A spunky Hallie story to start :)

Here I am again, and I think it is going to be really hard to write about our sweet Hallie. I love that little girl so much, and I want the world to know all about how amazing she was. She had so much spunk and spirit, and yet she also was the absolute sweetest little girl…and I know she was on painkillers all her life and that she never really got off her back, but any one who got to spend some time with her would agree with me about her beauty, her strength and her personality. I’m afraid I like that she showed her personality however she could, even if it was bad for her…when nurses would try to turn her on her side to prevent bedsores, she would have meltdowns in her vital statistics. I was kind of proud of her when she figured out she didn’t have to do that; she could just wait til the nurses left her alone and then wiggle her little self back to the position she liked. One of many, many things I loved about her! I’m sure she would have kept me busier than I can even imagine at home…and I would have thanked God for every little bit of it. I always tell my friends to cherish their children – even when they are being the most annoying child or screaming in the middle of that shopping mall – I would give anything for that with my Hallie…I miss her so.

There – I got my first Hallie story done. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do a better job sharing more about her as time goes on. I find after every story I tell that I feel that pain of something being ripped from me and have to go look at all of her pictures. I was so conscientious about ‘remembering’ with Hallie and each picture comes to life in my head. I love my memories of her and am so thankful God let me have so many of them. Understand when I talk about how hard it is to not have her here, there is an almost equal, if not greater, sense of sheer joy for the time I did have with her - and that is why I am able to praise God so greatly through it all!

Now, I also wanted to share two more things that I’m learning from my Bible readings. The first – have you ever noticed what screw-ups some of our Biblical giants of faith were? I mean, most of the time, they got it all right, but Moses and Abraham both had their moments of being big ‘fraidy cats’ and doing some pretty ‘bad in the eyes of God’ type things. And God chose to use them as examples of obedience and God allowed them to walk with Him, talk with Him, and God worked greatly through them. I guess my message would be that if they can do it, so can each of us!

And that fits with the other thing that has hit me as I struggle reading through the descriptions in Exodus about the tabernacle and the sacrifices (not quite as interesting as Joseph’s brothers selling him off into slavery!). I just read it and each day say “Thank you for Jesus!” We are so blessed that God loves us so much and gave His son as a sacrifice for our sins. Because of Jesus, we are just as able as Moses was to come into the presence of God daily through prayer. How AWESOME is that!!