Speechless...

Now you all know that isn't true! Although, that's surely how I feel tonight. Let me take you back a few years....
I grew up on the coolest "one-street neighborhood" there ever was. My family and I moved in to the house there right after I had turned 3 and my dad still lives there today.  We started attending Ebenezer ARP Church, and I'm not quite sure how it all went down, but somehow, we met the Kimbrells.  They were a fun family and we had lots in common. They lived 10 houses away at the top of the street where we lived, and they also went to Ebenezer (along with their entire family!, well, almost..). They had 3 children, one who was older, one who was my sister's age, and then one 2 years older than me. We did lots together because we went to the same school and church. We rode the bus home together, carpooled to high school, sang in choir, played on basketball teams, went on youth trips, were discipled and discipled others, went to circle together....basically shared in life. Today, we share in life with the Kimbrells in quite a different way.

Today, I hurt all over again as I heard the news of the matron of the Kimbrell family passing away.  Jane was a wonderful woman of God and more of a servant and giver than anyone I've ever met before.  She was always kind, always thoughtful, always spirited, and always loving (unconditionally at that!). She was a wonderful friend to us all, but mainly to momma, especially in her sick days. She had struggled in life with her health. I found out that she had battled polio and rheumatic fever, and as of late had been having some heart problems.  Her wise doctors suggested she go with a surgery that would help repair all of her broken parts and give her a bit more energy and umph to make it through the rest of her life. The surgery took place last Wednesday, October 27.  She should have been out of ICU by now on the road to recovery.

However, the Lord had other things in store.  She had difficulties meeting the needs for the "step down" units in the hospital, and had complications when they went to extubate her several times. She arrested late Thursday night/early Friday morning and they were able to revive her. They discovered some bleeding, then lack of her kidneys working, then numbers were dropping, until this morning at 10:12, the Lord called Jane to Him mid-morning today so that he could fix her broken parts.

You see, this is how I know the "Lord works for the good of those who love Him..." (Rom 8:28). The Lord knew that DJ (the daughter 2 years older) and I would have similar life experiences with losing our mothers within 1-2 yrs of marriage without children while we were still young. He knew we'd need someone to grieve with, laugh with, and share stories with in the absence of our mothers. He knew we'd understand where the other was coming from and how some days would just be more difficult than others. He knew we'd know why heaven was such a much better place for our mothers, but selfishly we wanted them with us as we celebrated the joys and cried the losses in our lives. I think that's one of the reason why 25 years ago, the Lord took us to Forest Lake and Ebenezer. There is comfort to be found.

My heart had been hurting much of this week as I spent a lot of time remembering mom, remembering her laugh, remembering her presence, and remembering her love and how I miss all of that. But today, I rejoice with her, knowing that her dear friend Jane is sharing in Glory with her. After I received the news, balling, i looked into the eyes of my precious Miriam and she smiled so big I swear it was mom looking right at me saying: "see, she's perfectly healed now, and I have a friend to share this glory with." I'm not kidding.

Pray for the Kimbrell family this day and in the days to come as the journey will be hard. Even a year and a half later, it's still hard.
See, I told you I wasn't speechless.