My Granda Moon passed away this past Sunday, January 27 2013. She had been in the hospital for 4 days but we thought for a few days that she would recover. It became apparent on Friday that she was going downhill and my mother in law very graciously offered airline miles for Ezra and I to fly out to Michigan. We flew out Saturday. We did not make it to see her before she passed away but I did get to talk to her on the phone from the airport. She was very peaceful and very ready to see Jesus face to face. She talked about heaven and seeing my grandpa again and I was able to tell her how much I loved her. My grandma and I have been very close ever since I was a baby. I remember spending a week in the summer at their house by myself when I was a kid. I remember playing with their dog and riding their little tractor with my grandpa (that they used for their garden). I remember lots of card games played with them. I remember my grandma quoting at any opportunity her favorite verse "Be still, and know that I am God". My grandparents are an important part of my heritage. They were very strong Christians. They did a lot of volunteer work and after my grandpa retired did mission work for various missionaries and Christian camps all over the U.S. I remember their love of Christian music. I can still hear my grandma singing "How Great Thou Art" and her love of gospel quartet music. One of the songs we sang at her memorial service really reminded me of her.
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
When I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace.
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me to that promised land
What a day, glorious day, that will be.
It was really hard to go through the process of saying goodbye to her and going to the visitation and memorial service, but how comforting to know that song is reality to her now and that she is with grandpa and Jesus.
In the collage below, the 2nd picture from the bottom on the left is my grandparents holding me as a new baby!
I was really thankful to be able to be with my family and attend her visitation and memorial service. The flowers above are from us grandkids. My brother and his sweet wife are in the picture below.
My cousin Tim and his wife, Jaime:
My dad, his 2 sisters, and their spouses:
Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bruce. What a blessing to be able to reconnect with my family.
We actually had quite an adventure getting to Michigan. We flew from Seattle to Denver and had a very short layover. However, in Denver, Ezra had an upset stomach and ended up depositing his stomach contents into the garbage can at one of the restaurants in the airport. I also was totally thrown off with worry about grandma and the flurry of making reservations the same day, rushing to pack, rushing to the airport and we ended up missing our 2nd plane by 5 minutes. We had to spend the night at a hotel in Denver and fly out at 5:40 the next morning to Dallas and then fly again from Dallas to Grand Rapids. Needless to say, by the time we arrived we were both totally worn out and tired of airplanes! Ezra was a very good sport about the whole thing though. It was special to me to have him along for the trip and to get to spend so much time with my sweet boy one on one.
We got to have a little fun on the trip too. My brother Matt and his wife Erin took us sledding on the first day because the weather was expected to warm up. We got to sled down a huge hill near their house on a tube Matt bought just for the occasion. He also made a jump which Ezra and I tried out. It was bigger than we expected. We made the jump but not the bounce that followed. Big wipe out. I was sore for a few days! Ezra had just as much fun knocking snow out of the branches with a stick as he did sledding. We haven't had the chance to be out in the woods in the snow in a really long time!
It also became dog week. Matt and Erin are living with my parents so we got to be around them a lot more than we normally would. Ezra really enjoyed it and even shared his kiki with Eddie.
We also were able to see their chickens. One of them is super friendly and let Ezra hold it.
Ezra is not used to the snow at all since he had never lived in Michigan. He was quite enthralled with the different kinds of snow we encountered, especially this snow he called "see through" snow (as it was on its way to melting).
We also were able to see Matt and Erin's house they are building. Its coming along nicely, just not as fast as they would like! They are hoping to move in by the beginning of April.
