What helped the most.

One of my dearest friends and most favorite bloggers, Sarah, from The Cleft of the Rock has been nominated for best female blog on the Theobloggers Awards Click over here to vote. Voting goes through Monday, so head on over.

-----------

Please be in prayer for Landry, a kindergarten student at Wylie, who is undergoing a very long surgery (possibly up to 15 hours) today at Cook Children's in Ft. Worth. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this week.

-----------

I have been asked not only how to help your children through a critical diagnosis of one of their little friends, which I wrote about yesterday, but what to say to the mom and dad.

I can only answer for myself, but truthfully there is not much that can be said. Nothing said really made me feel better, think the teacher in Charlie Brown. I did appreciate everyone's prayers, and them telling me they were praying. It was a huge source of comfort, that my child's name was being lifted to the Father. Over and over God heard Jack's name. As much as I love the Lord I didn't really appreciate hearing that God's ways are higher than our ways. I didn't really appreciate hearing that God didn't make the tumor happen. God certainly allowed it to happen. It would take me months and years to work through that and find myself in a place that had complete trust in God's plan for Jack.

What did help?
The ministry of presence. I can remember every face of every person who sat by us at the hospital, everyone who drove to Dallas to hold our hands, share our tears and pray with us.

The ministry of serving. So many people just looked around and did what needed to be doing. My SIL moved in to stay with our 2 kids while both Rob and I were in Dallas. People from church and the community made sure we had money for food and gas while at the hospital. Lawns mowed, dishwasher fixed, meals made.

The ministry of prayer.

The ministry of the blog. Sarah started a blog (which is this blog) for us while we were in the hospital. We could call her and let her know Jack's status and she would update the blog for us. After a week we found out about the blog and then we got on line and could read the amazing comments, love and prayers for Jack. I published that first year in a book because I don't want to forget the journey and all the comments of our friends, family and strangers.
I really loved the blog because we could tell Sarah and she would put the correct info out on-line for us. After a couple of weeks Rob and I started doing the updates ourselves. Everyone wanted to know how Jack was doing, we wanted everyone to know, but it was not possible for us to talk on the phone in our room without upsetting Jack in the early days of the Posterior Fossa Syndrome. The blog was our connection to the outside world.
Many people use caring bridge, and that is a wonderful option. I am glad that Sarah started a blog, because it was easily published, and because I have grown to love writing even beyond Jack's updates.

God's Presence. Through His people, through His word in scripture, through the Holy Spirit by giving me strength when I knew it did not come from me.

Thank you God.

Comments

Unknown said…
Landrey is definitely in our prayers. Thank you for letting this need be known. I'm so thankful for your faithfulness through all this - it's an encouragement, no matter what the rest of us is going through. And I'm so thankful for Sarah; what a deserving nominee for the blog award; and what a faithful friend and encouragement she is to many.

Popular Posts