{"id":1981,"date":"2011-05-07T22:01:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T22:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2011-05-09T05:35:50","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T05:35:50","slug":"may-7th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/may-7th\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day to Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"

The date May 7th will always hold a special place in my heart.\u00a0 May 7th, 2008 was an extremely sad day for my family, but it ended with rejoicing.<\/p>\n

3 years ago today, my precious cousin, Joel Lee, passed away from heart complications.\u00a0 He was a “normal” kid physically.\u00a0 You would have never known he had received a heart transplant at age 7.\u00a0 He fished, ran, played basketball, swam, rode bikes.\u00a0 Normal.<\/p>\n

He was not “normal” spiritually.\u00a0 Joel was so mature for his age, and he truly loved the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind.\u00a0 His life was an amazing testimony.<\/p>\n

Joel was the youngest of 5.\u00a0 I love this pic of their family.\u00a0 Joel, Franci<\/a>, Cooper<\/a>, Amy Lauren<\/a>, and Brett<\/a>.\u00a0 These are my cousins, and they are pretty special to me!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Joel\u00a0 was kind, happy, caring.\u00a0 He always had a little smirky smile on his face, and always had a soft little chuckle to accompany any conversation (just like his brothers and dad).\u00a0 He loved children, and kids loved him.\u00a0 There’s no hiding it, Joel was the family favorite (and when there are 35 grandchildren and great-grandchildren in one family, that is saying a lot about Joel!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In mid April 2008, at age 17, Joel started having a few heart problems and went in for a routine procedure.\u00a0 He was supposed to leave the hospital within a few days.\u00a0 Instead, Joel was in the hospital for two weeks and finally left to be with the Lord on May 7.<\/p>\n

I received a phone call at 10:00 pm, and fell into a puddle of tears in my closet floor. It was a sad day for our family.\u00a0 I’m crying just typing about it.<\/p>\n

How could it be possible?<\/p>\n

Death is so final.<\/p>\n

It’s the absolute end…and at the same time as a Christian, I know that it is only the beginning.<\/p>\n

I know that Joel is running, biking, jumping, singing, and chuckling in HEAVEN with the LORD!\u00a0 I know that he was told “Well done good and faithful servant!” and if there is any kind of commerce in heaven (which I highly doubt that there is) but if there is, my sweet entrepreneurial cousin is running the store in heaven!<\/p>\n

As I was crying in my closet, trying to pack for the funeral, I realized the need for a pregnancy test.\u00a0 Brad thought I had lost my mind.\u00a0 He realized this was not the time to question me as I could barely talk.\u00a0 He ran to Walgreen’s and he said he was walking through the aisle thinking to himself, “This is the biggest waste of $13 ever.\u00a0 There is NO WAY this test is going to be positive.”<\/p>\n

Guess what…<\/p>\n

That’s right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Somehow, and I mean SOME HOW I was pregnant.\u00a0 My sweet husband’s first response was, “That’s not my baby!”\u00a0 (Of course he was joking!!!)\u00a0 We truly don’t know where she came from (no, we don’t need an explanation), but we know that this was the baby that the Lord had planned for us.\u00a0 Oh, and I’m so very thankful for HIS perfect plans!<\/p>\n

Joel passed away at 10:00 pm, and we found out about this new little life at 11:00 pm.\u00a0 WOW!\u00a0 What an emotional roller coaster.\u00a0 I cried tears of joy when I found out about this little life.\u00a0 It was amazing to see the circle of life in a matter of 60 minutes.<\/p>\n

I was mourning the loss of Joel, and I know our family always will (especially his sweet mom, dad, brothers and sisters).\u00a0 However, I was rejoicing for this new precious life at the same time.<\/p>\n

We knew immediately that this child would be named after Joel.\u00a0 (Side Note: We never find out what we’re having, nor do we decide on names until we are in the hospital.\u00a0 I have mentioned that I’m a procrastinator.\u00a0 Again, I know this stresses people out.)\u00a0 Anyway, we knew we would use part of Joel’s name in our child’s name.\u00a0 His name was Joel Dexter Lee.\u00a0 We wanted to use LEE if we had a girl.\u00a0 Since we already had Lilly, we couldn’t use just Lee.\u00a0 We combined it with Anna, changed the spelling to make it more feminine, and we named our new little life, ANNALEIGH!\u00a0 I often call her Leigh for short (or Pinky…which has nothing to do with anything).<\/p>\n

At this point, I am rambling.\u00a0 I’m sorry.\u00a0 There is still a flood of emotions when I think about this day.\u00a0 Death and Life.\u00a0 Things that we as humans have a hard time comprehending.\u00a0 Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have a God who controls it all.\u00a0 His plans are good and perfect.\u00a0 They are plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.\u00a0 (Jer 29:11)<\/p>\n

As I was watching this video of Joel<\/a> just now, Lilly Katherine walked in and asked if I was watching a movie of Preston.\u00a0 He and Preston do look similar, and I realized that Joel was Preston’s age (7) when he had his heart transplant.\u00a0 It makes me realize how little time we have on this earth.<\/p>\n

It also makes me realize that I need to tell YOU that there is a God that loves you and cares for you and wants you to know him, REALLY KNOW HIM, and love him and have a relationship with him.<\/p>\n

What does that mean?<\/p>\n

Well, what does it mean for me to have a relationship with Brad?\u00a0 I have to spend time with him, I have to communicate with him, I have to get to know him (continually), I have to trust him, I have to love him.\u00a0 God desires the same things…He wants us to read his Word (you know, that book called The Bible), spend time praying and listening (something I honestly need to get better at), memorize scriptures, trust that his plans are perfect, and love him.\u00a0 It’s simple, yet not always easy.<\/p>\n

I honestly don’t know how anyone can go through life and not KNOW that the Almighty God is real and faithful and true.\u00a0 I don’t know what people do if they don’t lean on the Lord.\u00a0 I have just been restless lately knowing that some of you need to know that there is a wonderful God that loves you and desires a relationship with YOU.<\/p>\n

I know that sounds cheesy and baptisty.\u00a0 I know it does.\u00a0 I am reading it as I type it, but those are the words I feel led to type…as cheesy and baptisty as they are…they are the Truth!\u00a0 That’s my heart right now, and this is my blog, and you’re still reading it, so you must be needing to hear it. :)\u00a0 (…you know that I love you!)\u00a0 If you want to talk about it, please message me.\u00a0 I’m certainly no Bible scholar or theologian, but I love the Lord and would be happy to talk to you about it.<\/p>\n

So, that’s not exactly where I thought that post was going…but that’s where it went.<\/p>\n

May 7th.\u00a0 A day to remember for our family.\u00a0 Reminds me I need to go hug some babies, because I know my time with them is fleeting.<\/p>\n

28<\/sup> “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.<\/span> 29<\/sup> Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.<\/span> 30<\/sup> For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

-Matthew 11:28-30<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The date May 7th will always hold a special place in my heart.\u00a0 May 7th, 2008 was an extremely sad day for my family, but it ended with rejoicing. 3 years ago today, my precious cousin, Joel Lee, passed away from heart complications.\u00a0 He was a “normal” kid physically.\u00a0 You would have never known he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}