Joyful and Sad

Well, it is hard to imagine two weeks has come and gone. Sara and I have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Josiah has been a model baby up until about 2 days ago. Things began getting a bit more difficult. He still sleeps like a champ. The only problem is he has started that sleeping later and later. We are now around 11:30PM when he actually sleeps his first good block of time. This has been a big change for his mom and dad since he was going down around 8-9:00PM. We are learning as we go. We haven't allowed him to cry himself out at night because we want to be sensitive to our living arrangements. Dr. Joe at our 2 weeks checkup told us to make sure he adapts to our schedule not us adapt to his. Well, that is proving slightly harder than we anticipated! :-) Other than some sleeping rough spots he is a great little guy and is doing very well.

This last weekend was tough for me (Chris) especially. As I was trying to celebrate the two week mark, I got a phone call Friday night at work saying that one of my grandfathers, Granddad Freddie, was not doing well. In fact, he had been moved into hospice and was not expected to make it much longer. The following night we found out he had passed away. There are so many reflections for this event it is hard to communicate them all. He was my first grandparent to experience the sting of death with. I have been blessed to have so many grandparents who are now great-grandparents for so long with me in this life. I find tremendous comfort in knowing he is with Jesus right now. He loved the Lord deeply, and I have no doubt about his eternal home. The hardness comes from the quickness of the news and his passing. I wish he had had a chance to see Josiah. I wish he had been able to see him smile and hear from our lips that we desire to raise him to understand the deep and rich heritage of the Christian faith. That great cloud of witnesses the author speaks of in Hebrews chapter 12 has taken on a new meaning to me as I imagine Josiah's great-granddad looking down and cheering him on. He was a good man. Good because he knew a great Savior.

As we travel to the memorial service next weekend, please be in prayer for us. We have a good amount of distance to travel and it will be a challenge for all of us. I want Josiah to at least meet his Great-Grandmother Imogene. It has been hard for Sara and I to make it over to the Atlanta area since we moved to NC, and we want to take advantage of the time we have to travel. Losing a loved one is never easy, but there is a peace that surpasses all understanding when we know that he is enjoying the company of Jesus.

Thank you for your prayers and support through it all. We are more grateful then we can ever express.