This is my friend, Julie, and her three adorable daughters.

Today is Julie’s birthday and she is spending it in a nice, comfortable hospital bed, complete with tubes and beeps and a beautiful gown with a bow all tied.

Her heart is bigger than Dallas and for that, I am so very grateful and privileged to know firsthand.

It is also a little ill and being tended to by a cardiologist, nurses, and a loving family.

I am grateful for a lady who has anxiety about a crowd of unknown people, just like me, so that we attracted and friended in a corner of a big room in Colorado one summer.

I am grateful she loves birds more than I do, because her love is contagious, and I caught it.

I am grateful that she taught me how to Facetime.

I am grateful that when I am around her, I feel loved and I feel normal.

I am grateful that her husband kind of sort of works with my husband – otherwise, we would have never met.

I am grateful that David treats her like a princess and is not leaving her bedside because he loves her truly.

I am grateful that she has three girls who I’m sure are in her hospital room with her, making her feel very loved and special right now. I can imagine the wisecracks but I can also imagine the heartwarmth.

I am grateful she has parents and in-laws who are supportive and helpful in her absence and love those girls fiercely.

I am grateful that she is my friend and is where she needs to be on this birthday.

Happy birthday, dear Julie. Much love and prayers…from me to you.