It's Me, Oh Lord!

She stood in a crowd that usually sits during the singing.  She stood because the words on the page that planted into her heart would not let her stay down.  The words lifted her to her feet.  Desperation maybe?

It's me!  It's me, Oh Lord!

Standing in the need of prayer!

Maybe desperation.  It didn't bother her to be the only one standing because she was not even aware of the other 400 voices singing the same words.

And when others began to really take in those words, they, too, stood to their feet.  That is when this woman with a broken heart started waving her hand in the air.  Yes,  she was desperate.   

It's me!  It's me, Oh Lord!

Standing in the need of prayer!

She needed to be heard by Him.  To be seen by Him.  Held by Him.  

To be picked out of the crowd by Him.

I knew her heartache.  

I also knew the heartache of the young wife who buried her wet face into the neck of her husband as he pulled her in tight.

I knew the heartache of another husband who wonders how long he can hang in there with this marriage, the abuse and neglect.

I knew the heartache of the grandmother far away from sick grandchild and her daughter who seems lost to her.  Of the grandmother who's grandson is in enemy territory, both spiritually and physically.

I knew the heartache of the women whose daughters and grand daughters felt their own ways were better than God's, and the heartache of unwanted diagnosis.

I knew heartache of living with a spouse who constantly belittles.

That old gospel hymn became a heart cry in unison in that church we call Cowboy.  In a church that prides itself in "staying comfortable" so you will keep coming back to be washed by the Word.  It isn't often we stand during a song.  

But this wasn't a song.  It was a desperate, stand to your feet, wave your hand in the air prayer to our Father Who heals, holds, and carries.

Yesterday He saw.  And He held.

Oh, how He held.

Baby C

This time last year I wrote about Baby A and Baby B.  I had no idea how fast the year would go and that it would be time to write about Baby C.  Technically she didn't begin her life at the same time as the other two, but she came so close that we went ahead and tagged her Baby C.

She is the one we brought home less than a year after bringing home the other two.  She came to a home full of kids and laughter and a lot of noise.  She didn't say a lot the first year and a half of her life, probably because there was no opportunity to do so.  She would just stare.  With no expression at all.

She is the one who was fed anything the other two could pick up off of the floor and push into her mouth.  Although she didn't say much, she did find out that she could get the attention of the older kids with her ability to burp like a man.  It was, and still is, a talent that evokes laughter from siblings every time.

She doesn't get mad easily and is pretty happy nearly all of the time.  

Stress isn't a word she uses often.  She sings too much to be stressed.

She loves her family and she loves the Lord.  Her desire to be in His will completely blows me away at times.  I have told her more than once that I want to be like her when I grow up.  

For the first time in her life, she doesn't have her sisters at home with her all day and it took some getting used to.  This girl who doesn't cry a lot, cried.  She was a little lost there for a bit.  So was her mother.

We decided that Rachel Elizabeth would be the perfect name for our 

little surprise Baby C.

All grown up now and with school almost behind her, she is excited to see what the Lord has planned for her.

Please pray for her.  She is beautiful to me.

 . . . and then these for her daddy.