pray trust.

I want to interrupt our normal blogging for a moment to ask you to be praying for a special family here.

Many of you have known--at least through us--Maxi for a long time.  His wife Kerline, especially, is a dear friend of mine...a special woman who has allowed me the privilege of not being a foreigner, but a friend, and has been a true friend to me.

Long story short, after over 10 years of marriage, their hearts desire to have children has been met by heartbreak after heartbreak...countless miscarriages, years of trying without a single pregnancy, and in 2009 (right before we moved to Saccanville) a full 40 weeks of pregnancy, only to barely live through a nightmare C-section that endured for hours and resulted in a dead baby girl...who had been alive when the surgery started...and a mountain of debt.

After years again of being unable to get pregnant, 40 weeks ago God gifted them again with a pregnancy that few have allowed themselves to get excited about.  As I've watched Kerline's belly grow, I have seen her and Maxi tread cautiously, trying not to fully invest their hearts in what seems like another great potential for heartbreak.  

But she's 40 weeks.  And it's time.  When Matt got home from work last night, I slipped out to visit with and pray with Kerline for a bit.  She is huge, she is healthy, baby is kicking...there are a dozen reasons to hope and rejoice...and a hundred more to fear and worry.

As we talked and laughed and teared up, I reminded Kerline that the baby she is afraid to even name is intimately known and loved by our Father.  She knows.  

And whatever is ahead in these next few days, He knows and cares and is present.  She knows that too.

  And even though trusting God doesn't mean that things will go the way we all hope, He is still to be trusted.  

She knows.  And she trusts.  

It was growing dark and about to rain, and as I prayed for her belly and heart and daughter and headed home, she walked me (waddled me) part of the way.  

"Will I see you again soon?" she asked, choking up and catching me off guard...she is not the kind of woman who easily shows her feelings or who tells you that she cares for you.

"Yeah, yeah," I laugh assuredly, holding her hand.  "I'll be back in a day or two to see my new niece!"

I realized as I rounded the corner that she is afraid she may not make it.  

and that I am afraid she may not make it, too.  

--Can I ask you to be praying?--  

To be praying for Maxi and Kerline, for the many unknowns of the next days in a country where there are a lot of unknowns already...for their little girl...for their hearts, and for our walks with Him, for their family.

As the man in Mark 9 proclaimed passionately in the same breath, "I DO believe!  Help my unbelief!", pray with me for Kerline and Maxi as they trust and face fear all at the same time.