friends

I have amazing friends... When I moved to Grand Rapids, I didn't know anyone but my sister. I figured my sister would always be enough, and she is, but a great circle of friends is a blessing. I sat at a coffee shop tonight for a Bible Study with five moms from church and was amazed at how God had brought us together. Each one of them has a special story, each one of them is connected to my heart in a special way. God has taught me so much through each of my friends. I often wonder if that is why so many of my friends are different from each other. How would I learn from each of them if they were all similar? We sat around the table and we each had a turn to say what the others had in their personality that was a blessing to us. It turned out to be such a blessing to be able to tell others how they have touched my life. Some of these girls did not come into my life until after Josh got hurt and some of them came within weeks of Ava's death. Each of them have been a source of strength and encouragement to me when times are hard. Thank you girls for an amazing friendship. It sometimes seems like I've lost a lot in life but then I look at what I've gained because of those losses and I am amazed. I would still never have chosen for life to take the path it has, but it has all the same. My losses are great but my blessings are greater. Please be praying for Josh. He is struggling with a bad cough that is getting him down both physically and emotionally. Because he does not have abdominal muscles, coughing is very difficult. He sort of throws himself forward in his chair to get a small cough out. It looks a bit ridiculous but it seems to help a bit. He is wearing himself out doing this. We have tried quite a few cough medicines, etc but they don't seem to do the trick. Because it is so hard on him physically, it starts to get him down emotionally. He laid in bed a few hours ago, gagging because his need to cough was so great with tears rolling down his face. I was unsure if the tears were from the cough or from the emotions. His mind tends to start running too fast when he is down and gets him down further. He asked me to pray with him specifically about this. I figured I could ask you to do the same. :-) Both kids are doing better in school all the time. Zoe has pajama day tomorrow and is excited about that. Noah loves to play basketball on the playground and talk the ear off of his bus drivers. Ephrams new mobility is keeping me on my toes. He is starting to try and run a bit and it is quite a sight. He still does a lot of falling but it is getting better all the time. Zoe and I are going to take a pumpkin to put on Ava's grave tomorrow. She just realized a few weeks ago that Ava's body is in the ground there. We had never been very explicit on where Ava's body went after she died. Not sure how she figured that one out. I guess is was inevitable. That was an interesting conversation... That's the summary of my kiddos. :-) I guess that's all that's going on here. I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying fall. The colors here are so vibrant! This is my favorite season!!!