These are my friends

I haven't blogged in forever, but this is important, and I needed to say something.

I need you to pray for my friends Matt & Grace.

Let me tell you about Matt.  I've know Matt since we were in Jr High together.  We probably knew each other prior to that, but I would say that's when our friendship first started.  You see, Matt's two years older than me, but that never seemed to bother him.  As Jr Highers, we met at church, and found we had a lot of similar interests.  He's one of the kindest, loving, and most loyal people I know.  And even from an early age, he has loved God with all his heart.

Here's a picture of us in Jr High, That's me with my bowl haircut raising my hand like I can't sit still (I can't), and Matt's in the yellow sweater on the right.

I remember spending the weekend at his house, where his dad took us to the batting cages. We both couldn't hit worth squat, but laughed the whole time.  

We both loved music, and in High School joined our church choir, "Vision".  In Vision, we met Grace.  She was a girl who also loved music, and played the piano for many of our songs that we sang.  I remember talking to her after a concert about how I never could play the piano like her, and she commented that it was easier than memorizing the words and singing.

Matt and I remained close friends and as 2000 was drawing to a close, we decided to attend a Christian Conference in Urbana together.  Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship holds a mission conference every three years for young adults and college students and we wanted to be there!  We went and had a wonderful time.  As we got to the airport to come home, we saw many of our friends we met throughout the week also trying to go through the long process of security checks and waiting at gates.  We had a few hours to kill at the gate, so having been sick for most of the week, I sat down to rest.  But Matt saw Grace and went over to chat with her.  As I sat in misery, my friend went to talk to this girl!  LOL.  When he came back in time for us to board our plane, I gave him a hard time and laughed with him.  

A few short months later, I was not surprised to hear they had started going on dates.  I still remember, they had this crazy notion that they would never go to the same restaurant twice while dating.  I asked him, "What if you find a place you really LOVE!?!?!?" and he just replied that they wanted to be adventurous.  

When I got the call to be Matt's best man at their wedding, I was both honored and blessed.  I was so happy for the both of them.  They really were perfect for each other.  They both loved God so much and were both geeky/nerdy in their own wonderful way.

I remember having a meal with Matt, where he told me they had been trying to have kids and it wasn't going as well as they hoped, and how Grace wanted to look into adoption.  I listened to him talk about what the process would be and how long it would take.  We talked about how if they were going to adopt, it would not be from China.  How they wanted to be intentional with the agency they went with.  And how they were probably going to get siblings, since the need to keep families together was important to them.

Before I knew it, Matt was calling me again to tell me he and Grace were going to go meet the kids they were going to adopt.  Matt was nervous, but excited.  How do you prepare for meeting (possibly) your kids for the first time?  I was not going to be able to meet up with him before his trip, but he would be back soon and we should get dinner when he gets back.

When we did meet, Matt had a glow about him.  He spoke of meeting a brother and sister, and how Grace had stayed behind to be with them throughout the process.  (He needed to come back to continue working, as the adoption process would take too long for him to take that long of a leave of absence).  He was happy for the time to come back, because he needed to prepare a room for them, and I was reminded of the wonderful parallel of our God says he is preparing a room for us.  He told me of watching his soon-to-be son while he was having lunch.  We talked for hours about what it was like to suddenly become a father.

Finally, Matt was able to return and bring his family back home.  I got to meet his wonderful kids, and even snapped this picture of Matt and his son at their house after dinner.

Early last year, tragedy struck and their daughter passed away.  She had been dealing with an eating disorder, and the family was helping her with it.  It is still unknown if this had anything to do with it, but we do know that she was going through a time where she had refused to eat.  You can read about the details here and here

I won't go into the court case too much, since so much has already been said about it, except to say, I am begging you for your prayers for my friends.  

Thanks.