Our Red Threads

It's been my turn to share on here for a while now. Michelle has been patiently waiting and sweetly encouraging me to write again so here it goes..... Last week we got together for a little powwow about our trip to Africa, have I mentioned how much I love her? Our relationship is covered in the Lord's goodness. I don't even just mean covered, I mean drenched in His goodness. 

The first night Michelle and I met was in fall 2006. Thinking back on that time feels like it was a lifetime ago, we were different people then. 
I can remember my excitement when we found out she was pregnant, how fun to have a new friend who would also have a small baby at the same time as me. I remember the day she found out Lyla wouldn't live, we all sat at my parents table, without any words, as the pain enveloped her and Tim's broken hearts. I remember holding my healthy newborn baby weeping, crying out to God for healing, for a miracle, for anything but this to happen. I remember rubbing my hand over Lyla's small casket after it was finished being made. I remember seeing Michelle as she greeted family and friends at her baby's funeral. I remember weeping in her arms and feeling strength beyond measure holding her together. I would have never guessed that only a few years later I would be lying on her couch waiting while people at the morgue prepared my husband's body for viewing. 

Sometimes the hardest circumstances can bond two people together in a way only God understands. Only He can make something beautiful grow from immeasurable pain. That is the exact nature of our friendship and Africa is just another chapter in it. 

The day before I realized Michelle and I both share a common pull towards the children there, I was at the library with my daughters. My oldest daughter picked up a book displayed on the shelf and asked me to read it out-loud. I opened the first page and read "An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."  My eyes filled with tears as I continued to read the story about a king and queen who lived in a beautiful city, had everything they could ever want, yet they each had this increasing ache/pain in their hearts. Doctors and wise men came from all over the kingdom trying to find a cure but none could be found. Then one day a peddler comes to the castle, he gives them red spectacles to look through, it reveals an invisible red thread coming out of their hearts, tangled in every direction all over the castle. They know the only way to find the cure is to follow it, so they pack their bags and go on a journey. Finally they find where the thread leads, they enter a small hut in a village far away from their home and find a baby. They ask who the child belongs to and as you can guess the answer is, she is yours. 

I can't understand this pull Michelle and I are both experiencing any more than I can explain the beauty in the way our lives have become tied together. I only know they are both gifts from God. My prayer today is that we would more deeply embrace this tug on our hearts and have the wisdom to discern where to go from here.

<3 Renee