We lost a loved one today, family.
I've been given many people to love and vice versa - family by choice is how I like to think of it.
Teta Olgica loved me from my first breath, and she did the same for Christian. She helped us care for my Gramma before her Heavenly departure, she brought liveliness with her wherever she went. She knew the Grandmother I never did; with her every visit came part of my heritage.
She spoke of Christian's handpicked flowers by her bedside with loving pride, wilted and dried they were still a precious token from her little boy.
She asked me to pray, pray that she might walk again. Today she stands not on sin-tainted soil, but a street heavy laden with gold, heaping with goodness.
I've been learning that loving on a life is so much more than making an appearance at a funeral.
She will never see our flowers, never hear our cries - but she felt Christian's ferociously loving kiss. She heard my mom's prayers.
She saw love alive and moving all around her.
My Teta Olgica believed in Someone bigger than herself. I relish the moment I'm greeted by those arms again. I look forward to the moment I wake from sin and selfishness and want no more, in weep free territory; void of heartache and hopelessness. The in between from now until then must be handled with gratitude, but oh, how much more there is to look forward to.