Getting Back to "Normal"

Dear Readers,

Thank you so much for your heartfelt prayers and support! It has meant so much to our family.

Today has been the hardest for me since Victoria left our family, since Ken had to go back to work. I am very grateful that he has a job that allows him to take off time to be with his family when he needs to, but I pray that the Lord will open the way for him to have a business from home, so he needn't leave at all. How grateful I am also that I have not had to send the girls back to school; my mother's heart couldn't take it!

We have had such a peaceful, reverent spirit in our home, that it is hard to let that time go. That is such a big challenge, not wanting to leave the special experiences we had in the past and go forward, being afraid that we will not feel that spirit again. Life is not meant to be lived in the past, but in each day that happens. Our new challenge is living our lives in harmony with the Spirit, so that each day will be filled with peaceful moments amid its chores and afflictions.

May I hold my children closer, and treasure them more, while knowing that if the Lord called them Home, they would not be far away. Let me be worthy of being their mother, and of any others the Lord might wish to bless us with, whether or not they are meant to be with us for this life.

Oh, dear ones, do we know what treasures we hold in our homes? Do we really appreciate the sacredness and brevity of this mortal existence? May we all live in awareness of the closeness of the other side of the Veil of Forgetfulness; that it is indeed in our homes, and everywhere we go, if we allow it to be.

May I share the poem I read at Victoria's graveside service?

"Faith"

I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea

Come drifting home with broken masts and sails;

I shall believe the Hand which never fails,

From seeming evil worketh good for me;

And though I weep because those sails are battered,

Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered,

"I trust in thee"

I will not doubt, though all my prayers return

Unanswered from the still, white Realm above;

I shall believe it is an all-wise Love

Which has refused those things for which I yearn;

And though at times I cannot keep from grieving,

Yet the pure ardor of my fixed believing

Undimmed shall burn.

I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain,

And troubles swarm like bees about a hive;

I shall believe the heights for which I strive

Are only reached by anguish and by pain;

And though I groan and tremble at my crosses,

I yet shall see, through my severest losses,

The greater gain.

I will not doubt; well anchored in the faith,

Like some staunch ship, my soul braves every gale,

So strong its courage that it will not fail

To breast the mighty unknown sea of Death.

Oh, may I cry when body parts with spirit,

"I do not doubt," so listening worlds may hear it,

With my last breath.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

May His blessings be poured out upon you this day, whether your day brings trials big or small,

Love,

Marqueta