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Here's what's been going on with us…
We went to Lancaster, PA last week, Saturday to Wednesday for my Grandpa's funeral. He passed away in AZ, but my Grandma is buried near where they lived in PA, so that's where he wanted to be buried also. Believe it or not, it is pretty easy (and inexpensive) to ship a body…if you're wondering how to transport your next murder victim. I kid. Anyways, we went to PA for a few days. It was a great trip. We enjoyed time with family, seeing and meeting all those who loved my Grandpa, and seeing a little snow. My Grandpa would have loved how the services went and turned out, and we were really grateful for all the people that came to celebrate such an incredible man. The one interesting aspect was having a toddler at an open casket visitation. Mckenna posed a lot of questions, but seemed to handle it all well. It's certainly an impossible concept to grasp that Pa's body is in the room, but that the rest of him now "lives in heaven at Jesus' house," as we told her. We weren't sure if we should let her be there and see him, but I'm glad we made the decision we did. I think we often make death so scary in our culture. But I want it to be something Mckenna feels comfortable with. I want her to learn that there's joy in a Christ-follower going to "live at Jesus' house". So that's what we did. We called it Pa's party and Pa's funeral party. We were real. We showed how we were feeling. She, of course, saw tears. But I tried my best to offset any tears with talk of how much joy Pa was feeling and what fun he was having.
When we got home from PA, it was a quick turn around. Ronnie had a work trip to FL already booked for a speaking commitment, and Mckenna and I had a trip to CA planned with my friend and her two girls. The trip to California was amazing. It certainly wasn't relaxing, as I'm pretty sure a trip with 3 little girls under 3 is never a recipe for R and R, but it was a trip full of fun, memories, and a lot a laughs. Here's the only group shot we got, and it's a miracle everyone was still long enough to fit into one frame…However, expecting all of us to be looking at the camera would have been asking too much :)
All in all it's been a busy couple weeks filled with a lot of love, a lot of quality time, and a lot of thankfulness for all our many blessings.
