SIX

Today is Miss Brigitta's sixth birthday. She is far away and will not be excited about this day, nor will there be any presents or cake. No friends and relatives will gather in her honor and no birthday song will be sung to her. No candles, no streamer, no games. No pretty birthday dress and no mama to fix her hair with a matching bow.

Instead she waits, day after day...

But today, although Miss B doesn't realize it, there are people who remembered it was her birthday. There are a group of people who love her, and know her by name. Miss B doesn't know it but we are praying her home. You see, Miss B is very loved. You don't need a lot of people to love in life to make you happy, just one who loves you with their whole heart is enough, but Miss B has more than one. She has me and Peter and of course Sophia and Helle and RobinE .

A group of people who all at different times and in very different and far away places, all gazed upon one sweet little face and couldn't turn away. All fell in love, all claimed her, all promised to do something for her. All prayed for her.

Then an odd thing happened... all these people started to find each other. And a small group of strangers with one lovely child in common formed Miss B's only family. A family that will do whatever they can to bring her home.

Hmmmm, think the hand of God is in here somewhere?

I'm going to tell you all a funny story. Well not really funny like ,haha, just strange funny. The other day I was listening to KLOVE. I love their music and to me it's a prayer to listen and just be. So anyway, they were talking about picking a word, and making that word yours for the year. Some people were saying that their word was grace, I think Lisa the host said her word was, "closer". Anyway as I sat and listened to people ask God for a word, andthat they heard it loud and clear, I had to give a little giggle. I usually miss those little whispers. I need God to use a loud speaker. Well I was in the car with no distractions so I figured what the heck, let's give it a try. My word would probably be RUN! So I honestly and with an open heart and mind, simply asked for a word, any word, give it to me!

Immediately this word was in my head: PERSEVERE

I don't use this word. I don't go around telling myself to persevere, or tell the kids , "hey guys let's persevere it will be okay". No it's just not my way of speaking. I'd use the words, don't give up, let's keep going, you can do it, etc... But not persevere.

I knew it was from God. He definitely uses that word. He really is very crafty. I mean to put a word in my head that I would never come up with on my own, so I realize it truly is from Him is pretty clever .

So I will persevere. No easy task. These past two weeks I'd rather have a word like Run, or forget it, or this is not for you let someone else worry about it. But God would never give us words like that. He expects more from us, and in turn He blesses us with more than we deserve.

Here are the words of St. Jerome Emiliani, Patron Saint of Orphans(don't you love his last name), :

I urge you to persevere in your love for Christ and your faithful observance of the law of Christ. Our Goal is God, the source of all good. As we say in our prayer, we are to place our trust in God and in no one else. In his kindness, our Lord wished to strengthen your faith, for without it, as the evangelist points out, Christ could not have performed many of his miracles. He also wished to listen to your prayer, and so he ordained that you experience poverty, distress, abandonment, weariness and scorn. God alone knows the reasons for all this, yet we can recognize three causes. In the first place, our blessed Lord tell young that he desires to include you among his beloved sons, provided that you remain steadfast in his ways, for this is the way he treats his friends and makes them holy. The second reason is that he is asking you to grow continuously in your confidence in him alone and not in others. Now there is a third reason. God wishes to test you like gold in the furnace. The dross is consumed by the fire, but the pure gold remains and its value increases. It is in this manner that God acts with his good servant, who puts his hope in him and remains unshaken in times of distress. God raises him up and, in return for the things he has left out of love for God, he repays him a hundredfold in this life and with eternal life hereafter. If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and for ever in the next. - from a letter to his brothers by Saint Jerome Emiliani

So Miss B, your family loves you and will persevere. We will not give up until you are home!
Until you have the birthday party, and the dress and matching bow, and the mama to put her arms around you, and whisper... happy birthday, my love...