good grief

my teammate steve let me borrow his kindle with a newly purchased "booklet" book (about 30-40 pages) called "good grief". why am i reading a book about grief?

the other day i came home from my afternoon class and checked my email like normal but received an email from my brother telling me that my uncle has passed away earlier that night. i was shocked.. i knew he was sick for a while but i thought he was getting better. the past couple days have been filled with lots of tears, questions, and heartache of a loss in the family and for my aunt, cousin, grandma, and the rest of the family. at times like this i wish i wasn't so far away in china. at times like this i'm at lost of words of what to say or think... but i'm thankful that He is here and my Comforter.

i never experienced a family member dying before this and could not fully understand/relate to what that loss feels like when others experienced death of someone dear. now i understand and it's painful and just plain hard.

i just finished reading "good grief" tonight and it was encouraging.. to know that these feelings, processes, and stages of grieving are normal and how to learn from it. the preface about the author sums it up well- "it's written with the heart of a pastor, the insight of a psychologist, the humanity of a father and husband, and the hope of someone who has seen so many survive the process of grieving..."

i miss my uncle, the last time i saw him was last summer when i was in america. he's was a hard worker, a faithful son, husband, brother, uncle, and father, and fought a good fight with his illness... we love you Uncle Frances and miss you.

it's a process and i'm reminded that my hope is in Him and his mercies are new each morning... please remember my family during this time.. thank you for your thoughts!!