finally - the story.....

o.k. here is the story that several people have asked me for. if you don't care to know about the way God is working in my sweet girl's life, then you might as well quit reading here! but if you want to see God at work, keep reading!

i'm assuming that if you are reading this, you have read and/or know about mary peyton's burden that she had/has for a young man who plays football for samford university. #26 jeremy richardson from moss point.

tommy and i had said before the season began that we wanted to go to a game at samford. our friend, matthew (or matt as he goes by now) malouf, plays for samford and we'd never been to that campus. so it was just a matter of finding a weekend when they would be home and ole miss would be off.

well, after the ole miss/samford game on september 13th, we decided that we wanted to go to a samford game to also meet jeremy!

through mary peyton's prayers - and i just wish you could understand how she prays...the sweetness involved..... - we have met more brothers/sisters in Christ - people we would otherwise not know this side of Heaven.

the ole miss schedule, samford schedule, and our personal schedule all worked out so that we were able to go to samford this past weekend. for their homecoming game.

about a week or two before, i sent jeremy an e-mail to let him know that we may be at the homecoming game and that we hoped we could meet him.

so friday we decided to go ahead and go to birmingham. i was able to get in touch with one of my college roommates, sarah, who lives in gardendale (just north of birmingham) with her husband matthew and their son riley. we got there late friday night, but sarah and i stayed up until about 1:30 just talking and catching up. it was so good to see her again! and to somewhat pick up where we left off! now i can't wait to go back!

saturday morning we went to riley's soccer game and hung out with them for a little while - finally getting dressed and leaving for the game.

it was so strange to leave for the game at 1:00 when the game started at 2:00. at ole miss, we are on campus a good 8 hours prior to the game and in the stands 45 min-1 hour before the game starts.

we arrived on campus and found a parking spot. tommy and i both constantly commented on how beautiful the campus was and how it really wouldn't hurt our feelings for mary peyton to choose samford one day (and it helps that it's a baptist college!). we then made our treck to the stadium. matthew had gotten us player tickets, so they were waiting on us. we just had to buy one for mary peyton.

we got to the stands and found mr bill and mrs holli so that we could sit with them. i looked on the sidelines and saw jeremy. this is when i said, "mary peyton, there's jeremy!". to which she replied, "i know, mommy. my friend jeremy is down there in his hat!".

at halftime, jeremy did not go into the locker room. tommy and i decided that this was a good time to go introduce ourselves to him. so we went down to the edge of the fence and tommy just called his name. when he turned around, he started waving and smiling. then we saw him look down to his left/our right pointing for someone to come to where we were standing.

i look up and see a sweet lady and another young man coming our way. i look back at jeremy and he says, "that's my mom!". mrs charlotte introduced herself and we instantly hugged. she thanked me and thanked me. and then she wanted to see mary peyton.

by this time, jeremy had "crutched" over to where we were. it was such a neat experience. like the story coming full circle. "that boy" from our initial prayers now not only had a name, but was real. the young man with mrs charlotte was josh, jeremy's younger brother (a junior at moss point).

jeremy's mom had a bag. she pulled something out and gave it to jeremy. he gave it to mary peyton. it was a samford hooded sweatshirt that they had gotten her. how sweet! and it came in handy - we had left her sweater in the car and it got chilly! by this time, the 3rd quarter was about to start and we decided to meet up after the game.

at the end of the game, we went down to mrs charlotte and josh. then we all walked down on the track and onto the field to talk to jeremy.

mary peyton was so teased. at first. those of you who have been around her know that she likes for you to "chase" and catch her. well, jeremy can't exactly chase her! she hung around right beside us for a while and then decided that she wanted to play with samford's real mascot, spike the bulldog. i think spike liked her as much as she liked spike! later, she got on tommy's shoulders. jeremy crutched over to her and said, "uh-huh....you can't run from me now!". mary peyton just smiled and laughed - all tickled!

while we were standing there, a lady walked up. she said, "oh, this must be that sweet mary peyton that i've heard about." i know i was just looking at her like she was crazy. "hi" she said, "ann sullivan, pat's wife. he's told me about this sweet girl praying for jeremy." so in case you haven't read my previous posts about this, this is the samford head coach's wife.

mrs charlotte, jeremy, josh, tommy, and i all stood around talking. for nearly an hour. they said that coach sullivan did bring the e-mail to the hospital. and that it meant so much to them that mary peyton was praying on jeremy's behalf.

i truly believe that God allowed this injury to happen to jeremy for a reason. i hate that it has messed up football for him, but this may be the only way that God could bring our two families together. i mean really - how else would we have met?

i believe that God allowed mary peyton's spirit to know that when jeremy got hurt, she was able to recognize that it was a brother in Christ who indeed did need her prayers.

i believe that God did not take this burden off of mary peyton's heart because jeremy DID need her prayers and God knew that if He could show His power through my child - my 3 1/2 year old baby - then MY faith and walk would be even stronger.

i believe that God has given mary peyton a precious gift through prayer and i pray that she will always have the faith that she has now. she prays without doubting - she prays believing. she has prayed for jeremy BELIEVING that God is going to heal his leg. and i, along with mrs charlotte, believe that these prayers have been critical in jeremy's healing.

have you ever had those people that you just knew you would be friends with when you met them? that is the way we felt when we met the richardsons. it was as though we had known them forever. i hate that we didn't get to meet mr richardson - he had to work. but we plan to meet him soon.

the richardson's are fellow Christians. their walk is evident and i know that God knew that we needed each other.

i talked to mrs charlotte for nearly an hour tonight. the conversation finished with love you's and can't wait to see you's. i love when God brings friends into your life who make you a better person.

there are so many more points to this story, but i don't know how to organize it right! we talked to jeremy tonight, too. he is getting better - he even walked (lightly) without crutches just to show us how he's recovering. i told him to hang on to the crutches as long as he needed them! and he told tommy that the p.t.'s are killing him (mary katherine, can i get an amen?).

so, as i've said before, please continue to pray for jeremy and his knee. it was worse than what we thought - it was the acl, mcl, and pcl. good grief. but he IS recovering and his attitude is amazing.

i hope you've enjoyed this long post, but it's the story - at least part of it. i wish i could put everything in my mind on here, but, like i said earlier, i can't get it all organized!