Senior Pictures

Last night Devon and I went to Sears to get his Senior pictures taken. He was such a champ.

He had a very proud smile. Like he had accomplished something and had a deep sense of satisfaction.

It was not a haughty smile. I loved it. Gail loved it too.

I became very sad during the day @ work thinking about the fact that Gail would not be with us.

Gail would have loved to fuss over Devon as he put on his new clothes and his cap and gown.

I called a friend, Lisa and cried for awhile. She too was close to Gail and knew what I was feeling.

My boss Sam, walked into my office while I was crying too and I shared with him about the pictures. He was very understanding and compassionate.

As picture time came, the tears wore off and the excitement came.

Devon looked so good in the brand new clothes!

His Grandma and Aunty Katie bought the new clothes for him when he was in Huntington Beach during Easter break. They spent about two hours with the family having him try on different shirts, slacks and jackets. He was a good sport.

They loved Devon by fussing over him. I'm sure that he ate it up.

He will also wear these same clothes to the Prom on May 2nd @ the Exploritorium in SF.

If you would like a picture, please let me know. I have a high resolution cd.

I want to thank all of you who have been there for Devon and our family in our journey to see him to this point of graduation.

It was not a foregone conclusion.

God knew what He was doing.

And here we are.

Amazing!

Love,

Jono

together time

Early on in our grieving process Devon and I made a list of those things that are important to us. One of the reasons for this was to order our lives around those things and people that were them most important.

Over the last two years, my time and effort has been on trying to build in a controlled, predictable life for us to live in, protected. I have found myself frustrated when things don't go my way, etc. Sometimes I feel that I have been focussed on obtaining certain outcomes at the expense of simply enjoying/living life.

I realized that I need 'down' time with Devon besides our walks. The other night we laid in bed together and were talking about what we had learned from the testimony of a friend that had to serve time in San Quentiin in order for the Lord to do the work that He wanted to accomplish.

We started to talk about the reason that we have suffered loss and how the Lord might want to use that. It was nice 'together time.' Devon said that the Lord wanted to use us to bless others that have also gone through a loss.

A verse that has come to mind this week is:

"The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing"

Zephaniah 3:17

update

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while sine I wrote on the blog, and for that I apoligize. Life has been fairly well regarding school (to an extent) and home life. Wow, how time flies! It's almost been two years sine my mom (Gail) passed away. The two year mark will be on June 7th, 2009. :( I know very sad. I know she is in a better place and she has it good, but my father and and all of you who are reading this are the ones suffering the loss. I wish she was still around to see me graduate and make my way from becoming a humble school boy, to a young man. I hope my efforts to be a a nice young man will make her proud. It's hard to praise and thank God for the life she lived when I also look at the fact that she was still very young when she passed away. She was a angel in the flesh. Now she is gone from this earth. now the more I think about it, the more frustrated and angry I become at God. I ask him why did you have to take away my mom and my dad's wife? I get so furious at times that whenever someone refers to me as a Christian, I wince. I wince because I don't want to do ANYTHING with God at times. Then I slap myself in the face and say... if God could get mehrough this far. He could still carry us through for the rest of my life.

Much Love,

Devon Yoshimine