Special moments

Dear Friends,

Its been a while...sorry about that.  Life has been full, and promises to continue to be so.  I was thinking that in the past few weeks there have been a few special moments that I have been reflecting on, ones that have been, as you might imagine, full of a whole lot of different emotions along the way.

1.  A special trip to NY.  Thanks to a number of holidays in September, my kids have been off school a bit, and we have been talking about taking a trip to New York City.  In December 2013 we had a very magical trip, staying in Times Square and seeing the Lion King on broadway, going for a carriage ride in central park in the snow, visiting the Christmas tree in Rockefeller center and FAO Schwartz before it closed (oh, and the Lego store in Rockefeller plaza).  It was a special trip for us at the time, and the kids have talked about it a lot.  So, I thought lets do it again!  As with last time, we were provided with a hotel room by family (thanks, Nana!) right near the NY public library, which allowed us to walk from Grand Central when we arrived, we walked through Bryant park to Times Square that evening to the M&M store, checked out Toys R Us, and then crashed back in our room.  In the morning, we got breakfast, played soccer in our hotel room, went to the library and read Elephant and Piggy and Magic Tree House, and then headed up to Rockefeller center - to the Lego store, really!  The food, and the view from the Top of the Rock, and the trip to the American Girl Doll store were all secondary to the lego store for Eli.  We had a fun trip - but I missed Brandi a lot, missed her ability to make these trips so special, and missed her joy in our family adventuring together.

2.  Friends special events.  In the past 24 hours, I have had close friends have a baby (welcome Owen!) and other friends announce that after a long, and at times difficult wait, they have been chosen by a birth mother for adoption in November.  Both of these events fill my heart with joy - and yet that joy is tinged, as it seems most of life is these days, with the sense of how much more special it would be to share that joy with Brandi, who loved babies and family and was so good at encouraging, valuing, championing, and celebrating moms and families. She is, I believe, rejoicing in heaven about these events - but I long for her at my side in these moments.

3. This is more about me, but I have also gotten back into the pulpit again - the first time since, apart from one outlier in June, December.  It has been, in fact, a joy to return to pastoring our church in this way.  I have been encouraged that I have been able to think, study, and prepare well - I wondered if I would be able to earlier this year.  I have been able to prepare even given my weekly schedule and commitment to the kids, which I was worried about (maybe, just maybe, it does work better to start earlier and be done by Friday afternoon!).  But I thought I would share that with you as an encouragement.

Finally, a prayer request.  I have felt a bit, well, stuck for the past month about what the next steps are in pursuing my grieving process.  I have been busy with the start of school and things at church - but have strongly sensed that I cannot allow pursuing this process to be sidelined.  I have finished the H. Norman Wright book, and have been avoiding actually working on the grief journal until I just started this week - but only once.  Please pray that I will stay at it, and that the Lord will meet me in it.

Thank you friends.  I include a picture or two from NYC at the bottom for your enjoyment.

Matt