A Goodbye, A Celebration, and A Deadline

 The day after my last post, we saw Brian's Grandma for the last time. She was an amazing, strong, wonderful woman who I will always love just as one of my own grandparents.  We saw her Saturday afternoon, and in the middle of the night we got the call that she had gone on to her forever home.  Brian left with his brother to go be with the family and I stayed home with the kids. Ever lose someone and find yourself looking around at your surroundings wondering why they look the same? The world is different, now. It's forever changed by the loss of that one soul. Yet, where I sat, nothing looked different. But it was. It is. We spent a lot of time with family over the last week. Grandma made beautiful hand-stitched baby blankets for each of her 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Over the years, she also made other quilts for the grandchildren.  Here is how the church was prepared for her goodbye.  That's just one side of the church. The other had just about as many quilts.  Notice the corners turned up on each one?  She wrote a note on each one with the child's name, birthdate, weight, and that it was "Made with love" by her.  Even when saying goodbye, we were surrounded by her love that she put into each stitch of all those quilts.

Yesterday, we had C's 1st birthday party. As usual, Grandma had planned ahead, so C got a birthday card that had been picked out and signed by great-Grandma. It was so special, and I know C will be happy she has it one day.  It was a good birthday - she devoured cake, pulled paper off presents, and played with boxes as much as she did the toys. Then, she crashed out asleep while the rest of us had supper.
We REALLY need some papers to fall into place this week for our adoption. We're getting down to the wire on having our submission this year.  Basically, if I don't have a certain piece of paper in my hand on Friday and overnighted to the family that's leaving Saturday, then we probably won't be able to submit until February after their holidays.  Please pray that we can get this one last document ready to go in time. If so, then we are looking at a possible January travel date!  Our fundraising is continuing to progress, and we trust that we will be able to go when the time comes. We truly appreciate all of your continued prayers.