Sweet Pat

Feeling much better now...and by "much" I guess I mean that I don't have to stay in the bed all day. I am still on constant decongestant so that my head doesn't explode, but it's better than it was. Thankfully the girls are all fine - Ian and I just have this crud and we're pretty much worn out. You know the drill. Everyone I talk to has something right now.

I've had a bit of a down day today. Some of my closest friends, the Johnsons, are up in Chapel Hill right now at the hospital for a long stay. Pat, the mom, has had her second liver transplant (yes, you read me right...her second). She is recovering now, but is having a really rough time. I just think about them all the time, which is good because I am praying a lot, but also hard to think of all they are going through. They are a family of such faith and it's been really a tough thing as well as a privilege to watch them go through this illness over the past 4-5 years.

I met the Johnsons when I moved to Greenville, NC to be the Area Director for Young Life. They had never had an Area Director before, which was really lucky for me because they didn't know what to expect and I didn't know what I was doing! So I went and the committee chair-couple happened to be Sam and Pat Johnson. They had lived in Greenville for years and were raising their two high school daughters at the time, with a son who had already gone to college. As a single woman of the ripe old age of 24 (I still can't believe I did that), I was really striking out on my own and felt very afraid and excited to be moving to Greenville to partner in ministry with the folks there. From the very get-go the Johnsons treated me like their third daughter, and man did I need some lovin' and some laughter and some good cookin' while I was there. Amy and Tori, their daughters, and I became friends and the rest is history. They took me on family trips, bought me birthday presents, had me house-sit, cat-sit (which turned ugly thanks to Daisy), included me in the family farm days, weddings, and basically everything you can think of. I just love them so much. And I could go on and on. Maybe I'll think through some fun stories to share over the next few days...but I can't type them now because Maggie is literally crawling all over me saying, "Mommy....I want to go to bed NOW!". I guess it's time to be parental again.