Sarah

I remember the VERY first time I met Sarah. We lived in DeQueen on Marcone Drive. I remember my mom telling me there were some new people moving in next door with a little girl EXACTLY my age. I was excited as our neighborhood was BOOMING with boys (gross!).

In between my yard and our neighbor's yard, there was a little 2-inch wide-concrete-ditch-thing. (I never did know why it was there, but it was fun to send bouncy balls down the "chute" into the road). I remember walking to that little ditch and standing there was Sarah "Butch" Slaughter...AND WE HAD ON THE SAME OUTFIT!

That was a great ice-breaker and we were partners in crime from that moment on. We ran around in the woods together looking for "hobos", jumped on the trampoline for HOURS belting out "Bigger Than the Beetles" by Joe Diffie and we burned up the roads on our bicycles. We played basketball together, made the cheerleading squad together and worked at the pool together.

Sarah eventually moved away and we tried to keep the relationship in tact, but when you are young, it's hard. I remember moving up here and running into Sarah at the UofA. We saw each other around campus occasionally and enjoyed our time laughing and catching up.

But, it wasn't until I had Emma and Sarah was pregnant with Lynlee that we really got back in touch. I don't even remember how, but she and Kimberly ended up coming over to my house where we sat and talked for HOURS. It was like we had never even missed a beat.

Since then, Sarah and I have kept in touch. Each time we manage to catch each other on the phone (in between picking up/dropping off/running kids around), it's always as if a day hasn't passed. There are only a few friends that I have where conversations work like that. Good friends. True friends.

I am writing all this (not only because my mind wanders and that's what I was thinking about) but also to ask you to pray. Please pray for Sarah, her family and her doctors. Sarah has a brain tumor and will be traveling back to MD Anderson on March 2nd to have surgery. I haven't talked to her on the phone, but we have text a few times and she seems to be in good spirits. Staying strong and clinging to Him and His Word.

(Sarah's blog can be found here for more details)

So, on March 2nd, when you wake up, when you get ready for work, when you go through your day like a normal day, please pray for Sarah, Pat, Lynlee, Owen and the rest of her family/friends. Because March 2nd will be anything but a normal day for them. It will be a scary day. It will be an exhausting day. It will be a day that will test their faith. But, I also know in my heart that it will be a day of great healing. So, just pray. Pray hard.

March 2nd.

Pictures courtesy of Rachel Blackwell Photography.