Life throws us curves II

Again, I've been away from this blog for over a week. In fact, I haven't been here too much in the past three weeks. As I wrote in the first Life post, my husband's sister suffered an aneurysm and was in the hospital. Last Thursday, all tubes were removed and she was moved into Palliative Comfort Care at the hospital where they tend to your needs and that of the family until you pass or are healed. His sister went to be with the Lord Sunday morning about 11:40. We all had left to bathe and rest a little and only her son was with her. We think she knew her husband was gone and she was alone with her son.

So many things have transpired in these three weeks in NICU and Palliative Care. We have met so many people who were facing the same things we have faced. As one man put it, "we have family here, although we had never met before". And, you become entwined in other families sorrows. Everyone is praying for everyone else. You can hardly wait to see the person to whom you have become a close friend in order to find out the latest prognosis.

We saw people come in with accident victims who were badly hurt, even brain dead. We saw many come in with aneurysms. And, these things are not limited to older people. We were surprised at the number of young people in NICU with a sickness that meant they would probably never come out unless God intervened.

The one thing that has stayed with me is the amount of faith in those waiting rooms. Just Saturday, a mother stopped us in the lobby of Palliative Care and said she remembered us from NICU. Her daughter, who is only 29, married with 2 children, had a bad car accidedt and is brain dead, but still alive. Her heart is still beating. She told us, without faith, she'd not be able to handle the things they have gone through. But, she went on to say that, one day, God sent a messenger to pray with them and, after the prayer, she said she felt a peace come over her. She realized God didn't let her daughter go immediately, but gave them time to come to terms with her impending death. I believe the families of these patients are testifying to people there that possibly do not know the Lord. They don't know who is a Christian and who is not, but they are unashamed in telling their story as to how God is helping them deal with their problems.

We left a 20 year old young man in NICU who may or may not come out. His Mom and Dad were taking him to work, a tire blew, and it threw them in the path of an 18 wheeler. But, we went back to visit another friend, and found this young man's uncle there. I asked about his nephew, and he started talking about God. He said he would never know why this happened, but he knew it was for a purpose. He said perhaps it was to draw him back to God - that he had strayed since his Mom died, but had been seeking Him again since his nephew was thrown out of the car.

There were so many similar incidents, so many people's lives that have been completely changed due to those accidents. But, the majority of them still hold on to their faith,never buckling under when they hear the words, 'you know he/she may not ever leave the hospital'. Perhaps they feel this themselves, but they continue to have faith in the Lord. It takes a strong dedicated Christian to never waiver.

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