Sunday, August 7, 2011

God is Amazing!

On Tuesday, in the middle of Evan and I doing school work, I remembered that cemetery clean up for the month had started that morning.  Since moving back to Texas, we make sure to go out to Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery at the beginning of each month (and other times too) to take the semi-permanent items off of Ethan's grave.  If items aren't removed, then they are thrown away--and I do mean anything.  But more on that later.

When I glanced at the clock when Evan and I were sitting at our dining room table (the usual place we sit to do sit down work for school), it was just before 10AM.  When I glanced at the clock inside my van, it was just after 10AM.  We arrived at Ft. Sam around 10:40 AM.  Ethan is  buried in the furthest section at Ft. Sam, so I assumed that since he was at the back, that we were safe and they would get to that area last.  WRONG!  I just about had a meltdown when we drove up and every single grave was empty.  I grabbed Evan and we RAN to the nearest cemetery employee, and asked where they had dumped the items.  This kind man, named Marian, escorted us to where they dump all items.  The huge mountain of dead flowers, artificial flowers, crosses, vases, windchimes, pinwheels, etc. is unbelievable.  It was sad to see some really nice items thrown away, and graves left barren.  However, this is necessary to keep up with the demanding mowing, weeding, and maintenance schedule of the cemetery grounds.

Upon seeing the mountain of items, it didn't look promising.  However, Ethan's cross with windchime and huge orange pinwheel were right there in front of out eyes!  God is amazing!  The only thing missing was an orange Hotwheel and a black Hotwheel car.  Evan started to cry, and was having a meltdown over those items being thrown away.  Marian told us to go back to Ethan's grave and to wait on him and he would look for us.  Not even ten minutes later, the kind man had BOTH Hotwheel cars!

That was one of the best days I have had since moving to Texas.  It has been hard on me for some reason since we moved.  I needed a day like this past Tuesday, August 2.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Shannon! What a wonderful man and may God bless him for his kindness. It's good to hear that he lifted your spirits. This has me in tears.

MarshaMarshaMarsha said...

Thank you, Lord, for Marian's kindness!