watched almost all the time as … [Read more...]
