Prayer and Butterflies

As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior on Easter Sunday, we are marveling at one of God's most fascinating creations. We ordered our annual caterpillars and watched them fatten up. The kids got to witness a few create their chrysalis It was even more exciting to watch 2 of the 5 emerge as butterflies. The other 3 were too quick for us! It was a great reminder to us of some precious memories we had with Abby and her love for butterflies. The kids say they think she is surrounded by butterflies all the time in heaven.

I am also encouraged by the reminder that, just like those caterpillars, we all are transformed into something beautiful because of our relationship with Jesus. Jesus' willingness to endure the cross is the reason that Abby is at His throne right now and we rejoice at the thought of our reunion some day.

We all got to name a butterfly (except C.R. who is still thinking of a name). So, meet DV (Darth Vader), GC (Golden City: one of our favorite praise songs about heaven), Hope or Abby. I can't tell which butterfly is which, but Josiah and Daniel seem to be quite certain about that.

Our days are still sad. Sometimes we miss Abby terribly, but we continue to have times of joy as well. We visited our friend, Carlin at Banner Children's Hospital last week. He is the boy we have mentioned in the past who has the PNET tumor like Abby's. As we were driving up to the building, Elizabeth said, "Is this heaven? Will Abby be here?" We were sorry to disappoint her but so glad to tell her that this wasn't heaven and Abby wouldn't be here. Heaven is a much better place than anything we could ever witness on this earth.

Our friend, Carlin is back in the hospital now and his mom said I could ask you all to pray for him. He has an infection in his stomach and he is neutropenic. Please pray for his counts to go back up and for the antibiotics to treat the infection.