today I celebrated life and death

Today I celebrated life and death. I called my friend Annemarie on her birthday, and that was full of life and happiness. She's having a party with lots of friends and I can't be there because I'm in the wrong province.

Then, my in-laws drove me out to Abbotsford (Aaron was working and couldn't come), and there I showed my husband's great-grandmother pictures of our wedding. I think she enjoyed it. It must have happened about 10 times that she pointed at Aaron and said, "Who's that?"
"That's Aaron, Oma."
"Oh. Isn't he handsome!"
"I think so too."
Finally near the end of the album she pointed at Aaron and said, "That's Aaron!"
"Yes, Oma."
"Isn't he handsome!"
"I think so too."
I am continually amazed that this 97-year-old woman whom I've seen on maybe half a dozen occasions actually knows who I am half the time. Frankly, I'm amazed she remembers Aaron. And my mother-in-law always speaks so fondly of her, she has obviously been a blessing to her family. She's at that lovely endgame part of her life where she might be gone any day, and that will be okay, and in the meantime everyone just enjoys her company.

After visiting with Mutti-Oma, we went to a rebirthday party for Aaron's cousin Karina. She was celebrating 10 years of life since the bone marrow transplant that cured her from Leukemia. I think everyone should have parties to celebrate that they're alive. I guess that's what birthdays are for, but we don't often think about them in that way. At this party, I quickly got used to being introduced as Aaron's wife, seeing as most of the relatives hadn't met me before. I'm a wife! And more importantly, I'm Aaron's!

There is a neat little story around Karina's family and her cure from cancer. When Karina was a baby (and had only one older sister), her grandfather died quite suddenly. That day, her mother announced that she had decided to have a third child because life was just too short and she couldn't handle losing a child and then only having one left. 10 months later Elena was born, and a dozen years after that, Elena proved to be the perfect match for a bone marrow transplant to save Karina's life.

Finally, just before I began this post I happened upon the news that Tom Fox is dead. He was a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, and he was kidnapped in November. Now he has been killed while three hostages remain (presumably) alive. This made me sad. Sometimes I am guilty of too simple a faith, and in this case I had somehow always assumed that God would arrange for these hostages to be released safe and sound. I suppose God has a bigger point of view. This whole event has certainly brought much positive publicity to Christ's message of peace and to the faithfulness of at least some of his followers. I am grateful that there are some Christians out there whom Arabs and Muslims can respect. It gives me hope. Today I prayed that God will bring the year of Jubilee to Iraq and set the captives (all of them) free.