An unwanted life lesson

I buried my dad today. It still seems surreal that he is gone. I have a new sympathy for those who have had to bury a parent, although at 36 I think I'm too young for this life experience. When it is your responsibility to take care of the details you almost feel you have to put your grieving on hold. Kevin and I volunteered to take care of the planning of the service which I was happy to do. I wanted a meaningful, evangelistic service not "funeral in a box, choice A" on the funeral home services list. I believe we were successful in doing a service people would remember. Thank you to those who prayed during that hour. I was able to give the eulogy without getting too emotional. I definitely cried, but not uncontrollably and I think most people could at least understand what I was saying. My precious Nathan went through more tissues than I did. He has such a caring heart.

I was feeling a little lost last night at the viewing. I haven't lived here in 19 years or seen any of my distant relatives in at least that long so some of them I didn't even recognize. I almost felt like I didn't have anyone other than Kevin and the kids to hold me up. Then, today God sent me two precious gifts. My best friend from high school came, but she is married to my brother's best friend. The other gift was just for me. A close friend of mine and Kevin's happened to be in a nearby town on business. He found out last night about the funeral and made the choice to come today. He probably doesn't think it was that big of a deal, but because he was there just for us and because he lost his dad exactly a year ago and knew what I was going through, it meant a lot to me that he came.

I just received another gift as I'm sitting here in the hotel room typing this. My friend who lives on the other side of the earth just "happened" to be online right now even though it's 4 am where she lives. Her kids are suffering from jet lag and were up getting a snack so we got to chat for almost an hour. Just what I needed to go with my peanut m&m's and project runway episode to lighten my mood. God is good!