1. We have received some special words of encouragement from various people this week that have been a gift to help us keep plugging away even in our moments of significant discouragement. So thankful for the supportive words from others!
2. Jessie hit another milestone this week, turning 3 ½. How do I even describe the overflowing gratitude I feel in my heart for the Ladybug in our lives?! My life is flooded with blessing and joy because of Jessie and I cherish every moment I am given with her.
3. I marvel at the heart of my husband and am so proud of the gifts he has been given. I was thankful for the opportunity to see Drake preach at our church on Sunday. The last couple times he has preached at different churches and I wasn’t able to be there and it is a gift to see him in action – passionate, reflective, insightful, and solid! You can click here to hear his message from Sunday.
4. It was an honor to promote Judson’s book on the radio program Talk from the Heart with Rich Buhler on Tuesday and I am especially grateful for the manner in which he so skillfully and compassionately engaged our story while asking great, pertinent questions. I am also very thankful to our friend Karise who pursued getting us on his show (you can click here to hear a recorded version of the show).
5. I am grateful to have friends with very specific gifts who are willing to share them to help others. This week I was specifically thankful for our friend, Eric, who is extremely tech savvy and helped us with some media needs.
6. My nephew, Cameron, turned 13 this week. I am so proud of him and thankful to be his aunt. He is such a mature, bright, thoughtful, sensitive, talented, and very handsome young man…now a teenager!
7. We were touched to have someone from our church, that we don’t really even know, leave a couple princess books on our porch for our little lady after hearing Drake mention in his sermon that Jess likes being a princess. We are blown away and incredibly grateful for such thoughtfulness!
8. My friends Sarah, Kelly, and I started a dinner/coffee club this week and the three of us will be meeting together regularly to intentionally share life. I am extremely grateful for the two of them!
Wow, I have just listened to your radio program (in tears) although I have read about Judsons story many times it was wonderful to listen to you both and hear your voices. It was an amazing interview and am so glad I could listen to it all the way from Northern Ireland.
Continually praying for you all.
Love
Wendy
Thanks so much for exemplifying the spiritual discipline of sharing your gratefulness in the midst of grieving.
I don’t know if you, Kelly, and Sarah are considering discussing books during your times together, but I highly recommend Keeping the Sabbath Wholly. It’s by Marva Dawn, who we heard as RDs at one of the conferences and I’m sure it would bring new perspective on your life, the grief process, etc. Anyway, glad to hear that the 3 of you are still growing so closely in friendship and know that your time together will be very fruitful!
Blessings, friend.
mel
Hi friend! It’s good to read your "Thankful Thursday" entries. It’s good perspective. You are an example to me of how to face adversity, storms, trials, grief. I’m also amazed at how you keep up with facebook, your blogs, photos, friends, and life. I’ve longed to meet up with you to talk and share over coffee. Is there space in your weeks? Mondays are David’s day off and the first two Saturdays of March are open for me.
P.S. I noticed the picture of Jesse with Jesse at CA Adventure. Were you there this week? I took my kids Tuesday. I ran into Mandy Ream at Disney about a month ago and another friend from our former church this last visit. It would be fun to run into each other there :).
I just listened to your radio interview (also in tears) and am so thankful to you both for sharing this on your blog!! I can relate SO much to your story and so much of what you shared is similar to our own experiences with our son! Even to the point of our son comoforting us through HIS suffering. What an amazing boy, Judson was!!! I hope to one day meet you all. In the meantime, I will continue to pray for you and for your continued healing through the loss of your precious, precious boy. (((HUGS)))