photo taken from chad wible’s blog

Each week I leave a short story or video blog here about where I saw love in action during the previous week. If we are looking for love throughout the week, we will have more faith in the power of the love we share with our spouse.  Leave your story in the comments section about how you saw love in action last week!  Or write about it on your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments section (and be sure to link your readers over here so they can see more stories about love in action!).

Last Sunday, I received a text message from the tired twin sister of my friend Allison.  It was broken and cryptic.  Immediately, the phone calls began flying.  We were all trying to figure out what was happening with Allison.  We were not getting the answers we wanted, but we were clear on one thing:

Our friend who had entered the hospital that week for abdominal pain had delivered her baby daughter 3 1/2 months early.

The next day, I sat on the floor of the Nature and Science Museum with my friend Rachael as her kids ran around in the interactive outer space display.  We talked about what Allison and her husband Chad would need in the coming weeks and what we had to offer.  We were honest with one another that for a variety of reasons, even though we both love to cook, it just was not practical right now.   I loved this part; neither of us pretended that we were capable of more than we were.  More women need to learn how to be honest about their limitations, and in that moment, we gave each other the freedom to do just that.  We decided we could each contribute some money and get a freezer full of meals from one of those “make it and take it” places.  I asked two other women if they could contribute some money as well.

Before I knew it, what started as an effort to pool $120, exploded.  Jodi took over arranging childcare for our friends’ two year old son.  Karla arranged for a local non-profit ministry to be the clearing house for collecting general funds to support the families financial needs.  Herb updated their blog with information about how people could help and who to contact.  Within 24 hours, so many people used the Pay Pal button he added to the blog, that I had collected over $400 for meals and groceries!  It was astounding.  And yet, I was not surprised.  We have lived in Colorado for about 10 years, and in that time, we have built a community of people who are learning how to work together to take care of each other.  My heart is warmed for baby Olivia that she is entering the world through the hands of practical, sacrificing love.