Peace of Christ

Remember this post, about my friend who I had to break off communication with. Yesterday we met for the first time since June 7th. On Wednesday I sent her an email inviting her to my home. Friday when I opened the door, we both fell into each others arms. Four and a half months is a long time to not see or speak to one of your closest friends.

We sat on the couch for two hours talking through every detail of the reason we had not been speaking. We shared our hurts, we cried, we apologized, we embraced, we talked about the future, we prayed. After Card died, we had not been in an emotional place to support each other.

It took an unbelievable amount of courage for me to get to this place. I had considered every aspect of the situation for weeks before pursuing this meeting. I was prepared for things to not go well, I was prepared for restoration, I was prepared for her not to show up. In the choose your own ending of the story, we found reconciliation. This is the most whole I have felt since Cara died. Part of me was missing and has been restored.

I am so proud of my friend. As her thoughts flowed, I could tell she was a completely different person these many months later. She has and continues to be one of the sweetest, kindest people I have ever met. I know that she loves me and I feel the same way about her.

There is more to the story. Tuesday I considered greatly pursuing this meeting. At 3:00 am Wednesday morning, I was awoken by a dream of us passing communion bread to each other and simultaneously saying, "Peace of Christ." It was such a beautiful picture that I couldn't fall back asleep. For the two days until we met, all I wanted to do was embrace my friend. Thank God that we were able to come to that moment yesterday.

October 15th & Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act

October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. More than 25,000 children are stillborn in the United States every year leaving mothers, entire families and communities devastated. Estimates of the rate of occurrence of stillbirth make it at least as common as autism.

Stillbirth is not an intractable problem. Greater research would likely significantly reduce its incidence, but good research requires good data. H.R. 5979: Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act is under consideration by Congress. This proposed bill would standardize stillbirth investigation and diagnosis, thus providing more data for the needed research. Better research means fewer children born still.

On October 15th, remember the thousands of unfinished children lost and the families who remain to grieve them. Honor them by taking action. Let's help pass H.R. 5979. (See instructions from previous posts.)

Action Steps:

Step 1. Use Your Blog to Enlist Others-Copy the contents of this entire post and publish it on your blog immediately.
GOAL: Enlist 10 of your readers to spread the word

Step 2. Use Your E-mail to Enlist Others-E-mail 5 bloggers and ask them (nicely and in an unspammy way) to publish these action steps on their blog. Consider contacting celebrity bloggers, political bloggers, medical bloggers, or bloggers who are not part of your reading community.
GOAL: Enlist 3 bloggers outside of your normal blog sphere to spread the word in other online communities.

Step 3. Help Pass the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act-By October 15th, publish a post on your blog supporting H.R. 5979 Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act. For maximum impact, title your post: "Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act."
GOAL: 1,000,000 Google results on October 15th when that term is searched for. Currently, Google only returns 20,400 pages - most of which have nothing to do with the bill.

Source: http://lifewithoutcaden.blogspot.com/