Sidney came home on Christmas Eve. We got the call the night before. I said , lets make a banner, and the Butcher agreed. We stayed up late doing it and thinking about what was to come. We went to bed with the anticipation of seeing our daughter, who had been gone for 6 weeks. That night, in my bed, Sidney wasn’t 17, she was 5, and I couldn’t wait to kiss her face. The Lord is responsible for that, there is no other explanation. We told the other kids when they got up the next morning, we hung our banner on the front porch, and we waited. We gathered on the porch and listened to the sound of hope with every approaching car….until, there they were. Papa was bringing her home. WE stood on the porch and we waved our arms and grinned from ear to ear, SHE hung her head and cried. We bombarded her with hugs as she got out of the car, she sobbed like a baby. I kissed the tears off of her face, and I am telling you the truth, it was as if she was 5 years old, I am not making that up. The Butcher grabbed her and held on for dear life, as papa stood by with tears of his own. A perfect family, we are not, redeemed and soaked in our Fathers love….we are. And so is Sidney.

                                                                              We know that we are taking it one minute at a time, our lives have been changed, our love has not. Christmas was wonderful, I will write about that tomorrow. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement. We need them now more than ever. We are not so foolish to believe that the enemy will accept this defeat, but we are faithful enough to believe that our spirits are stronger than his. He always underestimates the power of LOVE.