Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Thank you so much!

[Written last night, in anticipation of our leaving this morning.]

Words cannot describe how significant the support of all my/our friends has been over the last two weeks.

Sarita and I are headed out of town this morning for almost two weeks. We're traveling down the Yangtze River, looking forward to visiting the Three Gorges Dam and "simply" enjoying whatever we can learn of central Chinese culture.

I am expecting it will be a good "time away" and "time off."

Monday night, Dave and Jonelle called: "Will you come and pray with us? We just don't think we can go to sleep."

And so we had a time of prayer . . . after a bit of pointed, heart-to-heart sharing of feelings and thoughts one doesn't normally say out loud.

As we prayed, it struck me: We are all wounded.

Jonelle is still recovering from the wounds of her C-section--a major pair of wounds . . . one on the outside--a major horizontal cut--and one on the inside, a giant vertical cut into her womb . . . far bigger than "normal" because the doctors wanted to be able to take Gracie out with as little trauma to her as possible.

But Jonelle is still left with that wound and still needing to heal.

But Jonelle is not just left with that wound.

Her heart is wounded, too. And, as she has said a few times, she is also reminded regularly about that wound by the fullness of her breasts as they produce milk for a baby who won't be needing it.

Pain upon pain.

But with all of Jonelle's pain and all of her wounds, sadly, she is not the only one who has been wounded. Dave's heart, too, has received an ugly blow.

And so has Sarita's. And so has mine.

I do not want to equate any of our wounds. They are not equal. They are not the same. But they all need to heal.

Wounds take time to heal.

And so we have agreed together that we will give each other the time we need.

Sarita and I are so grateful that Jonelle's older sister, Amy, will be coming to town while we are away, so the two sisters--and their two children (only two weeks apart in age)--can enjoy each other's company.
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