My new friend Julie

My friend Julie has been in town this past week. Julie is a missionary in Budapest Hungary, we met three years ago when she came to the missions conference but didn't stay in touch until I started reading her blog and she began reading mine. Our friend Leighann put it best Virtual meets Reality. Amazing how you can become friends with people when you have a common interest eventhough you've never met. Once you meet Julie, it's like you've known her forever, she has such a heart as a mother, and a wife to her husband Zach.

This past February Julie's son Eli, she has two (Eli is 5 and Jasper is 2 - cutie pies) had a blood clot behind his hear and an infection in the bone behind the ear (sorry Julie I know I'm not doing the medical stuff justice). For months she stayed in the hospital with him in a Hungarian hospital waiting for the infection and cranial pressure to decrease. Eli still has the blood clot but it is not life threatening any more and they are praying that they will eventually find a way to get rid of this clot.

So through all of that I prayed for healing for her sweet little boy and the chaos of a life with a child in a hospital with an illness (unfortunately I know this experience all too well). Our shepherd group adopted this family and sent them a care package that happen to arrive the day Eli got home (no we did not plan on the date, God was completely in control) but it turned out to be a huge blessing for them and we rejoiced with his healing and prayed when he still had to do daily shots of steroids until they didn't have to do it anymore.

My friend Courtney held a dessert party for Julie while she was hear, on top is the picture of the ladies in our shepherd group (Heather, Abi, Julie, me and Sarah - we were missing Dana and Lisa). Below is a picture of all the ladies in Courtney's house, it was truly a blessing to be able to sit with these women and talk. I think we all would have stayed all night had we all not had small children. Unfortunately a couple of the mom's had to leave early so they were not in the picture but it was nice to see them anyway. Thank you Courtney for opening up your home. I am so blessed to be in such amazing company.

Megan, Heather, Courtney, Leighann, Julie,Karen, Sarah, me and Abi.