Winter vs. Spring

As we are getting ready to watch Adalynn begin her life in this world, I've been thinking a lot about my grandmother whose journey is slowing down rapidly. So I wanted to spend this time introducing Adalynn to a great-grandmother she will never know...

My grandmother (now 79) was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago and we have watched this disease truly consume her life. Grandma is my dad's mom... well not his biological mother, but the only mother he has ever known. His real mother died when he was just 6 years old. He doesn't remember anything before that time. I really didn't get to know her and my grandfather until we moved to Arkansas when I was 15. It was at that time that a relationship began... they lived in Bella Vista and we saw them frequently.

Grandma married my grandfather when she was just 17 and he was 28. So she really wasn't that much older than my dad. She was a socialite of her time, very outgoing, classy, motivated and had a passion like none other... Since she's been diagnosed with this disease, we have watched all those qualities slowly fade (except the passion--she's quite something in those nursing homes). I have come to realize that this disease is just plain cruel. It gradually creeps in and just eats away at who you are... you begin to lose decades of memories in your life and just live in the past. Grandma is certainly not the one that I came to know as a teenager, she is a child in an adult's body with a memory of less than 30 seconds. It's just sad.

But throughout this whole journey, struggle and grieving, I have watched my parents stay by her side with such fierce loyalty. Grandma experiences a whole slew of emotions, and Mom and Dad are usually the recipients of the frustrations and outright anger. But they are the ultimate troopers... I can honestly say that they have lived out the verse, "Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God commanded you to." (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) What an example to all of us, really. Mom and Dad could have given up a long time ago...

So as we watch Grandma fade into the winter season, we see Adalynn starting to bloom into a beautiful "spring." I'm sad that these two ladies won't get to know each other... but I hold onto this:

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot ... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." (Ecc. 3:1 - 2, 4)

Okay... kind of a melancholy post today, but I felt led to put this into Adalynn's baby blog-book. I believe it's important that she knows her heritage. Thanks for letting me rattle on once again!

The picture below is from today as we finally had some time together as a whole family! Haven't seen DaneO in two weeks practically! It felt good to be all together... we really didn't do much, but my absolute favorite time was when we were all getting Dane to share his dimples with us. :) Tom was pushing that "dimple button." Dane could never hold in a smile...