Not Forgotten

Tonight I will be sitting down to watch the Oscars like I enjoy doing every year, but this year it will be with the rememberence of this night one year ago.

The dates are not the same, but Sunday night of the Oscars is. Last year I remember sitting in my living room with Trevor and several college students who had come over to watch the show with us and getting the call.

My dearest friend who was 11 weeks pregnant called crying and telling me that she had begun spotting and she had not been sick all day much like she had been the weeks leading up. She was scared and asking for prayer. She knew something wasn't right and her fears were confirmed. She was losing her baby. Number 3. Maybe even the little girl they hoped for. After all this pregnancy had been different than the previous two. Right there on the phone feeling helpless, I prayed for her, for the baby. Asking God to save this baby.

Just 7 months before we had prayed a similar prayer for our baby boy. Please God save him. It felt numbing to be asking God to have to do this again, knowing the outcome might be the same as ours. Death, lose, empty arms.

On February 28th, Rae Joanna went to be with Jesus. Leaving this family with a forever whole. Leaving this family with only the thoughts of what life would be like with four little ones running around one day. Only the thoughts of what life would be like with two big brothers and two little sisters.

So today, even though its not the 28th, I remember, my sweet friend, who when death became a fabric forever woven into my family, loved me well and always, even a year and a half out, never forgets these tough days. Never fails to say I'm thinking about you today. So to the one who helped me walk through those dark days, I want you to know...Rae is NOT FORGOTTEN. Her absence is felt by many.

God comfort this family in the coming days. Let them not lose heart, continue to be there peace and refuge in days of sorrow. You Jesus, are our hope.

TREAURE IN JAR OF CLAY
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak,
14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

XOXO

Happy Adoption Day

Isaac Sentayehu Atwood

You are loved more than you will ever know.
Read the words from our Daddy.

Love,
Mom