We had a long, rough night last night. I blame myself. I shouldn’t have bragged about how good of a sleeper Sally is. Well, she wasn’t last night. I got in bed late to begin with. It was pushing 1a.m. when I turned out the light. Around 4a.m. she began to stir.
At first, it was that quiet, sporadic stir—a slight moan every once in a while, just enough to keep me awake waiting to see if it turned into a real cry–which it did. I got up to check on her, covered her back up, and hoped for the best. I got up four more times in the next hour, pats, hugs, water, more covers … and every time I realized that the alarm would soon ring, signaling the first day back to school, which is always tough, even with a good night’s sleep.
Finally, I poked and pleaded enough for Mont to take a turn. He promptly got her out of bed and put her in the middle of the two of us. She was, of course, delighted. She rubbed my face, kissed my cheek, arranged her (formerly my) pillow, and finally settled down.
After a bit of silence, she said, “Mama?”
“Yes, Sally?” I replied.
“Daddy got me,” she said.
“Yes, he did, Sally. I love you.”
“I love you, Mama.”
With that, she lay down and went fast asleep.
Of course, I was up for the day–but with a smile on my face. I lay there and thought about what she said, “Daddy got me.” Yes, he did. He not only got up and got her from her bed this morning he also got up and got her from her sad circumstances almost a year ago. You see, I was the daydreamer about adoption. I was the one who talked about it, probably prayed more about it. But Mont was the final word. Mont was the one who had to figure out how to pay for it. Mont was the one to say we could handle the tumor on the back of her neck, no matter what it turned out to be. Mont got her, or at least led the way for us all to get her.
And as I lay there, I began to think of the correlation with our Heavenly Father. He came and got us. When we were stuck in sin and death, He put on flesh, entered our world and got us. He chose us. Will we now choose our chosen-ness? Will we remember how lost we were before He came to get us?
I plan to go about my day, keeping this truth in mind, keeping a smile on my face, even if I am tired–because He got me.
As I recently focused on this verse, I began to think of what it means to build each other up, and what came to mind were children’s building blocks. My son, Troy, used to love for us to play blocks with him. We would sit in the floor and stack the little wooden blocks one on top of the other, careful not to knock them all down. We would place the biggest blocks on the bottom, making a wide platform, and then added the smaller blocks on top of the platform. Now, Troy is a teenager, and long gone are the days of building blocks. But I remember, and it makes me smile.
What is the opposite of encouraging one another and building each other up?
I miss my baby. She’s not really a baby anymore. She is nineteen and a half, and has flown the coup. She is off at college, having fun, studying (we hope), working hard at her part-time job, learning to be responsible. But I miss her. And I still think she is my baby. I always will. The trick is to think it without treating her like one. And that is not always easy. I have had to consciously let go. I have to refrain from calling or texting her all the time, as I think she should set the pace for that. I keep reminding myself that this is why we raised her–to grow up and move out and move on to find her own spot in the world. 
Today is a very special day for us. Several years ago, on Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, we were visiting with our dear friends, The Beans. A beautiful friendship had developed between my daughter, Ellie, and the Bean’s daughter, Lauren. Ellie had recently asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior, and was very disturbed to find out that Lauren had not yet taken that step. I assured her that she had nothing to worry about—Lauren knew of Jesus, and I was confident that she indeed would be a follower of Christ.
Sugar Loaf Mountain is in a beautiful area of Arkansas, and for August, the air was pretty cool, so we all set out optimistically. At the beginning, the kids started out fast, trying to compete with each other. By the end, we had all settled into a nice pace, acting like a team. The kids were in front, with their youthful energy, parents strategically behind, ready to catch anyone who fell.