.This Too Shall Pass

This week has had it's share of ups and downs and busy busy! Someone once said there is nothing for sure except change. We are having some changes around here. Let me explain.

My youngest son has lived about thirty miles away from me and once a week I would drive over to his house to provide child care for his sweet child, for almost two years now. They have purchased a house close to me and spent all last weekend and this week fixing it up and will move in tomorrow! Hurrah!  Now I will have that sweet child added to the other little ones at my house several days a week.  I am glad to have them close by and have them more involved in family gatherings too.

On another note though, our youngest daughter and her family left yesterday for the state of Washington! She has a three yr old boy and twenty one month old twins. Her husband, in the military, has been transferred there from Germany. Happily, at last her family will be reunited but it's so sad to see them leave us! I’m not sure yet how we will adjust to the absence we will feel, we have not experienced long distant grand parenting before.  I may need some help and support from some of you!

And lastly, I just mailed a letter to my dear ninety five year old aunt who has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer; she only has weeks at best. She has lived a long and well filled life. She never missed an opportunity to garden or craft or do something kind and neighborly for someone. Always full of energy and life she gave and gave. I will miss her so! It was a hard letter for me to write, but I wanted her to know, to tell her once again, how much she has meant to me all my life. Every year when I was a child, she made sure I had a new Easter dress by making one for me. She supplied all my kids with baby quilts and most of my grandkids too. I'm sure there are hundreds of baby quilts and blankets out there she has made, all as gifts! So hard to say good bye!

I have a large family, and I come from a large family. There are lots of blessings and lots of trials connected to it all; you can’t have one without the other. On one hand joy, on the other, sorrow. I have learned that through it all the sun still rises and sets at the appointed time. In between rising and setting there are meals to cook, dishes to wash, chores to be done.  There are ones near to me that I can hold and love, ones far away or in pain of some sort that I can think of and pray for while I miss them. I’ve learned to cherish what I treasure and to let go what hurts or what I can’t change. This too shall pass; change always comes.

Do you have weeks like mine? Did you have joys and heartaches together?

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