I Met a Hero!

So today was a day for the books. I spent the afternoon with one of my dearest friends getting pedicures for their birthday. I should clarify that she took ME for a pedicure for her birthday which is just insane. It was so lovely.

Then my mom and I drove 90 minutes to Alexandria, VA to meet Katherine Wolf. As in THE Katherine Wolf, the author of Hope Heals, the book I’ve been obsessing about since Kate got sick. If you don’t remember, she had a crazy brain stem stroke at the ripe old age of twenty six while her six month old slept in the other room. She has had a miraculous recovery in a thousand ways and she and her husband founded the ministry, Hope Heals. They travel around now sharing their story of Gods faithfulness. There are so many parallels between her story and Kate’s that it is actually startling. Anyway, I emailed her when Kate became ill and we’ve been pen-pals ever since. I saw that she was coming to the east coast and my mind was made up; I had to meet her!

So my mom and I made a date of it. We drove down and raced to the front of the church where she was talking with a few people. I introduced myself and within 30 seconds we were all in tears; so happy to finally meet. I thanked her again and again for her sweet words and encouragement and she shared how happy she was to be on this side of the encouraging and how desperately she’d begged God on Kate’s behalf. We were all a bit weepy to say the least.

When she and her husband Jay started talking, she stopped the show and said “where are Ashley and Robin? wave your hands!”. She explained through tears how humbled and blessed she was that we drove to meet her (nuts!) and asked everyone to pray for Kate. It was just crazy, what a night. Such a precious time of encouragement for my mom and I. Such hope for what is to come. There is nothing more beautiful for us to hear, than “I was in Kate’s shoes, I remember the trachea, I remember the feeding tube, here I am, God is a God of miracles”. We’re so desperate to sit next to Kate and have a back and forth conversation and I’m so hopeful that I will get to do that one day! It may take a while but that’s okay!

What a day. I’m exhausted but just had to share what a sweet evening we had. I’m so thankful for people who are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to encourage people in their chaos. What a gift! I hope this is the first of many meetings!