H is for Hope

Seth is 7 months old now and there are still moments when I feel like I’m dreaming.  Sometimes I just can’t believe how incredibly lucky I am. 

Occasionally little reminders of his very existence still catch me off guard... a sock monkey tangled in our sheets, a tiny spoon lodged in the dishwasher... and I just smile to myself and think when did this happen?  

He is so healthy and so happy and every single night I pray he stays that way. 

There’s another prayer I silently repeat, though on a less regular basis.  It's usually short and sometimes hurried, but it's always heartfelt just the same.  It most often goes something like, Lord please give them hope and courage and help them find strength in You, and I say it quickly in my head as I catch a glimpse of St. Jude out of my car window.  I pass that hospital almost daily, and not every single time but most times, I just can’t help but think about the people, the kids, inside when I see it.  Sometimes I imagine them happy and energized and kicking cancer’s butt.  Other times I find myself trying to imagine the heartache that someone in that building is surely going through at that very moment.  It's impossible to do. 

What is possible to do is to support St. Jude, and people all over the city do that in a hundred different ways.    For me, I'm proud to include St. Jude in my Memphis alphabet series.  It belongs there anyway.  Just ask anyone who lives here, and they'll tell you that St. Jude is just as much "Memphis" as Elvis, BBQ, and the blues.
St. Jude is special though, and S for St. Jude just didn’t feel quite right, it' didn't quite fit.  So I assigned H for St. Jude.  For Hope.  Because that’s what St. Jude offers to childhood cancer patients and their families.       

"H is for Hope" 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2013

If you’re unfamiliar with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, you can check it out here.  It truly is an amazing place and no family ever pays St. Jude for anything.