Hurt, Hope, and Heartstrings

Though I didn't plan on posting today, there are a few things that have really tugged at my heartstrings and should be shared.

First I'd like to petition your prayers for my friend, Julie, and her family who are in a world of hurt right now, to put it lightly. I found out today that they were in a car accident earlier this week and lost their six month old son, Tony, yesterday morning. From what I know, both Julie and her husband Todd were treated and released, but little Tony was in critical condition and just didn't make it. Utterly heartbreaking. Although I haven't been in touch with Julie much since college, I can vouch for what a beautiful person she is inside and out. When I moved from West Point to Pennsylvania as a shy and timid third grader, Julie walked confidently up to me on the playground the first day of school and asked if I wanted to be friends. Thanks to her, I had a best buddy from then on to sit with every day on the bus, walk home with once we got to middle school, carpool with once we got to high school (I still can't believe how patient she was every day when I was late), and just share some wonderful times with. She is such a caring and kindhearted person, as is her husband. Please please pray that they are just surrounded with love and support in the months to come as they try to make their way through this tragedy that no one should ever have to experience.
Thank you.

I'd also like to share these two videos that both reduced me to tears, but for much happier reasons:

The first is an amazing testament to the hope that can come out of a tragedy and the fact that good people are still out there making miracles happen.
It's an incredibly touching story, and even more special since it involves the family of our friend Tim Steele, who graduated from West Point in 2009 and paid the ultimate sacrifice last August while deployed to Afghanistan. I'm so thankful that others are dedicated to remembering him in such a wonderful way and blessing his beautiful wife and daughter as they deserve.



And to close on the most uplifting note possible, this is just a cool and very sweet proposal video that my loving husband shared with me, and which also tugged at my heartstrings (although he prefaced it with, "don't get jealous now...but watch this"):

Thanks in advance for the prayers.