Funny, dramatic, encourager, thoughtful, highly convicted, thankful, sweet hearted, always thinking, spiritual, sparkling Joy.
I carry my cell phone around with me everywhere. Every time it buzzes or vibrates, I feel like a little girl, because I get so excited.
Faithful, insightful, dependable, creative, musical, composing, intelligent, loyal, affectionate, intelligent, gentle, always loving Joel.
Beauty-filled, tender, highly intelligent, artistic, articulate, faithful, spiritual, interesting, loving, thoughtgul, encouraging, friend, Sarah.
It's not because I like phone calls--as a matter of fact, most of my friends who know me well at all know that I hate phone calls and I answer very few calls.
But I carry it around and get excited if says, "Sarah, Joel, Nathan or Joy" on the number that comes up.
Passionate, God-loving, funny, engaging, loyal, loving, highly creative, writer, idealistic, Superman, wonderful Nathan.
I sometimes get a little weary when people infer that we were somehow perfect or that I always knew what to do--or that in any way I did it perfectly.
But, not even sure how it happened, but in spite of the messes, fusses, selfishness and stress, we had a fun, feasting, celebrating life sort of time, loved deeply, seasons of testing and darkness and failures, times of great joy and accomplishments and love, lived idealistically and adventuresome, grace-filled and friend oriented life.
And they became, and are, my bestest friends. I almost feel puppy love for them. I would give up everything else-everything else--just to be able to have them in my life. Next to Jesus, these give me so very much joy in life.
Honest engine. I adore my children. They bring me meaning in life. They still love to talk to me--I feel so honored.
They know all my limitations and still they love me--amazing.
I love to hear what they have been thinking. I want to hear their stories. I want to be their confidant. I want to share their tears. They give my life meaning. They give me a reason to be faithful when I am tempted not to be, because I love them so much.
I did not know it would be so, but somewhere along the way, I fell in love.
So, tonight, after visiting with Joel over lunch and hearing his advice for a very difficult situation and feeling strengthened.
Tonight, sitting in the freezing car with Sarah, in the garage after we got home from a meeting for 30 minutes, just because we were both sharing heart secrets and deep thoughts, and didn't want to go inside;
Talking on the phone with Joy today for 45 minutes as fast as we could to catch up, since Tuesday, sharing events, stories, struggles, feelings,
and this week, working with Nathan on a project, hearing his ideals and ideas, knowing what he has been learning and learning from him myself, and always having reason to smile after talking to him--
I just didn't know how I would feel, didn't know how good it would be, but when God made me a lover sort of person who likes to have best friends,
He gave me the best friends of all, my precious children.
And so tonight, I could not go to bed without acknowledging how grateful I am to be their mama and how grateful to God I am for each one of these funny, precious, wonderful companions in life, called my children!