‘Tis the season, y’all! The season to be thankful for our
blessings. And we do have so many
blessings to be thankful for. When I
reflect upon the past year, I am reminded once again how things could have been
so different for my family right now.
Beginning at this time last year, we were tremendously
blessed and totally immersed in chaos and desperation at the same time.
On November 14, our precious grandbaby, Adelaide, was
born. Such joy was ours as we witnessed the
beginning of this new life. Births in
this family are always suspenseful and exciting, because the parents choose not
to reveal the gender or the name of the child until he/she comes into the
world. It was fun three years ago on
Christmas Eve when our first grandchild was born and we discovered he was a boy
and his name was Isaac Sage. Perfect!
This time, it was a girl. Perfect again! (Just what I wanted, y’all. No one else would
say that but me. lol) She was beautiful and healthy. She looked just like her mommy. Everything went well; they got out of the
hospital and mom was recuperating at home.
After a few days, it became apparent that something was wrong with
mom. She went to the doctor, who
immediately sent her to the hospital where she stayed for two weeks, literally
fighting for her life.
How could something so wonderful turn into such a
nightmare? Things went from bad to worse
to horrible in just a few hours. By the
second night, she was in ICU and we were holding a special prayer meeting
begging God to spare her life. The
outpouring of love and support from our friends was truly amazing. People everywhere were praying for her and
for us. God is good, all the time, and
He did answer prayer and she began the slow road to recovery the next day.
In the meantime, Gralyn and I were at their house
helping to care for Addy. She was so
precious (and still is). Such a good
baby. At first we were trying to feed
her with a syringe so that she could continue breastfeeding when mom got out of
the hospital. When it became evident
that it would be a longer hospital stay than we expected, we switched to a
bottle. Either way, she cooperated like
a little champ and didn’t skip a beat.
It’s been a long time since I was that involved in
baby-care. It was sweet, although
tiring. However, with the three of us
taking shifts, we got the job done. Adam
would take the first night shift up until about midnight then bring her to my
room and I would take the wee hours of the morning feeding. When she woke up in the early morning, Gralyn
would take her and let me sleep awhile longer.
That worked pretty well.
Although we were all weary after a few days, it was
hardest on our son. He was spending as
much time as he could at the hospital with his wife as well as making sure that
his two children were cared for and taking care of his business at the same
time. Only God could have given him the strength
to do all that he did with so little sleep.
Thanksgiving Day was in the middle of all this
turmoil. Unfortunately, on Thanksgiving Eve
I had to come home because I was sick. It
had started with chills the day before and when I also got a fever and
vomiting, I knew I had to leave even though I really tried to stay. We could not risk the babies getting
sick. It turned out to be strep
throat. On Thanksgiving Day I was sicker
than I have ever been, I believe. I was
in bed all day not knowing much about what was going on. No Thanksgiving turkey for us this year! With our daughter-in-law in the hospital, me sick
in bed, two kids to care for, and my husband and son trying to take care of all
of us, we didn’t think much about Thanksgiving turkey. We were just thankful for all of us to still
be alivc!
I stayed home for three days before I could go back
to help out with the children. We finally had some turkey and dressing provided by a good friend of ours - and it was good! Three weeks later we were able to see some normalcy returning to our lives. Jane had a long recovery period even after the hospital stay. Praise the Lord, she pulled through the crisis and is still alive and well to see her children grow up.
We have so much to be thankful for this year as we look back and realize that last year could have turned out differently. I shudder to think what could have happened and how our lives could be so different today. I praise the Lord that He saw fit to allow our precious loved one to pull through and stay with us.
“Lord, help us not to take a single day for granted
but to love and care for those around us while we have the opportunity. We know that none of us are guaranteed
another day on this earth, but the days of our lives are in your hands. Help us to be thankful for each day that you
allow us to live and to take full advantage of the time we have to serve you. Amen.”
