Last Thursday, June 14, 2007, was Grandma Helen Rose Pamer Pavkov's funeral. It was a celebration and yes, I cried. I cried because I realized how much I'm going to miss her. I cried because I watched her brother and sister take a long pause walking past her casket. I cried when I saw Grandpa sitting in his wheelchair just staring and staring at her one last time. I cried because my mom no longer has her mom here. I cried because all the grandkids and great-grandkids sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "My Jesus I Love Thee" together. I cried singing the words, "In mansions of glory and endless delight ... " That's where Grandma was while we were singing! Grandma's funeral WAS a day of celebration. We celebrated her long and full life as we sat around after the meal at church and shared stories of her unending generosity and labors of love. We celebrated Grandma's life and her reward!
Last Saturday, June 16, 2007, was Laura Ruth Weinhardt and Aleksander Necakov's wedding. It was a celebration and yes, I cried. I cried because Laura was beautiful and Sasha was handsome. I cried when Werner walked Laura down the aisle because I knew he loved her and it couldn't have been easy to know that this was the day his little girl was going to be joined to another man. I cried as they walked out because I could feel the joy radiating from their beings. I cried at the reception when Laura told us about the Guest of Honor who had been invited to their wedding many, many years ago when the two of them invited Him into their hearts and when she thanked her parents for the best first twenty years of her life. I cried when we said our good-bys to them because I knew that they were starting on a whole new adventure in life and I felt honored to be there witnessing and celebrating together with them.
On Sunday, June 17, 2007, we celebrated Father's Day with the Weinhardts and also Werner's 50'th birthday. What fun to have the family together again for these celebrations! In the afternoon, we celebrated Roger Baumann's graduation from the University of Waterloo. It was a great celebration because not only is he now a university graduate, but he's anticipating his next challenge: graduate school at Harvard's Divinity School in Boston.
These celebrations were all worthy of our attention and joy and emotions, but I realized that every day can be a celebration if we let it! This evening when we were saying our "Thank You" prayers before bed, the boys were listing off such simple reasons to celebrate with thanks: for going to the store with Daddy, for the mail, for the sunshine, for going to Caleb's house tomorrow to play, for the upoming Kindergarten readiness day at school for Stephen, for Christopher laughing at supper, for Mommy cleaning Daddy's dirty van, etc, etc. I remember a Bible Class that Joe taught one time in East Akron ages ago when he challenged us to be thankful for average things "like .... uh, this door jam! If it weren't here, we wouldn't have a doorway!" Ok. So that is a very average thing, but his point was that we tend to thank God for the big things in life and we should really be thankful for all things! (By the way, that really was the example he gave in our class that morning! :) I do want to be thankful for all the little things like the 45 minutes of peace that I had tonight when Daddy took the boys to the store, for Christopher's totally infectious laugh that gets us all going, for my feather duster that does an amazing job for me when I don't feel like dusting. I want to make every day a celebration! Would you join me?
Last Saturday, June 16, 2007, was Laura Ruth Weinhardt and Aleksander Necakov's wedding. It was a celebration and yes, I cried. I cried because Laura was beautiful and Sasha was handsome. I cried when Werner walked Laura down the aisle because I knew he loved her and it couldn't have been easy to know that this was the day his little girl was going to be joined to another man. I cried as they walked out because I could feel the joy radiating from their beings. I cried at the reception when Laura told us about the Guest of Honor who had been invited to their wedding many, many years ago when the two of them invited Him into their hearts and when she thanked her parents for the best first twenty years of her life. I cried when we said our good-bys to them because I knew that they were starting on a whole new adventure in life and I felt honored to be there witnessing and celebrating together with them.
On Sunday, June 17, 2007, we celebrated Father's Day with the Weinhardts and also Werner's 50'th birthday. What fun to have the family together again for these celebrations! In the afternoon, we celebrated Roger Baumann's graduation from the University of Waterloo. It was a great celebration because not only is he now a university graduate, but he's anticipating his next challenge: graduate school at Harvard's Divinity School in Boston.
These celebrations were all worthy of our attention and joy and emotions, but I realized that every day can be a celebration if we let it! This evening when we were saying our "Thank You" prayers before bed, the boys were listing off such simple reasons to celebrate with thanks: for going to the store with Daddy, for the mail, for the sunshine, for going to Caleb's house tomorrow to play, for the upoming Kindergarten readiness day at school for Stephen, for Christopher laughing at supper, for Mommy cleaning Daddy's dirty van, etc, etc. I remember a Bible Class that Joe taught one time in East Akron ages ago when he challenged us to be thankful for average things "like .... uh, this door jam! If it weren't here, we wouldn't have a doorway!" Ok. So that is a very average thing, but his point was that we tend to thank God for the big things in life and we should really be thankful for all things! (By the way, that really was the example he gave in our class that morning! :) I do want to be thankful for all the little things like the 45 minutes of peace that I had tonight when Daddy took the boys to the store, for Christopher's totally infectious laugh that gets us all going, for my feather duster that does an amazing job for me when I don't feel like dusting. I want to make every day a celebration! Would you join me?
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