Tender Journeys by Janelle Jamison & Tracie Peterson

Author:Janelle Jamison & Tracie Peterson [Jamison, Janelle & Peterson, Tracie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786294695
Goodreads: 1927584
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 1993-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Spring 1893

Jenny Monroe brushed on the final touches of whitewash and stood back to survey her work. Three small graves gleamed from the outlines of whitewashed rock. There were also whitewashed crosses at the head of each grave; faithful reminders that her children dwelt in heaven with their Creator.

Wiping the final smudges of paint from her hands, Jenny picked up her things and moved toward the adobe barn. Children’s laughter rang sweet from the open pasture behind the two-story adobe house. Glancing out across the fields, Jenny counted the children.

One, two, three—her eyes continued their search until she counted seven. Jenny laughed as the children played the games David had taught them. He loved these young waifs as much as she did. Many had come to them as sickly babes—some as the results of epidemics that claimed their parents’ lives—but all of them had one thing in common: they were Indian.

Jenny loved them as much as the three little ones she’d borne and buried. They were God’s blessings.

When the children caught sight of Jenny, the sky filled with little brown hands waving with glee. To some, Jenny was the only mother they’d ever known, and they loved her as if they’d belonged to her forever.

How many children had crossed the steps of the orphanage and mission she and David tended? Jenny thought back over the years she and David had worked to establish their ministry with the Indians.

She had to laugh to herself as she went back to work. She had once hated the Indians, blaming them for the death of her family. Now she was mothering seven of them and working with the tribe of local Pueblo. God had been so good to her, but the transition hadn’t come without a price.

Within the first four years of her marriage to David, Jenny had developed a strong, sustaining faith in God. She devoted herself to prayer, and each time she’d found herself with child, her faith and belief had been sorely tested.

She remembered the anticipation and longing both she and David had shared as they’d awaited the birth of their first child. Having witnessed Katie’s death not long before, they’d also been anxious about the delivery. When birthing day came, Jenny survived. Her baby did not. Jenny would never forget the devastation and heartbreak of burying that little babe who’d never known the sunlight on his face.

To watch their fears be realized had taken its toll on Jenny’s and David’s renewed hope. He realized he wouldn’t lose Jenny as Daniel had lost Katie. The experience also helped him understand why Daniel’s despair had so easily turned to bitterness.

Jenny’s emotional recovery was much slower, however. She sat for hours in the room that would have been the nursery. Sometimes she cried, other times she ranted, but finally she accepted the event, remembering Romans 8:28: “All things work together for good to them that love God. . .” She still wasn’t sure what possible good could come from the death of a baby.

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