Blessed

Here we are, about to dig in!

Our dear friend, Bjorn, came up to spend Thanksgiving with us. We enjoyed a relatively quiet, relaxing day with games, football, outside exercise, and lots of feasting.

While Thanksgiving was wonderful and we felt especially blessed to have Kelly home with us for her first official Thanksgiving, it was a little bittersweet as we had two loved ones in the hospital.

First, my 93-year old grandmother went in for what we thought was the flu or pneumonia. She was having a hard time breathing and had a fever. What we found out two days after she was admitted was that she has a goiter on her thyroid that is blocking her airway. She is too weak and ill to survive an operation, yet she is not getting enough oxygen to live, so she has been on life support. Sadly, it doesn't look like she is going to make it. Please keep our family in your prayers, especially my grandmother, my mom, my uncle, and my grandmother's husband. I pray for peace for her and my family and that she wouldn't have any pain or suffering.

I also got a call around noon on Thanksgiving Day from one of my closest friends, Anna, telling me that her husband, Bill, also our dear friend, had just had a heart attack. They live in a very rural area, so it's about a two-hour drive to the nearest hospital. He was being taken by ambulance to the hospital when he began having a second heart attack. The EMT's radioed for a helicopter and the closest one was a Sheriff's Deputy's helicopter- so he was taken to the hospital in their helicopter. Even though it wasn't medically equipped, what would have taken about an hour and 20 minutes, if traveling by ambulance, only took about 10 minutes in the helicopter! They found that Bill had a blockage, so they were able to put a stint in and clear it and I am very thankful to say he is home now and doing exceptionally well.

While I don't pretend to understand why things happen the way they do, and why some make it while others don't, I am reminded of some of Job's words from the Bible:

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised."

Even though I have days full of joy and others filled with sorrow, I know God is good, no matter what the circumstances appear at the time.

I am but a tiny speck in this infinite universe and I don't begin to fathom how it all works or why things happen the way they do, but I know one thing: I know God loves me and I know He loves you, so I choose to trust Him with the things I don't understand. I find comfort and strength and healing in His arms, and that is why I say, "Blessed be the Name of the Lord."