1 Corinthians 13:13

Kara and I recently started exchanging letters pretty much every time we see each other, and in her first letter, at the end, she shared a scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:13 which says "... and these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love." This verse also happens to be the life verse of my momma's adopted daughter Eryka, who was born addicted to meth and cocaine. she was a miracle baby. she was born with a type of sleepapnia that left her with out control of breathing. She was on a respirator and all kinds of tubes. The first time my adopted momma saw Eryka was in the prenatal unit of the hospital. Her son Ben was in there born I believe 3 weeks early. you couldn't see Eryka's face through all the tubes and hospital equipment, but Lori (my adopted momma) noticed that all the nurses and technicians all had a special bond with her. Lori was horrified when Eryka was moved to a different hospital. After Ben was brought home, neither parent, Lori, or her husband Jeff, could stop dwelling of little Eryka; so when chance came and a nurse mentioned that Eryka needed a home, Jeff immediately agreed that they needed to find her and give her that home. Several days, weeks, and months went by before they found little Eryka's caseworker. Lori was aloud to go and visit her in Oklahoma city once a week for 2 hours. eventually she was finally aloud to bring the amazing miracle baby home. Eryka lived for a few more years, before she died. During those years, she made a difference to many, many people. Lori and I spend a few hours discussing baby Eryka a few nights ago, and one story that really got me went thus: Lori was having a garage sale, and Eryka was in a playpen outside with her. A lady walks up to Eryka, and asks for her story. After Lori tells her all about Eryka, this lady responds with "I just have to pray for her", now all during this garage sale Lori's sale was busy, but while this lady was praying not one person was there, except one other lady who was praying in agreement to the first lady. also on several instances people have stopped them to say that Eryka could see angels, and momma tends to agree. On the day before Eryka died, Lori took her to a speech appointment, and on her way from leaving she accidentally taps this man's bumper, it was an older truck, but you could tell that he took immaculate care of it, it was custom painted and everything. she took the time to write a note leaving her name and number. later that night this man called, and through many "i'm so sorry"'s from Lori he managed to get a word in edge wise and say "I don't want any money or insurance, I just wanted to call and say thank you, not many people would have taken the time to leave a name and number nowadays." the day after Eryka's obituary ran in the paper, Lori got a call from her mother saying that an angel had been to visit them. when she got home her mother said that an angel had come to the door and held up the article asking if Eryka was their baby. when informed that she was, he handed her a 100 dollar bill. Lori knew that the money was not hers and had already given it away. but that night she prayed and prayed that God would make known who the mystery man was. well God did make it known, and it was the man who's truck Lori had hit. anyways the reason I took the time to write these stories down, was to point out that even though Eryka is dead her memory lives on. she continues to teach me about faith, hope and love daily. I never met her, but i feel as if i know her personally. I firmly believe that Eryka was with us the night Lori and I discussed her, it was a very emotional night for both Lori and I, and I felt as if we had been blessed by both god's presence as well as Eryka's. There is one more Bible verse that I am reminded of every time I think of either Eryka or Kara (the girl of my dreams) and it is my life verse: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."  I hope this blog helps someone besides me and I sincerely hope that the story of Eryka helps others learn of faith, hope and greatest of all of them love.