The Lord given and He taken away. Blessed be His name.

On this day, my sister called from home to tell us that my sweet Mammaw went to be with Jesus. She was my mom's mother (my mom is the one here with us). She was 95 yo and lived a great life, but the day was filled with such mixed emotion from extreme grief to happiness over the innocent smiles of our babies. Trying to process this is overwhelming. After many tears and questioning, i have truly begun to see God's hand in this timing. I can feel the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Mammaw was an amazing woman about which i could tell a thousand stories (most of which would make you laugh and some of which could not be repeated in public :) She embodied the title of Mammaw more than anyone i could ever imagine. From home cooked breakfasts, to spoiling us, to putting all her grandchildren through college and providing us all with our first car, to having the most hilarious sense of humor, and finally, to pointing me to Christ in her own Mammaw Bootsie way. I'm so glad that i was able to still crawl into her bed with her and snuggle like i have done for the last 35 years just before we left for China. Of course, she still said in a pretend annoyed way, "Hold still, Child!" The really neat thing for me was that at about the same time she died, Kate giggled out loud for the first time for us as I was doing the Mammaw Bootsie voice for her in an effort to entertain her on the plane. The girls may not meet her here on earth, but will hear stories about her as they grow up.