I’ll bet you’ve heard the formula of how to make God laugh: tell Him your plans. Or better yet … write a Christmas letter (for ’23) claiming no hospital stays. No sooner had those cards gone into the mail than, BINGO, hospital stay! This year you are getting an e-version of the Christmas card. After all, we can edit it on the fly if necessary! Long story short, December 12 of 2023, I had surgery for a 1-in-a-million cancer: appendiceal. Lord willing, all is now well in that department. If we were to have to choose a word to describe 2024, it might have to be two words. HEALTH (or lack of same) and TRAVEL. When we were wee ones, our parents used to discuss health concerns around the dinner table with visiting family members. Now our own kids and grandkids guess how long it will take before their parents/grandparents start discussing the latest med or malady. There is more to life than that! We began 2024 on a bittersweet note. Mark’s sister, Mary, went home to be with Jesus on Janu...
It has been a LONG time, blogging friends! I am more prone to “micro-blog” via Facebook, but this was just too long. Last night was one of those nights I couldn’t stay asleep. Unfortunately, when I’m wide awake in the middle of the night, my default is to check Facebook. I’m sort of glad I did. Although I don’t know the circumstances, I can guess. An acquaintance from long ago had posted that her 30-year-old daughter passed away that day. Crushing. Horrific. No words can help. My first thought was Romans 12:5. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. But then, when I couldn’t sleep, and I had exhausted what I knew to pray for this heartbroken mama, the words of what’s known as “The Lord’s Prayer” just kept playing on repeat in my head. About the third time around, I started breaking down the parts of Jesus’ prayer. I don’t ever want to take Scripture out of context or make it say something it doesn’t, so I pray that the Spirit will change whatever words are not ...
From Take Care of My Child…for a While by Joyce Sawyer Too soon it was time to go home and get ready for the next trip to the hospital. I had to pack the trailer again. This was to be a longer trip because of the operation and recovery. Ricky began complaining of his neck hurting. I thought it might be because of the long trip and being tired, but it seemed I could see a lump developing. Ricky continued to complain of the pain. I gave him Tylenol, but it didn’t seem to help. Then on Tuesday, he asked to go back to the hospital. I knew he must really feel desperate if he was asking to go back. He was supposed to go on Thursday anyway, so I called to see if we could come a couple of days early. They said yes, to bring him right in. Of course, there is no “right in.” It takes three or four hours. Anyway, we put Ricky in the back seat and fixed him as well as we could and went to Stanford Children’s. They started an IV and started medication to ease the pain. The lump ...