Fat and Sassy

There she is…eight months old….Isn’t she a beautiful sight?

William and Janet (click here for the story, if you’re new around here)

Stella, William, and Janet (on the right) with some members of their church.

I didn’t take these pictures; a friend of mine did.  Though I see William quite often, I rarely see Stella and Janet.  William tells me about her all the time; how she is sitting up and falling over, how she is getting fat (as you can see!). 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Thanks for your prayers for not only my family, but for these people in my life.  For William and Stella, and now for Victor, Criscilla, and baby Christian. 

Life is hard here.  We are reminded of that every day.  Tonight Gil came in with 10 little packets of peanuts.  I gave him a strange look, considering that he does not like peanuts.  “I couldn’t help but buy them,” he said.  “It’s all the woman out there was selling.”  (I love that man!)

How much profit did she even make on 10 packets of peanuts?  Probably 15 cents total?  And yet Gil said she was so thrilled to sell them.  Thrilled with 15 cents? 

Life is hard. 

William and Stella’s baby is fat and sassy.  It’s wonderful and beautiful to behold.  But that doesn’t change the fact that she had three other babies stillborn.  My friend Emily, who ministers in a village, told me that she doesn’t know a single woman who has not lost a child under the age of 2. 

Life is hard.  But we praise God for Hope.  Hope in beautiful baby Janet.  Hope in that baby Christian is “critical but stable;” hope in knowing that God does answer prayer. 

But especially, Hope in knowing that this is not all there is.