Bitter Sweet

I love chocolate and I love coffee. As we were trucking across Kansas Rylee said that she thought I should live in "Coffeeville" (a town in Kansas.) Chocolate just tastes better with a little coffee. Something about the bitter with the sweet....what a great combination. As the kids and I were driving back from Oklahoma we had a great discussion about the sweet parts of life are just made better by the bitter ones. I have a few of those types of memories this year. Not sad memories the way you normally think of bitter sweet but....sweet made sweeter by bitter memories of the past.

First my Granny....who I love with all my heart and who was a very important part of my childhood. We also lived together for a while while I was in college. (We took care of each other!) As she gets closer to eternity with Jesus she has very few lucid moments these days. She thinks that she is 18...that her parents are coming to visit at anytime. She thinks her kids are her siblings. Last Christmas she did not know who I was ...I was okay with it but it makes me said. This year however on the day I was leaving I went to see her. When I walked in she said, "Oh, I am so glad to see you Chantell...I thought you went back home without coming to see me." She proceeded to ask me where Brian was, where my folks were, and how my aunt was how is in the hospital. Now that moment was made sweeter by last years bitter moment.

I also got one of the greatest compliments of my life from Brian's Grandmother Hesser. She is one of the most god fearing people I know. The night manager at her Assisted Living Center prints the blog for her. She said that when she reads the blog she feels like she has been to church. This is a big compliment because she and I come from a very different view of women's role in the church. I know that she hasn't always agreed with me or my interpretations of scripture....we have always respected each other but we are very different. So this compliment is very special or sweet to me because for her to say this is HUGE. I might say bitter sweet.
Lastly my brother and sister-in law have been trying to get pregnant for four years. We really thought that they might not be able to have more children. This was very bitter because we all wanted them to have more. But in God's great providence they are expecting and due in February. Rylee, Regan and I got to attend her baby shower on Saturday. This was a sweet moment for all of us. This pregnancy is a little more exciting and a little more fun than the others in our family because we feel like God's favor is shining on is. It is bitter sweet.