Speaking of the Dead

Hi! Thanks for praying for John's trip. He made it safely to Florida and is spending a few days there with family and friends. He flies home on Thursday. Ethan and I are definitely ready to have John home!

Ethan has seemed to level out some. At the end of one particularly long and difficult day, he was happily playing with me in the living room. He kind of randomly threw this statement out: "When I was in the bathroom, I thanked God." (I'm beginning to think that his time in the bathroom is the only time in Ethan's life when he's still enough to think.) I asked him what he thanked God for, and Ethan said "For dying on the cross." Ahhhh, music to my ears.

Yesterday, Reni and Mike had some people from church over to the house. I had been telling some of Ellie's story to a lady, so I pulled out pictures to show her. Ethan and another boy walked up at just that moment and Ethan grabbed one of the pictures. All afternoon, Ethan had been saying that he was shy and wouldn't even respond when people said "hi" to him. But he took the picture and showed it to the boy and boldly said "This is my sister, Ellie. She died. She had a bad sick called, um, um, cancer!" And then he looked to me for the nod that said he got it right. I am so proud of that boy! His straight shooting is a delight to my heart. I never want any of us to shy away from talking about Ellie, or even speaking plainly of her death. It is the speaking that continues to give her life to us. To lose that would be another kind of death. One that I just couldn't bear.

Thank you all for your love and encouragement. Thank you for keeping Ellie's memory alive with us!