On Nori's Last Day ~ Miracle 1

Once she started losing weight, I added a towel to her favorite windowsill so she could

sunbathe every morning.

The vet had already explained to us what he was about to do.  Evie and I sat on a little couch in the room, and Jeff was on a chair across from us.  I held Nori on my lap in the throw-blanket from our bed at home...she always laid on my lap swaddled in that blanket while we watched TV at night.

The vet put the needle into the cath on Nori's little front paw.  As he slowly squeezed the syringe Nori's head just quietly sunk deep onto my arm.  That fast.  He had hardly injected anything before she started to slip away.

She was laying so peacefully as he listened to her heart.  I was waiting for him to say she was gone...but he didn't he just said, "Take your time."

"Is she gone?"  I asked.

"Yes.  Yes.  Her heart is no longer beating.  There is no more brain activity."

The vet left the room and Jeff came closer to Evie and Nori and I.

I sobbed.  I didn't know what else to do.  My heart ached, it felt like it would shatter into a thousand pieces.

Suddenly, Evie started to say, "The next day the hippopotamus taught our class."

I stopped crying.  It was the last bedtime story we read every night to Evie...the story we have read every night for the past five years.  "A Hippopotamus Ate Our Teacher."

"That's a perfect idea, Evie."  I said.

So we continued together, "It taught us math, and history, and geometry...it read us stories...".

We finished reciting the rest of the book.

It was one final bedtime story for Nori.  What a miracle.  What a blessing.  What a light in such darkness.  I would have never felt there was closure; would have never known how to "end" my cries of "Nori, I love you.  I love you so much."  But, Evie knew.  Just read her a bed time story.

Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

I'm Sorry, Ma'am, Your Child is Broken~Guest Blogging Day

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Romans 12: 1-2 ESV

Color inside the lines, brush your hair, don't let yourself start to smell bad, one scribble on the page is not artwork, and don't forget to smile nice for your picture! 

That's what the world wants, right?  

I shrink inside every time I hear my daughter say, "Finished" and I see the scribble of one color across the white paper.  Her artwork.   But it doesn't look like the artwork that MY CHILD should be creating...no, surely she'd be more creative and want it to look nicer, right?

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