Let Me Count the Ways

Graces in the midst of sorrow.

1. Sweet sisters to walk through the pain with. Not just rhetorically, but really. Friends who have walked this road before. My sister Betsy found out she was miscarrying on the same day, baby due within days of ours. It was not better, having that loss on top of our own. But it was so clearly not accidental. Not random. God at work, doing something behind the scenes that we will see in clarity one day.
2. Parents who do not wait to be asked to help. They drove 3/4 of the way back to MN with me so that I wouldn't have to make the drive with the boys on my own.
3. Prayers of many, many people. This is a lifeline.
4. Encouragement that sharing our pain blessed others. This was my prayer.
5. Victor, on Sunday driving home from a little family Father's Day outing to Stillwater, asks from his seat in the van, "When do you think we'll have another little baby?"
   Quiet pause.
   I said, "I don't know, honey. I don't know when God will give us another little baby. Do you think we should pray that He would give us another little baby in our family?"
   "Yes," Victor says.
   Then he says, "I want to pray now."
   So we did.
   It was balm to my heart
6. My mother-in-law sent us an email, praying that Psalm 30 would be a comfort to us. It has been a psalm to study the past several days, and meant so much, coming from her.
7. Friends willing to watch the boys or bring a meal or invite us over when I'm not really lively company. Ben willing to put aside his plans when I was too weak to do what I normally do. Burden bearers.