A PRAYER

I'd greatly appreciate your prayers for a woman I worked with when I taught full time, before I had Bennett. I won't give her name - I'm not sure she'd want that - but she was due with her third child, a girl, in April, about a month after me. A week or so ago she gave birth at 24 weeks. Her daughter died on January 1st. I just heard the news today, so I'm not sure how the family is doing or how they're coping, but I know they can use all the prayers you offer.

I can't really fathom something like this, to be honest. It gives me such mixed feelings about my life, and about life in general. It humbles me. I feel so deeply for this family and for this mother, and at the same time, I am so thankful for this life inside me that is thriving, who, Lord willing, I will meet in a little over two months.

I take so many things for granted and forget so often to be thankful. I know we all have our struggles, and the Lord knows I've had mine, but comparably, I live a charmed life. A healthy family and a healthy baby are things I simply should not make assumptions about or assume feelings of entitlement for. So I want to say here and now, Thank You Lord for the good things you have given me, and for the hard times that have made me who I am. Thank You for molding me and shaping me to be Yours. Thank You for my marriage and my boys and my family who supports me through thick and thin. Thank You for friends who love me and stand by me. Thank You for our home and for blessing our finances. You are the Great Provider. That never changes, no matter what comes in life. Praise be to Your Name.

And thanks to all of you who take a few minutes to lift up a prayer on behalf of this family and what they are going through right now.