Looking back after a year...

I honestly can't believe that it has been 1 year since God took Anthony to be with Him. The first couple months were just shock, then the unsettling feeling of not having him around anymore and knowing that he wouldn't return, and now trying to figure out the task of moving forward. It's all very surreal. We've never lost anyone so close to us. We've never had a friend have to go through the pain of losing a husband, or a family lose a brother, son, uncle...We've never had to deal with emotions like this. What I do know, and have seen, is that God truly has His hands in ALL things. What seems tragic and horrible to us (and don't get me wrong....it SUCKS) God can, and has used to glorify Himself. He's shaped and is still shaping Kristi into an AMAZING woman of God. (She was before, but even more so now.) He's shown us that this life is not our own. We do not decide what happens. We have no say in how we think life should go. Our job is to follow the path that God has for us, and know that it is EXACTLY where He wants us to be. It's painful. It sucks. If I let it, it's angering. But what I've learned (and what we talked about in church yesterday) is to remember and be blessed by the times that we had with Anthony. To remember what God did that tragic September 22nd in putting His loving arms around us and letting us know that it was His will. And rather than mourning His death, to memorialize his life and the blessings that God brought us through that life and even his death. I wish Anthony could be here today to meet his "niece or nephew" :) but I know that his blessing in Heaven far exceed even our soon-to-be little blessing. lol