BELIEVE

For my high school graduation, my sister gave me a charm bracelet. It started out with two charmes on it, a Special Sister Charm and a Graduation charm. Since then (some 12 years now) I have received a special charm for each major milestone in my life and some for those that were just really personal, such as the loss of my sweet Max dog, who died on Mother's Day. Other occassions: my first place, college graduation (both of them), a guardian angel for my first overseas mission trip, a Rooster for my wedding, of course and several others.

Not only do I get the charms (which are always clever and never what you would expect) but I also get a "poem" that explains the charm. God has gifted Sis with the a way of words that no one else in our family has. (Put is this way...she has to create all of the invitations in the family...including showers for herself.) All this to say.....

February of this year, a unmarked package shows up at my office addressed to me. VERY BIZARRE to begin with since I don't receive packages at work. When I opened the box, very cautiously I might add, I found another box. In that box was a gold charm. I knew immediately that it had to be from Sis but I had NO IDEA what it was. Of course there was a poem to go along with it but I was so caught off guard that when I read it the first time it made no sense to me. So like any person my age would do, I quickly Googled the company it came from and then searched for the charm. Come to find out what I had received was a Kokopelli charm. If you are like me and have no idea what that is, let me explain. Kokopelli is a Native American god of infertility. Now once I found this out, I reread my poem and a light bulb went off....actually the flood gates opened and I began to cry.

God's timing is perfect and His plan is right.

This day of rejoicing is within sight.

Your heart will be filled and your home will too.

In a way that only a child can do.

He says when we ask we will receive.

So our Dear Lord, please let them conceive.

We cling to this hope and hold tight to His Word.

Our prayers we are certain He has heard.

You see, my sweet Sissy knew how hard the last year and a half had been for us but we really didn't talk about it much. This was her way of saying, I am trusting in God and I am hurting with you. (I am crying right now just remembering how much this gesture meant to me.) You see to us, it wasn't a "god", it was a symbol that OUR GOD was going to provide. It was her way of acknowledging this season that Rooster and I were going through and believing that soon and very soon another charm would go right beside it.

I have always known that my office would one day be a nursery. So I was at Lifeway one day and found this frame.

In case you can't read it, it says, "All things are possible for those that BELIEVE". I snatched the frame up, went home and put the poem Sissy had given me in that frame and set it in my office. It was my personal symbol of saying, "God I believe and I know that soon and very soon I replace this poem with a picture of our first born and it will then be sitting in this nursery."

Little did I know, that exactly one year after receiving my charm, I will be replacing that poem with a picture that I have dreamed about for so long. Our sweet baby will be here in February and is truly a testimony of God's love and faithfulness to those who BELIEVE.