My Friend, Melanie

I met Melanie when I first moved to town in 1996. I went to a "stitch in" (all day cross stitching) at a local cross stitch store and Melanie was there. She was my first friend in town and pretty much my only friend for a few years. We spent many, many hours at those Saturday stitch ins. Melanie was so good at all things crafty. Her cross stitch was always beautiful and perfect (mine wasn't). She even won ribbons in the county fair for her work. She took up painting and excelled at that as well. Melanie was a gift giver, usually giving something she had made. I remember one year when she gave half a dozen or so of her friends 12 gifts for the 12 days of Christmas. Every gift was something handmade. I have many ornaments on my Christmas tree made by Melanie, they have always been special but now even more so. She never forgot a birthday--she was way too organized for that. One year she and her mom showed up at my house with a homemade birthday cake. And it was good! She was also a great cook. Many of my favorite recipes came from her. We each had our first two children 9 months apart. She told me she was pregnant with Emily when she visited me in the hospital after I had Hannah, my first. Then, she got pregnant with Jackson right before Grace, my second, was born. When I got pregnant with my third she insisted that Tom get a vasectomy. :0) We spent a lot of time together with our babies. We weren't cross stitching anymore. Now we were fixing snacks, changing diapers, and chasing kids. She hosted a monthly playgroup, we were on the steering team at MOPS together, and celebrated every holiday with a great themed party that she always planned. At some point during those years God gave me a burden for Melanie and I prayed for the right time to talk to her about Jesus and His unconditional love for her. Not long afterward I sent her a letter (I was out of town at the time) for her birthday that sparked a series of conversations that ultimately resulted in Melanie accepting Jesus into her heart. She joined a church and quickly put her amazing organizational and craft skills to work blessing many in her church, primarily the children's ministry. God knew the difficult path that Melanie would walk and He made sure that she knew Him and had a strong faith. That faith carried her through 6 years of fighting cancer (some of those years spent in remission). She was so strong and positive through it all. I never saw her angry at the hand she'd been dealt. She chose to live her life the best she could. She was always so brave and positive. Right up to the end. She fought the good fight and when she got to heaven I am sure she heard her Lord and Savior say, "Well done good and faithful servant." She will live on in my heart and in my memories. I pray that God will allow me to be a part of her children's lives. I want to be there to tell them about their mom and to play a part in guiding them in the path she started them on. I am truly blessed to have known her.