The Lady and the Baby

Many people know this lady as outspoken, sassy, independent Sheri. I don't know many people who don't love her. Our rocky relationship through the teenage years was mostly because we were too proud to admit that we were very much the same, strong willed, opinionated, but I'm not as bossy as she is....Sarah inherited that trait.

What many people don't know is what she went through to bring my sisters and I into the world. I'm not going to get too detailed about what exactly she went through. Slightly because she doesn't like pity, and mostly because it makes me cry and I do that enough as it is. It is a miracle that she is here today. I still have very real and vivid memories of how sick she was when she was expecting Beth. One particular day she was having a horrible allergic reaction to some medication and I was the only one home. She was so sick she told me that she thought she was dying and told me to run to the neighbors house. Fortunately they were able to help her. I still remember how scared her eyes looked.

Another day she was having a hard time so Sarah and I went to our room and sat at our plastic Barbie table set. I sat in the purple chair and Sarah sat in the pink chair. We both bowed our heads and closed our eyes like so many times before, but this time, all by ourselves, we sincerely prayed for our mother to get better. A humble prayer of a 6 and 9 year old, and my earliest memory of prayer. Even though she didn't get better that instant, He answered our prayer. She lived, and for that I'm very grateful.



Because it was always believed that this sickness was genetic, my sisters and I have been prepared to go through the same things to bring our own children into the world. Sarah was the first to test the waters. As it turns out, Sarah has near perfect pregnancies. She is basically the kind of pregnant woman that other woman hate because she has zero morning sickness and feels great the whole way through. She now has two children, and I'm grateful, as I know she is, that she didn't have to endure the curse.

I'm grateful to find that I'm on the happy end of the curse. Not as great as Sarah, but I don't have to endure to the horrific extent of what my mother did. I have my own challenge to endure. I have to do this without her, and that might break my heart even more than being horribly sick. But God spared her life so she could serve Him and I'm more than willing to endure her absence with a smile because she gets to come home to my family...plus one more.