My bold prayer

In the summer of 2014 my family went with the Ausili's to our favorite vacation spot, TN!  Our boys, Jay and Curt, had made the decision to be baptized in the river that summer.  If my memory serves me correctly I believe Mike Ausili was going to baptize the boys which clearly would have been appropriate since Mike is a believer but to throw a wrench in things, before we left Jay said he wanted his dad to baptize him.  His dad happily but quietly accepted his son's proposal.  In my heart I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do and neither were Mike and Jenny.  The beauty of having long term friends like Mike and Jenny is I could sense what they were feeling and thinking without them saying a word.  It wasn't that any of us were being judgemental or critical, it just didn't feel quite right.  And friends, I'm here to tell you that if something doesn't feel quite right, that is the Holy Spirit talking to you - Don't ignore it.  How could Mike baptize his own son when he wasn't sure of his own heart, when it came to Jesus? 
We went to TN and the baptisms never happened.  All I can say is God had a better plan, although, at the time I couldn't begin to imagine what that plan would be.  I came home from TN feeling defeated.  I thought Mike was on a journey, that he was interested in learning more about the Christian faith.  I wouldn't say I thought he was "all in" but he was going to church with us more regularly.  One afternoon I sat down with Mike and I suppose you could say I had a "coming to Jesus" discussion with him but that discussion was more of a wake up call for me than it was for him.  Mike was honest with me, as he's always been.  When I asked him if he accepted Jesus as his Lord & Savior, his response was, "I hope."  And even though he was going to church with us on occasion he said he really only went because as he aged, he figured, why not?  In that moment I felt all the hope I had for Mike drain out of me.  I was exhausted.  Mike surrounded himself with believers, his morals emulated the Christian faith and he was married to a devoted and faithful wife.  There was nothing more I could do, nothing!  But when everything around you feels hopeless, God gives us the wonderful gift of prayer.  All I had left to do was pray.  So, in the summer of 2014 I started praying a very specific but direct prayer for Mike.  It was simple, really, almost elementary like.  I prayed that God would intervene on Mike's behalf.  I had no idea what that would look like but I knew it would be bad and I promised God I would trust Him.  One of the many things I've learned on this journey is I have my own ideas and God has His.  My ideas are always way off in left field and so far off.  I'm totally comfortable in telling anyone that in reality, I know nothing!  I thought that by praying this prayer that Mike or I would get sick and that would suddenly change Mike's heart.  But God had other plans and they were way better and bigger.