Guest Post by Christian's Sister Liz: Overhwelmed

Christian's sister Liz is a lovely soul. She has a delightful blog (actually many delightful blogs) called lizzy writes she posted this post yesterday and I asked her if I could re-post. The last paragraph is the dialogue of my soul right now. Thanks Liz, we are excited to see you soon!

I’m overwhelmed today by kindness. actually, let me back up. on saturday, I was overwhelmed more. attending the blissfest in downtown mesa was so wonderful – I only wish stephanie could have been there to smell the popcorn and cotton candy, watch the nienie video and see the money being raised in their honor (however, she wouldn’t have loved the major heat wave we had – fall, where are you?). we all received so much love and support and felt so happy when we let off the silhouette balloons along with lots of prayers. I walked around the carnival on saturday and talked to several people who were at the booths. I asked them how they knew stephanie and christian and more often than not, I heard, “I read her blog and felt so inspired by her”. someday, I’d like to thank the person who first thought of the blog. I doubt they had any idea the impact it would have on people’s lives (in small or great ways).
I’m overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of my beautiful cousin melissa for working her fingers to the bone (and letting her floor get sticky) by making hundreds of silhouette sugar cookies for the mindy gledhill concert. on that note, I’m overwhelmed by mindy for her effort with this concert this saturday. when the concert was in the first planning stages, my name came up in being the “nielson rep”. I tried to help out with dates, venues and whatnot but here’s the cold, hard fact – I was really lousy at it. mindy stepped up and I can’t wait to hear her amazing voice sing peace to us on saturday night.

I’m overwhelmed by a next-door neighbor who comes over about once a week to get the inside scoop on how my mom is doing. she is so attentive to our needs that she realizes that simply asking my mom that question will only give her the basic answer, “oh, I’m fine” . . . so she comes to me – I’ll tell her straight up whether or not we need meals or if we need a straight jacket to make my mom sleep in her own bed once a week (it hasn’t come to that yet, but it might).

I’m overwhelmed at how good c+s are looking everyday and even more overwhelmed that christian asks to pray with us whenever we visit him. he prays constantly and never for himself. he never complains and never asks, “why me?” he has more faith than any of us knew. from a “little sister” point of view, it’s very inspiring to watch.
saturday is going to be so amazing. I can hardly wait for saturday when I can see claire and jane and kiss their little faces and tell them how great they are. I can’t wait for jane to tell me silly things and say, “it was SOOO funny” and for claire to be shy at first and then be herself after a few minutes. I can’t wait to see them stand together on stage next to mindy gledhill while they hold hands (just as two sisters should) and sing for their mom and dad.

thanks to all of you for overwhelming me and my family with good so that we aren’t overwhelmed with the reality of the situation we find ourselves in. thank you.

by elizabeth bryant