While we were in the hospital we played a lot of music for Nora. It seemed to relax her, perhaps reminding her of home and her baths. Bath time is often coupled with the Heavenly Lullabies station on Pandora. One evening we had Nora sitting up in her Bumbo and put the music on for her. The very first song that came on was called Miracle by Renee & Jeremy. These are the same artists that sang the rendition of Three Little Birds that played in the background of the video I took while Norns was asleep. Now after hearing this second song by them, I am completely in love with them. Miracle came on again during a baff session. What a perfect song for her ~







Imagine how the chills ensued when I went to purchase the song off of iTunes…

Notice the release date… Nora’s birthday… 5 years before she was “released”. {!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!}

In addition to the music, Nora got lots of pretty pictures delivered to her. Like the music, the pictures added some cheer to her hospital crib. There were three paintings in particular that we were especially touched by.

These were sent to us by a sweet family who has been on their own incredible faith-building journey. Their son Brodie was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011 when he was just 5 years old. They also happen to live in our old house. Brodie’s mom has kept a beautiful account over each step of their faith walk to remission, over relapse, and to remission again on her own blog. With Sarah’s permission here is a behind-the-scenes excerpt about these precious paintings:

Last week the kids and I sat down at the dining room table, water and brushes and paper and bright rainbow colors spread around us, and we set to work painting some pictures for a little friend who is in the hospital. Brodie dipped his brush in the green and began creating the leaves of an apple tree. Jenna dove into the red and painted the gentle, curvy lines of a heart. I brushed water on my paper and then carefully placed purple and watched it spread. We are not quiet painters, and we talked about our friend and our hope that she would feel better and our plan to deliver some smiles. I watched as the apple tree grew and as the heart took shape, and we waited (not so patiently) for the colors to dry.

I am! (And I’m thankful for little boys with smudgy, painty elbows who are walking reminders of Truth…who paint pictures that may only be beautiful to their mommas and have no idea that their beautiful messiness was just what their mommas needed to see. 🙂 )

Love this!!

Brodie’s painting features Nora swinging in the apple tree. Perhaps it’s the same apple tree in Brodie’s backyard that Nora’s brother and sister used to play in when they were little. Thank you, Brodie for letting Nora have a turn in it too! Would you believe that another “perfect song” came on while we were in the hospital called Apple Tree?

Apple Tree
by Justin Roberts

I am a little apple seed
Sitting on the ground waiting to be
An Apple tree, an apple tree

Everyone tells me that I’m oh, so small
And I’m never going to grow to be big and tall, big and tall
But I tell them wait and see

Cuz I’m gonna be like an apple tree.
And I’m going to let all my branches run free.
And I’m going to reach way up to the sun and open my arms for everyone

And like an apple is sweet I’m gonna be so sweet
And like an apple shines in the sun,
Shine the light* on everyone

Cuz I’m an A.P.P.L.E., apple tree
An A.P.P.L.E.

* The name “Nora” means “light”







“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
(Matthew 5:14-16 NIV)

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
(Psalm 17:8 NIV)