We are coming up on the time of year I love the best and hate the most. On April 23 1983 I was given the very best blessing ever...........A sweet baby girl. On April 23 2009 we celebrated her 26th birthday by going to the hospital where my sweet Daddy had just had a heart attack, what a blessing he lived.
On May 23 2009 we received that call no parent wants.....that phone rings at 3 in the morning your heart stops and no one wants to pick the phone up call.....that we would never ever again hear that deep from the gut laugh nor looking in to those cut you to the bone brown eyes. Jerry and I prayed all the way down the mountain.....still have no idea how we got to Spartanburg. We both were quite lost in our thoughts and prayers for the 2 hours....we have found out that our thoughts and prayers were almost word for word the same ......that the other be ok and with the faith that we knew where are girl was and that
God makes no mistakes. Upon arriving at SRH we discovered the start of our blessings......friends and family praying.......friends of Holly's that had just be names to us became our children in a glance. Gods next blessing was allowing us to gaze upon our sweet baby girl and her beautiful face at peace. My sweet husband turned to me and told me that it was just he and I now but that it would always be he and I and we would never let our baby girls memory die. The next bit of grace he gave me was the strenght to go into the room to those who had been waiting for hours with no news and tell them that while they would be able to see Hob "alive" for a few hours the life that was our girl was very much already with our God. For the next few hours it was blessing after blessing as more and more hugs and tears were shared. The nurses and staff all were such a blessing. The first Doctor sent to test our girls body for life told us that he believed that " Holly went to be with God at 3:18 am that morning".....God put all the right people in our path. While standing alone with Sherry Gray in the Holly's room I got the experience the love of God and total worship of his blessings that is Sherry's faith.....I have never ever heard such a total prayer of love for God and my Holly. Holly's second passion in life (only surpassed by the thought of motherhood) was organ donor......So they were called in and were such blessing and our dear friend Bo made sure we had all the facts to make a choice of the type of harvest. The longest most surreal walk I have ever made was out of the hospital to our car. After arriving home a different blessing rang our doorbell every few minutes. The next wave of blessings started when we had to go make arraignments for Holly's service. Sherry Smith did our flowers and at 26th Holly had never had a flower from anyone else.....through our tears Jerry, Sherry and I picked out the perfect spray of yellow that was Holly's glory. Sherry loved our Holly too. Then we moved on to the mortuary..........no parent should ever have to do this but if you do it helps to have a "BO"........you can not ask for more then to have the person taking care of her body to love her as much as you do. The night of the visitation was long but glorious..........how can you not find joy in the love people have for your child.
As we approach April 23 2012 when my sweet Hob would have been 29 our blessings as our tears continue. While I do not look forward to May 23 2012 the 3rd anniversary of my angel I would not change a thing about the past three years.............but as we celebrate her life with her party on May 12 2012 you can bet while I am basking in God's sweet grace and wishing I could hear that sweet from the gut laugh.
