"The Gift of Presence"

Recently this article was published. I go deep here, hit the spiritual elements of our journey, and land on one solid truth: sometimes what we need more than anything else is someone to walk with us in pain and joy, in hurt and triumph.  I learned this through three simple words, spoken in to my soul. I was still pregnant, crying out to God, and more than anything else I wanted to hear, "this baby will live" or "don't worry." But I didn't hear that. Instead, my soul's ears heard a steadying and merciful, "I am here."

If you want to read more, the article, "The Gift of Presence" is here (published by Banner magazine).

You can also read more about elements of the story as published in the article in these posts from this blog:

• About crying out & giving over, when night fell
• Spiritual support on the cusp of viability
• About giving him his name, Jonathan
• Heart surgery
• Gut surgery
• Surgery just before due date
• Coming home

As I read through this article today my first thought was "ugh! a typo!"
And then I got feedback from friends, positive at that, and I thought perhaps I should re-read it.  A second reading reminded me just how blessed and surrounded we were. We were exhausted. I soaked up every ounce of those blessings and rang them out on Jonathan and then greedily looked for more blessings to soak in. Steve plodded on, focusing on the next step and acting as a strong pole for me to lean on when I crumbled, and J -- JAM knew no different. This is how life had always been. We needed and coveted your prayers and gifts, and sometimes we were sure we were completely burned out, but somehow we were sustained. Thank you. Thank you so much. Two years out almost, and it is still hard to remember, hard to believe how our world so quickly changed. But in it all, we were supported. Thanks.