A Time To Dance...

You may or may not have noticed that the prayer list over in my sidebar has had a couple of changes. Now instead of listing "Baby Ethan" and "My Friend Renee", it now reads "Ethan's Family" and "Renee's Family". That is because first my friend Renee died, and then Little E died, but their blogs are still up and able to be read, and Little E's is still being updated as his family gets the "Ethan Powell Foundation" up and running to help fight leukemia.

So, several weeks ago, I attended a service to say good-bye to my friend, Renee Atkinson. Renee was a remarkable woman, and I hope one day to be able to write a post all about her. But today, I just wanted to share something else with you in Renee's memory.

Renee was a people person, and wherever Renee was, there was the party. Renee celebrated life even when she spent it itching and in pain and greatly disfigured due to a rare form of cancer. So I found it fitting that my daughter danced at Renee's funeral. Yes, she danced.

At Christmastime, Maddie participated in a dance at church choreographed to Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God". That just happened to be one of the songs that we sang at Renee's funeral, and since we were sitting in the front row, on the aisle, my daughter decided to dance. I didn't stop her... I knew that Renee was absolutely loving it! In fact, if she had been there, she would probably have joined in!

So Maddie and I headed up to the studio where she studies dance, and her teacher allowed us to use the studio to videotape Maddie doing this very dance. I wanted to videotape it so I could post it here in honor of my friend, Renee Atkinson. So Renee, this is for you. I know you'll enjoy it. We sure do miss you down here!