Easter Reflections...

Easter started out again this year in the same fashion as the previous Easter's have. Candy eggs hidden throughout the living room...














Baskets from Mom and Dad, filled with new bathing suits...

Trails of candy leading from their rooms to their baskets...




















Cute kids collecting their loot...



































and eggs hiding in random places.




















Adorable kids in their Easter best...

Kasi and her big brother Shawny

Little girls swinging in the sunshine...



















with headband bows falling on their foreheads.

Daddy and his handsome boys...














and Mommy taking a break from making Easter brunch.





















There were models in their new swim suits...





























































and lots of smiles. :)

However, there was a gaping hole that Sierra usually occupies. While getting ready for church that morning, she received news that one of her good friends had died in a car accident in the early morning hours. She was devastated. She missed church, and spent the morning sobbing. Here it is 4 days later and she is still having a hard time with it. She's at the Wake as I write this. :( Just 3 months before, I had stood at a funeral with her...the service for another high school student. Sitting in church, I choked back tears as I pictured Mary as she watched her Son die...and the unspeakable grief she felt as she buried him. Then I thought of Josh's Mom and her indescribable pain...it broke my heart...it still does. I think of the joy Mary must have felt when her Son came back...and the emptiness Josh's mom will feel for the rest of her life.

As the little kids counted their Easter eggs, I counted my blessings and hugged my 17 year old a little tighter.