You can Dance!!!

I've been reminded through the bible, through songs, and through others that God sees every tear. It's comforting, but lately there has been more smiles than tears. I know the tears will come, and they have been there, but there has been SOOOOO many happy moments lately, I'm just going with it! I know this grieving process is different for everyone. I know it's unpredictable, and I've already experienced that. Our hearts are full of joy! Today we celebrated two weeks ago that our sweet Arabella was born. I looked at photos, I longed for her, but I was elated over getting the opportunity to meet her, to love on her, to know her. We are still trying to process the fact that we have a daughter buried in the ground, I really don't know if I can comprehend this yet. Being away is so nice and it's busy and it's relaxing and we are just moving with it, and allowing God to be where he needs to be with us each moment, and trusting Him that he will give us what we need each moment; for now it's smiles, giggles, sunshine, water time, and an extreme amount of family bonding! We wanted more than anything for Arabella to be with us, and the biggest struggle I had was leaving to come up to the lake, without her in a car seat. I almost didn't want to leave home! Just as the suitcases and last of our 'stuff' was heading out the door I quickly ran and grabbed her blanket from the table. The thought of leaving that behind was too much to bear and in the suitcase it went. We can't bring her, so I at least wanted that to come! The night before we left I sat with that blanket and just wept. The smell of her has left the blanket and I wept over that. I prayed and begged God to make the memories, the visuals, the way she felt, the way she smelled to be something that is forever engrained in my horrible memory head! 

Two weeks ago tonight we were holding her, sharing her, loving on her, feeding her, cuddling her, and staring at her. It's amazing to think what has happened in those two weeks, what we had and what we have lost! Yet through it all we praise God, we throw our arms up in celebration, we jump and we dance! We have been teaching Mayla that no matter what the day throws our way, that we can dance in the rain. She has NEVER liked to dance, the night we told her Arabella was at home in Jesus' arms we went to the parking lot and we all danced, Mayla even shook her thang. We started to tell her even if it was raining we could dance, even if it was storming, we could dance! She dances all over the place now. She will be walking and just start dancing, arms moving side to side and hips in the opposite direction. She's catching on that even though there are tantrums, and she doesn't get her way, and life's not fair, and bad things happen to good people, that life is worth dancing over! She's not even three years old! Life WILL be hard at times; you can dance, Life WILL suck at times; you can dance, Life WILL be full of storms; you can dance! Life IS a gift; you can dance!!!!

God is God of Every Story, and this is where we are at in our story:

In our Happy Place! 

Working on Mayla's wakeboarding form:) She's a little obsessed and wants to go 'to the beach' every day to practice! 

Mayla's happy place, on a swing! She could swing for hours. 

Breakfast on the boat.

He doesn't have time for breakfast, he's been playing a bit too hard!

Trying to get in as many kisses as we can. She's on loan to us, and we are THANKFUL!

She never wants to go home.....PURE JOY!

PURE MICHIGAN, NO FILTER:) WE DANCE!