Sorry for the long absence friends...I've been busy! Things are crazy busy around here between the church and my family. Haha, one has been busy and the other has been crazy!! (JUST KIDDING!)
No for real, things have been very busy and keeping up has been difficult. I decided to take a minute tonight to just say hello and chat a little. I don't always know what to say in a blog entry. It's not as though things don't happen in my life all the time, but you don't always want or need to hear about it, and sometimes it's just not all that interesting.
I have had some experiences lately. For one, I lost my dear friend Tommy Baker in May. Tommy had been battling cancer for 2 1/2 years and he went home to be with Jesus on May 10th. I definitely learned after going through the deaths of my two dads how important it is not to grieve as one who has no hope, like it says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. So though I, and so many others, grieve that he has gone home, I have the hope that I will get to see him again one day.
May was a super emotional month. On Mother's Day my little sister, Sierra Montana Hernandez, graduated from high school. What a special time we had celebrating with her and her boyfriend and his family! His family is such a blessing and we are so very grateful to them for everything that they have done and continue to do for Sierra! At the party for her and Adam we got to see my little brother for the first time in nearly 5 years. Even now every time I think about it I start to cry because the emotions are so overwhelming! God did a great work that day and the six of us being together for the first time since my dad's funeral was a very healing experience for us all. It would have been amazing if our two older brothers would have been able to join us as well so that all of my dad's children would have been together for the first time ever...but that day will come (hopefully soon!). It was so great to see Philip and to get to know him a little better as the awesome young man that he is becoming rather than the awesome little boy he was before my dad died. The why's of why we haven't seen him in so long is a story not worth the telling...but I hope he realizes just how much we truly love and miss him. I'm sure we'll get to see a whole lot more of him from now on.
There have been a lot of ups and downs in the past few weeks and, frankly, I'm pretty worn out emotionally from it all. Some things hurt a lot and some things were awesome and encouraging and life-giving. I'm still pretty overwhelmed with emotions a lot of times and I'm sure people wonder what is wrong with me. Nothing is necessarily wrong...I'm just sorting it all out :)
Hope you are all doing well, my friends. Be blessed!
