Reflections

My next posting was going to be about becoming pee-wee soccer parents. It is such a hoot every Saturday morning...but that will have to wait just a little longer.

Recently we have been out of the loop for about 10 days. My grandmother passed away Aug. 30, following a brief illness. Since we have been away from home this year, we used each break to return and see her. We will remember best how happy she was when she saw the great-grand kids. The afternoon my sister called from the hospital to tell us the news, we packed and loaded the kids in the car within and hour and hit the road. Thankfully we did not get stuck in any traffic.

It was a wonderful time to be with my parents and siblings to prepare a memorial service to celebrate her life. She was our family's spiritual leader and prayer warrior. Our comfort is knowing she is together with our grandfather in Heaven. When Poppa passed on it was a big shock. I still remember him sitting on the sofa snacking on peanuts and we were watching a Padres game. He suffered heart failure in the middle of that night. Grandma's health has been declining for a while and the most recent diagnosis was the onset of dementia...I am thankful that she did not suffer much. I know this past year her memory has been slipping. Sometimes she would be very alert and know us, sometimes not...sometimes she would just get up from where she was sitting and not really know where she wanted to go. But she was always glad to see the noisy bunch of great-grandkids.

The memorial service honored a woman who had great faith in God. The memories we had and those offered by friends were similar: she always put everything before God. My brother began the service with a memory of Grandma's "family prayer circle." When we were young kids, she'd gather me and my siblings around (made us turn off the TV) and we'd sit in a circle in the living room and she'd begin praying...she prayed in Chinese. A lot of times we didn't know what she was saying, we'd be peeking at each other or tune out, but our ears would perk when we heard our Chinese names; she would always pray for us individually! The prayer time faded away as we got older...My part in the service was to offer Words of Thanks on behalf of my family, but I also included a challenge (mostly for myself) to honor her memory by doing as she did: love God, seek His will, and love each other. So simple, but something that I need to be more mindful in doing; I feel like I'm living my life on auto-pilot; just getting through each day, assuming God knows I love him and am thankful for his blessings.

I shouldn't assume...