what better way to spend a day than snuggling a little one who's not feeling well...her hot little body limp and still against mine...eyes half closed...pretty little black head hung sideways like a drooping flower on a frail stalk...

prayer...icecream...medicine...snuggles...

and finally, after a long long day, the little voice begins to chirp and my heart leaps up from its knees and rejoices. Thank You, God, You are the Healer of little children.

I think of the mothers I know for whom this struggle has gone on for year after year...the anguish of watching a child suffer...

and I pray for them, for the grace that I do not have, because that is not my road.

I pray for grace for other, nameless struggles that they do not have.

to each of us, the road of pain and struggle.

And to each of us, grace.