Thank You For Reading Lynda's Blog...

This has been such a difficult year for our family with the loss of our daughter, Lynda.  We appreciate the time you have taken to follow the blog about her life.  Lynda's life has influenced many people and we hope that you have received a blessing from the blog about our special girl.

A Joyful Dance...

As the days of summer come quickly to an end it also marks the one year anniversary of Lynda's leaving her earthly body and entering into paradise with a perfect body and mind.  I cannot be silent and must sing praises to you Lord for loving Lynda and for rescuing her from this world of pain.

I will give you thanks forever and even though my heart is heavy from missing my sweet girl and I have struggled to know how to handle the emotions that I'm afraid will creep in in a couple of weeks---I am celebrating the fact that you have indeed taken away my sorrow and changed it into a joyful dance.  How can I not be joyful for Lynda who has overcome death to live eternally with God the father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit forever and forever?  I will not cry over my loss but rejoice over her victory.  I sing praise to you, Lord for you ARE my God and I will give you thanks forever!

You have replaced my sadness with joy and that is a miracle.  Thank you Father for wrapping your arms around me and for carrying me through some dark times. I want to emerge victorious on August 3rd and see only the joy in the situation that to be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus.

Tucked Inside a Place Called Nostalgia...

Every day that goes by I pray that my heart will be strong enough to keep beating when the first anniversary of your earthly death arrives.  I am blessed to be able to look beyond the grave through Christ's sacrifice to see you eternally alive but I am still left with this mother's heart that is breaking all over again.

July 2nd---Eleven Months

I love this picture of Lynda.  It was made at special olympics at the activity

center in Oxford.  Not the same year that I told her to "take off" and she took her pants off at the start signal for the 50 yard dash but probably a year or two later.  She was just playing with some of the equipment and someone (or two or twenty) people were assigned to keep up with her for the day.  I never had any doubt that the people who worked and volunteered with OCDC and Lynda were tired at the end of the day.  She covered a lot of territory and so did those working to keep up with Lynda.

One of the things that I love about this picture is how it truly captured Lynda's personality.  If you knew her as a little girl you can practically expect her to walk off the page.  This picture captures her true essence at this age.  She was perceptual motion, laughter and total abandonment all rolled up into one cute little blond bombshell.  Every day was an adventure for Lynda and for those of us who were lucky enough to know her and be a part of her world.  

She had long, slender fingers and hands that her grandmother Anderson always said were meant to play the piano.  Lynda used them to her advantage to be able to reach objects that we all assumed were far out of her reach.  It was about this age that we coined the term "stretch armstrong" for her because of those beautifully skilled hands and arms at reaching the unreachable.  

Lynda has reached the unreachable for sure now.  She spent almost 43 years on earth and now walks with Jesus in heaven.  During the past 11 months since Lynda died time has seem to morph into a different system of keeping pace.  It just seems like every day without her is longer than 24 hours and the years before the stroke seem to be a million years ago.

I have prepared myself for this month of July a year after Lynda became ill enough to enter intensive care.  I have cautioned my heart that it will have to hold even more love and that it cannot break anymore.  I've reminded my brain that Lynda is with the One who created her and that she wants for nothing so that I can walk through the first year anniversary of the things that are not celebrations but remembrances of things I would just as soon forget.  I have done all of these things because I want to look toward heaven and smile at the victory Jesus has provided for Lynda...even on the one year anniversary of the day she crossed over from this world to that of eternal sunshine.  

God has been good to me and has held my heart in his arms as only He can do.  I trust Him to carry me through the coming month and August 2nd when we will celebrate Lynda's victory over death.  I love looking at this picture of total happiness and imagining what she must be experiencing now.  How my mother's heart bursts with joy as I rest in the knowledge that she has overcome the world and walks among the angels.