remembering a friend

Lizzie Ting Ting: with us from December 2004 to January 2008.

One year ago today we had to say goodbye to a friend. We had only had Elli home for a couple of days when we noticed that Lizzie wasn't doing well, and she died shortly after that.

For those of you who haven't heard the story of Lizzie I will share it again. It is a very sweet story of love and faith. Bradley learned at a very young age that prayers are heard and answered, but he also knew that sometimes prayers take time. When he was barely able to talk he added one line to his prayer that he repeated every night. It was either, "we thank thee that we can have a baby come to our home", or the more specific version, "we thank thee that I can have a baby sister". What does that have to do with a Lizard you ask? Well, I think Bradley was getting lonely after praying for over a year for a sibling. He had also discovered his love for animals, particularly reptiles. He wanted a pet, so he came up with the idea to pray for one. Somewhere around October or November of 2004 he began adding this to his nightly prayers, "we thank thee that Santa will bring me a lizard for Christmas". (He continued to pray for a sister as well.) Every night he prayed with such faith. He always prays like he knows that it is going to happen, and he is just fine to let it be on Heavenly Father's time.


Well, Christmas arrived at our home, and Santa was very generous with Bradley. However, there was no lizard under the tree. Bradley was okay with that. He even said that maybe Santa would bring it next time. He was disappointed, but hadn't lost his faith.

A couple of days later we loaded up the car to head down to Wayne's parents house for their family Christmas gathering. As part of the family party, we all squeeze into the family room and open gifts from each other. The tree as always was a lovely, full pine tree they had cut down a week or two before. There was a fire going to warm us all up, and create that cozy Christmas feeling. (although over 40 people in one room is probably cozy enough) Grandma passes the gifts out one by one so that everyone can see and appreciate what has been given to them. About half way through she said something about seeing a lizard on top one of the gifts. (Grandma and Grandpa didn't know about Bradley pryaing for a lizard, we hadn't said anything to anyone about it.) All the little boys jumped up at once and started scrambling through the remaining gifts under the tree. Wayne was the lone adult looking for the lizard under the tree, and was the one who recovered her from amongst the presents. Bradley jumped right over to him and with pure joy he declared, "Santa didn't bring the lizard to my house, he brought it to Grandma's house." How could we not bring her home after that? My father in law had told me that he had seen the lizard days before by the fire. It had found a way to get inside the house and stayed near the fireplace to keep warm. So was this just a coincidence, or a tender mercy? I believe it was a tender mercy from a loving Father who knew a little boy was lonely at home.

Lizzie was a lot of fun to watch. She loved to chase down the tiny crickets we bought for her food. She also loved to bury herself in the sand we brought back from a sand dune outside of Delta. She loved her sandstone arch, and was often on top warming herself under the lamp above her little habitat.

She was a bit tricky too. She escaped a few times, and we aren't sure how it happened, but each time it proved to be a faith promoting experience for Bradley. He would kneel down and ask for help finding Lizzie. And each time he did. I am so thankful that Heavnely Father loves his children and listens to all their prayers.

There was one demonstration of his profound love for Bradley that I will never forget. I was on strict bed rest, and so my sister offered to have Bradley come stay with her for a couple of weeks to ease our situation. Wayne was tenderly caring for me, and didn't forget to go in and care for Lizzie either. But just a couple of days before Bradley came home he must have left the top off the cage after feeding her because the next day he discovered her missing. He looked all over and couldn't find her anywhere. We thought that maybe she fell into the vent of something. So the night before Bradley came home I called him on the phone to let him know that Lizzie was lost and I didn't think we'd be able to find her. He was upset of course, but understood that it was an accident.

The next day he came home and went straight to his room. He hadn't been in there for more than a couple of minutes before he starting screaming in delight. Wayne ran back to see what was going on. It was Lizzie. She was right in plain sight sunning herself on top of a pile of books near the window. Wayne had looked there several times, but had not found Lizzie.

Bradley came out and told me that he said 2 prayers the night before asking for help finding her, he said another one in the car on the way home, and another in his room just moments before finding her. I am grateful for his example of faith, and for a loving Father in Heaven who understands the needs of ALL his children.

This photo was taken the same day that Lizzie died. I am also grateful that Bradley never gave up on praying for a little sister. I really feel that Heavenly Father helped that tiny little desert lizard live long enough so that Bradley would no longer feel lonely at home. She was with us for just over 3 years, and we have no idea how old she was to begin with, or how long desert lizards live for that matter. She was a tender mercy in many many ways.