April 4

Easter. The day that Jesus conquered death once and for all and rose from the grave to promise Life for those who believe. A joyful day for sure, and also something of a contemplative one, especially since Logan left this life. 

I peeked back at last year's post and saw that today began much like it did then, with cinnamon rolls and online church and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard for the not-so-short people. (And let me tell you, if the Easter Bunny --who showed up barefoot late last night to scatter those brightly colored plastic eggs under nearly pitch black skies-- had seen how our kiddos scooped them all up in three and a half minutes flat, she (or he, naturally) would've facepalmed in exhaustion because whoosh, there they went.)

From then on, it was a different kind of Easter as we loaded into the car for a visit to Logan's grave (and thank you to whomever left the lovely flowers), grabbed lunch, and did the drive-through Easter egg hunt at our church. (Good work, Tina and friends!). Then we drove to Walnut Creek to visit with Adam's brother and his family at their recently-purchased new home. The kiddos helped their much-younger cousins hunt for Easter eggs as the adults --including Adam's parents-- looked on (and provided the occasional assist).

And then it was back home for late afternoon baseball in the yard (for Isaac and Brady), driving practice (for Abby and Adam), and watching an old Columbo movie (for me). And then there was dinner --steak for some, chicken for others-- and dessert, which consisted of truly dee-licious scratch-made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting prepared by Abby late into last night. 

I hoped that by the time I got to this point in this post, I'd have a grand revelation to share, but I really don't. I'm just grateful for Easter. I'm grateful that this day guarantees a life beyond this one and I'm grateful that we don't have to be perfect to experience it. I'm grateful for renewal and for forgiveness and for healing and for all of the good things that still bloom in this broken world. And especially for Jesus, who taught us to love one another beyond all else. Because regardless of what's going on, we can never have or show enough love.