Reunion Quotes
"We just lost our car, Erin. So we give Candy and Dave the money and then what? The next day they ask for another five thousand and where does that leave us?"
"I want that little girl, Erin. I want her as badly as you do."
"If we didn’t want the baby, we wouldn’t be here."
"Everything’s going to be okay—I can feel it."
"We’re in this thing. You and me and Scary. No turning back now."
"I rocked every one of you kids in this chair."
"Everything would be all right. The baby would be fine and Candy wouldn’t change her mind."
"An aching in her arms, an emptiness that only a baby could fill."
"You always look beautiful when you're working."
"Pray for me, John. I don't want them to know something's wrong. Not yet."
"We can beat this thing; I know we can. You've gotta believe that, okay?"
"God . . . heal me. Let them open me up and find that it's all a mistake, please, God . . . If not, God . . . then give me the strength. Please give me the strength."
"This was how she'd always dreamed it might be—married to Ryan, raising children at home without a career to sidetrack her."
"If only they could stay in this moment forever and ever, never sit down to dinner and eat the meal and come to the dreadful part at the end where they had to tell the kids the truth about Elizabeth."
"The conversation wore on, and finally when they were almost finished eating, Landon leaned around Cole and elbowed Ashley lightly in the ribs."
"I’m not HIV-positive. The new tests show I’m negative."
"And negative means Mommy’s very healthy, honey. We don’t have to worry about her getting sick."
"It’s okay. I’ll tell them; all you have to do is go out there and stand beside me."
"We’ve always shared the good and the bad, Elizabeth. The kids wouldn’t want anything less."
"Your mother and I have something to tell you. It’s the real reason we asked you to come tonight."
"Your mother found a lump in her breast a couple weeks ago. She had some tests done and we found out the news Friday. The cancer’s back."
"A double mastectomy. Dr. Steinman is hopeful that he’ll get it all if they operate quickly."
"They would survive whatever came because they were Baxters, and that’s what Baxters did."
"God doesn’t want you to be stronger than temptation, He wants you to be smarter than it."
"Whatever we do when this is over, Elizabeth, we must always put God first."
"If it be your will, Lord, let me meet him again someday. Please, God..."
"The entire situation was a tragedy, and Elizabeth didn’t wait one hour after returning home before calling John."
"There was something she could do after all. She could pray."
"I don’t want to talk about how I’ll look or feel after the surgery. I want to talk about last night’s dinner and the kids and our summer reunion, because God alone knows whether I’ll feel up to talking about it come tomorrow."
"I want to know how you’re feeling, and I want to tell you how wonderful you are, how brave."
"You were the first boy I ever talked to, and nothing could’ve kept me from you. Nothing."
"Why should we spend it borrowing pain from tomorrow?"
"Fight this thing, okay? I need you; we all need you."
"She wanted to see it all, feel it all, taste it all."
"If she had to trade them for a life with John and her children, she would do it gladly."
"The game Dave and Candy were playing was illegal."
"People go to prison for this sort of thing, Erin. You made the right choice by calling."
"He has a baby for you, Erin. I believe that much."
"None of them—Ashley most of all—had any idea how they’d survive without her."
"You are beautiful, daughter. I knit you together in your mother’s womb."
"God, you know this little baby who may or may not be born yet, Candy’s baby."
"I think God must be up there shaking his head, wondering why we chose that as such a dividing line among peoples of the world."
"We could’ve divided ourselves by eye color or height or hair color just as easily."
"The idea was ludicrous, the same way any discrimination based on color was ludicrous."
"Angels must’ve been watching over that baby."
"Pray for a miracle, sweetheart. A miracle bigger than anything God's given us before."
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
"I’ve wanted to be a Mommy ever since I got married."
"Every time I brought a baby home from the hospital I felt that this was the reason God had given me life."
"We didn’t come here to make funeral arrangements, so please, tell us what to do next. That’s your job."
"God can cure me with another round of chemo or radiation; he can give us the miracle we’re praying for."
"As long as we live—even when we’re old and gray, he always will. He’s that kind of God."
"Please, God. I’ll spend the rest of my life being thankful."
"If God was so good at putting people in the right places, how come he didn’t put his parents in the same village as he was?"
"His parents had followed their hearts, given their lives to something they loved. If they died doing it, so be it."
"No matter what, you’re our son. You’ve always been our son, and you always will be."
"A woman who had loved him enough to give him to the people he called his parents."
"Don’t be afraid, daughter. Remember... not your will, but mine be done."
"God’s driving...No matter how scary the ride gets, God’s in control, and in the end he’ll get you home safely."
"He was adopted. His parents would always be his parents, but somewhere out there was a woman who had given birth to him."
"Do not be afraid...Not your will, but mine be done."
"The picture was gone, lost in the trash, probably in a landfill by now."
"But still he would pray, because otherwise he had no hope at all."
"The very thought of it made her feel stronger than she had in a week."
"Miracles didn't always come in the shape of a dramatic healing."
"The medication would make her sleepy, too groggy to get out of bed most of the time."
"No matter how great she was, his thoughts of Sarah vanished as soon as he opened his trailer door."
"He always has a plan for us; either to give us a hope and a future here in this world. Or—or in the next."
"He alone knows the number of our days, and until that moment, he always has a plan for us."
"What kind of love was that, anyway? A crazy, life-defining type of love that would see them through whatever the road ahead held."
"God directed my steps even when I was running, so that one day you would find me and you would find my son, and we’d never, ever be apart again."
"In my life you are the sunrise and this is only the beginning."
"I wanted to write you each a letter, but instead I wrote three."
"I hate talking about being gone from you; I’m not afraid to die, but I can’t imagine a week without you, let alone years and decades."
"I don’t think I’ve ever loved you more than I do right now."
"Listening to you talk about the past, laughing together. This was why I wanted a reunion in the first place."
"If he’s close by or far away, you see him. God, how much I’d love to talk to him just once before I die, to tell him we never forgot about him."
"Find your faith, Dayne . . . find your faith."
"I’ve been begging God that you would find me. Ever since I found out I was sick, I ask my Jesus every day, ‘Please . . . bring me my firstborn. Before I die, let me meet him.’"
"I want to start planning the next reunion. The one that will last forever and ever."
"I'm glad you met him, honey. That's what you prayed about."
"You'll be right here, woven into the center of all I am."
"You'll feel me when you hold Maddie's hand and when any of them gives you a hug."
"God has been faithful to the end; John had no doubts, no questions."
"Don't try to understand God. If he could fit into your idea of him, he'd be too small for any of us."
"We love them, yes, but they are on loan from God."
"Your mother has written you a letter, one that each of you will get a copy of."
"With Christ there will also be hope and forgiveness and faith and love."
"And most of all, because of what he did on the cross, there will always be his amazing, unlimited, perfect redemption."