FOREWORD<br >by RON PATTY<br >As I look back on Sandi s life， and thinking of how words have af-<br >fected her through the years， I can t believe how important words<br >were in her development.<br > Even before Sandi was born， when her mother， Carolyn， was three<br > months pregnant with our first child， I can still remember her suf-<br > fering those hard labor pains of an impending miscarriage. Carolyn<br > and I were in Chicago in the midst of a quartet tour when， early<br > one morning in our hotel room， the pains became stronger and<br > stronger. Carolyn called over to me and said， "Honey， please pray<br > for me， I think I m about to have a miscarriage" I can remember<br > going to Carolyn， hugging her closely， and praying with a word，<br > "Please!" And before I could even say， Amen"， Carolyn said， "Honey，<br > the pains have stopped!" Then I sighed， "Thank you， God" I won t<br > take time to tell them， but there were many other miracles corm.<br > nected with Sandi finally making it into this world. Needless to say，<br > every time I hear her sing， two words keep ringing through my mind:<br > "Please" and "Miracle".<br >I also remember when Sandi was about two years old and was begin-<br >ning to sing on a given pitch. She never was interested in singing<br >"La-la-la" or other meaningless sounds， but was always wanting<br >to sing with real words. Her first solo at two and a half years 01d<br >was "Jesus Loves Me" those words have been the basis of Sandi s<br >life ever since.<br >Another observation that comes to mind is that Sandi didn t play<br >much with dolls because they couldn t respond to her words. qArhy<br >mess around with them when they don t respond to me?" was<br ><br >