This is Strong

These girls.

this is strong!
this is brave!
this is beautiful!

They have been through more in their first decade of life than you or I will ever experience in a lifetime.

Combined, they’ve bravely endured:
4 months in hospitals
8 surgeries
9 intubations
7 catheter procedures under sedation
4 blood transfusions
and upwards of 100 ECHO’s and blood draws!

So grateful every chance we get to connect these two who have matching silver scars the length of their torso.  But they share more than the trauma they’ve been through.  They share a faith, a strength, and a bold braveness that inspires.  They talk unreservedly about their heart conditions, but they also talk about normal, healthy, tween girl stuff!
They stay up till the wee hours of the night giggling in their makeshift tent.
They charm neighbors and sell lemonade.
They swim, and consume ice cream en masse.
They have goofy inside jokes and tease each other like sisters.
Fiercely competitive at cards.
Dearly devoted in friendship.
Regardless of time apart and miles that separate, whenever they’re reunited, theirs a special bond that brings this momma to tears.

I shared in my last post how God has grown our faith through the heartache we’ve watched out girl endure.  He doesn’t leave us alone in our pain.  He is present.  And he redeems!….
This precious friendship is part of God redeeming this story.  A story that in a million years  I would never have chosen to write for my daughter.  But God, in his providence, has brought into our life some of our most cherished friendships…..all because of broken hearts!
He loves to heal the hurting.
To bind the brokenhearted.
To redeem the seemingly irredeemable.