If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors, oh and Life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby~ The Band Perry

My friend's daughter died. She died at 6 years old. She had a rare form of cancer that she fought valiantly for 2 years. And, every minute of every day that she fought to live, her parents believed for her to get better. Yet, she died quietly cocooned in her bed on a sunny afternoon. How do you make sense of something that seems so, so messed up? How do you keep going after what you believed for, hoped for...with all your might and strength...fails?

I don't know. But what I do know is that while Victoria was fighting for her life, friends from all over stepped up to help her parents care for their other two children who were healthy and strong and needed to be places, fun kid places, other than a hospital. One of those other kids was a baby. And, an amazing couple stepped up to love on him and embrace him into their fold whenever needed: this turned out to be often. More often than my friends wanted, but exactly what they needed since their new address was a room in the children's hospital. So like I said, after many many nights and days and moments that turned into years, Victoria went to sweet sweet sleep forever.

My friend was at the store the other day and she ran into the family that had really stepped up to the plate with her baby boy. The wife said something to my friend that she had never told her before. She told her that they had adopted a baby from China and were headed back to adopt their second child. She told her that it was in taking care of her baby boy while his big sister took on the battle of a generation that they learned how deeply they could love a child who shared no DNA with them. Do you hear that?!! While Victoria was dying, they were caring for her baby brother. And while caring for him, they fell in love. A love so deep that it changed the make up of their hearts and made them get on a plane, fill out endless paper work and travel thousands of miles to an orphanage in China and get their babies! Changing the lives of 2 Chinese children FOREVER!

So it goes like this, Victoria got sick, her parents lived by her side at the hospital, baby brother is taken care of by a family without children, they fall in love, their lives and heart are forever changed, this spurs them to action to adopt 2 Chinese babies, they get on a plane to China, they go to an orphanage and get their children, their lives are changed and their new children's future looks like daylight after the longest night ever seen.

So how do you keep putting one foot in front of the other when all that you've hoped for has failed and left you? You think about all of the wonderful details that are so beyond you right now that are weaving together to sew a cloak of grace and mercy throughout the topography of your life that you haven't yet walked on. I'm doing it right now. Thank you Victoria~