WHAT IS YOUR TESTIMONY

My friend Tara sent this to me today. It is a very touching and emotional video. I do not want to tell you too much about the video before you watch it. The name of it is "Cardboard Testimonies" and this was done by Hillside Christian Church in Amarillo, TX. What is your "Cardboard Testimony"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

My "Cardboard Testimony"
(Side 1) Kate's Death - September 2005
(Side 2) Learning to accept Kate's death and accepting God's plan and using it to help other families who experience the loss of a child - 2008.

REENTERING THE WORK UNIVERSE AFTER A WONDERFUL WEEK OFF!

After having a week off going back to work today was hard! I am constantly telling Hubby what a great stay at home wife I would be!!! I know some of you are probably thinking that during off season I do not work that much BUT you do have to factor in my drive time and getting ready for work. Although my drive time has defintley improved since the HOV lane opened and I have started carpooling most days.

We did not go out of town. We both took the week off and worked on Kate's Kourtyard. Yes, I know I spelled that with a "K" and not at "C". That is what the little garden sign will say when we get to that point. We still are not completely through. The stone has to settle and then Hubby said we will have to bring in another load of the decomposed granite...so it is a work in progress but I have to say it was much harder than I thought it was going to be. He worked so hard as there were some things that I could just not do because I did not have the strength to do it. Not only was it hard it was so HOT outside. Yes, last week we had 100 degree days here. I have to say I have a great husband to help me do all that on our week off!!! I know several of you have asked me about pictures because you were checking the blog to see if I was posting. I will post some pictures, hopefully soon. I did take pictures during the process....I joked with Hubby a few times that he needed to take pictures of me doing some of the work to....we never did get any of those pictures.

Still Remembering The Chapman Family

It has been a month since the Chapman family lost their daughter. I actually started this post the week that she died but never posted it. I decided I was going to wait as lots of emails and blog post about the Chapman's were going around 4 weeks ago. Why did I decided to wait you may ask - because even though the "shock" maybe over for everyone on the outside, this family is still dealing with the loss. They will be dealing with it the rest of their lives - not having their precious little Maria with them. It seems that we all get back into our day to day lives and may not think that someones life has been changed forever. After the death of a child you find a new "normal" life. Life will be different. Many people have heard me say that I have made it this far in my grieving process only by the grace of God. Please remember this family in your prayers as the loss of a child is a very difficult journey that they will be traveling the rest of their lives. He has some wonderful songs....here is the link to a song that he had written about his daughters....the name of the song is Cinderella. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLYxtuC0oRk, first is the video and then he talks about how he decided to write this song.

After hearing about this tragedy I asked Hubby if he had heard about it and mentioned to him how we had used a Steven Curtis Chapman (SCC) song in our wedding and another SCC song at Kate's funeral.

Since Kate's death I have often thought of the song from our wedding, "I Will Be Here". This song was sang as we lit the unity candle....

Tomorrow morning if you wake
up and the sun does not appear
I will be here
If in the dark, we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
'Cause I will be here
I will be here
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
I will be here
Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here
Just as sure as seasons were made for change
Our lifetimes were made for these years
So I will be here
I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here
I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me
Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
Oh, I will be here

In the past 2 1/2 years especially, so much of that song has come true for us....he has been there so much for me....the days that the sun do not shine for me.....he has been there......when the laughter turned to crying....he has been there....when the future has seemed so unclear.....he has been there.....we have definitley seen many seasons in our life, and he has been there.

Almost 4 years after that song was sung at our wedding another SCC song was sang at Kate's funeral. This time the song was "With Hope". Below are the lyrics to that song.

This is not at all how

We thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you

We had so many dreams

And now you've gone away

And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say

And nothing we can do

Can take away the pain

The pain of losing you, but ...
We can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no

And we can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

(There's a place by God's grace)

There's a place where we'll see your face again

We'll see your face again

And never have I known

Anything so hard to understand

And never have I questioned more

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears

I see the Father's smile and say well done

And I imagine you

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true

'Cause now you're home

And now you're free, and ...
We have this hope as an anchor

'Cause we believe that everything

God promised us is true, so ...
We wait with hope

And we ache with hope

We hold on with hope

We let go with hope

So, as you can see these songs are about "REAL" life.

It is already June!

I can not believe that I have not posted since May 11th! I was quite shocked when I realized it had been almost a month....I promise, I am going to try and get better and post at least once a week again....life has just been so busy here.

Hubby's birthday was yesterday - we actually celebrated his birthday on Saturday night though. We went to dinner with friends and then back to our house.

2 weekends ago with the help of a friend I painted my kitchen!! It was not as bad as I remembered painting to be and I love having color on my walls rather than just a white kitchen.

This past Friday was the Scrapbook Convention! I went along with a couple of friends and we had a blast. In one of the workshops we did the cutest chipboard album that is about dogs of course. I will have to post that album once it is completed. The classes are only around 1 1/2 hours long - so we only got started on the project and were not able to complete it.

Hope all is well with everyone.....