Thursday, October 20, 2011

grab the tissues



sometimes it's the struggles of others that bring you back to reality and help you have gratitude for all the things you've been blessed with. seeing others without jobs, seeing other with health problems, seeing others who's marriages struggle and have dissolved, seeing many who struggle to have children, seeing others whose children are ill or hurting.

today was a good day. in fact, for a couple of days now i have found that my prayers have been prayers more of gratitude than asking. however, my heart is hurting tonight but my gratitude for my family and my healthy children is boiling over. mike came home with heart wrenching news.

mike works with a man whose daughter was diagnosed with a tumor on her brain stem. i am not sure how long it has been now, maybe a couple of years. she was doing pretty well for the last little while though and things were looking pretty good, as far as progression of the tumor growth slowing down a bit.
a few weeks ago, mike came home and said we needed to keep lydia (the little girl) in our prayers, she started having problems suddenly. they went for some tests pretty quickly and it showed that the tumor had grown significantly in a short amount of time. they gave her, i think, 6 more months to live. her sweet and wonderful parents have been doing all they can to make her as comfortable as possible, she is in a lot of pain. and she's 7 years old.
mike had to stop by his house tonight to pick something up for work. he came home and i saw nothing but sorrow and sadness all over his face. he said they were told it would a short time now, maybe a couple of weeks.
my heart broke.
i can't even imagine what they must feel right now. he (the dad) is just hanging out at home for a while and spending all the time he can with her. as a mother, i can't imagine ever wanting to close my eyes to sleep. the sadness of just seeing her hurt and be in the pain that she's in must be almost unbearable let alone the thought that they might not see that smile in just a couple of short weeks, or hearing her voice or see her cry.

my eyes are filled to the brim.

i have locked away the moments from today that i want to hold onto.
the moment when i was nursing makinley and she stared into my eyes and then waved her little pudgy hand up above her head, and smiled with her eyes at the same time. 
the moment when patch snuggled into me on the couch at quiet time and fell asleep as he held trunker (his snuggly elephant) so close to his face like he always does.
the moment when i had maddie laughing her real, deep belly laugh as i tickled her-and she begged for more. and the moment at the dinner table as we talked about little miss lydia and keeping her in our prayers and maddie says, "she'll come back to the earth again though right?" with so much faith and conviction in her question.

life is short, hold onto all the moments you can. love more than you ever thought possible. give hugs and kisses as often as you can. say i love you always.

please pray for lydia and her family; that she will have strength to bear her pain and that her family will find comfort and peace somehow amidst this terrible trial. they are a strong family, they love the Lord and trust completely in Him-i know that they will make it through but it doesn't mean it will be easy.



1 comment:

John n Shannon said...

Wow! Thanks for putting my life back in perspective. It's sad to know that my day-to-day "problems" would likely be a blessing for this family to have. It's so sad to hear of little kids hurting like this. Doesn't seem fair.