Hi Lord!

Boy it's been a while since I have addressed you here on this website.  But, You know that I have been busy with my mother since my last post here. 

There was the time that she had gone to the hospital for her heart in my last post.  Then she had the surgery, went to a different hospital, they gave her different blood pressure medication, it made her lethargic, and the next thing that we knew, her doctor called to tell me that she could no longer live alone.  Fine, I had said...she can come and live with me in Fl.  I have wanted her to come here for almost 20 years.  No, he had said...she can no longer travel long distance.  When she was on the wrong medication, she had fallen and hurt her back and can no longer travel.  I remember feeling like someone had stabbed me in the heart.  She would have to go into a nursing home.   I remember objecting because I knew that that would be the last place that she would want to be.  I also remember Cliff and I getting into the car and driving the thousand miles to make sure that she was alright.  I remember my older brother arguing with me that I couldn't care for her and arguing back that yes I could.  Then after preparing me, he lead me to see her, and I remember seeing my once lively mother depressed and lethargic when I walked into her room at the nursing home.  I remember her eyes looking at me in disbelief.  I remember going to her and holding her in my arms and hearing her whisper into my ears....take me home with you.  I had no words for her at that moment because I knew what the doctor had said about her traveling.  I just held her with tears in my eyes...trying to hold back the floodgates that threatened to break loose.  I remember my husband stepping in to help me to pull away.  It was one of the most hardest things that I had ever done in my life.  I also remember a nurse coming into the room and using a huge machine to lift my mother from her bed to place her into her wheelchair....and I stepped out into the hallway and bawled into my husband's shoulder.  I couldn't believe what I had just seen....what my brother had tried to warn me about.  I sit here in tears as I recount this.  But, Lord, it was then that you sent me an angel in the form of a loving nurse.  She assured me that my mother was going to be just fine.  She also assured me that my mother would be able to travel sometime in the future...it might be a year or so....but that she would be able to travel again.  This angel gave me hope.  Ironically, she was going through the same thing that I was.  Her mother had moved to Florida years ago and refused to move back to where she ( this nurse) was.  I also found out that her mother lived about 45 minutes away from me.  So, she and I made a pact.  If I needed someone to get to my mother right away when I couldn't be there...she would go.  VIce versa...if she needed someone to get to her mother right away if she couldn't get there...I would go.  Lord, I know that this was Your doing...what are the chances of meeting up with this sort of situation?!  And she was there for my mother's next bout.

I remember getting the call that my mother's artery in her leg burst and that she was on her way to the emergency room....my brother had already been notified and was on his way with my sister-in-law.  This took place on Labor Day.  I remember my husband being on his computer looking for airline tickets because they had warned us that this was it.....the doctor said that it would take a miracle to save her....and I also knew that You, Lord, had warned me that something like this was about to happen...I just didn't know that it would be my mother. 

I remember getting a call from my brother telling me that she was going into surgery with an emergency team and that he had been told to tell her his goodbyes...and to not rush to get there because that was probably the last time that he had seen her alive.  I remember crying....but that dream from a few days earlier kept nagging at me.  In the dream, someone whom I loved was in a deadly situation....but an angel came to me and told me that the faith of a mustard seed would keep this person alive...I didn't know who it was.  So, I got on the computer and informed the prayer team at my church of what was going on.  Within minutes, via the Internet, my mother was being prayer for by prayer teams all over the country and possibly the world.  I was hearing encouraging words of prayer from all over...from strangers.  I kept thinking...faith of a mustard seed...that is all that she needs from me right now.  What surprised me though was that once I knew that everyone else was praying...I didn't have to pray as hard...and I knew that I knew that I knew that she was going to be alright.  Larry, had said that she would be in the operating room for about 3 hours if she was making it out alive. 

1/2 hour later after the call, I got another call.  Briefly, I feared the worst...but that mustard seed kept egging me on.  I answered the phone and he said that the doctors had already come out and were shaking their heads.  He said that they had a look of wonderment about them....but he thought the worst because her doctor had said that if they came out early that that would not be a good sign...so Larry was thinking the worst.  But, the doctor came up and shook his head.  He said that they had no explanation.  They had clamped her leg to hold back the bleeding, cleaned out some blood clots and said that the bleeding suddenly got worse.  She had already had 6 pints of blood before the surgery to keep her alive.  They were going through a lot of blood.  He said that they were getting ready to attempt to repair the artery and someone had said to brace themselves to go against the clock....but when they removed the clamp...right before their eyes.....the bleeding stopped....and the broken artery healed itself right in front of them.  They couldn't believe what they were seeing.  They looked and looked....took out some clotting...nothing broken...nothing wrong except that her skin was falling apart in their hands.....they salvaged a piece and covered the wound.  They told Larry that it had to be a miracle because nothing else could explain it.  Lord, You gave me my mother back in exchange for faith in the amount of a mustard seed....thank you for this miracle. 

Still, the doctors were not positive.  She had lost a lot of blood.  They said that if the skin didn't heal, that they would have to graft her skin...and that if that got infected....amputation on her better leg...the bad leg was in a brace from her groin to her ankle.  I didn't balk.  I told my brother that You don't do half miracles...only whole miracles.....and here it is 3 months later...and she just got a clean bill of health on her leg.  It took this long...but it is completely healed...and...she loves the nursing home.  She has a new friend in the bed next to her.  They love each other like sisters.  Lord, thank you for loving my mother like I.....scratch that.....thank you for loving my mother beyond my comprehension.  Thank you Jesus!