17 year old Paco has lived with us 3 years having come to our gate from the border of Mexico asking if he could live here, work for his food, room and education. He has lived in our personal home with 7 other boys & has proven to be a wonderful young man. Yesterday, his cousin, like a twin brother since they lived with Paco’s mother since birth was shot 4 times going to his place of work. Paco is crushed & needs your prayers.

It is mid-year again so we have to pay the extra salaries to all our employees.

Have you ever been so shocked that it literally immobilized you? Our daughter, Misty, who was the last of our three natural children was 9 years old, downs syndrome, and the joy of our life. She wanted to sit on my lap in my bedroom and then asked if I would bathe her. After that she went into our kitchen and sat at the table awaiting her bowl of cereal. It had become our routine before I would leave for work & Dottie would pour that bowl of cereal.

I dressed and kissed Dottie goodbye and headed down the hallway when I saw her. She was face-down on the table but I could see the blood dripping off the table into her lap. I knew it meant her heart that she was dead. Her heart had simply exploded as we had been told by many physicians for many years. I froze! I was IMMOBILIZED!

To see your child lying dead in her own blood freezes you– not just physically but absolutely emotionally. My first thought was to yell for dottie but I did not want her to see her baby like that. I ran to the table grabbing handfuls of paper towels. I picked Misty up and began to wipe feverishly. I continued to hold her to my heart as I cleaned the table, then the chair and now on my knees clinching her to my chest I cleaned the floor. When all the blood was gone I wailed.

Yes, I wailed! Dottie was in the back bed room and immediately she knew her baby was gone.  Dottie wanted Misty so I relented and placed the lifeless body into Dottie’s arms wishing I could say something or do something that could help Dottie’s pain.  I hurt! But the hurt/pain of a mother who lies her baby is unconsolable.

Five months later we were driving to preach in Memphis when we decided to get gasoline. So Tony and Chad went into the boy’s bathroom and I was standing where I could see them go in. Dottie walked into the women’s bathroom. I filled the car with gas, checked that the boys were given a snack and had returned to their seats. Then I waited. I waited. And I waited. But Dottie never returned.

I went to the door of the bathroom and could hear crying so I asked if she were ok. She did not answer. I tried the door but it was locked. I knocked the door open and laying on the filthy bathroom floor weeping her heart was Dottie so at I lifted her and held her in my arms and sat on the commode seat. She would not stop crying!

I cried with her not even knowing why I was crying. It seemed as though it was forever when she finally stopped the heavy crying and looked at me and said “This is the first time in over 9 years that I have gone into a bathroom without Misty”. As a man I never would have thought of that. But for Dottie memories were of the little things that meant very little to someone else.

I paid for the chips for the boys and the gasoline for the car and ,yes, for a new bathroom door. But more than anything that day I filed a precious memory of my beautiful wife laying on a filthy floor with thoughts of her daughter that only a loving other would have. It made me wish I had more of a heart to remember those things that truly important.

Enjoy your children every moment of the day. Bathroom doors cost much more today than they did in the 1970s.