Brianna, Katie and Susan

Brianna, Katie or Susan, if you don't want any of this info posted, please let me know and I'll remove it.

Its the last day in Feb and the 3rd blog of my project but I have written this blog over and over in my head a million times... I'm looking forward to see how it turns out:) This particular blog goes out to 3 different ladies with 3 amazingly different stories but each of them changed me as a mom and how I love my kids, so let me start by saying thank you to each of them for sharing their journeys and teaching me so much.

I met Brianna in Minnesota when JM and I were dating and when we moved to MN as a married couple Brianna and I were fellow starbuckians and we had many mutual friends. This threw us together countless times and gave me the opportunity to see what a remarkable person Brianna is. When Brianna and her husband Ryan decided to have kids it didn't happen so easily and they chose to take fertility drugs to start the family that they dreamed of. They soon learned that their family was going to grow faster than they had expected because Brianna was pregnant with sextuplets! Crazy! You can read more about her story on her blog, which, by the way, is AWESOME! Long story short, she lost all the babies except for Sylas. Throughout her pregnancy and the loss of her 5 sweet babies, I prayed for her family and trusted the Lord with them and cried and cried when lives were lost. Her heart break drew me close to my little Zaya and even more so than before I saw her as the miracle that she is and I held her close. Brianna and her vulnerability and openness helped me appreciate my baby girl even more.

The first time I met Katie was at a mission trip meeting to Guatemala with Wesleyan Fellowship ( now Riverstone Church). She joined us on that wild and crazy trip and from that day forward was a constant presence around WF. She has always been delightful and full of joy and I loved watching the Lord change her from a sweet girl into a powerful woman of God. When Jacob was a few months old Katie and Donnie found out that the little girl they were expecting had very little chance of surviving outside of the womb. My heart broke. I literally fell to my knees immediately and praying for their sweet little Catherine and again I cried and cried. So many hours were spent praying for that little girl while I was up at night nursing my little man and the thousands of times I was seized with sadness during the day . You can read more about their story here. Another very long story made very short, Catherine survived and is an amazing little girl going strong. She went through A LOT for such a little person but let me say, what a happy, beautiful child she is. During those days I was a bit depressed but the story of little Catherine is what helped draw me close to my sweet Bean. I mean as I cried for Catherine and Katie in the early days I loved and cried tears of joy over my sweet perfect baby boy. So I can thank Katie and her story for giving me the opportunity to hold my son close and take a few moments in the midst of insanity to just LOVE him.

I knew Susan growing up and in high school we happened to date the same guy. At the same time. I know awesome right? The retard thing is that in high school you don't get mad at the guy, you get mad at the other girl... oh, how foolish high school is. Through out it all though Susan was always kind and didn't do the usual 'bitchy' girl thing. After high school we all went our separate ways and I loss touch with most people from high school but as I got older I had more and more respect for Susan. I would run into her here and there around M-town and I was happy to see that she was happy. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant with my littlest girl I ran into her brother (a long time friend) at Kroger and he asked me to pray for her because the little boy that Susan was due to deliver passed away that day and that night Susan was going to be induced to deliver her little man that she would never get to know. Again, I was a broken person. I cried the entire way home and Jm and I prayed for Susan and her family. I kept up with her story on her blog and prayed constantly that as I grieved for them that the Lord would relieve her of a small portion of her pain. I can't imagine being in her shoes. She has more strength than I could ever imagine having. Her struggle changed my life and again I loved my little ones a bit more intentionally and I prayed for my yet to be born little one with more fervor.

So the pain of these beautiful girls brought tremendous sadness to my own heart but each of them reminded me to love the treasures that I have. I can't thank them enough and I pray the Lords greatest blessings for each of them because Brianna, Katie and Susan are AMAZING and the Lord has used them powerfully in my life and I know many others.