There is this woman I know...

She's amazing. I've known her a really, really long time, and she knocks my socks off. She has such an uncanny ability to see people's hearts, mine included, and be with you during whatever you're going though. I've gone through a whole lot in my life, and she's seen me through all of it. I pushed away from God for a good chunk of my adult life, and she simply prayed me through it. When I opened back up to His heart, she was the first to rejoice it. Since then, she has been a rock for me. Spiritually, she has guided me, and taught me so much. Personally, I don't think I could make it a day without hearing her encouraging words. I love how much she loves and builds into my kids. Not a single day passes that they don't ask when we can see her, or to call her, or talk about her. They have some pretty cool memories with her, especially Denver, the child we call "Mapquest." Even though we live 45 minutes away from her, he can tell you each and every turn to make to get to her house! Every Easter they look forward to coloring eggs with her, too. She has her own Promiselnd ID so she can (and does) help me get the kids on Sunday at church. She was with me for the births of my first two babies, and has been so unbelievably supportive as I make my way through nursing school. She was my inspiration to go into nursing, she had always told me she would have liked to be a nurse. Recently, during my OR rotation in clinical, I got to hold a freshly plucked uterus during a hysterectomy, and even in that moment, I was thinking about how I could not wait to get home to call her and tell her about it, I knew she would be just as excited as I was! She literally prays for me on exam days, and even helped me modify my scrubs, since she is a sewing whiz! She taught me to sew years ago, which I really enjoy (even though I don't actually have the time these days!) and when I started sewing and selling my own cloth diapers, she even helped me cut fabric into the wee hours of the night! She is so generous with her time and resources to me. With me in school more than full time, and my husband working his butt off in the restaurant industry, our finances have been very tight many times, and she has been so gracious to help. In fact, she and her husband recently bought us a new car, when our 17 year old Toyota wasn't working out for us anymore (Go ahead, try to fit three carseats in the back of a Toyota Corolla!) And her time, boy, I can't even count the number of times we have needed a babysitter and she volunteered before I could even ask! Overnights, middle of a weekday, "business" or pleasure, she has had my back in the childcare department literally hundreds of times. She has saved me from losing my sanity, both in a figurative and literal way. During the darkest days of my life, just after I had lost my Dad, but before I returned home, when I myself was contemplating suicide, it was a simple note from her, delivered during one of her many visits to me when I was waitressing at TGIFriday's, that started the process of turning around. Simple, left on her table, along with the payment, written on a cocktail napkin. "We love you, and are praying for you. Remember, our door is always open." I'm not sure why, but that night, after I finished working, I decided to go to her house instead of the place I lived. It wasn't that my thoughts had changed, just that I felt like stopping over. As it turns out, I never went back, except to pick up my belongings. I heard God in her words to me, and let Him turn me back around.
In this process of losing Laurie, she has meant so much to me. We have prayed together, cried together, laughed together, talked stuff through, been broken and weak and hysterical together. She has inspired me with her grace, and compassion, and absolutely beautiful soul. I love how honest she is about her heart, and how willing she is to share that with all the people around her. I love the fact that she will tell anyone that she gets it from God, whatever it is inside her that makes her so strong. I am blown away when I think of the deep and wrenching heartaches she has suffered through in her life, and still grown each time, into a more beautiful, faithful, inspiring, gentle, compassionate, giving, hope-filled woman. I can only pray to be grown into a woman such as she, and believe me, I pray for it every day, right after I pray for her.




Mom, I love you. You are...beyond words. Thank you for everything that you have been, everything that you are, and everything you will be. Thank you for bringing me to God, and showing me in real-time what He can do with just a single life.

PS If all, all, all the Mommys in the whole world were lined up, single file, in a huge line, I'd walk and walk and walk until I found you. Then I'd pick you up, swing you around, and take you home (for a glass of wine, we are grown-ups now, after all!)