It's Monday and I'm in the middle of trying to lesson plan for the last few weeks in this quarter. I've been behind in blogging lately, so I thought I'd take a break from lesson planning and write a little bit.
This picture is from Mother's Day. In the morning, Ryan and I went to church, which is where I (& Ryan also) was deeply hit with the memory of our miscarried child. Although it was over a year and a half ago, it's still quite painful at times. I know others of you have experienced the same loss. For those who haven't, I wanted to share something from my view that I hope will help you when trying to console someone who's lost their unborn baby. It's hard when someone tells us news that we're not sure how to handle, but there can be some hurtful responses that people have said to me while trying to "make it better". One of the more common ones is something like, "You're young....there's still time for more." What this communicates to me is something like, "That baby meant nothing....it's just a child that you want and you'll be able to have another someday." I've gotten my new response now (of course to be said lovingly). It's like saying to a mother of 3 after one of her children has died, "Don't worry. You still have two left." It's not that she or I are unaware of other children, but you still grieve the loss of THAT one. That baby was and is a special child to you. We weren't reading about, praying for, or expecting a glob of tissue. We were expecting a child. With that said, I am happy to be child-free at the present with Ryan and I both returning to school full-time. But again, that also doesn't diminish our love for our heavenly child.
Later on Mother's Day, my mom and I went to visit my grandmother, who's in a nursing home. Afterwards, we went to have high tea and hear live guitar and violin. One of my students had gifted me two tickets to this event. We had a very nice time there. Ryan was fishing. : )
This past Saturday, May 19th, was the Sacred Marriage seminar at our church that we have been planning for the past 3 months. We had around 135 people there. We had wonderful feedback from the survey cards that people filled out. It was a truly great time. The one thing people wrote over and over again was that they wish that it had been longer! If anyone is interested in getting the audio recording from the event, they are $10 through His Place Church. Let me know or call the church for more info. I highly recommend them!!! One of the speaker's (Gary Thomas) most appreciated sessions is on physical intimacy. It is straightforward and from a very biblical perspective. I recommend getting the CD's from the whole day to everyone!!
I guess that's the brief overview of news for now. I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately, but I had more I wanted to share in writing. Now back to lesson planning! : )
Finally, a close up of a fluffy bouquet of rhodies.
