Dear Zoë, 

I've been thinking of you a lot today.  We both know what today was supposed to be.  The day you were dreaming of turned into the day you were dreading, and here it is, September 5th, warm and sunshiny and unassuming like it doesn't know that it's killing you that it's here.  I've been hoping you're finding yourself carried by Grace today.  I'm hoping you're feeling especially loved by The One Person who will never, ever leave you or forsake you.  I'm hoping He reaches through and speaks to you today in a hundred little ways about the good plans He has for your life.  Thank you for being courageous enough to step in front of the camera a few weeks ago.  I found you to be so very brave and so very beautiful.

There is so much of life for which I have no answers.  I don't have answers and reasons and neat boxes with labels to stuff the bad things into so I never have to feel them again.  I've wished I did.  I often think our best bet is to just look up.  When we look up, our hearts open to received the good things He is giving, and somehow in the middle of everything that's broken, something beautiful starts to grow.

I hear you're doing that - looking up - and I think there's a new sort of you that's grown even more beautiful through this sadness.

I know you know because you are making brave decisions every day, but I just wanted to say that your story is beautiful and it is so far from over.  Something more beautiful than you can imagine is growing out of the broken places, and someday you'll find that where there were pieces of a shattered life there's now a garden.

Keep showing up to your story, because it's a good one, and the best is yet to be.

Thank you so much for stepping in front of the camera for me, Zoë.  It was an honor to take your portrait, and I truly can't wait to see the good things that God has up His sleeve for you.  You are loved.

- DG