Tuesday, December 20, 2011

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been~

As I've spent some time this morning making some preparations for Christmas, my thoughts have wandered over the last year, and over the last 5 months in particular. Even now, as we are just coming out of a storm, so to speak, it is overwhelming to me to think of all that God has done.

Those who know us are familiar with some of what we have faced. My husband became ill in early July of this year. Within days, what had begun as one illness seemed to morph into several different conditions all at once. We do not know, and will probably never know for sure, whether the conditions my husband faced were all medically related to one another, or whether having them all occur so close together was simply a part of God's plan.

I think we must have felt, at some point during the last 5 months, every emotion that it is possible to feel~fear for his health, and a brief period of fear for his life.

There was frustration with our inability to "get a handle" on my husband's condition, weariness with the seemingly endless medical appointments, moments of fear over what the next medical test might reveal, concern over the financial fall out of all the time lost at work and the ever mounting medical bills, and I could go on and on.

However, what I really sat down here to write today was about all the GOOD things that have happened to us along the way, and the amazing God that we serve, Who gave us these gifts in the midst of our storm.

He led us to EXACTLY the right doctor for our family. I was SO upset a couple of years ago when our doctor, whom we liked very much and felt we could trust, decided to leave his private practice. I see God's hand in it now. He led us to a doctor who loves the Lord and is not shy about sharing that with his patients. Several times over the last five months, our doctor has stood in the esamination room and prayed with us, and let us know that he is praying for us. That has meant SO much to us.

There came a night during all of this when the onset of yet another medical conditon caused my husband to undergo a sudden and marked personality change. This was a VERY unsettling thing, but God was present through it all, and He allowed us to feel His presence in an almost tangible wasy. God also worked miracles the next morning by removing scheduling obstacles and other hindrances so we were able to find and begin treating the problem quickly.

God has been good, and merciful, and faithful to us. While my husband has been through a LOT in the last five months, we know that it could have been so much worse.
While we both have had moments of asking God why He allowed all of this to happen, we both take comfort in knowing that HE has a plan, whether we can clearly see it or not.

God has led us to not only the primary care doctor we needed, but every specialist to whom we have been referred, (all 6 of them!) have been caring and helpful. We have come in contact with some wonderful folks in the medical profession, many of them christians~from many of the nurses who cared for my husband during his six day hospitalization, to the nurses, assistants, technicians, and office staff of every doctor we have seen, I cannot think of a single time when we encountered anyone who seemed uncaring, unprofessional, or incompetent at their jobs. Given the number of medical professionals with whom we have come in contact, that is remarkable.

We have witnessed God's miracle of healing. It may have come slowly, but it came in God's time. We have witnessed financial miracles~income from completely unexpected sources, bills being paid when, in man's view, there was no way to pay them, but God made a way. My husband missed a solid three moths of work due to his illness, and more than that when you consider his hospitalization and the large number of days missed for medical appointments, and yet, our bills have been paid, there has always been more than enough food on the table, the money has been there for ALL of the seemingly endless co-pays and prescriptions, and our children have had everything they needed, and then some. ONLY our loving, all mighty Heavely Father can do that!!

Beyond the excellent medical care and the financial provisions, God has blessed us with so much more. All of the time out of work, while financially difficult, has allowed us time toghether as a family that we would not otherwise have had. Our children have been first hand witnesses to the power of prayer, the power of God, and what it feels like to truly have His peace that passes all understanding. To say that this is pricelss is an understatement.

I have come to beleive that sometimes God DOES let us have our cake and eat it too, as the saying goes. In addition to restoring my husband's health and meeting all of our needs, we have just come back from a wonderful weekend trip with family, we've been able to put more gifts under our tree than we thought would be possible this year, and I will be spending the next couple of days preparing for what I know will be a joyous and peaceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior.

On that note, we want to say thanks, with all our heats, to everyone who helped us through these last five months~during the time that my husband was out of work, we had folks come by the house with groceries, others shared provisions to meet specific needs, some cared for our children during my husband's hospitalization and many, many medical appointments, and many more called, sent notes, and prayed. We are grateful to each and every one.

We don't believe that God is finished yet. We believe that some of God's purposes in all of this have yet to come to light, and that He has and is still using all that's happened in the last five moths for our good, and for His glory. Praise His Holy Name!

In His Love,
Vicki