Anna's Psalm

Some of you may remember the picture from this post in September of 2011. Anna was starting a new school--a small bilingual school that we hoped would be a safer environment for her and us as we worked to figure things out for her educationally. If I look closely at the picture, I see the worried hopefulness in her face.

The school cost $10,000 that year. We didn't know how we were going to get it. We weren't making ends meet anyway, but in 2011, this school seemed to be our only lifeline, and we signed her up.

One small pentecostal church in Nice where Anna went for Royal Rangers, a Christian scouting program, gave us envelopes filled with money. The pastor was working on finding a way to cover the whole amount. That still makes me cry. This church was no different from the other churches in Nice--small, filled with many just trying to make ends meet, with limited facilities and resources. And they handed us envelopes filled with cash.

Many gave money and prayed for Anna that year. One day in March, returning from a neuropsychological evaluation of Anna, we reached the very sudden, and very frightening realization that we needed to return to the U.S. And now we're here.

Last night at our church in Fort Wayne, Anna and I were at the mid-week children's program. The lesson from the evening was centered around David. During group time, Anna and I sat on our blanket and looked up verses that David had written in the Psalms and then worked on our own Psalm.

The beginning of the fill in the blank sheet was ...

God, I praise you because you are ___________. I remember the time when I needed help with _________ and you _____________. You are always there for me.

Anna wrote that God is "totally awesome" and remembered the time when she needed help with school in Nice and God helped by getting her to the bilingual school. At the time we were stumbling in the dark, trying to figure out what to do one day at a time, praying for wisdom, asking for help. And two years later, Anna looks back with thankfulness.

I'm thankful for her resilience, for answers to the prayers for wisdom, and for the many who helped us through that last year in Nice.