Lessons from Lilly

Its easy to get caught up in the day to day: packing and unpacking, refrigerators that suddenly stop working, even though you have only used them for a month, babies that scream in a very mean sort of way...all. day. long. all day. and then everyone in the family getting a cold. Are you starting to realize that I'm not speaking hypothetically? Sometimes someone needs to remind us of the big picture, help us to remember that "we are but a vapor" like dew on the grass, barely here for a moment. All of us. I live better when I remember this. It makes me a better mother and wife, a better Christian. We only have a little while to make a difference in our own lives and the lives of others, only a little while to do what we can to help the people around us to make choices that bless them eternally.

For the past few months Lilly has been that reminder for me. The doctors said she wouldn't live through her birth. Yet she did. She's three months old now and fighting still. Lilly has taught me so much. Its easy to wonder why God lets things like this happen. But Lilly has taught me that every life has a purpose. I've never known anyone who has touched, inspired, and challenged so many people in just three months of life. Lilly is scheduled to have a much needed heart surgery tomorrow. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. You can find out more about Lilly at the blog her mom keeps. http://pray4lilly.blogspot.com/(This is a little top I made for Lilly. You can find the pattern for it in "Weekend Sewing")

Lilly inspires me to kiss my babies every day, and to love my husband better, support him better, and remember that everyday with the people I love is a gift, not a right, and I should use it wisely. And I must say that her amazing mom, a dear friend of mine, inspires me to rejoice in the face of hardship. How does Lilly inspire you?

(On a side note, Lilly's parents have had trouble finding a hospital that would provide a surgery she needs and will die without. Many hospitals stopped offering the surgery on babies with Trisomy 18, which Lilly has, once Obama's health care bill was passed. I have no idea why it happened so quickly but it did, and if you aren't aware that socialized medicine marginalizes the weak and devalues life then it's time that you looked into these issues.)