Learning to deal with death

Well today was full of emotions! Bekah and I arrived at school this morning and like always the first thing she did was run over to Oreo's cage to see her, Oreo was our guinea pig. Notice I said "was", this morning Bekah informed me that Oreo was "sleeping" and told me to be quiet so I didnt wake her. I walked over to check on her and noticed she wasnt in her normal "sleeping" position. I opened the cage door and she didnt move, so I touched her and realized she was gone. I turned to Bekah and had my first of I am sure many conversations about a pet going to Heaven. Bekah cried and cried it was awful! She was so sad that Oreo was gone, I tried everything I knew to comfort her, but nothing was really working. We had a long talk and I told her that our sweet little neighbor Lexi, that passed away a month ago, probably missed Jerry her guinea pig, and now Oreo went to be with her and they would have each other. That seemed to help her. We have never had an animal or any member of our family die so this was totally new ground for me to cover as a mom. I hated seeing my little girl so broken hearted!! As sad as I was, I was able to put my emotions aside and help her deal with hers. I know I will have to deal with this again and I hope that I will have the answers she needs, when she needs them, but I know that will not always be the case and I pray that God will help me through it.

This afternoon as soon as school was out she came running into my room to see if we could go to Petsmart, she wanted to go and get an Oreo 2. So after 2 long hours of deliberation at Petsmart we finally decided on a little brown and white guinea pig that looks like Hurley from G-Force, the girls finally decided to name him Blaster. I think Blaster will be a wonderful new addition to the family, I am praying that Blaster will survive and flourish in our care.

Easter

I have 2 favorite times of year, Christmas and Easter. I love Christmas because it reminds us that God sent his most precious gift, his son, as an infant to come save us sinners. Knowing that in 30 short years he would be sacrificed on the cross in a horrible death so that we might be saved from our sins and have eternal life. Easter brings home that sacrifice for me. Several years ago when the movie, Passion of the Christ came out, we went to go see it with some very old friends of ours. I loved that movie but don't know that I could ever sit through it again. It shook me to the core, I wept and wept like I never had before and haven't since. I have grown up seeing many different depictions of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, but none had touched me as deeply as this had. For the first time I saw the Crucifixion and Resurrection from the eyes of Mary, his mother. I was a new mom and had never seen taken that perspective before. I cannot even begin to fathom what Mary was going through watching her child be tortured and die a horrible death on the cross for people she would knew and for billions more she would never know. It makes me so thankful for all of the blessings in my life this Easter and every day and I pray that I will always remember the sacrifice that Christ made for me.