Heart Friends, Tho I've Never Met Them

For a little over a year now, I've given a part of my heart to a family I've never met, but with whom I've cried and ached and laughed and longed for heaven. 

Aaron and Stephanie Kelley are currently in Kenya, Africa as medical missionaries.  Well, Aaron does the medical part, Stephanie does the school-teaching part, and together they do everything else that goes along with living with and loving their three boys and a community of Kenyans and other missionary families.  

And for a full year now, they've walked through the Valley, praising God in the storm and letting Him carry them, because their little girl, Hannah, went to be Jesus on March 14, 2013.  

Because of their pain--and their triumph in the midst of their trial--I have grown and been challenged, and been altogether edified and exhorted in pursuing steadfastness and Love for my Jesus.  

And it's not even that I just haven't met them.  I haven't so much as commented on a blog post of theirs.  

And yet, because my Heart connects with them, and connects with the story God is writing through them, I love them.

Maybe I should tell them <3  Thank you, Jesus, for this family.

For the Kelley family, at one year.  
 

Psalm 138

I give You thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;

       before the gods I sing Your praise;

I bow down toward Your holy temple

       and give thanks to Your name for

       Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness,

For You have exalted above all things

       Your name and Your word.

On the day I called, You answered me;

       MY STRENGTH OF SOUL YOU INCREASED.

All the kings of the earth shall give You thanks, O Lord,

       for they have heard the words of Your mouth,

And THEY SHALL SING OF THE WAYS OF THE LORD.

For though the Lord is high,

       He regards the lowly,

       but the haughty He knows from afar.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

       You preserve my life;

       You stretch out Your hand against

       the wrath of my enemies,

       and Your right hand delivers me.

THE LORD WILL FULFILL HIS PURPOSE FOR ME;

       Your steadfast love, O Lord,

       endures forever.

Do not forsake the work of Your hands.

See their Story for yourself at Mom on a Mission and Aaron in Kenya