Almost two weeks ago Ann and I had an anniversary celebration of another kind. We celebrated the best day and the worst day of our marriage. We are grateful to be together. The time was fun with dear friends and lots of laughs. A couple of times I also remembered the pain of the day and the aftermath.
The pain pierced vividly when a friend asked my daughter what she remembered about that day. I gasped. My soul jerked straight with pain. She was nine on that day. She was in the gifted program, bright of mind and spirit. A week or so later her gifted teacher called. My daughter had been drawing dark pictures instead of the usual colorful ones. She wondered if anything was going on? Yeah, just a little!!!! Thank goodness for attentive teachers.
Nine plus ten is nineteen and a sophomore in college now. Every now and then a parent notices a change in his/her kid. I looked at mine the other day, the way she carried herself, a slight difference in her face and thought, "Wow, she is a woman." It is easy to tell you how God uses suffering to grow us. I cringe thinking about God using it to grow my daughter. I am humbled even more to know that my sin (mainly my absence but not all) caused some of the suffering that led to strands of her growth.
My daughter truly is lovely. She is a striking woman, tall and slender. She doesn't like her wavy hair so she straightens it. Pretty either way. She makes me laugh with her terrific sense of humor. Her giftedness did not leave during her suffering. Most likely it increased. She scored a five (the highest and rarest) on her AP English Exam in high school. She is a wonderful musician. She was the marching band drum major in the fall of her senior year. They made state semi's and she performed at Mile High. Her percussion ensemble won state in the winter.
Most of all, she has a passion for life. Life is vivid when she is around.
Passion also means suffering. She writes with passion and I have asked her to blog here from time to time. You will be duly blessed.
My asking her to write here may seem odd to you (I'm not sure what she's gonna say either), but she reads this blog and is very much for Ann and I doing what we do. We were talking the other day about a possible interview Ann and I might do. I mentioned that sometimes these things don't always work out. She said, "They'd be fools to not talk to you guys. Your story is awesome."
I admire her too.
