Daddy is Getting Married!!!

*This is NOT an April Fools' Day joke.  It's completely true.  I promise. :)

"Whoa.  Hold the phone!  What did I just write up there?!"  I would have never dreamed that I would be writing those words today, but it's completely true.

I know that each of you probably had lots of different reactions to the title of this post.  Some of you probably didn’t even click on it.  Some of you might have just clicked on it out of curiosity, and then there are probably those of you who were completely and utterly in shock when you saw the title above.   

You are the readers who have been with me ever since my mom got diagnosed with lung cancer, the ones who prayed for my mom and our whole family during hard times, the ones who cried with me, and have tried your hardest to encourage me and help me through everything going on these past months.  I'm sure you heard the pain in my words and you felt the sadness in my heart...

Over time, you've also probably witnessed God heal my hurts through His love.  I still think of Mom everyday, but slowly and surely, God has begun to replace my sadness with hope, joy, and happiness.  He has filled my heart with so much love for my family and I think I'm finally ready to take that next step and try to move on with my life a little more.  That's all that Mom wanted us to do.  I'll never forget one of the last things she said to me in the hospital..."First things first, I want you all to keep growing closer to God and to have a strong relationship with Him.  Second, I don't want you to be sad and unhappy just because I'm not going to be here with you.  I want all of you to continue living your lives and enjoy the time you have on earth and take care of your Daddy for me."

That said.  We're about to enter a whole new chapter of our lives in a couple of weeks.  That doesn't mean that we will forget Mom... because we won't.  We never will... She was so special and we don't ever want to forget those sweet memories we made with her.  Although, I do think God is telling us that it's time to close another chapter of our lives and start a new one.  A fresh new one.  A happy and exciting one full of new memories to be made. 

"My Daddy is getting married." 

I'm still in awe of how awesome our LORD is... I always thought that my dad remarrying would kill me, but now that everything has happened, I really do trust him and I know that God has a plan for all of this.  He must have a really big plan for this family because we did not expect to be here a year ago.  I mean seriously?!  This is mind blowing. 

God has placed an amazing Godly woman in our life and she loves my Daddy so much.  How in the world can I be upset about that?  I don't want Daddy to be alone the rest of his life and I want him to be happy when we're all gone and have families of our own.  Mom did too.  She told him in the hospital the week she passed away, that she didn't want him to be alone for the rest of his life and if someone came into his life that he thought he could marry, then she wanted him to be happy.

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Okay, so let me tell you WHO he is marrying.  Cindy is a sweet Christian women that works at an assistant living as the administrator here in town.  They met at the end of October of last year at one of the places my dad services for work.  Cindy was new to the area and she didn't know anyone around here, so Daddy offered to help her with some little "handyman" projects around her apartment.  He told her that he had a son that would love to help as well, so for a few weeks in October, Andrew and my dad began going over to her house to help her.  They were using it as a way to minister.  As the weeks went on, Katie and I met her, and then we began to do more things with her, and helped her fix up her apartment and get settled in.  Several weeks later, Daddy and Cindy were talking and they started to realize that they were becoming more than "just friends"...and that's when they both decided (after talking with us kids) that maybe they should take their relationship to other level and get to know each other more.

Both of them were not looking for someone to marry at all when they met, so this is a total "God thing"..

Cindy is pretty much always smiling and she is really fun to be around.  She loves my dad and she loves the three of us!  She loves being around family and doing things together.  She also loves hearing stories and memories of my mom.  She still wants us to talk of her often and she told us a few days ago that she is not here to replace her at all.  That meant a lot to me.  She just wants to join our family.

Ever since my mom got diagnosed with cancer in January 2009, it was so hard on my dad.  He had so much time to grieve while she was still here (during those years that she was sick) and when she passed away, my dad was so lonely.  It was really hard for us to watch him be so sad because it's not like him at all.  Daddy has a very big heart, and he loves his family so very much.  Family is everything to him.  He has so much love to share, and now the Lord has placed someone else to share the rest of his life with.  

Daddy is extremely happy and it's so awesome to see him like this.  He is like a whole different person.  He smiles almost all the time, laughs, and I'm finally feeling like I have my dad back again.  I mean seriously?  How can I be sad about this?  Do I miss my mom?  Yes, indeed, but I just have to trust that God has a plan for all of this.  Things like this don't happen to everyone.  

So in a few weeks, my dad will be getting married, and we will have a "step-mom".  And there will still be hard times and sad moments to work through.  Lots of things to get used to and lots of wedding planning to get done, but we'll get through everything...together.  Day by day.  We'll talk about it and it will work out.  I'm just trying to stay positive about everything right now, but I do know that I will still have hard days.  Everyone does when they lose someone they love.  It wouldn't be normal if we didn't miss them.

Right now, I am praising God for the love He has shown my family through all of this.  Life goes by so quickly and I really don’t want to waste all my time questioning why things like this happen in our lives.  I'm trying to just embrace these moments and live life.  More than anything in this world, I just want my dad to be happy again.  I know it's not going to be easy all the time, and having him remarry may make me uncomfortable at times, but I would rather see him happy more than I want to be comfortable.  Above all of this, I trust God.  

I just had to share this news with all of YOU, my sweet readers.  Thank you so very much for walking this roller coaster journey with me.