Do You Know Jack?

I have a total "God" story that I have to share with you. It started in the summer when I stumbled across Anna's blog "An Inch of Gray". Since then, my life has changed. Anna lost her son, Jack, in a tragic accident in early September. Here's the email I wrote to her just a few days ago...

Dear Anna,

I stumbled across your blog in the summer and started following you. That's when my "God moments" began...

I had heard about Jack's accident when it happened (on the news), but didn't realize until later that he was your Jack. After that, I just could not get you and your family out of my mind and off my heart- I seemed to be thinking of you ALL the time, when I started to pray- you came up, and so on. Then, things started happening-- I am a teacher for Fairfax County and I work with special needs preschoolers in their homes/daycares/preschools. I travel around and wouldn't you know-- I see several students in your neighborhood. All of a sudden, I found myself taking a wrong turn and started seeing these blue ribbons everywhere- on trees, signs, posts, mailboxes. I just KNEW those were for Jack. Then I saw the bridge with the little memorial there. I had to pull off the road and ball my eyes out. Again- I just wondered why I was so affected by people I haven't even met! Then, I was at CVS on my lunch break- at 12:00 on a Thursday- and I heard kids giggling. I looked over and there were some tweens or maybe teens in the Halloween aisle- all wearing DCS uniforms from Jack's school. Ok, what? So that's when I started praying for clarity-- okay, God, what do you want me to do with/for Jack and his family?

Then I saw your post about Operation Christmas Child. Turns out I am helping with OCC for our church - this is only my 2nd year doing it. So I prayed some more-- okay, God... I see there are lots of coincidences, but now what?? The other day I sprang up in bed and just KNEW what I had to do. I had to make more people aware of OCC by telling them about Jack's love for God and for helping the needy. I had to make not only my church know about it, but also other churches in NoVA. I even had the exact plan in mind (totally a God-thing) -- make a video/slideshow about Jack and how he loved OCC. I even had titles for each slide and took photos from your blog. I even had the title of it-- "Do You Know Jack?" About how Jack has the same spirit - the loving, compassionate, generous spirit - as most of us do. The spirit of Jesus. We all just need to act upon it by getting involved, packing a shoebox, and helping the needy. So even if you didn't know Jack personally, you KNOW his spirit! I'm in the process of putting it together and of course, wanted to know if this is something that you give me permission to do. I would like you to view it before I show it to anyone- just to be sure it is accurate and reflects your Jack. Because no one knows him like you do. :)

I feared that Anna would think I was a total weirdo or nut case for writing this! So, I prayed some more and wouldn't you know that she actually CALLED me to tell me she'd be honored for me to do this. In fact, Jack and his little sister made shoe boxes for OCC every year together. So, I worked on it and here it is:



Yay, God! ;)

Now it's your turn to help the needy just like Jack did- by packing a shoe box with gifts, school supplies, and hygiene items to spread God's love around the world! Take a look at the Operation Christmas Child website for more info...

Here's sweet Margaret (Jack's sister) preparing TWENTY shoe boxes this year! You go, girl!!! ;)

But you'd better hurry because time is running out! The deadline for shoe box gifts at our church (New Life) is November 20th, so get your shopping done soon!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year. Guess how much we spent on costumes.... NADA! That's right, they were free, which is how we always had Halloween growing up with 5 brothers and sisters. I think that was pretty neat because we had to become more creative than ever trying to repurpose a witch's shawl or mask. We had this big cardboard box cleverly named "The Big Box"- and I'm not kidding about the name - that held off-season clothing and costumes. So when the seasons changed (well, sort of change in Louisiana), we would gather around Mama's bed and she dumped out "The Big Box" to see what would fit. It was like Christmas morning getting new hand-me-downs. I remember when my big sister, Gretchen, would wear clothes and I would scope them out because in a few short years, I might get to have them from "The Big Box"! Too bad she was always taller and thinner, though.

Anyway, back to Libby and Drew... Drew was Spiderman thanks to a friend, Laury, passing it down to us from her son. Drew only knows about Spiderman from his underwear and had no plan to dress up as him. However, he is also only 4 years old and easily convincible, especially when you REALLY REALLY hype up things-- "Oh, this is so cool, Drew. I bet nobody else will be Spiderman like you!" But guess what-- there were FOUR Spidermen in his class. Can you believe that? FOUR? Oh, and 1 was a girl, too. What's with that? I don't care because he was still adorable in that suit with the fake muscles and mask!

Libby was talked into wearing one of her fairy outfits that Pops and Maw Maw Deb gave her last year. It was one she had forgotten about since she hadn't worn it - you know, for like 3 months- so it was in the back of her closet. Well, it was like me waiting for "The Big Box" when she saw me pull that one out! Suddenly, we had a costume complete with accessories from their dress-up basket. That's MY kind of Halloween - FREE. Actually, my kind of Halloween is having Darrell bring them out in the cold around the neighborhood trick-or-treating while I eat pass out the candy in my warm sweats in the comfort of our home. Let's just say I had a serious Skittles hangover the next day since I must have eaten every bag of them in the mix bag. Sorry, kids!

Oh, did I tell you that the 1st trick-or-treater that showed up were 2 boys with pillowcases as treat bags that asked me for LEGOS instead of candy? Yeah, guess Halloween was brought to a whole new level, right? I just laughed at him and threw in a bag of Lemonheads. He's lucky I didn't throw in a butterscotch candy or better yet-- one of those yucky candies that was some sort of chewy brown nastiness that were wrapped in just plain orange or black wrappers. Did you ever get some of those? I always hated those. Wonder if they still make them.