Unexpected Blessing...

Last night I went to my local grief group which is held at a church near my home. I haven't been in a few weeks due to my work travel schedule but I've had a hard few days so I wanted to go. When I got there there was a sign on the door saying that we were meeting in the sanctuary for a "Message of Hope" service or something like that. So I decided, Ok, I'll go.

When I walked in I realized I have only been in a sanctuary 1 time since he died...back in June. The feelings and emotions were overwhelming. I started crying as soon as I sat down.The service started off rather harmlessly and then the minister got up and started speaking about "Remembering your Baptism and the one of your loved one that is gone." This rocked me to the core because last year on Easter Sunday, Richie and I were at my parents house and we went to church with them that day and this was the exact sermon that Joseph preached at Shiloh that day.

It was our first Easter in 6 years where we were not with his parents so it was unusual we were in Carrollton that weekend. The amazing thing about that service was that Richie, a rather private man, actually got up when the invitation was offered to renew his and he went to the alter. When he stood to go, I got up and went with him. I remember exactly what he looked like as he put his hand in the water and touched his head. I wasn't even paying attention to the reason why I was up there...just that he had taken this step and that for Richie, I knew it meant something because he never did anything like that. He was very private relgiously.

I have held tightly onto that memory of him for the last year. Mainly because I knew that before he died he had peace in his heart with his faith and his relationship with God. Because for Richie, he would not have gone to that alter unless something called for him to do so.

Needless to say, I cried throughout the service last night and all the way home. It touched my heart and I knew that somehow Richie was telling me that he was ok.

Then the preacher said something that in this entire year of grief I have never heard..."The bible verse talks about walking through the valley of death...God and our loved ones do not want us to walk into it and stop..." That we have to fight our way through it and have faith that God will help us through to the other side.

Last night Richie and God gave me an unexpected blessing.