1:56 pm.

what a miracle life is. how precious life is. spectacular even. GOD has given us this precious gift of life in order to honor him and love him. at 1:56pm on march 26th my pops saw Jesus. he walked with HIS SAVIOR. it is so surreal. so sad. so amazing. i can picture him right now. belting out his favorite songs honoring the Lord in HEAVEN. (he didn't have a great earthly voice, but i know the Lord fixed that when he got to heaven. he would have to... it is supposed to be beautiful music). my dad passed away peacefully. which is what we wanted. he was sleeping & woke up in the arms of his Lord.

the drive down was hard. i talked with my sister a lot. i cried with todd a lot. but the question of seeing him loomed in the distance. do i walk into his house to see the shell that is left of my dad? i did walk in & reacted much different than i thought i would. i knelt by my dads body, face on the floor. i cried. i screamed. i told him i loved him. & then i prayed. i thank God for such a man. who lead me towards Jesus. who was my counsel. a man who highlighted my favorite verse in his bible. who calls me on mothers day. a man who prayed for me every day. a papa to my kids & my niece & nephew... and my sisters kids who we don't even know. a friend to so many. a love to so many!

thank you ALL for you prayers for my family. all of you have expressed so much love to us in the last few months. we are doing 'ok' given the circumstances. we are surviving.

i did my devotions out of my dads bible this morning. i wasn't sure what i wanted to read, but to know that where ever i read... he had read those words. here is where i landed... because in the margin in my dads handwriting were these words... 'my strength for the last days on earth.' 2 corinthians 5 (the whole chapter, but here is the first few.): 'For we know that if the earthy tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens... Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord~ for we walk by faith, not by sight~ we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.' this was my dad... is my dad. he is at home with the Lord & we are left to fight the sadness. and embrace the joy.