Ashley's Journal

I followed a blog--Ashley's Story for years.  It was the journal written about a little girl who was born with all the odds stacked against her.  She was adopted by the Adams family of Texas.  She had several organs transplanted and then some explanted.  She hated hospitals, but spent a lot of time in them.

This little girl who learned to sign, but didn't speak, might have been the object of pity and tears.  She might have been forgiven if she had been constantly crabby and unhappy.  She spent a good deal of her life in pain, I think.

But, the thing that is most striking about Ashley's Story to me is that this little girl knew how to live!  She laughed.  She appreciated the smallest things.  She treasured the people she loved.  She was a fighter to the end.  And how she giggled.

Ashley died this fall, a few short weeks ago at 8 years old.  It touches my heart how fiercely she was loved and how greatly she is missed.  But, more than that, to honor the short life of Ashley Adams, I remind myself to laugh, to find treasures in the smallest things, and to treasure the people that I love.

Ashley knew Jesus in a way that few others know Him.  She loved!  She carried His love into the world.  And she laughed.  And so must I.