I know you are there. I feel your presence in so many ways. But there are many things about You I don't understand. I know Your ways aren't always our ways. But that doesn't make it easy.
These past two days have been kind of crisis-filled for my youngest daughter.
On Tuesday, she cut her toes at church on the heavy front door. I panicked and took her to the ER. Her dad needed to be in a nearby town with her brother for a baseball game, and she was terribly worried that she might need stitches. Sobbing, hysterically, in fact. So I did what I always do in these situations. I called my best friend, Julie. I didn't even ask what she was doing. I just asked if she could come sit in the ER with us. She didn't even hesitate. She had worked a full day and was probably exhausted, and still she came up to the hospital, helped entertain my daughter, and even offered to let her come over to her house afterward. (We wound up not needing stitches--a couple of $75 band-aids did the trick!)
Yesterday, I went to check on my daughter's rabbit, who had been feeling under the weather for the past couple of days. It was stiff, cold, and not moving. Of course, my husband is traveling on business. So I called--Julie. I sobbed on the phone--"How am I going to tell her? What am I going to do?..." I'm not sure what other crazy things I said in my hysteria. Again, no hesitation. Just "How can I help? Do you need John (her husband) to come bury it?" So they came over. With chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream--my daughter's favorite. John held her on his lap, we ate ice cream together, and he dug a hole in my backyard under our pine tree (amid all of the roots, in 120% humidity, with sweat pouring down his face) because, and I quote: "A little girl deserves to have her pet bunny buried," while Julie lovingly said one last goodbye to Midnight and even petted her with my daughter.
I only have one year of memories of being a parent that don't include Julie and John. In fact, my oldest daughter chose to take her first steps at Julie's house. They have been so wonderful to and for my children. Julie takes them out on a special date for their birthdays, and they attend almost all of their milestone events. John has discipled my youngest son, played countless hours of PS2, and has started teaching them about cars. He also took a day off of work to spend the day with them in Kansas City for the NASCAR qualifying races.
And lest these two amazing people sound like "Disneyland Friends," let me also mention that they lovingly correct and set godly examples for my children. I remember one time when my oldest son was about two. Julie told him to do something and he told her no. She lovingly told her in no uncertain terms, that he was not allowed to tell her no. They have fun with our kids, but they hold them to the standards that my husband and I are trying to keep.
Almost two years ago, Julie's sister, Anna, and her husband were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. Julie was at the hospital for his birth, at the doctor's visit, where they discovered he was a "nephew," and sat vigil at the children's hospital when her tiny baby nephew had surgery to repair a kidney. She has made more 2 hour trips than I can count to be with her sister and her sweet family, and they even traded in their SUV on a smaller car that would get better gas mileage so they could continue making these visits.
I have seen how other children in their family and extended family gravitate toward them. How they shower so much love and attention on them.
Ever since Julie announced that she and John were engaged, I have been waiting for them to have a child so that we can part of their kids' lives the same way that they have been part of ours.
So, please, God. Send them a child. I know You have seen all that they do. It does not escape your notice. I know that you have heard all of the prayers offered on their behalf. I know that it is You who provides them with the strength to endure with grace and love and even happiness the many announcements of pregnancy and adoption. They will be amazing parents.
And please, God, when it happens for them, may I have the privilege of being involved in their children's lives, as they have been in mine.
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