Swimming in the Rain

My brother died this week. He was my baby brother even though he had just had his 50 th birthday on the 18 th of January. I got the call on Monday morning. I had some important things happening with contracts employees and a medical team from Texas who had just arrived the day before. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.  David was the most laid back person. I had joked with my Mom about how "chill" he was that he was going to out live the other 7 siblings. The other seven of us are a little on the hyper side and have been known to be stress heads.  God has been dealing with me over the years and I had hoped to achieve Dave' s level of peace. God probably wanted me to achieve that too, but I had a living example that God had dropped in my family.

So I abandoned my team, said goodbye to my girls, and jumped on a plane. I thank the team for helping make it easy to leave. They were a blessing while I was there and a blessing to my girls and the community while I was away.  I thank my girls for praying for me while I was away.

We had a memorial service for Dave and so many people came to share how David had blessed their lives. He was a good man, a servant ant as faithful as they come. He received The Lord years ago and we talked some about The Lord, but now I wished we had shared more. He used to write me to play Candy Crush but I didn't have time to play. I know that if I started I would be pretty competitive not to mention obsessive about some of those games. I have whiddled my online game playing down to Scrabble with my sister and brother and a dear friend. However I am competitive about it. At one time I was playing complete strangers. I cut back and then Dave started inviting me to play with him. There was no competition with Dave. He would have slaughtered me. It would be a daily dose of humiliation. When Dave was a younger man he could go to the arcade and play all day and use a quarter for the entire day. He had a mind for any type of game. I just told myself that I didn't have time for that. I wish now that I would have accepted his Candy Crush Challenge.   I regret not setting aside that time.  We all think we have forever with each other here on this earth, but we don't..  I know I will see him in heaven but man I miss him here and now.

I got home and through a series of plane delays I arrived with my daughter number 2 and she was coming to surprise her life time friend and our girls.  During my duress and all the planning I ruined the surprise that I had kept for weeks. I was heart sick. Angela's birthday surprise ruined. Grace flowed from Angela Charity and Kansas. God is good even when we mess up royally.
Angela  Serrit and her husband planned a beach trip for the girls and they arrived at the beach a day before we did. When we got there it had been raining most of the day. It slacked up that night and the girls wanted to go swimming in the rain. I started telling the the practical reasons why that wouldn't be a good idea and then remembered Dave. He would have swam in the rain with them and I decided I would too. I was a cold time but a good time and I am glad I went against my own stuff shirt ways and just jumped in the pool.

The only good thing that comes out of losing a love one here in this life is changing your perspective and try to make every moment, every touch, every look count for something in your heart. I would encourage all of you to swim in the rain with someone you love, and not to be so practical all the time. God gives us zillions of opportunities to connect with others. I am thankful that I am now looking a little harder for those opportunities.

Thanks to all the folks who were praying for my family. Thanks for all the special stories about Dave I had never heard. Thanks for the folks who came to the memorial service and who helped in some way. I will ever appreciate your acts of kindness. Blessings, the Hurting Honduran Mom