Cherish those you love

Last week, I was doing some blog hopping/stalking (whatever you want to call it). I think I was just bored. I went from blog to blog. I was lead to a particular blog which I don’t normally read. It was a friend of one of my best friend’s blog; an acquaintance of mine from church-back in high school. I began reading her blog and immediately was interested as I read that her older sister (only 30 years old) had passed away unexpectedly. She was a mother of 4 children, ages 1-8 and was happily married. She had a bunch of pictures of her sister and her family on her blog and I was overcome with emotions. Then I looked on her links and realized her sister (the one that passed away) had a blog too. The woman’s name was Ginger. I sat there for a couple of hours reading her whole blog and looking at all of the pictures. I became consumed by it. I cried and cried as I read her blog and looked at her beautiful, happy family. It was obvious she absolutely loved her husband and her children. It was also obvious that she was a sweet person and was a great wife/mom. All I could think about was WHY? I know there must be an important reason why a righteous mother would be taken from her kids. It reminded me once again how precious life is and how we should cherish every little moment we have with our loved ones, and also be the best we can be. I also thought it was so interesting how she had a blog, just like many of us. She was just like us, enjoying life, raising her kids, going to church, keeping a BLOG, and then out of nowhere, she is taken home to her Heavenly Father. Her heart stopped beating while she was asleep. The night before she went to sleep and passed away, she posted one last blog post, entitled “happiness,” and it had a picture of her oldest daughter swinging on a branch. Last night I read her sister’s blog and she talked about all the tender mercies that have taken place (another amazing post!) leading up to her death and she said that Ginger hadn’t blogged in 3 months and just a couple of weeks ago stayed up until 3 am catching up, and then did a post each day until she passed away. What a total prompting that she listened to. And now her family and many people were left with it and it has inspired so many people, including myself and I’ve never met her. How special for her kids to grow up and have their mother’s last year rolled up in a blog, expressing her love for them. For days I kept going back to her blog and reading more and more. I don’t know why I was led to that blog, (and I hope it wasn’t to prepare me for something tragic), but I am so grateful that it gave me an awakening to the important things in life. I have always been so happy to be a wife and a mother and have tried to cherish every day, but now I feel it even deeper and I feel like it has given me greater perspective than I had before.
If that wasn’t enough, a few days after being consumed by that, I came across another link to a family’s blog who had just lost their only daughter. She choked on an apple that her mother had cut up for her. She was almost 2. I stayed up late the other night and read that blog and sobbed and sobbed as I read the grief of her mother and father. Once again, I found myself in my boys’ rooms crying and kissing their cheeks as they slept. Life is not perfect and the most unexpected things can happen. We must be prepared. At this point, I don’t think I am prepared for something that tragic to happen to me, but I’m grateful that I have had this awakening and have recommitted myself to focus more on the eternal plan.
I could go on and on and on about these two stories that have touched me lately, but I won’t. I hope this is okay for me to give the links to their blogs, if anyone is interested. I just feel like if these stories have helped me in a good way, then they can help others too. It truly is so humbling to read these and you probably will cry. Ginger’s link is http://www.jasondgingerd.blogspot.com/
The other link to the parents of the little girl that passed away is http://www.jacksonparkcity.blogspot.com/
Again, I hope that’s okay if I gave those links out, but I know they will bless you if you read them.
One last note, to all mothers /wives or any blogger…on Ginger’s blog, she had a few of those “TAGGED” surveys. It was so neat to read those and get to know who she was a little better. But even cooler for her kids, who will get to read those silly little facts about their mom. I think from now on, I will do more of those!
Sorry to get so personal and sentimental, but if you read those blogs, you will probably get a better picture of why I’m so emotional about this. I’M SO GRATEFUL FOR THE GOSPEL and ETERNAL FAMILIES!!!!!!!!!!!