I love the way this little girl makes all of us laugh...often we laugh until we cry! What joy a child can bring into a family!On a less humorous note, I would like to ask a prayer request for the family of a young man (kid) from Tallulah. We lived in Tallulah for almost 14 years. We didn't make deep roots there for some reason...sadly Tallulah is sort of one of those towns that's like that...I can't or just don't want to explain at this moment. So we haven't stayed in touch with anyone on a regular basis and often miss news or events such as deaths that happen to people we know there. We often see particular people once a year at various meetings/trips. Cari was still very young when we moved and has forgotten most children in her class. A few years ago when on a business trip that we combined into a family vacation because it was in Hot Springs. One of the family activities was a river boat cruise...though now that I think about it, I think it was actually a lake. Anyhow...during this family adventure provided by the association Cari became reacquainted with this is boy, Dylan, who was also Randy's ex-boss's grandson. He and his wife are from Tallulah and they had brought Dylan and his sister on this particular trip. She (we) had not seen him since then, but had stayed in touch with him from time to time through facebook.
Friday afternoon while I was doing some work here at my computer, I was listening to the news in the background. My ears opened and I ran to get the remote to turn up the volume as I heard the speaker say that a 15 year old boy from Tallulah had committed suicide. Cari just turned 16 and there are many children her age that are still 15. So I knew it could easily be someone she went to school. I yelled out my grief as soon as I heard it was this same child...the same child my daughter had hung out with on the recent vacation...the same child that his grandfather patted him on the back for hanging out with such an attractive girl as our daughter, Cari. I immediately called Randy. He had been trying to call me to tell me because he had recently heard and wanted to tell me.
Randy went to the funeral yesterday. His mom was distraught [She had to physically carried into the church and out...I am afraid that's how I would be] . His grandparents seemed okay...which surprised us, but I suspect that was a front to get them through the day.
This family truly needs your prayers. We moved here in 2009. Since we have moved here they've lost many family members...not grandparents, but young people. Their son-in-law died of a heart attack (not long after we moved here). I think he was actually already an ex-son-in-law, but regardless he was the dad of two of their grandchildren...so as far as I am concerned still part of their family. Then a few years ago their only son was killed in a wreck in Baton Rouge. And then we heard about this, Dylan, a few days ago [his dad was the one killed in the car wreck]. And as I stated earlier, we don't hear everything that has happened because when Randy was talking to someone who used to work with that still works at that gin to find out visitation and funeral details, he found out that his oldest granddaughter, who is approximately 6 months older than Cameron, lost a baby daughter at 3 months to SIDS [not sure when this was--you know how men are...they often forget to ask about details!]
I also remembered that when I had my home daycare [something I did when Cari was young to be a stay-at-home-mom] I kept Dylan part-time because his mommy worked part-time at the time. Even though we haven't stayed in touch with this child and his immediate family it really hit home. It is hard for me to believe that a child that I cared for, changed his diaper and cleaned spit-up off of me and him, has done something like this!
So while I think about the joy that our 3 year old granddaughter has brought into our lives, my heart grows heavy thinking about how this grandfather/grandmother will never even hug this grandson again. So please, stop whatever you're doing for just a few minutes and pray for this family or add them to your prayer list, but please give this family, all their extended families, the kids from school, especially his best friend, another 15 year old who spoke at the funeral some time in prayer. I had to take care of things with my family...so I didn't go, but when Randy told me who his best friend was that spoke, I was crushed. His mom had written me a long letter several years ago to tell me that her daughter had committed suicide. I was so crushed that I did not know and for her and her pain of this tragedy. So this poor child has lost a sibling and now a best friend by such a awful means of death.
Here I go again getting long-winded. I wanted to make a post requesting prayer, but I didn't feel right making an individual post listing their names for it to get googled when someone is doing a random search. I want to respect their privacy. So I included it with this post.
So it seems in my life, just when things seem so unbearable or too complicated to deal with, I hear of someone I know...or maybe don't know, that is REALLY suffering! It makes me shake off my "pity party" (a phrase my Sunday School teacher used when I was young person) and realize THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL AND ONLY HE HAS THE ANSWERS!
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