How do you measure the success of a Life?

As I ask this question I first need to start by telling you a story.


There was once a little girl who came into this world as tiny as one possibly can. Alone at the hospital with no parents willing to care for her, she was connected with a couple who would grow to love this little girl as their own. Through adversity and challenges she made her way out of the hospital even though she wasn't supposed to make it at all. With a smile that would melt a rock, she worked her way into the hearts of all who knew her. I didn't know her at this time, a regret I will always have, but those who talk about her describe her as sassy and precocious. In no time at all she was the princess of the house and the Belle of the ball. She grew to love Dora and Nemo and had a special talent for talking "whale". One fateful night when she was only 5 1/2 years old her fairy tale was interrupted. A man having a diabetic attack unknowingly drove his car into her bedroom as she slept. Without oxygen for too long and damaged by the car itself, Princess Amy was severely and permanently hurt. Suffering from serious brain damage among many other things, she again faced adversity like no other. It was here that I met Amy and here that I got to know two of the most selfless, compassionate, passionate, loving people I will likely ever know. Amy's foster parents who from the moment she entered their lives were just parents to her, no "foster" needed, sat by Amy's side, prayed for her, cried for her, supported, nurtured and loved her through the roughest days she had seen yet, in her short life. And although she came home a different Amy, she came home once again to a family of brothers & sisters, aunts & uncles, grandmas & grandpa's , a mom and a dad who loved her more than life itself. Bill & Rena committed hours to her care (although describe it as no work at all.) They advocated when they had to, celebrated her successes however small and cherished her very being. For four years they worked with medical staff, school teachers, special aids, nurses, doctors ... the list could go on and on ... and through all of this many people met Amy and saw the amazing family she was so lucky to be a part of.

Last month Amy once again ended up in the hospital and this time coming home was not meant to be. She left this world last Friday to enter another place where she is free from her broken body, free of pain and free to run and laugh and play again just as she had before her accident.

As you can imagine her loss has left a huge vacant hole in the hearts of those who knew her and loved her. And yet amidst that grief her parents were able to give here the best good-bye a princess could ever ask for. A rainbow of balloons, stories of laughter and love, songs of sunshine, and an over flowing room of people that she had somehow touched in her short nine years here on our earth. And this day the question was asked to us who gathered to say farewell -- How do you measure the success of a life? Is it by our years on this earth? by the amount of things we accumulate? by the money we have in the end? by the status we earned while here? No .. it is by the number of lives you have touched and the lessons learned from your example. Well, from the people there today it is clear that Amy's success in life was off the charts. From her beautiful nine years and from her family's example we can take away so much:

Live each day well as you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Strength, determination, faith and will can take you a long way.



All people no matter what their ability or disability deserve the same love, kindness and respect


In the end it won't matter if you drove a fancy car, if you owned a fancy house, if you had the ability to buy whatever you wanted, what will matter is who you were, how you treated others, how you shared your love and how you brought joy to those around you.


In the end what is most important is family. Having people around you who love you for you, who have faith in you at all times, who are side by side with you during your struggles, who cheer for your success and who put all others before themselves = the perfect life. Amy had all this and more. I told her mom once that she was hangin on down here because she knows it can't get much better in heaven. She was blessed that first day that she was placed in their arms. No better care or love could she have gotten than from what she got from Bill & Rena.


As I sat and listened to the stories this week, and as I shed tears with those who knew Amy I so wished that I had known her before the accident and that I had spent more time with them after the accident. So often we get caught up in our lives that seem so busy and we get distracted by so many minor details that in the end really just don't matter. I hope that from this day and this princess I can learn to remember what is most important in life and I hope that by sharing her story we can keep her memory alive in all our hearts.


One of Amy's favorite thing was rainbows so I ask that next time you look upward and see one in the sky, stop to enjoy its beauty and remember that on the other side of that rainbow lives a little princess who although here for a short time in years left us a lifetime of lessons and love.


Amy I pray that you know the lives you touched, that you know how much you were loved, and that you know how deeply you will be missed. But most of all I pray that you are at peace and that you can finally find that pot of gold at the end of the most perfect rainbow.