Gracie

Today I wanted to take a bit of my blog and talk about something that really affected me over the last few weeks. One of the families in our ward (church congregation) found out a few weeks ago that their nearly three year old daughter has cancer in one of her eyes and is going to need to receive a lot of treatment. Here is a picture of her that I got from their web site at http://welovegracie.blogspot.com/:

When I first heard about this, I was really shaken. I had a strong need to go and hug each of my own children and give thanks that they were all well. I really hate thinking about the suffering of little children. Gracie has a disease called retinoblastoma. You can read more about it on their blog. Today our ward had a special fast for Gracie with prayers that she will be able to overcome this disease. As I was reading their blog, I felt a bit of kinship with her father, James Smith. He commented in his own blog that the purpose he was writing the blog was not as a solicitation of sympathy or money or other things but to share his experiences so that others going through the same situation would feel comfort. I originally started my own blog for the same reasons. I wanted to give hope and comfort for people dealing with situations that seemed way beyond them. My own circumstances have changed since this blogs creation and it has become more of a celebration of what I consider to be one of the greatest miracles to happen in my life. I hope and pray for something similar to eventually happen with the blog about Gracie.

I saw her family in church today. It is so amazing to see the strength and faith of some people who can continue in the middle of such difficulties. I have thought in the past that it would be nice if God just took trials away from us. However, I know he doesn't do that. He just makes us able to bear them. I will contine to pray for Gracie and hope that she and her family receive the same type of miracle that we received.