September 2007: Losing Megan

I was pregnant with my first child when we got the news.  My cousin Megan had been killed in a car accident.

Megan and me with our big siblings

My uncle spoke at her funeral about the struggles she had in school and the teachers who had worked hard to help her succeed.  Megan was brilliant, but it wasn't an in-the-eyes-of-the-world brilliant.  She saw every living thing as a beautiful creation of God, and she treated everything and everyone as such.   My eyes were opened when she left us, and I began to see value in things that the world didn't understand.  I began to see my students differently, and I became drawn to those who didn't seem to fit into a normal classroom setting.  I became aware of their incredibly special gifts, and I knew that God was calling me to discover them and to teach these beautiful children to recognize and to use the talents that God had given them.

Bridal party fun; Megan is on the right

I truly believed that through Megan's death I had found my calling as a teacher, but I see now that God used those awful circumstances to begin unveiling to me my calling as a child of God, which went much deeper than I could understand at that time.  She has a special place in our story, and we plan to honor her as we bring our girls into our family.

Psalm 139:14-16  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.Every moment was laid out    before a single day had passed.