Long Way Home - Steven Curtis Chapman

I find this song very hopeful. I just started reorganizing our apartment because it's been in a state of tolerable chaos for the past few months...Not dirty, mind you, it's in good living condition but much messier than I would like and I know my Mom would approve of. So, I flip on the radio--it's time to turn on the organizing music only to find what song? That song. Blessings by Laura Story.

I had to laugh, that song would play during one of the moments I am reminded of Mom most--when I'm organizing.

She always wanted our house to be ready to receive guests and for them to feel valued, accepted, and loved even by what the state of our home was in.

She said the best was when you were able to enter a clean bathroom at someone's house 'cause that's usually known as the breeding ground for germs (those are my words, not hers--I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea).

But anyway, this song, Long Way Home started playing after Blessings. First, you get to hear about all the Blessings through the pain and how this really isn't our home...then you get to be reminded yet again, that we're a long way from home so we shouldn't fear. This earth, where we are now is not home, so we await in eager expectation for the day Jesus Christ comes back for us--His Beloved. And you can be His beloved too, if you believe.

But yes, this song is lovely. Our life is a grand adventure--yes, there is pain. There is blessings in the pain...however, life is still full of so much hope! We can be so certain of His promises!

Let's have faith! Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see!

Expect a Miracle, my dear friends!

Love you all.

-Liana S.

Sixth Month Mark.

I took a glance at the calendar and walked on by. Then I walked back. Six months? Six months! Already?

It feels like a lifetime ago...yet as if it as all too soon for six months to have passed by without Mom. Every month I've marked the 21st as a date to remember. This month though...it's a bit different. I can remember May 2011, a trying and tumultuous month--different from this May although still a month for growth. Not just that, but the 19th, 20th, and 21st this month is on Saturday, Sunday, then Monday...just like six months ago. It's just amazing to see how different your life is now compared to six months prior. You know?

It was just the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We just sang together in the downstairs cafeteria side room of Mercy General Hospital for our "small" party of 30. It was raining outside. (See Giving Thanks)

It was just the Sunday we left for San Francisco to visit my Grandma, promising my Mom to be back soon. Hating to leave yet believing that we could leave, maybe getting a little bit too comfortable. It was autumn. The red, orange, and yellow leaves were lovely.

It was just that night we rushed home after only four or maybe five hours in the city. We were just in that room and everyone around us was weeping yet we still were expecting a miracle--a different kind of miracle than the one we received. (See Urgent & Most Recent Update on Agnes - 11:30pm)

It was just early Monday morning when we left with no sleep and puffy red eyes with grief and peace and quiet joy. (See She is NOW peacefully resting,,.)

It was just a few months ago! Surely not six, surely not so long ago!

Stunned--amazed just how things change! It seems to be a resounding theme in my life, "Wow, How things change!".

God takes you from where you were, to where you are, to where you're going to be...You cannot imagine how it'd all turn out, how things will move along...you think He's not there yet you can look back and see His fingerprints on the moments you thought you were at your worst. Like when you feel like he abandoned you or you simply couldn't see Him though trusting He is there. Like a child in a darkened room knowing he or she is safe because someone he or she loves most is sitting in there waiting for him or her to fall asleep. He is here in the dark occurences. He is here in the joyous occasions! He is here for every moment in between.

God, I am just to grateful, so thankful, for my Mom her love for you. The love for you which you instilled in her heart to make each person feel valued, accepted, and loved. That they felt so important in her presence and I am so privileged to have her as my Mom. Thank you for giving her to me as a Mom, although this is one of those nights where I begin to miss her most...I know that she rejoices in being with you--for you love her more than I ever could.Thank you for allowing to be my mentor, one of my most treasured best friends--my Mom.

-Liana S.

Mothers Day 2012

"Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life...Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: 'There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!” ~ Proverbs 31: 10-12, 28-29

To the beautiful mothers out there...thank you. And to their children - love and appreciate your mother. You only get one. ♥

Expect A Miracle!