Moving through the "check list"
Well! it finally seems like life, with all of its ups and downs is going to settle down a bit. The last couple months have really been on "full go." I have really realised though, how you think that like might be "slower..." and it never really gets that way. Sometimes, we have to make a concerted effort to do that. but, these past couple months/weeks have NOT been slow, and that. is. okay. However, I am looking forward to being able to say that I have a realm of routine again.
sometimes I feel like having a routine can also be translated to "boring." I know that there might be some of my friends out there that ask what is the next big adventure that is planned for me... what am i training for, where am I travelling too?
well, lets just say... marriage and the adventure of growing roots somewhere. That is the adventure I am on for the next little while. and, it is official: here is the paper that says so. Next step: get hubby and I to have the legal name change that allows you to add a new middle name. so, i will be the huge name of "Amelia Patterson Payne Birch."
Last week, I went back to Edmonton to have the funeral for my sister, Shaunnie Rebecca. It really was an excellent time with family, and I really also was able to sit back and remember how much love there is from both sides of my family... the Payne's and the Patterson's. There were so many people there, even having driven up during a ridiculous snow storm. My brother was not able to make it, and I wish he was there.
My mum did an excellent job of putting the service together, with 3 candles at the beginning lit (A memory candle, community, and Thanksgiving), and choosing appropriate hymns (Morning has broken, all things bright and beautiful, How great thou art, and Abide with me.) It was beautiful, and to have memories of rebecca throughout her life read and highlighted was oh so appropriate.
The tapworks were turned on for me many times. Lighting the Candle of Memory was almost too much for me. My neice Makayla was there, beside me, and I was just so touched with her compassion and love. The jokes to make me smile, the understanding, her ability to hold my hand and put her arm around me. she brings me such joy, and I have been so blessed to see her so many times this year.
I miss Rebecca. it is a depth of sadness that I have never experienced before. To know that i will never see her again, or hear her voice, or get frustrated with her, or laugh with her. but, I know that her mind is at ease. if you would like to donate to a great cause, in her memory, please click HERE FOR SUIT YOURSELF. So, to take the reading from the service:
We do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling-- if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
after being in edmonton, I arrived home to have an exciting certificate having arrived in the mail. It's official, folks: I am an RN. despite being sure that I could've failed, i did not. I am smrt enough to stick needles in your arm, accompany you in decisions about health and illness, and just be an all round nurse! I'm really excited that this went well, admist all the craziness of that time (Becca's passing & the wedding...)
life. it's quite the ride, isn't it?
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