To my friend.....

I know I have been blogging a little excessively (trying to fulfill Katie’s dream!) but I can’t let the day slip by without honoring my friend, Alison today, as it is her birthday!!!!! I can say without hesitation that the Lord has enriched my life in every way since He brought Alison into my life…it was one of those instant kind of friendships, where the bond was deep and real from almost day one, when we met at a coordinators meeting with the The Shepherd’s Crook Ministries staff. The Lord has led us on very similar paths over the years (in some even uncanny ways, honestly) so there has just been this amazing shoulder to shoulder encouragement and friendship and I can’t even begin to imagine life without her! You would never know if you sat down and visited with Alison in her gentle, soft spoken, humble, non assuming way ( with this cute hidden hilarious sense of humor) what a kingdom warrior she is as she has been on the front lines battling for years in Romania, serving in unimaginable conditions, living with the people, serving in hospitals and orphanages, saving babies, burying babies, things I can’t imagine experiencing, yet you will be in conversation with her and she will share this “Amy Carmichael like experience”, it will just slip out and you have to say “Wait, wait, wait….you did what?” As a pediatric nurse she has traveled to several different countries for medical missions, organizing the trips, assisting in the surgeries, literally making the difference of life and death for many children who would either be cast aside to die or would have no hope of a better life! Alison has the gift of being one of the most brilliant medical professionals yet it always being about one life as exemplified in her love for the Lord that is simple, pure and most of all untainted….it is just about the gospel for Alison and she lives that and the effect her surrendered life has been on many children in many countries is vast! I have a hundred stories to share and I wish I had the time to sit and account for them all to give testimony and honor to my friend who serves as an example to me of a life sold out!!!!! AND this year the Lord has been doing some unbelievably exciting things in Alison’s life (some will go unnamed on this blog…wink!) one being the adoption of her son Samuel (another amazing and miraculous testimony) Samuel and Madi are the same age so our conversations have taken a natural progression to how to get your baby to nap successively and what they ate that day, you know the “big stuff” that life is made of! :-) With all my heart and with much love, I want to honor my friend, Alison….. Happy Birthday!!!!

**Note….I have copied some pictures below of some time Alison and I spent in a special needs hogar in Mexico and one of Alison and Samuel!***