I was sifting through old messages on my Facebook account and found this e-mail from a college friend of mine - a gifted writer. I had asked him back then (this was before Annabelle's passing) if I could post it in my blog. He said yes, but asked that I leave his name out. I loved what he said, and here it is.
Thanks to you and Jack for opening your story to the rest of us. Your struggles and faith remind me how raw and awesome life can be--and of how much we need such reminding awakenings--and of how wise and deep and wild God can be in what he endows with that waking power. Life is no suburban pleasure-dome. Love is not the fruit of convenience. That God could grant a beautiful little girl with that power to remind us of that (or remind me, at least) is what I might call "a severe mercy." There is a soft touch in the magic of such art: compassion, tenderness, humility--beauty. But there is also a thrumming promise of dawn, a fierce heart-song calling for restoration, for completion--what Paul might have called "the redemption of our bodies." Forgive me if, in my morning rush, I'm being too ambitious in what I want to express. But I suppose I'm saying there is a unique power in the lives of children like Annabelle, at once presence and promise, treasure and fire--and that it is, in the deep down unseen places, profoundly true to say, whether or not she ever speaks a word we understand, that in your love of her in Christ, she is a tiny prophetess.
Also, to all who have yet to find out, we are expecting our third child in November. It's a boy!! He's thankfully not affected by the same thing Annabelle had. We are so blessed.
