I Knew Her When

A gifted student. A kind junior high girl (more a rarity than it should be). A godly young lady. Our favorite Virginia babysitter. A great soccer player. A dedicated worker. A faithful finisher of assignments. A considerate friend. A joyful spirit. A reliable actress on the high school stage.

Jamie Newton.

What a good kid.

That's what we used to think.

And now we can say . . .

What a great grown-up.

It was so much fun for our family to load up the Suburban this weekend and drive a little bit into the North Carolina hills to meet Jamie and her equally cool husband of four months, Cole, for a little fall-weather-enjoying, catch-up-on-your-life-chatting, tour-Gardner-Webb-University-walking kind of day.

I met Jamie when she was in seventh grade in my English class. And Bible class. And theatre program. (It was a small school, demanding multi-tasking at its finest. Or worst.)

(I know - it makes me old!)

And our family fell in love with her family.

What a pleasure - really, a pleasure - to watch Jamie grow up, mature, have roots and make a difference.

To even have a role in her journey, however small it may have been, is an incredible blessing.

And it made me proud just to hear about her job and her experiences and her outlook and her heart for serving others and her love of Christ.

I thought about all the things her mom and dad did well.

And the high school that Jamie attended.

And how all of our lives ebb and flow into and out of one another's lives all the time.

Ebb. And. Flow.

And we seldom know what the end will look like.

Or the roles we will play.

But what a spectacular moment just to see a life headed in the right direction. A series of choices made that honor God and the reward of those choices plain on her sweet and pure face.

Yeah, the Keigleys love Jamie Newton. And Cole Harden.

So - Newton parents . . . guess who we will be turning to for that parenting advice now.