It has been over 18 months already. It is with joy that we can say "already", for this means that time has not dragged by over these past months. We have been able to go on, life has gone on and we have been enjoying the life that has been given to us. Indeed it has gone extremely fast and it's more with sadness that we say "already" for it makes our hearts heavy when we get this feeling like all that happened was a life-time ago. Sometimes we even wonder "did that really happen?" But our hearts know it did, our minds know it did, and everywhere we look we are reminded that indeed it did happen.
We miss our dear boy, but we continue to have peace knowing that he was relieved from a life of suffering. When we sit down to read James' Story it brings back a flood of memories, good and bad ... and although they can be hard to read, it is good that the bad memories are in there too, for it keeps us focused on the reality of what James' life was like when he was with us. Sometimes we get to missing him and wanting him back and often it's when we are remembering the fun times (and these memories can even be hospital times), but when we refocus ourselves back on the medical aspect of his life and all that his little body was struggling to do we can again be thankful that the Lord saw it fit to relieve him of this burden that he carried.
James was an amazing little boy, a truly wonderful gift that the Lord gave us to take care of for a short time. As humans we wish we could have had him with us longer, most of all we wished he could have been healed of the disorders that made his life so difficult and we wish we could have watched him grow up ... we are full of wishes, that is what life is all about! But the reality is that as amazing as he was the Lord had another purpose for his life, whether we will ever understand is something I highly doubt. We know that James is happy now, he is healed now, but we also know that even the comfort of this does not dismiss the grief that comes with lossing a loved one. We thank the Lord each day again that He has given us so much strength through these past years and He keeps holding us up and helping us on. I cannot imagine where we would be without Him.
5 comments:
What a great keepsake, Steph! I'm sure those pages will get very well worn :-)
Did you end up using blurb or not?
Our brother-in-law put the book together and then it was uploaded to www.lulu.com. Similiar pricing, but this way we were able to do the layout exactly like the blog was set up - with the pictures inserted in the paragraphs, instead of using preset templates like Blurb has. We also made sure that all pictures were uploaded full quality, whereas when you slurp from Blurb it is slurping downsized pictures (I downsize all my pictures before putting them on the blog) so the picture quality is less with Blurb (unless you redo all the pictures).
It will definitely be a good memory. There is something nice about being able to sit down in a nice comfy chair and read it instead of sitting in front of the computer. Once I go through the book to make sure everythings there properly I will then order extra copies for each of the kids. Marietta has already been busy working her way through this copy.
I'll have to check out lulu - I used blurb for mine, but I do admit, the whole template thing got confusing after awhile, and now I'm a little nervous about the picture quality! I'm getting it soon, so I guess we'll have to see!
I'm sure the kids will love to have that keepsake as well - makes all that time that you took to update with pictures and text that much more worth it!
Let me know how it turns out. So far I have only heard good about Blurb so I wouldn't be too nervous. I think I was also be overly particular with this book ... in future I will consider using Blurb, but have to look into Lulu as well as I like the idea of setting my own templates. Seeing as I didn't actually do the set up part of the process I'm not sure what is involved to upload to Lulu.
The book turned out beautifully! What a treasured gift that is, I'm sure:) I do like how you are not stuck to a template but can arrange the pages yourself. I might have to look into that!
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