This is a little chronicle of how God has worked in an interesting way through our lives and the lives of a wonderful family in our path across many years’ time…
Starting in 1977 when our children were 5 & 3 and continuing for several years Marty & Susan (M & S) needed someone to watch our two children
when we were on retreats with the teen group of our church. M was the Youth Pastor and there were several times each year we both needed to be gone from home for a few days. We asked the C’s to take our children into their home for these times. They readily agreed and our children had a wonderful time! In fact they often cried on the way home because they didn’t want to leave the C’s! This was a wonderful sign that our children had a ball with the C’s.
The C’s had a daughter, J, who was 5 years older than our daughter. They even kind of looked similar. Eventually we moved out of the area, but continued to stay in touch with the C’s through the years.
Eventually we settled in the South ‘Atlantaland’ area. After a few years J moved into the ‘Atlantaland’ area also. We renewed our relationship and began enjoying meeting J’s husband as well. We soon were introduced to their new daughter A.
We began volunteering with a group of Believers who were beginning an outreach to the Special Needs Community through teaching tennis. M became a coach and S became the registrar. S does not play tennis, but they needed someone to do administration. Through this program we met several people who not only volunteered with the tennis program, but also had special needs children of their own. One woman in particular began to stand out as a woman who walked with the Lord and loved her special needs child beautifully.
J called one day to say that A had been diagnosed with special needs. We lived with that for about a year before J called and said they were moving just a couple of miles from us! This set S to begin discovering opportunities for them in our area. S contacted the one woman in the tennis program to see what church she attended and inquired if they had a program for special needs children… and they did! She was excited to speak with J about coming to the area and her church. J & this woman hit it off wonderfully and soon became friends. The 4 of us met for coffee one day and friendships flourished. Another woman S had met was a teacher in the special needs community in our area. She soon was also in contact with J and is a fantastic fountain of encouragement and information.
J and family will soon once again be just a few miles from M&S. How God works in ‘mysterious ways’ is amazing and wonderful!