“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.“— Rabindranath Tagore

February. What a month. So many significant dates. Vernon’s birthday, Valentine’s Day. Today marks 4 years since we found out he was ineligible for a kidney transplant (the most disappointing day of my life.) I was going to write about all of this to get it off my chest, but…something better happened instead.

In this season, there happen to be a lot of significant closures as well. They seem to be popping up all at the same time, some I’ve known about for awhile, and some are coming without warning. It’s definitely a season of change. I won’t write about that here tonight either, but its in the light of all this, that I am especially mindful of the wonderful symbol of love and life and hope and newness that a new life brings us. Little baby Theo couldn’t have come at a better time for our family. (And by family, I guess I mean tribe….but it feels like family.)

Our dear friends Sarah and Scott Hendrix had their first baby, Theo, on Valentine’s Day in the midst of the biggest February rain storm we’ve had in Southern California yet. For this couple, their most significant life moments have happened in the rain, which is usually rare. (They even got married on a surprise rainy day.) In the early days of their marriage, before I knew them, Sarah and Scott had taken Maki under their wing (here they are at his 13th birthday party) and of course Justine wanted to be a part of the action shortly after. We love them dearly as a family and as individuals and we are so blessed to walk beside each other on the journey. We’ve been looking forward to this birth for a long time now. And here he is! The first baby we have had around our little campfire since Vernon went away. Births and Deaths. Basically all of life is contained between these things. So we are so grateful for this bit of newness in our sphere. I speak for myself here, but I know that both Justine and Maki, at the ages they are, and the personalities they have, and where they are in their grief journeys, they are so happy too. We already love this little person, regardless of what he symbolizes. We are so looking forward to watching him grow.

We realized tonight, also, that the kids are 8 1/2 years apart. Maki is 17 now, and Justine in 8 1/2. So Maki was the same age that Justine is now when she was born. What a trip life is. Good thing we have the younger generation to gage things for us. Life sure has a way of coming to the surface, time and time again.

Anyway, February just got a whole lot better. <3

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