Love, Sorrow & Joy

October was an exciting month, to say the least! I have continued dating Dustin Chipman, which has gone very well. We had a blast with halloween costumes! He was a "minion" from the movie Despicable Me. It was way fun to be able to paint him all yellow:) I dressed up as a "Mardi Gras Debutant", which proved to be a lot of feathers and beads! The middle of the month was pretty hard. My dear friend Madison Mecum passed through the veil on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 into the loving arms of her father. She was tragically killed by a car driven by one of her classmates. My heart broke as my dad sat at her bedside and told me over the phone the injuries that she had sustained. I knew it was impossible that she would survive. The outpouring of love from our neighbors and community was truly a miracle to watch. I thank heavens that Dustin was around, he truly became my source of strength during that time. The month got better though as time flew by! Dustin surprised me with Tickets to the performance of "Thriller" by Odyssey Dance Theater at Kingsbury Hall, on Saturday October 30th. It was absolutely amazing! Freaky of course, but totally exciting! Best Anniversary Present:) The next day was my "little" brothers farewell. Josh spoke like he was already returned from a mission, he truly has set his bar very high! His talk was about the atonement and how every soul is a precious soul. He spoke about Madison and the Mecum girls. The next day was difficult, Dustin came in on his regular route time, but I could tell there was something going on. He proceeded to tell me that his mother had passed away in the middle of the night. It wasn't unexpected, she had been suffering for many years. I was given the opportunity to see her the saturday night before she passed, she was ready to leave her poor crippled body. She has truly touched my heart with what a "christlike" person she was. I am so thankful that I was able to meet her. Her funeral was arranged for that coming Saturday. She was the oldest of 9 children, of which the middle 7 are boys. For the first time in 10 years all of the siblings were together! I am very grateful I was able to meet them all. The next week flew by! Before I knew it, it was the dreaded wednesday, the day Josh was entering the MTC (Nov 10, 2010). That boy makes me so proud! We received his first letter that Saturday, you could honestly FEEL his excitement coming from the letter. Within the first couple of sentences he stated "my testimony has grown more in the last 3 days, than it has in 3 years". I truly am jealous (I know BAD). Nothing makes me more happy than to hear those words coming from him, I know he will be an amazing missionary! The people of Lansing Michigan better watch out, cause Elder "Beef" is going to track them down!