Vacation and Thinking about Life

Hi, my sweet friends. I hope you all have been doing well. Our last day of school was June 5th, so we're out for the summer!

We took a vacation to Shenandoah last week. I've lived in Virginia almost my whole life, and had never been to this part of our state. Skyline Drive is so beautiful! We were wanting to see more of Skyline Drive, but the weather wasn't very cooperative, so we just had to enjoy what we could.

 We thought this was pretty cool. He was doing a great job painting.

Katie at one of the overlooks. What an amazing view!!

A deer right off the road just stood there and let us take pictures.

 This is the cabin where we stayed. It was a very nice place. It was so peaceful and quiet, except for the cicadas!! Oh my goodness, they were everywhere!

All in all, we had a nice vacation, though it was tinged with sadness.

A friend of ours was killed in a car wreck on Saturday evening, June 8th, two days before our vacation. She ran off the road and hit a tree. She was by herself, so it's unclear as to why she ran off the road. At first, we wondered if we should even go on vacation, but we decided to go ahead with it, and I think it was a good time to just relax and think. 

Emily was a sweet 19 year old young lady. Her memorial service was on Saturday...it was beautiful. The service was held at her church. Katie goes to their youth group. The church was packed, and people were just standing wherever they could find a spot. We got there about 45 minutes early, and were able to actually sit down. There were lots of pictures, and even some videos of her singing with some of the local Christian youth in our area. She had such a heart for missions, and had been on numerous missions trips around the world. Her latest project was that she had made an alphabetical list of all the countries in the world, and would pray for one each day, then cross it off the list.When I got home, I printed off my own list of countries so I could pray for them, and keep her project going. 

The last time I had seen Emily was May 15th. I had a doctor's appointment that morning, and stopped by the Lifeway Christian bookstore afterwards. I shopped for a little while and found something I wanted. When I got to the counter to pay, I noticed Emily was working there, so we talked for a moment or two, and then I left. Little did I know that her memorial service would be exactly one month later. Who would have thought that would be the last time I would see that young healthy girl?  It's times like these that really make you think about the brevity of life, and how we should enjoy each day and not take life for granted.

This is a picture of Emily. She had posted it on her Facebook page about a month ago. It was on the front of the program when we went to her memorial service. During the service, we found out that Emily's mother had asked her a few weeks ago what she wanted to do with her life. She was interested in a lot of things. Emily told her mom that if she had her way, she would spend hour after hour worshipping God, and asked her mom if she could get paid for that. I thought that was just amazing. Now that's what she's doing, and we all take comfort in that, and look forward to seeing her again in Heaven.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 
~James 4:14

Well, I thank you all for stopping by. Make the most of your days, my friends, and be certain you're ready to meet the Lord. There is nothing more important than that.

Take care,

~Melanie