An unexpected honor...

Today has been bittersweet. 

Early this morning I got a text from my brother informing me that after how many months of trying to do all the paperwork and legwork regarding my dad's passing... in the midst of all the heartache and tears... my dad's papers have finally been settled.

It was as if it just happened yesterday. All of a sudden... the pain... the tears... the loss came flooding back. It made my heart heavy all throughout the day.  

Yet through it all God has been good. I found a wonderful surprise in my mailbox this evening. Something totally unexpected.

I received an email from Ms. Angie Pedersen (her surname almost sounds like my dad's surname-Pedrosa ) saying this:

Hi Teys, 

Congratulations! For your participation in the Digital Scrapbooking day challenges, you won one of the GRAND PRIZES - one of each size photo book printed Shutterfly! 

(read about it here:  http://susanwhite.typepad.com/digital_scrapbooking_day/2007/11/dsd-prizes-awar.html)

I think I also won a Tinkering Ink  Digital CD Kit in the process. 

I couldn't believe it! I had to read the email over and over to let it  really sink in. I had not been doing a lot of  layouts lately nor have been posting in any galleries since my father's passing because I didn't have the heart to do it. I've been in major lurk mode since then and I just regularly updated myself with the diginews from DST.

From there, I found the DSD blog which had this challenge about scanned memorabilia. I had just happened to have one already made sitting in my hard drive. So I joined just to share.

I had made this one layout about my dad a while back which I had wanted to give to my kids. It contained some of their artwork they gave him, their baby pictures and mine, an old letter that he had written to me long ago, an old birthday letter I had given him when I was still in elementary which was all torn up already which I found in his wallet, and miscellaneous memorabilia he owned. I also included a letter I wrote to my kids telling them about their "lolo" and how much he meant to me.

Most important of all, I found a quote in one of his diaries that represented everything he lived and died for. I wanted them to know that this was the kind of man their grandfather was.

Thank you DSD for choosing my layout. You have made it even more special and more meaningful than it already is. 

Here it is once again. 

You can also view it in my flicker account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teys/1583799141/in/set-72157602447692711#preview

credits:

background paper - La Wanna Desjardin cuddly yellow 

rubber band - scrappy cat designs

everything else mine 

This one's for you daddy.  I love you so much.