dirty laundry and perspective

Last week, Chris's first cousin committed suicide.
Why do people do it? The funeral was filled with despair.
The last funeral Chris and I attended was also a suicide. It was in the same chapel. All he could say was, 'I have sat in here too many times.'

Jaron has been struggling emotionally. As great as his medicine was for the first 2 months he took it, it was equally as awful for the last 3 weeks he took it.
There is nothing quite so painful as watching your little boy crouch in the corner for days on end and cry all afternoon for no reason at all. All he could say is, "I am just so sad."
He also started saying things like, "I wish I'd never been born." and other things that would just break your heart.
He has been a lot of things in his life, but never depressed.
We took him off the medicine and are waiting it out to see what needs to happen next.

Chris's boss found out that he has been trying to get hired on with the fire department and questioned him about it. Apparently, he's getting further along in the process of getting hired because they called his current employer for a reference. Who does that?!?
It appears as if there is a giant target on his back at work now. Who knows how much longer he will be employed there? Through it all, God will take care of us.

I got rear-ended in my great new car. My kids were with me - that had to be the worst part. It doesn't seem like such a big deal in the scope of things, but it still really bummed me out.

So things really are going pretty smoothly despite all the not-as-lustrous things that have happened.
I know that these things just happen. Well, maybe not these things. But things.

Coping with these types of hardships is never easy, but when you can gain some true prespective - you can handle it better.

My perspective came in the form of a 28-year old mother and wife who is terminal with cancer and is hoping for a transplant match so she might be bought another year and a half of life... that year and a half would put her in a position to celebrate her child's 3rd birthday, but not likely the 4th. Many would say from a logical standpoint, "Why waste the organ if it's pretty certain that it'll only last a year and a half?" But she intends to live that last year and a half in such a way that would make it count.
THAT kind of perspective puts all the sour in anybody's life on notice.
It really is all about making it count.

So yeah, it's been tough - but I am getting to be here, you know. That, all by itself, is a gift. I would far rather go through these things with the ones I love most - than to have them have go through it without me.

At the end of my days here on earth, there will have been valleys. I guess it's the way we appreciate the sunshine on the other side of the valley that makes our moments count.

Thank you, Father, for the sunshine. Thank You for leading us through the valleys. Thank You for always being on the other side, regardless of what we learned going through it.