A new friend.

Not sure if you all caught a relatively new commentator here on Kyrie's blog, but Amy Nelson has fast become a new friend of Kyrie's.

It is rare that someone outside an intimate circle of family & friends allows himself or herself to partake in their journey, but we've witnessed it over & over again here in the last year. In fact, we've wanted and prayed for just that. But how to make that invitation real? How to connect in a way that alters someone's thinking and that initiates action not for our benefit but for their good?

Somehow, some way it has happened.

This past Sunday, Amy spoke at the Mulvane United Methodist Church during their JAM (Jesus And Me) service. It's a casual, contemporary program sustained by incredibly talented musicians and a community of Christians sharing the Bible as it applies to everyday life. As the keynote speaker for that Sunday, Amy shared her introduction to Kyrie and subsequent series of godwinks, which could be described as divine coincidences, but frankly, I don't really believe in coincidences. ;)

For Amy, a mother of three boys, it started with a simple e-mail forward about our pink bracelets and escalated into finding a brand new friend in Melissa and carrying Kyrie's story into a public presentation. Can you believe that?!?!? Amy shared how conflicted she had been deciding whether or not she was the right person to tell Kyrie's story as well as the story of her dear friend who tragically lost a teenage daughter last summer. Amy had not lost a daughter. She was not a family member. Who was she to deliver a message about these girls?

She was precisely the right person, that's who.

Her experience, her message, I believe, was the message of empathy and compassion. She, a total stranger turned kindred spirit, is an example for the person who just stumbled onto this blog today, who is reading this story for the very first time and who is wondering what on earth this little girl means to him or her.

Of course, the presentation was difficult to get through, both for us and for Amy, but the comfort came as fast as the tears. Delivered with such kindness and love, it was as if Amy had been with us the whole time. She was just as confused and hurt by God's will as we are, and she, too, is trusting in the promise, just as we are.

That's why, at the close of her presentation, she beautifully sang Natalie Grant's "Held." When I say "beautifully," I mean "incredibly," "amazingly" and "wonderfully." How she got through it, I'll never know. To the person at the light switch: Thank you for dimming the lights. It helped all of us.

Amy says that there is a photo of Kyrie hanging on her fridge now. Just like family, no? Thank you, Amy. Thank you for caring, listening and answering your call. Amazing.

That's the take-away from all of this. The Kyrie Foundation was started because we want to end the decimating pain that pediatric brain cancer causes families. We began the foundation with an order of t-shirts and a truckload faith that others may want to join the fight. This open invitation is really an open door into our spiritual home, where our hearts struggle, our ideas materialize and our hope prevails. And one by one, the others are coming. Thank you. Oh, you have no idea how we thank you.

With Kyrie, she wasn't the first child to be lost to brain cancer, and as breathtakingly painful as this reads, she will not be the last. However, as a result of Jordan & Lacie sharing her story with us, she has become a touchpoint, a symbolic reference for all children battling this disease, an open door to a dialogue with God and reminder to those of us left behind that we can be a conduit for goodness & grace, if we so choose.