Easter Update

Well Easter has come and gone, but I thought I'd write a post about how it went considering what I had written about in my last post about my apprehension and sadness because of not having Hailey with us for another Easter.

While I disliked feeling like I'd forgotten Hailey in the midst of my planning for my brother's visit over the Easter weekend, and I worried about what Easter would actually be like with entertaining family and not having Hailey (would she be completely forgotten and how much would that hurt the hole in my heart?), I'm so thankful that God used the weekend in a surprising way for me. In fact, he really did bless me with a wonderful Easter that made me happy and full of love.

I thought the only way for me to be happy and full of love in that way would have been to have a special way of remembering or including Hailey in our Easter, but, unfortunately, I didn't have a way of doing that and nothing was done to make her a part of what we were doing. (Although back home my mom did place some tulips by her grave).

Instead, as I've mentioned, my Easter weekend was spent with my brother, his wife, and their son, my 2 year old nephew, and instead of that making me sad and miss not having my own daughter (who would have been almost 17 months around with us) and all of the other things that could have gone along with that, the experience was wonderful.

In part I think that's because spending time with family is a rare jewel for some military families like ours. We see our families only a few times a year so any time we spend with them is something to be enjoyed and treasured. Also, since I graduated from college and got married (which involved living a few hours away from home at first and then grew further and further away), my brother has never come to visit us. Any visits with my brother have always been back in IL and with other family. This was the first opportunity we've had to spend together as just brother and sister in long time, and it was nice.

In spending time with my brother, sister-in-law, and especially my ever growing and changing nephew, I realized how much I do miss out on because of not living near them. So just being together and having them at our house was awesome. I loved showing them our new house, post, and Nashville. I loved cooking for them and playing with my nephew. Everything we did this past weekend was quite simply just wonderful.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend -

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!  ~Albert Einstein

Kisses from my nephew

Aunty & Uncle taking our nephew up the stairs to a big bridge in Nashville

My sister-in-law, me, nephew, and hubby in front of the fountain outside of the Nashville Symphony Center

Uncle Josh showed our nephew "his work" - My brother & nephew in front of a Black Hawk

And so, the weekend wasn't full of missing or forgetting or sadness over Hailey (or any more than usual I suppose). Instead it was full of love from my family and happiness and gratitude over being able to spend quality time with them... because after all, I miss them too when I'm not with them...

Sometimes our hearts get tangled
And our souls a little off-kilter
Friends and family can set us right
And help guide us back to the light.
~Sera Christann