I don't often post twice so quickly, but this is just too good to ignore. My wonderful son-in-law gave me a book by Henri Nouwen and I opened it to today's reading. WOW!! Why can other people put my feelings into words so much better than I? This says exactly what I am feeling. I'm sure you have been there.

"[There is] a time for mourning, a time for dancing" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But mourning and dancing are never fully separated. Their times do not necessarily follow each other. In fact, their times may become one time. Mourning may turn into dancing and dancing into mourning without showing a clear point where one ends and the other starts.
****don't miss this part!! Often our grief allows us to choreograph our dance while our dance creates the space for our grief. We lose a beloved friend, and in the midst of our tears we discover an unknown joy. We celebrate a success, and in the midst of the party we feel deep sadness. Mourning and dancing, grief and laughter, sadness and gladness - they belong together as the sad-faced clown and the happy-faced clown, who make us both cry and laugh. Let's trust that the beauty of our lives becomes visible where mourning and dancing touch each other.

Our prayers are being answered in the midst of really hard circumstances. I'm finding that mourning and dancing take a lot of energy that only God can provide.