love someone well today

There are three little ones finally sleeping above me and two little ones finally sleeping below me, celebrated ice cream in my bowl and Adam and Lisa off to spend the last weary evening hours with Mayah.

It's quiet and I'm on the other half of the split, missing my Haiti family and grateful for my stateside one.

Nothing is easy for Mayah, not breathing, not moving, not diaper changes or eating, and as she fights so many people are fighting for her.  What a deep joy this morning to finally touch her little perfect fingers and to finally sit with my sister in the NICU, hearing her heart and all the little meows of the precious miracle babies around us.  What a place of ups and downs, of hards and heavies and love, and every little hand reaching for the sky as we sat just seemed reverent and sacred.

My chubby baby in the basement, born in Haiti in the bedroom without so much as a beep, and my sweet sister five minutes from one of the best hospitals in PA who came this close to losing her life and now spends half of it in the NICU fighting for another.

There are no little things, are there. Just a big God and a lot of grace and little ways every day to trust Him, even to pray simply, Help Me, if nothing else.

What joy to sit with Lisa's babies today and to watch women I've never met come and go, bearing banana bread and gift cards and hugs and prayers and coming in the name of loving Jesus.

It's so important, family. Every time I come to the States, and everytime I fly back again, I am amazed wherever I am how many people need genuine love and grace in the name of Jesus. So. Many. Hurting. People dealing with so much hard.

It makes me want to be endlessly patient and sacrificially servant-hearted and ridiculously full of grace for the rest of my life on every single person I meet...because the world NEEDS that.  That Jesus--endlessly patient and sacrificially servant hearted, full of grace.

Oh, love someone well today. Forgive and forgive and forgive. Pray without ceasing for the places that are hard, knowing that through our prayers, His grace can penetrate and transform the hardest hearts. Pray out loud WITH someone, hold their hand.  And then do it again tomorrow.

Thank you for praying Ben, Lily and I safely here, and for lifting up Matt, Nora and Sofie while we're apart. Thank you for praying for Emmaus as they wrap up this last week of the school year, and thank you for praying for my sister and her dear family. Thank you for praying for the many struggling and hurting people I've brought before you over the years...how very much internally and externally is done on our knees, through prayer.