Wednesday 11/26

Hey everyone. I haven't written in the last couple of days because we had not received any new information. As you can all imagine, the wait to get Smiley's body back to us has been a very hard one. It seems that the grieving process is being made even harder with this wait.Steve is on the plane right now. He will arrive in Atlanta tomorrow morning (our time), and Marilyn will be there to pick him up. Smiley is supposed to arrive next Tuesday, December 2nd. There is nothing that we can do at this point to speed up the process - believe me, I've tried! I feel comfortable that every possibility has been explored. We just have to be patient. Tonight, after we heard the news that Smiley would not return to us until next week, I started wondering why. Then I remembered that this waiting is once again just a part of God's plan. I can't explain it, and honestly, I don't want to try! But I think that the following verses are very appropriate right now, as we all grieve in the loss of our special friend, Smiley:Romans 5:1-5 ...since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.When we wonder why we are having to wait so long in order to pay the proper final respects to Smiley, we all have to put our trust in the Lord. He knows the suffering that we are all experiencing in our loss. He also knew all of the excrutiating pain and suffering that Smiley endured for the past year. He has relieved Smiley of that suffering, and He will help us all through this difficult time. I had the thought that maybe Smiley's body is not supposed to be back here with us yet - God apparantly isn't finished with his miracle trip! I don't know about you, but I'm just going to believe that this delay will only cause many more miracles to happen in lots of lives!My daily calendar had another perfect verse yesterday - just what I needed - so I'm going to share it with all of you. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.Patty, the boys, Margie, and Bryan and his family could not handle the loss of Smiley alone. Neither could any of the rest of us who loved him so much. We're all in this together - that's exactly how Smiley would want it! Thanks again to everyone for the continuous love, support, and prayers! Please continue special prayers for Steve, our angel friend! And when you see him in the coming days, give him extra special hugs and love - he certainly deserves it!!Love and prayers to you all :)I'll be in touch soon...LeighPS - Please visit downtown Greer and buy raffle tickets for your favorite Christmas tree during the Greer Station Festival of Trees. There will be trees at several of the downtown businesses. Raffle tickets can be purchased for $1.00 each. There will be a drawing at each of the businesses on Saturday, December 6th, with the winner receiving the tree from the business!Leigh Clement