My family
lost my Aunt Kay this year. In January she
was diagnosed with two brain tumors. One
of which was attached to her brain stem.
Words can’t adequately describe how bigger than life my aunt was. She was a flawed character that had more friends
than anyone could count and probably as many regrets. My aunt was an eternal optimist. She still believed at 73 that she would one
day be a millionaire and she never tired of her next dream of how to make her
fortune. Unfortunately her dreams kept
her many times from focusing on the people in her life that she cared about and
I know that she later regretted this in her life.
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9 NIV)
God Whispers
My family
knew early on that my aunt’s life was in jeopardy. She had so many unfinished things in her life
that it was frightening to think about her dying before at least some of those
were finished. So one night as I drove
home after visiting her I heard a whisper.
It wasn’t out loud but a voice I heard softly in my head saying that
there were words that had to be said to my aunt and I was the one to have those
conversations. Honestly the last thing I
wanted to do was to have a conversation with my aunt about some of the
decisions she had made past and present especially since I knew that she might
die any day. One morning though I got up
and I knew I had no choice. So I prayed,
went to Bible Study that morning, asked the ladies to pray for me as I talked
to my aunt, and then I went to see my aunt.
When I got to my aunt’s hospital room she was asleep. Her boyfriend was there and she opened her
eyes for a second and looked at me when she heard me talking to him. So after 15 minutes I prayed silently, “God
if you want me to talk to her then you better wake her up.” As I turned to leave she opened her eyes and
asked me if I had heard from her daughter.
She was wide awake. Honestly I
can’t tell you all that I said to her partly because the words weren’t mine and
partly because that conversation was meant for her and family.
My aunt and I
had many conversations during the 5 months that she lived after finding out she
had the tumors. All of the conversations
went the same way and had the same peaceful feeling during and afterwards. I’m in awe of how much God cared for her and for
her family to make certain that the things that needed to be said were said
before she died and that my aunt was allowed to tell her kids and her family
how much she loved them. Love can cover
a multitude of sins.
“Above all, love each
other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8 NIV)
A Hospitalization Right before
Christmas
Two
months after my Aunt Kay died is when I got sick with the bladder disease that
I now struggle with daily. Almost 5
months into the disease and a
week before Christmas I got very sick one night. I started vomiting, and could tell something
was wrong with my intestines. I didn’t
want to go to the ER so I waited until the next day & spent the day in bed.
Then the next morning at 4 am I couldn’t
take the pain anymore and went to the ER.
I was seen immediately and quickly told that I had an intestinal
infection and that my interstitial cystitis was flaring and of course making
the pain even worse. I begged the
doctors not to give me pain medication because I was afraid I would flare even
worse. But the doctor assured me that
they could keep me out of pain. So they
started an IV and gave me IV antibiotics for the infection and Demerol for the
pain. It didn’t get rid of all the pain
but it certainly took the edge off which was more than I had had in the last 5
months. So I spent 3 days in the
hospital getting IV antibiotics and pain meds.
Not the way I wanted to spend the last few shopping days before
Christmas but it made being with my family for Christmas even more special. I went home from the hospital 3 days before
Christmas. Then it snowed on Christmas
Day. I know many were without power and
being cold is no fun but there was something magical about it for me.
A Christmas Prayer Answered
You see early
in December after dropping off my kids at school I was listening to the radio
announcers talking about all the holiday desserts they were making and all the
Christmas shopping they were doing. It
depressed me to think about all of those things I was missing out on. I couldn’t eat desserts. I didn’t have the energy to bake even if I
could have eaten desserts and shopping was just too hard. So I prayed that God would send snow to help
lighten my spirit this Christmas season.
I admitted to God that it was a silly prayer request but I just needed
something to make me smile. Well I got a
beautiful snow storm 3 weeks after I prayed that prayer. Our power was only out for about 24 hours and
my kids refer to this as the best Christmas they have ever had. Their mom came home from the hospital before
Christmas. It snowed on Christmas Day
and Nana & Papa came and spent the night because their power was out.
None of us
know what a new year will reveal. Many
make New Year’s Resolutions or plan the vacation of a lifetime. But this past year I was shown very clearly that
God is the author of my new year’s plan.
2012 was a very difficult year for me and my family. But it was also a time that drew us together
in prayer and support of one another. I
don’t understand God’s purpose in everything but I know that trials make us
stronger and help us grow closer to HIM.
“Not only so, but we
also rejoice in our sufferings, because
we know suffering produces perseverance;”
(Romans 5:3 NIV)
Praying 2013
is a year where we all grow closer to God and have many prayers answered.
