I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day - I'll be honest I was not looking forward to this day - for a while I dreaded it more than Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. Why? This is a holiday for lovers, for those with sweethearts and I don't have mine anymore - and it's my first Valentine's Day without Mike. While we didn't do much, we always tried to make Valentine's Day special. Mike would get me flowers if not flowers and a box of chocolates along with a card. So knowing I wouldn't be getting a Valentine from my sweetie after 27 Valentine's Day was kind of rough. But I prayed about it and realized it was just a day. And deep down I kind of hoped something special would happen but in reality I didn't think anything would. But if you have the right attitude God hears everything and honors it.
At 9:00 a.m. this morning someone was ringing my doorbell like crazy to which I ignored it because I was doing my devotions and still had horrible bed head hair. But after my devotions I went downstairs to see if something had been left on the door (like a meter reading card or something). Something had been left - something that made me crazy happy tears - something was wrapped up from Boesen's by my front door on the porch.
While I miss Mike each day - I see his awesome sketch each time I walk up and down the stairs from our bedroom - I do not grieve or mourn for Mike. I miss his laugh, his touch, his hugs, so much but I rejoice that he is no longer in pain and suffering. I wish we would have had more time together, but he's in Heaven getting the lay of the land so when I see him again, I'll already have my personal guide.
The temp was in the 40's so I thought it would be ok to take Butler out to Mike's bench to "show it" to him. So I got him all dressed in his grey hoodie and off we went. Poor dog, even though Mike's bench isn't that far from the parking lot - I'm sure to Butler who hasn't been on a walk in a l-o-n-g time it must have felt like a marathon to him to get to the bench - and then we had to walk back to the car too :) It was a little breezy at the bench so I sat for a few minutes and then back to the car and home we went but I was glad to spend a couple of minutes with my two guys at Mike's bench.
The rest of the day I spent trying to figure out the color of my parachute (a practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers) and then tonight went to Hope at Work at one of the churches in West Des Moines. Let me just say if you live in the DSM metro area and are out of work, or not satisified with your current position and are a believer - you HAVE to check out this support group!
It's anchor verse is Philippians 4:6, 7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving; let your requests be made known to God;
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts, and minds through Christ Jesus.
We went around the group to introduce ourselves (the newbies aka me and two other people), gave a brief summary of why we were there, what our passions were, etc., with the "oldies" giving an update on how their week had gone. I shared I had a heart for helping people, children especially, and animals. One of the ladies is volunteering to help with premature babies by rocking them. After she shared how her week had gone, she leaned over to me and said she'd like my name and number. I'm thinking, "I said children, not premies". If you know me, you know I know next to nothing about babies - let alone premies - but I'm guessing I can spend some time holding and rocking them without breaking them. We'll see.
