My friends Charlie and Ali are experiencing a lot of pain right now. Their infant daughter is having her heart worked on. Charlie and I are the same age and have known each other for several years. He’s one of the most likable and funny people that I know. And since I’m going to have a daughter in not too long, I’ve followed their experience with more intensity and compassion.

This is what he wrote at five this morning:

As a parent, you just want to see you child smile, you want to hold your child, you want to smell their sweet breath on your face, and you can’t, and you don’t know when you will be able to again and the possibility is more prevalent than ever that you might not, don’t mistake that as a loss of hope, understand it as when you are face to face with losing a child, it is a horrifying experience, one that I hope you never have to experience, and if you have you understand.

I am asking all of my friends and family who visit this site to pray for Charlie, Ali, and their baby Cate. These are fantastic people who’ve given much to the world. They are suffering and they need our prayers. Even if you are a stranger who just randomly came upon this site, and you have know idea who Charlie is, I’m asking you to pray too. There are people who’ve prayed for you in the past and you never knew about it. We owe it to one another. We’re all in this together. We have to help each other however we can.

If you can, leave a word of encouragement on their blog: http://catecantrell.blogspot.com