another niece for me.

August 25, 2008

Seriously, these are two of my very favorite people.

She was my assistant my first year teaching. She’s organized and honest and she loves Jesus bigger and better than anyone I know. Part of her heart is in Africa and her car is always a disaster. She used to write me little notes on the bottom of my calendar that said things like, “Think happy thoughts. Cheeseburgers, Jesus, me…” And she’d leave music playing on my computer when I couldn’t sing on my own. We talked about missions and orphans and how we wanted to change the world. We used to sit about twenty feet from each other and pass notes back and forth like junior high girls to make bus duty pass more quickly. She drew pictures of mud huts and sunsets and I wrote about waves and words and somehow those little notes changed my life for the better. SHE has changed my life for the better.

And then there’s him. He loves her like Christ does. He’s patient and good and he sits and plays his guitar while she and I talk for hours. He’s a rock star in the making. He reads books and then mails them to me and he writes to me and says, “The wife says hello” because he knows it could be a week before I hear from her. He’s a godly example and he records old hymns and Christmas music and then he gives them to me. He’s witty and gentle and today he’s going to be a daddy.

And I don’t think there’s a luckier little girl in the whole wide world.

Happy Birthday, baby. I’ll see you soon.

There will always be a part of me
Nobody else is ever gonna see
But you and me
A little girl
My Gracie girl

from “Gracie” by Ben Folds

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