As many of you know, our daughter Claire, went to play with Jesus on Thursday, July 17th. I will share more of this story in the days to come! Our Lord has been with us every step of the way and shown incredible mercies through this journey. We have recieved so many prayers and concerns for our family and we have certainly been held up by those prayers.
I want to begin this "blog" journey by sharing with you the mercies God gave us two days ago when Abbigayle and Caroline started back to school. Jeff and I pray every morning that God will give us new mercies because the mercies He gave us the day before will not sustain us through another day. I was not sure what God had in store for us Thursday morning. (Why do we expect so little out of Him?) We went to McDonald's for breakfast (a family tradition we began on Abbigayle's first day of Kindergarten 8 years ago). Then we took Abbigayle to the Middle School, she wanted me to walk her inside to her classroom!!!! (mercy #1 for the day) We then drove Caroline to her school and she wanted all of us to walk her to her classroom. She said "This is so 1st grade!" We walked into Caroline's class and her seat was assigned next to Hannah Ruth, her best friend from Kindergarten!! (mercy #2 for the day) Jeff, Sarah and I began walking down the hall to the front of the school, we were met at the front door by the principal, music teacher and many other faculty/staff who embraced us with love. Mrs. Spurling, the librarian, asked me to come to her office and began to tell me that she went through the list of books that Claire checked out over the past three years. One week it was a joke book, the next week a chapter book and so on. Claire loved to read and would enjoy any book she chose. Mrs. Spurling wanted to give me the last book Claire checked out! It was "Small Gifts in God's Hands" by Max Lucado!!!!! (mercies #3, #4 and #5) What a blessing that Mrs. Spurling took the time and thought to look at the books Claire enjoyed reading and wanted to give me a book; but this particular book was in my child's school library to choose and my precious Claire chose this book!! Again, God is so merciful!!
Dawn, Mackenzie and Mallorie Keel were all at my house when we got back with a wonderful breakfast!! We enjoyed time together and were able to talk about Claire and what she meant to all of us!! (plus breakfast was delicious~mercy #6)
When the mail arrived so did mercy #7!!! We received a packet of information from Carolina Donor Services about the people whom Claire's organs went to!! Her right kidney went to a 46 year old man, her left kidney went to a 40 year old man and her liver went to a 10 year old boy! We do not yet have information about her heart valves! We will be sending these families letters and sharing Claire's story with them!! Please pray for us as we write these letters!!
Mercy #8~ Abbigayle and Caroline came bouncing off of the school bus exclaiming their first day of school was GREAT!!!
I look forward to sharing more of our story in the days to come!! But for now it's time to say "good night!"
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11~13
