(June 3, 2009 addition added at bottom).
This past year has been crazy. I say that without exaggeration. People at work cannot believe the amount of chaos and disruption that goes on in my life. It is getting VERY embarrassing. However, I know that someone is trying to steal my faith in God and I’m not going to let that happen. I’m not going to let all of this cloud my trust in God. I’m not going to let it depress me and shadow my spirit and therefore my ability to continue the work God has for me. To help other people and share the good news.
In October most of us got sick. It’s to be expected since I teach at 2 schools, my husband at another and my oldest goes to a third school. Each school has it’s own set of germs. We usually get them all.
It is a given that with every incident we prayed, and shared prayer:
Just before Christmas break my youngest came down with a fever, aches, headache, cold…We were headed to NY to spend Christmas with my in-laws. By the time we got there, my middle child had started and I was next. No one else got sick, Thank God and we were done by Christmas day.
Super Bowl Sunday (Feb 1, 2009)- my youngest started with the stomach virus at kick-off and before the end of the game we were in the ER. He was admitted and we spent 3 days in the hospital. We all prayed constantly. He greatly scared us. That went the family, but to a lesser extent. No one else was hospitalized.
I held out getting the stomach virus until March 1st. I had it for 3 days. The next day my husband and youngest had fever etc. I took them to the Dr before school started. The doctor wrote all of us out until Monday. I felt fine so thought about school the next day. That night I came down with the Flu too….Right in the middle of State Mandated Testing of my students. It was a mess and I’m grateful for my co-workers pitching in to get it all done, in my absence.
While we had the Flu my mom was in a car accident, so my brother had to go and take care of her. She had been given some pain meds for her various accident related pains and possible broken ribs. The medication messed up her bowels and she had to be hospitalized to regulate everything. She tested positive for E-coli as well. She is now recovering well and finally has a new car to get around with.
Our car broke down in April and was laid up for a while which is a problem since we have to drive to all those schools…..Thanks to wonderful friends that I work with for rides to and from school!
April 17th my middle son was playing with a fishing pole and it snapped back and struck him in the eye leaving shards of carbon fiber in his eyeball. He and I prayed for God to heal him and take away the pain. It wasn’t instant. How do you explain to a young boy, God’s time and ways?
Spent the next day in 2 ERs with the threat of surgery…The doctor managed to pull out a shard big enough to penetrate the skin of they eye and into the middle, which caused a leak. The leak was stopped with a contact lens, used like a bandage. His vision was 20/300. The doctor said he was hoping for 20/100 vision. I thought, NO, I will accept nothing less than 20/20. A perfect healing.
He was checked the next day and his vision had improved to 20/100. Getting better. Out of school for a week because of ‘leak’. Lots of eye drop meds.
Monday he was 2/80ish and improving. By the next Monday he was 20/25. The rest of the shards will stay because the scar tissue would make his vision worse than 20/25.
During this whole time, my brother’s mother-in-law has gotten very sick and her prognosis is bad. Trips are being made back and forth between NC and NY. And my nephew-in-law has such severe chest pain that he is taken to the ER. Praise God it seems to be just a pulled muscle.
Friday, May 8th, in-laws come into town. Mom misses a step on the way to the restroom and takes a header into a cinderblock wall. She is bleeding out cold. I see her and think ’someone needs to stabalize her neck and assess her.’ I look around and realize, ‘oh, that’s me.’ She was altered for a while and exhibited all the sympotms of brain injury except for a seizure, as I sat there holding her neck and waiting for the ambulance. She scared the h*&@ out of me. 4 hours later the ER released her and said that they were ok to continue their drive from NC to NY the next day!
May 18th other car breaks and we are without again for 3 days.
Son’s follow up on eye: 20/20 vision!!!! A perfect healing that no one but GOD can grant. The doctors say there is still a risk of infection with the foreign objects in there, but we know better.
My brother and his wife make trip to NY to be with family and Mom. She is sent home with hospice care and that very night my brother is taken to ER with appendicitis, May 15th. He is opperated on, on Saturday and they found it had ruptured. He was very sick after with a bowl obstruction and at least 5 absesses. Scheduled for more surgery Memorial Day Monday (May 25th). Our mom was very upset and I told her I knew with no uncertainty that he would be ok. He knew he didn’t need that surgery and told the doctors that….just before they took him, he had a BM, meaning the obstrution was gone. Scans confirmed that and that the absesses were at least 50% reduced.
One of my brother’s daughters and her husband had also made the trip to be with grandma. With everything happening, nephew-in-law took the train home and came down with H1N1 (swine flu). Other nephew-in-law was taken to the hospital with stomach pains and numbness. His was a muscle problem.
My oldest son was driving the other day, when we left the house he accidentally ran over one of our kittens. We were all quite upset. The kitten was the family favorite. And our dog had a bad ear infection that caused him great pain and discomfort until I could get him to the vet.
Now summer is coming – Yeah! we are all health, except for annoying allergies. My brother and newphews are healing. I still give all the glory to God. With all that has happened, nothing is THAT BAD.
I, we, have so many things to give thanks for. Our family-my wonderful boys, brothers and nieces and in-laws…. Our lives, God, good friends – and recently even more friends with the discovery of Facebook!- good jobs, God providing just what we need, when we need it.
I wont let any of it get me down. Job still believed after everything that happened to him and I will too.
Got this in an email today. It is very appropriate to this post:
Malachi 3:3 -
”He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week , the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy – when I see my image in it.”
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you..
Please pass this on now. This very moment, someone needs to know that God is watching over them.
And, whatever they’re going through, they’ll be a better person in the end.
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