October's Storms

by Sarah
 As some of you know, I'm a cloud lover. I love watching the skies and the beauty that is painted across them every day.  I enjoy bad weather and look forward to storms.  Most of all, I love to look up to the sky and see what God has cooking for the day up there and have quite a collection of pictures I've taken of the clouds and skies that I walk underneath every day. Clouds have always brought me a sense of peace and remind me of the bigger beauty in this world. 

In 2009, while browsing in a bookstore, I made the fantastic discovery of a new cloud calendar and of course purchased one for my home and one for my office- its filled with amazing photography of the skies and various fantastic cloud formations found above some beautiful landscapes.

These little bits of trivia about me are all a little bit of backstory.  You see, Joe and I have made it through our October - our month of intentional planning for Luke's arrival and passing.  We spent our October days, evenings and weeks thinking, praying, crying, talking and planning for what will certainly be one of the most profoundly sad and dark seasons of our lives. It has been tremendously difficult for us as we knew it would be (and I could not help but find October's photo on the calendar a tad ironic).  There are still some final details to plan and loose ends to tie up, but for the most part we have gotten the big stuff covered and we have to thank so many people for helping us during these past few weeks- whether you offered us a card in the mail, a voice mail message, a belly laugh, a hug, an email, a suggestion, a fun shared meal out, some tangible help in making preparations, an ear or a shoulder- we are grateful. And we are so excited that October is finally behind us.

It was a giant relief to walk into the bathroom this morning (where we have the cloud calendar hanging) and see that Joe had already flipped us to November. I immediately exhaled when I saw the photograph that will greet us every morning in November...sheer beauty- a sky clearing after a storm.  A daily reminder that storm clouds eventually roll on by revealing beautiful blue skies sprinkled with lovely cirrus clouds- whispers of beauty for the heart. We made it through October and will continue to climb believing with hope that someday these storm clouds in our life will also roll away. Thank you for loving us along the way and for loving little Luke too.  May your Novembers be full of beautiful skies.