The Little MK Who Got Away

Sunday, March 7, 2004. A big, big day...

You joined our family that Sunday morning, eleven years ago today.

For your Daddy, it was love at first sight...

But everyone seemed to agree you were beautiful. Your Missionary Grandpa...

And Missionary Grandma...

And your big MK brothers, well...your big brothers were enraptured. It was beautiful to watch them as, enthralled, they held you for the first time. They kept making little, tender cooing sounds as they marveled at...you. 

Three days later, you had grown so much. The littlest MK (Missionary Kid), you were. Everyone thought you were a "keeper"...

But instead, you were the one that got away...

At almost three months old, you were already a dazzling little strawberry-blonde princess in white:

You were growing so fast! So very fast!

So fast, you...

...You just couldn't stay in your body. 

So you beat us all...beat us to the breath-taking presence of the loving, holy One on Whose mission we're laboring. You got there so fast, you even beat your Grandma there, though she caught up a while later.

Kara Elyse Nix – Mar. 7, 2004-June 3, 2004

You probably don't know it yet, but you've got two more handsome brothers now, and one other sibling you may have met, because, well – you're in the same place. Beating me out again, because I never got to meet your sibling...yet. But I will. Daddies care about their kids.

Today, eleven years later, your daddy moves a little more slowly. My knee doesn't work perfectly all the time, so I can't run as fast.

But I still run, every day; and don't worry – I'll make it there. Our Father promised me I would, after all, if I'll just stay in the race. So I keep running - and obeying the rules, and staying within the lines. I can't afford to not make it to where you are; I wouldn't miss it for the world. 

And time is getting short, and the finish line is in sight – so start looking! ... 'Cause I'll be looking for you. After all, you still owe me a goodbye hug  and kiss, and Daddies don't forget those things.

I know you won't look like this anymore,

...nor, probably, like any of the eleven-year-olds that I see and that make me wonder what you might look like now...

But the Scriptures tell me I will know you, and you'll know me – 

So don't forget to look, little MK that got away!

Happy 11th birthday, Kara Elyse...Daddy's little Sweetheart.