thank you, crazy people.

It was a L-O-N-G day, full of exhaustion, but a day that has me thinking tonight.

I'm too tired to make it eloquent.  Bear.

First of all... completely and totally unexpectedly, there was a couple a few weeks ago who paid for the girls and I to join Matt in Florida for board meetings, which in turn, allowed for us to morph their gift into a badly needed family vacation, and in turn, gave Matt and the girls and I many things and relationships and encouragement that we all needed.  It allowed us to have those things TOGETHER, and I'm so thankful.  I'll share more about some of the benefits of the last days soon.   

That was actually quite crazy of them.  And they did it.  We didn't ask, and it was a lot of money. And then, they acted like it was no big deal, and it was.  

And then three of the board wives came to spend the time with the girls and I, to help me with them, spend time talking and hanging out, and to be supportive of Emmaus and of us and of me.  And they all paid for that themselves, and read books to the girls and hung out at the playground and bought us dinner and wasted their vacation days watching Lily and Sofie throwing and retrieving shells from the pool.  

They took away from their own lives and shared their lives with me.  

And that was kind of nuts of them, I mean, really.  One of them had NEVER even met us.  And then they each acted like it was no big deal, and actually their pleasure, and it WAS a big deal, and to MY pleasure.

And then, this morning, at 2:15 AM (!!!AM!!!) one of the board members and his wife woke up, got ready, and VOLUNTARILY went with Matt and the girls and I to the airport, dropped off the rental car for us, lugged our suitcases and car-seats and sippy cups around with us, carried our jammied girls, got us checked in, and then sat with us for 2 hours until our plane boarded at 5:30 AM.  And their flight wasn't until almost 8 am.  And they acted like it was, like, for fun or something.  

If you've been around here long, you know me and mornings are not affectionate.  There is NO greater sacrifice, in my mind, then to get up FAR earlier than needed just to bless someone else.  Linda and Galen did it WHEN THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO.  Just to help us.  

And to sit with us.  And to share their lives with us.  

C-R-A-Z-I-N-E-S-S.  

Yesterday afternoon, when I thought of all that today entailed, and all that these coming days are bringing, and all of the millions of tasks that need done, I felt so completely overwhelmed and emotional that I didn't know what to do with myself.  

And after sitting with Linda in the middle of the stinking night in the airport terminal that wreaked of decomposing rat, talking about funny things and sad things and serious things and scary things and beautiful things...when I got on that plane this morning, I felt safe, secure, loved, and at peace in Him.  

A miracle transformation from yesterday.

Christ given--with a CRAZY love through people--did that which I thought to be impossible today.  People like you.  And me.

This all excited me.  Not just because I was the beneficiary of such crazy and meaningful love.  But because I was able to witness how sacrifices people made--that they didn't even think were big--made ALL The Difference to me.  

And I can do that.  For others.

When was the last time someone asked you how you TRULY are, and then listened?  GO ask someone today.  Trust Him with the results, and the meaning that you may never know.

When was the last time you did something "crazy" for someone...paid for something or showed up for someone or baked something or babysat for someone or wrote something that was just way above or too generous or completely unexpected?  I want to DO something like that today.  Each day.

When was the last time I illogically forgave, insanely loved, intensely prayed or immensely pampered someone?  Someone easy, someone hard, someone close, someone I barely know?  

What better way is there, than crazy love, to make HIS known?


THANK YOU, crazy people who love us too well.  

I want to be one of you.