Distance between loss and hope...

The cord of three strands is not easily broken. Even though
Barbara and I were spliced together with Our Father as the third strand....I
have still struggled to hold it together. The last few weeks have been very
difficult with more and more of the reality of life settling in on me. Our Life's
vision and trajectory has changed. It is no longer "Our life."
Everything that happened together...is in the past... When I met Barbara, she
was a single Mom, with two daughters....she's gone and I'm now a single Dad with
12 children and 15 grandchildren....(kind of ironic don't you think for some
one who used to identify with Peter Pan and Tom Sawyer?)

In being faithful to Barbara's calling and telling you the truth,
I can't minimize the scope of grief and loss that continues in my life. Zig
Ziglar says, "If there were no love, there would be no grief."  We have the
opportunity to open our hearts to embrace this for our fellow human beings
around us. Think what Our Father felt as He allowed us to kill His Son on the
Cross.  Each of us when we grieve the
death of someone is grieving the loss of someone unique. That means that the
way we respond to grief and loss will be unique as well. My prayer as each
of us go forward in life....give grace to your fellow pilgrims.... Our God put us here together to learn from each other and to
bear each other's burdens.... and Lady Barbara knew that better than anyone...
(though I used to chide her about being a "Lone Ranger"sometimes.)

I know that everything that happened together with Barbara
and myself is in the past....It's hard to say and hard to write......but the
distance between her loss and hope for our future is marked there. I sent her
this picture when we were about to adopt our third special needs
son,Justin (our 12th child)....with the caption, "Time to take another leap of faith
Sweetheart!"  I know she is saying
this to me now...

In His grip,

Papa Tripp