Queen Bee

Today was my oldest daughter-in-love's birthday. She's been in our lives for half of her life, so we can hardly remember when she wasn't there. She was this adorable, bunny-eyed girl that we noticed at church eighteen years ago, kind-of the darling of everyone. She exuded calm and at the same time, energy. Little did we know what her story entailed...

She was the oldest of four daughters of her parents, who never married. Her folks were hippies of a sort, freewheeling, living on love and substances. She doesn't remember many times when they were completely sober. Eventually, her folks broke up and partnered with other people. And at 13 years of age, her father was murdered by a drug dealer, on the front lawn of the dealer's house, with a large knife. Though the stab wounds were in her father's back, the dealer got away with it... it was ruled as "self-defense." After this, her mother derailed further. In a couple of years, she decided to move her four daughters into a tent on Lake Allatoona, along with another friend and her children.  This left her frightened and feeling alone, with the responsibility of taking care of the people that she loved. Who was the adult, but a child? 

She called her uncle, who told her to contact DFACS. He and his wife took the yoke of finishing the raising of those four children; started taking them to church, where he had just recently found Christ. Some years later, the day that he walked her down the aisle to marry our son, the tears were streaming down his, hers, our son's and everybody else's faces. I remember feeling that this was a perfect picture of redemption.  We already loved her, but we didn't have any idea how much more we would grow to love her. She was a gorgeous, glowing bride, the epitome of everything good in this world. I've asked her, years ago, if she minded me telling her story. She said, "As long as nobody feels sorry for me, it's okay." If you know her, there's never any hint of "sorry" going on. We all admire and respect her opinions, her life, her passionate heart for Christ and her family. They are mindfully raising four young, vivacious children with pluck and pioneer-worthy work ethics. But they also are allowed to play with all the gusto that only kids can muster. 

She is a walking miracle of God's grace. Don't talk to me about privilege or being "given" things, when I see a soul like that who, despite going through some of the worst that this life could offer, rises above it with purpose and grit. She is a testament to what God does with a yielded heart and a will to make her world better. Our entire family loves her. In my mind, she is the Matriarch, queen of all she surveys.