Sadie was our little miracle baby. Have I said that before? Maybe. But... she was and she still is a blessing from Heaven (sometimes, like right now when she is arguing with her sister, I have to remind myself of this). Sadie is a ray of sunshine with her white blond hair and her infectious smile. She keeps things lively, mostly in a good way:-).This month, as her baptism date quickly approached, we had the opportunity to listen to Sadie share her testimony and her knowledge of the gospel. She is a remarkable girl with a very sure knowledge of the love of her Heavenly Father.
Before too much time passes and the memory is blurred I need to record the testimony that Sadie shared in testimony meeting at the beginning of June.
In May Sadie bore her testimony for the first time in Sacrament Meeting. Mike has always been very strict about the children going up. He feels they really need to have an understanding of what they are doing before they bear their testimony. Hence, this was Sadie's first time and she did a lovely job describing her feelings and excitement regarding her baptism.
Skip forward to June, testimony meeting, Sadie says she has something she really wants to share. I have some trepidation, not wanting to overdue things, so I send her down the row to ask her dad (I wanted a second opinion). I am sure that he will say no and explain why so I am surprised when they talk for a bit and then Sadie heads up to the stands.
Sadie begins her testimony by telling us she had a dream about me taking the kids to the grocery store, I park and go inside and leave Jane in the car with Sadie and Ellyn. At this point I am looking over at Mike and silently mouthing the words "Did you talk to her about what she was going to say?" He mouths back "No." I am getting a bit anxious and then Sadie begins to tell the rest of her dream and tears are streaming down my cheeks because I know what she is about to say. Sadie had a dream a few months ago, I had forgotten how it began, but in her dream the van begins rolling down a hill. Jane is asleep and Sadie and Ellyn can't wake her, it is time to jump out of the van. Sadie and Ellyn jump but Sadie keeps rolling after she jumps and falls over the edge of a cliff. Suddenly Ellyn is there, holding her by the hand and pulling her to safety. This is Sadie's explanation-
"I know that Heavenly Father sent me that dream. I know that Ellyn is my angel sent to rescue me, to help me get to Heaven. I know that Heavenly Father loves her so much and that he gave her a special mind and sent her to our family so that we can love her. I know that Ellyn loves us so much and we love her.''
This is something that Sadie firmly believes and we, as a family, believe as well. When my mom asked me if I thought it meant it might be a certain time in Sadie's life I said "No." I think Ellyn's influence in our lives is a constant reminder of love, of goodness, of the promise of eternal life and the perfection of everything that is wrong with the world. Sadie has an amazing spirit, she understands so much. Beneath that wild child exterior is a tender heart and a keen mind. That girl will do wonderful things in this life and into the eternities and her sister will be right there with her.
To finish with the story, there were sniffles abounding in our chapel that day, as my friend Kristine put it "out of the mouths of babes." Mike stood and bore his testimony, sharing (which he never does publicly) his emotions over our having children in our lives. He explained that Sadie was a miracle, that we spent years trying to have a baby, that we suffered through many teary nights heartbroken that we were not able to have another child. Then, our miracle came, just before he deployed to Afghanistan we found out we were going to have our Sadie. The Lord knew the timing we would need for our family. I don't know what I would do without Jane, my little deployment husband, so much older than her siblings. Sadie, such a fun girl and a loving friend to Ellyn and Sawyer. Ellyn, our treasure and our challenge (what would I have done as a young 26 year old with three children?). Sawyer, the spirited yet mostly obedient little joy that he is to our family. We are blessed immeasurably. I pray that we will stay strong, endure to the end. I, too, know that we have a little angel that leads us down that path. For Mike and I, we have four of them.
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