Since I was young, my family has taken our "family vacation" to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. My dad has a large family and many of them lived close enough to go visit just for the day. If we wanted to see this brother we always had to travel and then we would stay with them for several days. We have continued this tradition as Jen and I have built our own families. Our large family of 12 would caravan down to Arkansas and then proceed to take over my aunt and uncle's home for several days.This year we were a family of 11.
One morning I found my mom, aunt and uncle outside. They were drinking their coffee and talking. My first thought as I walked out the door to greet them was "Where is Dad?". Then reality hit and the emotions followed. We are left with this big hole where my Dad is supposed to be and all of these "firsts" are making the hole very hard to ignore.
My dad loved this country. He was in the army and was very loyal to all things "American". All labels were read to see where an item was made. He flew the stars and stripes in his yard. We always went to the cemetery for the Memorial Day service just because it was important to him to honor the soldiers who have fought for our freedoms. This also made the 4th of July something to celebrate. He brought fireworks to my house for my kids before I was really ready to let them have fireworks. They loved it! All of these memories are great until we are again faced with the hole that is left. We have decided that we need to not do the "normal" thing this year. In fact, we proposed an entirely different option to the kids. We used the money that we would have spent on fireworks to go see a movie and eat out this year. The kids were just fine with that because they can see, and feel, the hole as well.
I know that the hard things we experience teach us lots of things. One of the most important is how to empathize with others going through the same hard things. God's word says:
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
It is going to be a long year of firsts but I know that the Lord is walking with us and has promised to be our comfort. My prayer is that the Lord would use all of these hard "firsts" to teach us how to comfort those around us.
Our Arkansas trip was very hard but we did have a very good time. We brought home fresh peaches from a peach orchard, we played some games and our kids fished and fished and fished! Here are a few pictures.
Samuel casting.
Fishing from the paddle boat. It was also used as a taxi service when people wanted to get from one side of the pond to the other. It was constantly in use.
Samuel and Julia fishing from the dock.
Bethany and Naomi's turn in the paddle boat.
Uncle Ronald's "large, black lawnmower" had to be carefully watched so it didn't "mow" Aunt Joyce's flowers!
