Past Lives

Do you have past lives?  You know, the situation pops up and you say, Oh I worked in Washington, D.C., in another life.  I have a lot of these, as part of my upbringing.  A few of them stand out in recent years than others ...

When I lived in New Mexico my best friend was Joanna.  We got into a lot of trouble together (sophomore and junior year of high school).  I got grounded for a month and lost my driving privileges for six because of antics I got up to with her.  And those lost driving rights?  Included driving with my parents / siblings / at all.  No driving.  That's one of those memories that sticks with you.

But Joanna died several years ago.  She had always had asthma and from what I garnered from the obituary, she died in her sleep due to complications from asthma.  She was 27.

We had lost touch.  Her family moved to Colorado after her father got out of the military and she graduated high school.  But she flew out to Virginia to see me for my graduation, and we wrote letters my first year at college.  But then life happened ... and we lost touch.  One day I was googling her, and I found her obituary.  And you could have knocked me out of my chair.  I always hope to see people from my past lives are having amazing careers or have beautiful families or some other good happenings.  I was not expecting to find that someone so young, had left this world.

Or in California ... or really it goes all over the country ... I had childhood friends when I was about 7 years old.  Twin boys who were the same age as me.  We hung out all the time in that blissful period of childhood where boys are still just kids you can play with and not ... you know, boys.  We ended up moving to Virginia where they lived and we weren't friends.  It was my senior year of high school and I was there and had no friends and it was horribly sad and one day I'll write all about that trauma, of eating alone in the bathroom, trying not to audibly cry, because my lunch got changed to one that wasn't with my sister.  Or hiding after class until everyone had already left because I had no one to talk to between classes and going into the classroom first was too awful.  I was 17.  I made up an imaginary friend.  It's true.  It was not a happy period in my life, but this is not the point of this post.  I got through all of that and went to college which was awesome and I made friends right away and I've never been unhappy like that since.  It was just one of those things I had to go through.

Anyway.  Back to the twins.  One of those boys has reentered my stream of consciousness because his second born daughter was born with only three chambers in her heart, and had quite the dramatic gestation.  I think about them all the time, and how God has moved in their life to protect their little girl, and how she continues to exceed medical expectations.  And how scary it must be for her mother, every time she lays her down to sleep.

Tomorrow that little girl goes in for the first of three open heart surgeries to correct her problem.  I think abou ---

Grady just tumbled on the floor!  He did a sumersault for the first time!  He's been trying for months to get it right and he finally did it!  Now he keeps doing it over and over again.  How fun.

Anyway, these are people from my past lives.  They aren't technically friends now, but I think about them and say prayers for the people that do know them all the time.  And if you are so inclined, and you remember tomorrow, please say a prayer for a 5 month old baby girl, who is so beautiful and lovely that will be having a very scary surgery.  Her parents ask for all the prayers they can get, and its not hard to do.

So please God, protect that little baby girl and her family, and let the doctors be smart and quick and sure.  And while you're at it, please watch out for my little boy, who is having his final (please God, final) endoscopy tomorrow.  Let those results be good, and let the worst of all of this, be behind us.  And help us sell our house, and find a new one, and all the other things we're trying to do.  As it pleases God.