Jimmy was usually a step or two ahead of her emotions. He ran toward trust and faith and hope before she could catch up with him. She often felt like she had to carry a little more because he couldn’t pick up his side of the emotional load. That feeling both comforted and frustrated her because she needed his strength but she also needed him to be human. When he walked around the corner, she tried to smile.

Jimmy rubbed her arms and she felt like she was going to melt into the floor, the feelings were so strong. “I can’t go home,” she managed.

“I know,” Jimmy said. “You stay here. I’ll go home and get our stuff.”

She looked into Jimmy’s eyes and dared to ask the hardest question that came. “Are we doing the right thing?”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “Yes.”

“Okay,” she said, hugging him tightly and letting her tears come. “Okay.”

“He’s going to be all right,” Jimmy said into her ear.

She gathered herself and when she finally let go, she decided she would hold on to Jimmy’s confidence, even if her own wavered. “Okay.”

“I’ll be right back,” Jimmy said.

After he left, she dried her tears and put on her most hopeful face and walked back into the room. David protested and said she didn’t have to stay, that she should go home and rest.

“Your dad and I are going to be here for you,” she said.

The words and the way she said them seemed to comfort David. He grabbed the TV remote and flipped through channels, then turned it off.

“If the surgery is tomorrow morning,” David said, “do you think I’ll still be able to wrestle on Monday? I mean, it’s the finals.”

She patted his arm. “Let’s just take this a step at a time, okay?”

David nodded. “Yeah. That’s a good idea.”

In the morning, after a night of trying to sleep in chairs and moving to the floor, Susan and Jimmy met with Pastor Jeff while the nurses prepped David for surgery. Their pastor had been there late the night before and prayed with them and was now back a few hours later. When did the man sleep?

Jeff opened his Bible to a passage in Isaiah, chapter 26. Susan knew verses 3 and 4 well. G had given her a handwritten card shortly after Michael’s birth years earlier. She had that same worn card stuck to the mirror in her bathroom.

You will keep in perfect peace

all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Trust in the Lord always,

for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.