When my dad called last week and told me that he had some shocking news, my heart skipped a beat. No one likes to receive a phone call like that. :(
As it turns out, my 30 year old cousin, had passed away the day before. He was a delightful Christian young man who had fought physical ailments, including severe seizures, for years. As sad as I was to hear that he was gone, I couldn’t help but be thankful that he is now free. The memories flooded back as I thought back to the days I had spent with him growing up. I babysat many, many days for him and his siblings. Back when I was a teenager, I had loved caring for those kids!
And now Garrett was gone. His funeral was to be Friday. I felt a huge tug to be there – to see his siblings that I love so much. To see his mom and his dad. His grandpa. Yes, I wanted to be there.
By some miracle, we had a free weekend. Matt was out of town with the college soccer team, but the four boys and I headed south to spend time with family and to celebrate Garrett’s life. Asa, our 16 year old, drove most of the way. That is another Gratituesday post in and of itself. I have a kid old enough to drive me to Kansas and back. Wowza.
I am so thankful we were able to go. It was worth the trip just for the hugs. I loved hearing from Garrett’s sister as she told her new husband, “Laura babysat us all the time. She’s the one that made us awesome monkey bread.” Aw, how sweet that she remembered. :)
It’s amazing, isn’t it, that funerals become wonderful reunions with loved ones? In addition, while we were in Kansas, my younger boys got to have a great time with their cousins, my older boys got to work at my Dad’s Saturday auction (he’s a realtor/auctioneer), we got to go to my nephew’s birthday party, and I got to have a talk a mile a minute because we only have one hour together visit with my great friend Amy from The Finer Things in Life. We arrived home just in time to set our clocks back, hit the bed, and welcome Matt home from his trip.
God is so good to give us the energy and ability to make this trip happen. While we will all miss Garrett, I am so thankful that as we celebrated his life together with family and friends, then have some bonus time with others we love!
Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.
If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday, please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!