Thursday, February 3, 2011

In 250 Words or Less

Well, K-Love put out a challenge and I accepted.  They wanted stories in 250 words or less (Hahaha, that is not very many words and I am concise-ness challenged anyway, so it was UBER hard for me!) describing listener's love stories.   (K-Love is a Christian radio station for those of you wondering what I am talking about).  One love story will be chosen and Matthew West will write a song based on the love story, and he will play it live in the studio on the morning of Valentine's Day.  Now, we traditionally think of love stories as those romantic he proposed on a beach at sunset with the waves lapping at our feet after a romantic candle lit dinner of caviar and cheese on a blanket in warm sunny Florida....blah blah blah.  They said, however, to think outside the box of other love stories, maybe our parents, grandparents, or love between a mother and son or father and daughter and ...you get the point here. Well, I thought of my kids and my blog and how they show me day after day what love is in many many ways.  So, in 250 words exactly, with a couple of contractions and after I figured out that "&" didn't count as a word....this is what I came up with as my greatest love story....


Before I was even pregnant with my daughter, my son spoke of her, so sure he would have a beloved sister someday.  During pregnancy, he would sing to her, rub my tummy & tell her stories.  He bought her Dolly with brown pigtails, while I was convinced her pigtails would be blonde.  She was born 6 weeks early, with a full head of BROWN hair.  Four years old, he charmed the nurses with his adoration of his sissy and they broke rules to let him in the nursery & hold her.  In the next few months he held her hand, laid down beside her, sang her songs & rubbed her back. He still tries to tend to her every need!  She has had a rough 1.5 years with major surgery last spring & a week in the hospital last December.  The desire of my sweet son's heart was to be with his sister in the hospital, so much so he would cry & say he wished he was sick or had surgery so he could be with her.   Her love is as deep.  After her surgery, her first movements were reaching for him.   If he isn't in the car with us, she stares at his booster singing  "Bubby, Bubby,!"  She wants to do what he does & be with him all the time.  They have their strife of course, but they always come away showing a perfect picture of love.  You can see it in his eyes, his first love is his sister.
 

That's my greatest love story. I sincerely doubt it will win and I will not cry when Matthew West does not write a song about my darling children, but it was very sweet to write it down.  They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so I obviously couldn't submit a picture:)  But, if I had been able to, here's what they would have been....


First Hug with assistance

and without assistance :)

 
One of my favorites!  He is holding her for the first time.  You can see Nurse Yvonne's hand behind Jenna's tiny, wobbly
head.


This one is my absolute favorites and if I could have picked a picture to signify my greatest love story, this would be the one!  He chose to take his nap by Jenna during her first week home.  They fell asleep just like that.
 
This video is lenthy, but it will be worth your time:) 


Like I said, my story probably won't be woven into a beautiful song by a famous Christian artist, but I think it is already a beautiful song, woven by Jesus. 





2 comments:

kristen said...

Hope this doesn't post twice. It may - I tried commenting a few minutes ago but it didn't seem to go through, but I definitely want to make sure I leave a comment because this is such a sweet post!

What an amazing love story!! Shiloh, you brought tears to my eyes! I so hope that you win the contest! I would love to hear a Matthew West song about your kids!!

Mesha said...

I LOVED THIS SHILOH! Haven't watched the video yet, but regardless of a famous song or not - it's playing in real time every day of your life - PRICELESS! ((hugs))