Three Men and A Baby

When my brother, David was young, he'd eat massive quantities of Lima beans for the sole purpose of trying to make me throw up. I didn't care if he liked them or not; it was gross and made me sick. I moved away a week after high school graduation, most anxious to get away from dinners ruined by his antics. Ugh.

My brother-in-law, Charlie, urged my sister to leave me alone in MD to return to Ohio to be with him in 1969. The bum. I was 19, all alone, and clueless. I needed her but he didn't care. Okay, fine, it wasn't all about me; he was in love, but still. It made me mad and I lost my best friend.

My nephew-in-law, Donnie...wait... It's really hard to come up with something negative about him. Oh yeah, he took my niece to Russia to be a missionary with him three years ago. So I rarely get to see her.

Three men who put their own wants and needs before mine. Lima beans, young love and foreign missions.

So now it's today. And guess what they put first in their lives this week. Me. David left his family to fly 1500 miles to be with me during surgery and even missed Thanksgiving with his own wife and family. Charlie spent his 41st wedding anniversary with me in the hospital, even as his wife (my sister) was just released from her own dramatic surgery and recovering at home. And Donnie came on his only day off that week, leaving his wife with two little kids and a newborn at home.

These three men love me. And they put me first this week, even ahead of their own wives and children. No, they don't love me more, they simply love me, and sacrificed what had to be. These three were with me until moments before I entered the OR. They stayed with Steve and Morgan during my surgery, prayed with them, comforted them. Rejoiced with them when the results came back. Praised God with them for my survival.

So now it's three men and a woman who could not feel more loved or complete.