be thankful.

This morning I woke up and watched How I Met Your Mother and the episode I watched was when Marshall lost his dad. When the show was over I remembered a DVD I had in one of my bags. It was a DVD of my papa's funeral. My family brought it when they came over and I haven't listened to it, not that I didn't want to... just because I haven't been ready to listen. Today I did. When I looked at the date on the cover it said February 22, 2012...4 months and one day ago my papa was buried. Now I don't want you to think this is going to be a sad post, because I don't want it to be. It is about someone I am thankful for. Someone I have learned a lot from through my 22 years of life. I believe my want and desire to travel to new places is from him. My curiosity in new cultures far different than my own is because of him. Finding the beauty of God's people in the ugliest and darkest of places is thanks to him. He is my papa Norton and will always be just that. 

The day I found out he was gone was my first day working here at Living Hope. I didn't share it with anyone besides Jennifer and went through out that day acting like nothing was wrong. A big part of me just wanted to leave and go back home but that night I went to Monday night small groups for the first time and met everyone there for the first time. At the end we went around saying our prayer requests and when it got to my turn all the emotions i had kept in all day came out. I remember trying SO hard to not cry until I left but I couldn't help it. That was the night those strangers became family because they made me feel at home. So thank you everyone here at Living Hope, you may not know this but you have each made an imprint on my heart. 

Well today while I was listening to what had been said about him, I found out that if I am half of what he was, I'll be proud of myself.  

 One of my favorite things I heard while listening to this was when Mike Washburn said: 

"To some, Harvey might have seemed gruff or intimidating or forceful or I don't know what...but to me, he was soft hearted, he loved to tease, and I loved to tease him back, whether I would go see him in the hospital, at church, or where he worked, or on the ranch...whenever I got to see Harvey Norton it brightened my day."

You know I have heard by many about how big of a temper my papa had and that you wouldn't want to be within a mile of him when he was letting it show. I thankfully have never seen that side of my papa and I am glad that I will always and forever only have good memories of him. The few months before I left for here, the whole family got together for christmas or something. Anyways my papa was at the point where some moments he'd seem to know what was going on while others he probably didn't have a clue where he was. I vividly remember standing by the table where he was sitting and hear him say to his caretaker, 'see that girl right there, that's my great granddaughter. She's going back to Africa! how great is that!' Knowing he knew I was coming back here and was excited to tell others when he was 'back to his normal self' will forever be the reassurance I needed, the memory that needed to be remembered as to one of the many reasons why here is where I needed to be.  

He is not truly gone because now he is free to travel with me as I see and experience the world. What an amazing travel buddy I will now always have :)  

My papa was a builder. He could build a business, build a ranch, build a school, a children's home, a church, the kingdom of God, his life was about building. && because of that I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that when my Papa met Jesus for the first time, he said 'well done my good and faithful servant, welcome home.' 

His journey ended at his final destination. There were no airport security and no rough seas. Best of all, his fare was paid by a gentle, loving savior.

It is never too late to count your blessings. 

you spent a heck of a great 95 years in this world. 

So glad I got to know you for 22 of em

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

no hands but yours, 

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which 

Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;

yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; 

and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. 

-Saint Teresa of Avila