Sweet Talented Friend

A sweet friend of mine passed away Thursday, after a hard fought battle with hip bone cancer. She was only 45 and the mother of two adopted boys. She supported me tremendously in my effort to become a mother - prayed for me, rejoiced with me, and recently held Quint and told me what I feel so deep in my own soul - "this is what it's all about, isn't it?".

She was a warm, strong, graceful and immensely talented woman with a heart for the Lord and a rock solid faith. She blogged about her journey here.

I had the great fortune to serve in ministry with her for the last five years and her elegance on the piano was just stunning. To say she will be missed is not enough...

For those of you who pray - she will be buried tomorrow and her young sons (only 9 and 11) will have lost two mothers in one lifetime. Please pray for them - and for their dad who is grieving so deeply the love of his life.

Sweet friend...I know your pain is gone and your whole again, walking with the Lord.

We do not grieve as those without hope ~

See you again...

With Hope

-Steven Curtis Chapman

This is not at all how
How we thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
There's a place by God's grace
There's a place where we'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
There's a place by God's grace
There's a place where we'll see your face again

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ...

So we can cry with hope
And say goodbye with hope

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope