Nitty-Gritty...

Aah, calm...I love it. There are currently five little people under seven years old all asleep right this minute. Pete is sound asleep, too. He has been busy keeping our driveway as well as several others clear of snow the last few days and he deserves the rest. Katie is in the kitchen sewing some really cute Cubs baby seat covers for the twins and I am lost blogland.

For Valentine's Day we left going out to eat to the amateurs and feasted on SuperDawg hotdogs. Bliss. (And heartburn!) Last night we did go out for great Mexican food with Katie and the twins and the newly engaged Sarah. It was so cute her telling the story of the proposal and the parts that several in our family played in it. I love that she and Jake go to Willow and we get to see them there...I remember Sarah joining our family at Willow that Sunday, the day after Laurie's body had been recovered. The church, the whole church, surrounded us that day by joining hands and praying for us. It was so emotional, so personal and for what I think was Sarah's first time at Willow, quite unbelievable. How amazing that God could even use that time in each of our journeys.

And today's title: We have a dear friend in Oregon whose blog title is The Nitty Gritty. I read Emily's blog and love it. But in the crazy ways of blogland, I came across another Nitty Gritty blog. There is someone who I have never met but she reads my blog and has a link to it listed on her blog. Right below my name I found the other Nitty Gritty and decided to give it a read. Imagine my intrigue when I opened Jodi's blog to see the same skin (background) I use and then reading her profile, discovering she has lost a daughter. That first night I must have read recent and then archived blogs for two hours. I couldn't stop. Jodi has the most uplifting, fun spirit.

She is 20 years younger than I am, has five children, one in heaven as she describes. She is a scrapbooker, an ardent baker, and has an unshakable faith. Four years ago, her near perfect life was shattered when a car driven by a woman who was wanting to kill herself drove her car into the restaurant where Jodi and her family were enjoying lunch after attending church. Their four year old daughter Teagen was killed, she and her husband were severely injured, their young son suffered post traumatic stress disorder for a long time after. An amazing piece to this story is that in the legal aftermath, in her victim impact statement, Jodi forgave the woman who had taken her daughter's life and even more, she totally gave the message of salvation through Jesus. Wow! At some point later she appeared on an Oprah show about forgiveness. Her story inspires me. She is real in saying life has had many rough spots, but by God's grace she still chooses joy. And like any blogger, she occasionally has some anonymous commenter that rattles off some unthinking or callous statement and a whole avalanche of defense comments start up. Isn't blogland amazing? Here is Jodi's link http://jodyferlaak.blogspot.com/

Thank you for the many of you recognizing we are coming up on the second anniversary. God will carry us.