A crucial chapter of the book...

Way back in October of 2006, something happened, and I wrote this...

What a roller-coaster of emotions and a whirlwind of weeks it has been! I am not sure if you have heard by now... but there was a letter from Mark and the kids. It was in a huge manilla envelope, like all the letters to each person... it was mistaken for an empty and was left on a dining room table as recycling! It was there, just not there!

I found that it was something that needed to happen. I needed that weekend to be about me, and about God. It was as if God was saying to me, "All this time locked up in the church, and you still aren't getting what I am trying to tell you? There's a lot of work to do on you!" I felt foolish, I wanted that pat on the back for all I felt like I have been through since Mark's surgery. I felt so good about having finally found a church family, that was Lutheran, and it was Mark that had everything to do with that. I come from a Catholic family! A non-practicing Catholic family, at that! So here I had all these feelings I thought I was going to have, and then feelings of being let down. And anger and confusion. I thought, too, that maybe he thought it would mean more to me if I got letters from friends and family. I do know he is a "fix-it" kind of man. Not much with the words and all. So I figured, well maybe the letter is waiting for me at home. Maybe he had another plan...

When I came home, I was alone. Mark and the kids were at the last ball game of the season. It was actually a good thing. You know how drained you are after the weekend, it was nice to just veg out on the couch and pet the dogs! I did that and I read the letters from the CRHP 19 group and the men's group and miscellaneous others. You know what I found? That those letters were the ones that absolutely meant the most to me. They had all the right words and all the best scripture in them. In comparison, it made some of the letters from my family and friends just plain odd and crazy. So, anyway, while I was reading my letters Mark had called me back after I tried getting a hold of him at the game. He had lost his phone in the parking lot at the stadium. And it was still there after the game! Anyway, I said I just wanted him to know that I was home. He asked in small talk how my weekend was, but I wasn't really about to ask about the letter then. A few moments after our conversation ended, he called back. He said "You didn't get your letter from me and the kids? I wrote you a letter and the kids made a bunch of pictures. We handed it to Pastor Gary. I know they got it!" He also asked, "Why would you think I wouldn't write you a letter?" He had a voicemail on his cell phone from a CRHP 19 person double checking about the letter. When she found the letter at home, she too called to apologize. I told her it was really no big deal, now. I had come to terms with it all. I realized it was how it was supposed to be. I didn't need what was in that letter. I had already received what I needed. But the funny thing is... Mark's letter did answer questions for me and was what I needed, and not what I expected...

In the letter, Mark didn't say anything about the last fours years since his transplant or life with our medical mayhem and all that we have dealt with. Instead, he thanked me for finding Good Shepherd. For getting the family to church on Sunday and off the couch. That it was great that I had made this weekend for me. He was happy I was now raising our children in this way. It was a letter all about church and that was what I needed to hear more than anything.

So really, the letter I thought I was going to get but didn't receive was really a big part of my weekend. As was the letter I actually got days later! In the end it was how it was meant to be, even if I didn't like that very much. But it really has changed my life. My CRHP experience was really life altering, and one of the best weekends of my life.