Wide Load

Picture rolling down the highway, cruise control set to however many miles over the speed limit, your favorite song turned up (and you KNOW you’re singing along), and up ahead you see the dreaded MERGE sign.  Worse yet, you’re coming up on one of those idiotic trucks with a huge load and flashing light escorts.  Nothing to be done but to hit the brakes, turn the tunes down, and creep along at a mind numbing 30 miles an hour.  Sometimes that’s just way it is.

My last post was April 14^th.  My grandmother passed away on April 15^th, and lately I have been too overwhelmed to write.  She spend 90 years making things beautiful in a very quiet way.  She taught me to hunt for agates, be kind to animals, go to bed early, and that the best raspberry is the one fresh off the bush.

Some of my grandmother's precious painted goose eggs.

There was a whirlwind car trip many hundreds of miles to northern Minnesota to comfort and help my nearly 95 year old grandfather.  Part of the jumbled preparation for this quick trip involved going in nearly a week EARLY for our I800a fingerprinting!  (More on this later).

 I hope I look this good at 94!

There was the achingly beautiful sight of watching my boys enjoy Lake Superior every bit as much as I did as a kid. 

Skipping rocks in the crystal clear water.

Incredible sunset our last evening together.

There was the gathering of family that had never happened before—4 generations!

No, I'm not a giant, it's a weird picture, but one of the few, so I love it.

And there was the reality of grief that didn't hit me until later.   I was cranky and tired, unloading the haphazardly tossed couple of coats my grandfather insisted I take home with me, and it hit me.  They smelled like her; like paint, and soap, and Nivea.  You can’t deny grief.  You can bottle it up, cover it up, push it off, but it will still come for you.  I think this is one of many reasons that Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Peace of mind, peace in our innermost being, isn't that what we’re all after?

And while I was distracted by my grief, the page turned.  We got our last piece of dossier paperwork!  It was approved in record time (less than 30 days), and I immediately had it notarized, County Clerk certified and Secretary of State verified.  It’s currently in New York at the Chinese Consulate.  Amazing!  We will hopefully have everything to our agency next week, and be DTC (dossier to China) by the end of the month!  

Sometimes life hits a WIDE LOAD, and you've gotta slow down, merge, or go around, but it keeps on goin'.  And if you have hit "like" or sent a message, or just told me you read this, thank you; you help me enjoy the ride.