Kate Has Something to Say: happy autumn!

i love this season. i'm so glad it's here. i feel like making butternut squash soup for dinner.

what a week it's been! emotionally taxing, and all around hectic...

i haven't posted about this yet, but i suppose it's time. about a week and a half ago, my dad called me to let me know that my grandfather and his wife, linda, were on their way home from montana, where they'd been travelling since late last spring. grampa had gotten very sick a few weeks prior and the doctors in montana had determined that it was lupus or cancer (the latter of which he's fought before). his doctor here in washington had told him to come home immediately.

let me state that i'm not afraid of death. and for the most part, i'm not afraid of losing loved ones, though the pain of losing my husband or my parents would be extremely difficult to bear. what i do fear is losing a loved one that doesn't know jesus. my grandfather has stepped foot into church twice in his life: once for my baptism when i was 17, and again for my aunt's memorial service when i was 18. his first marriage, to my grandmother, was performed in a post office in alaska, and his second marriage, to linda, was performed at the court house.

my dad tried to share his faith with my grandfather over the years, but never with any avail. i know he's stubborn, because it runs in my family, so prayer began. i prayed for him constantly, his health, but more importantly, his salvation being consistently right at the back of my mind. every other thought was about how we could get him saved before he went to meet jesus personally.

when they arrived home, the tests began. i'll spare the details, but the most recent findings include several nodules in his lungs and stomach, and a mass on his liver. now, they've determined that it's the early stages of lymphoma, or it's tuberculosis. the doctors are optimistic. but grampa is not. he told my dad very specifically that he feels as though this is the "end of the road" for him, and that he's not afraid to die, and that he just wants "everything made right" before he goes. dad and i had no idea what that meant, but it certainly stepped up our concern for him.

tuesday night, linda called to give dad some more details. dad told her that i'd been praying non-stop for him, and she, a former catholic school girl who has since been in a state of emotional rebellion, said "well, sunday morning we got up and went to church" and then told dad that they had gone a few times while in montana.

praise God. just when you think the situation is totally uncontrolled, He shows that He was there the whole time, and you just didn't notice. praise God.

so we don't really know where grampa stands right now, but we feel that this is evidence that God is working in his heart, and that his heart will be soft enough to listen to what we have to say. and, in a way, this is two birds with one stone: if linda is sure that grampa is going to heaven, then she'll want to do everything she can to get there.

my hope has been restored.

* * *

i suppose i should warn people before making marathon posts. but i'm going to keep going. consider this your warning. ;)

today is my nephew kayden's 3rd birthday. we celebrated with dinner at las margaritas, purely for the fact that every birthday-boy/girl/man/woman has to wear a sombrero and be sung to. evidence:

{kayden, not so sure about the sombrero}