Four Weeks Later

Karen called me from Atlanta this evening to let me know what a wonderful time that she's having. Her and the girls are being treated like VIP's and she was heading off to meet Beth Moore personally after she hung up the phone with me. Somewhere in the conversation she mentioned that today was the four week anniversary of Jacob's passing. Funny... I'm so out of it... trying to do everything for the boys and running here and there for baseball and playdates and such that I hadn't even given any thought to the day. So it's been four weeks.... some of you have probably wondered what we've been up to. Well, other than planning a trip to Atlanta for Karen, last week my sister and her two daughters flew in from Texas along with my folks for a week visit. Just about everyday was filled with trips to the playhouse, swinging, painting in the sandbox and of course freezypops!




No fun in the pool though since it was "too cold" for the Texans! As is always the case, as soon as the family from out of town showed up the temperature dropped 20 degrees! (and went right back up as soon as they were gone!) That's ok though because it didn't stop us from having fun! Joshua and Jonathan loved taking care of and playing with their cousins and even let them borrow some dress up clothes!
The girls love their "Joshy" and "Johnny" but they also love their Aunt Karen who bought them their first kit of makeup! What fun they had putting on lipstick and painting up their toes and fingernails. Which of course would later in the week lead to Joshua and Jonathan asking Mommy to paint their nails as well! (YUCK!)
All in all, after all the trips to Chuck E Cheese and Great Nana and Papa's house and restaurants and Aunt Josie's house we had a great visit and just needed a day or two to relax before Karen headed out of town. So that's what we've been up to. Sorry for not keeping you all posted! :) There's a few things that we've meant to get on the blog for you to see as well. We've received so many thoughtful cards and gifts that we could never put them all on but a few caught our eye and we knew you all would appreciate them as well. Someone gave us this cute picture frame the night of the memorial service.

Someone else sent us this in the mail a couple of days ago.
And I thought some of you might be interested in seeing his memorial card that was at the memorial service as well... not bad for a funeral home design!

There's also a video someone made and sent to us that is now located on the sidebar as "Jacob Memorial DVD Video" which was kinda kewl... even though it was set to country music! :) Please don't be offended if we don't specifically mention you or your gift - we appreciate you all!
I was driving home from work the other night and I couldn't help but be amazed at how God has used Jacob's life to touch so many people's hearts and lives. People that I haven't seen or spoken with in over half my life time have interacted with our family on some level (even if it was just online) and have been affected. Good friends from my past have contacted me. Complete strangers have fallen in love with Jacob and our family. Even close friends have become closer as a result of Jacob's short life here with us. And I can't help but think of Joseph in the Bible. Some of you may know the story... basically Joseph gets sold into slavery by his own brothers... gets thrown into jail for refusing to sleep with his master's wife... gets forgotten in jail for who knows how long and eventually God uses him to interpret the Pharaoh's dream and thus he becomes one of the most powerful people in all of Egypt. As God would have it, his brothers end up coming to Egypt for food because of a famine and who do they have to bow down before and request it from? Joseph. Once the whole story unfolds and they realize who he is they feel terrible and are afraid for their lives... "His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. 'We are your slaves,' they said. But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.'" (Genesis 50:18-20) I love that line! You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. I doubt that Joseph sat in the pit his brothers threw him into and thought that God had good plans for the pit. Or good plans for him being sold into slavery. Or good plans as a slave. Or good plans for jail. There was probably a lot of lonely sad nights for Joseph where he may have wondered if God had forgotten him. What did he do to deserve this? Why? Those all would have been fair questions, yet later in life he was able to process everything that God had done to bring his situation full circle and he was able to say "you did it to be evil but God intended it for good."
While I still sit in that cold dark lonely place asking those questions from time to time it's good to see a little bit of what God intended. I don't in anyway believe that we've come full circle... we probably aren't even on the circle yet, but still God is faithful and allows us to see how Jacob's life has impacted us and others around the world. And that scares and excites me to think of what else God intends to do in our lives... and maybe yours! Perhaps Satan intended Jacob's life to defeat us - to be evil - but God intended it for good. Some may see a situation like ours to be terrible - but God intended it to be a blessing.
Isn't God awesome like that? I don't think it's coincidence that this is pretty much the summary statement of the first book of the Bible. Think about it... garden of eden - the serpent and man did a pretty good job of screwing things up - they meant it for evil - but God intended it for good. Genesis 3 He promises one who will come and crush the head of the serpent - who will redeem mankind and put them back in a right relationship with God. Fast forward a couple thousand years and Jesus Christ hangs on a cross. No doubt the serpent and man did a pretty good job screwing that up as well - they meant it for evil - but once again... God intended it for good! I can only continue to hope and trust in the God who loves me and knows what He is doing.