A girl named Audrey

Yesterday Michael forwarded me a link to a blog he had stumbled across. It is a blog about Audrey Caroline. In January her family found out that she would likely never survive outside the womb. It is their journey of faith and family, of understanding and despair. It is beautiful. It is painful. It is sad. It is Audrey's story. Her very brief life. But she has and will continue to touch so many people. People like me, who didn't get the pleasure to know her, and people closer, her family who did get the gift of knowing her best. I sat and read and cried for over an hour last night for this family and their beautiful girl.

This morning I woke and Audrey and her family are still very present in my mind. I know her parents are suffering the loss of her but are also elated because they finally got to meet her, hold her and love on her. They got to make memories with her for such a brief time, but those memories will last them a lifetime. They will comfort them when they miss her so much they don't know how to take the next step. They will make them smile when they see something that reminds them of her. Those memories are all they have and they are precious. But those memories are not the end of Audrey's story for she will touch more lives than her parents will probably ever know. Her brief and beautiful life will change people, people close to her and people who never met her.

We are all blessed to have the families God has given us. He has not always given us the families we asked for. But what He has given us is good, and right, and perfect just like Audrey.

Today and every day I am,
Sam's Mommy