Grateful

Today I am feeling grateful. Grateful that I am able to go through each day without a close loved one or myself experiencing severe pain, bad health, or loss. So many people I know right now have a loved one with a serious ailment. I don't understand why sickness and loss must pervade this world, or why so many have to experience sorrow and suffering. I don't understand why some get to live and some have to die. I cannot understand these things, but I know that we are all part of something so much bigger than ourselves. If we can fathom even for an instant how minute our existence in this life is compared to the eternity we can experience thereafter, we can perhaps begin to understand what greater things lie ahead for us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord".

I am so incredibly grateful to have my father be cancer free for about 15 years now. My dad is amazing and I can't imagine my life without him. I know I have never told him this, but I look up to him so much in everything I do and I know many of my friends and acquaintances have said the like. He has always been an incredible role model to m and my sisters through his relentless commitment to my mom, our family, our church, and my home town community. I feel so incredibly blessed to have two healthy parents, and even more amazingly to have four healthy living grandparents. My husband lost his father two years ago to cancer and has no grandparents still living. I can't understand this. It doesn't seem fair to him.

I know that life will not always be perfect for me (nor has it been), but I am very thankful for now... a time when my immediate family is healthy. I hope I get many more years to spend with them all because I love them all very much.

Please keep anyone you know that may be suffering from a loss or serious illness right now in your prayers... and don't forget to give praise to God for what IS good. Even in the shadows there is light.

-A <3

P.S. Sorry if that all seemed random and that... none of it was about Nieva directly (even though this blog is supposed to be about her).... but thoughts are thoughts and this is just what felt right for this tonight.