Sunday's Sentiments: The Gift

This past week, I was given a precious gift.

The gift of time.

I was privileged to spend over two days with my grandmother, sitting and watching and listening and praying. 

Sitting holding her hand as she slept.

Watching as my mother and my aunts cared for her with dignity, grace, and selfless love.

Listening to her precious voice, as we talked of heaven, of cooking, of caring for our families, of no more pain or sadness.  Sharing our love for each other.  And saying. . . . honestly. . . . I will miss you.

Praying.  Prayers that God would ease her suffering.  That He would bring her home soon.  Prayers of thanksgiving for having this woman, this strong, amazing woman in my life.

In all likelihood, I was given the gift of seeing my grandmother one last time, and knowing it was the last time.  The gift of saying all that was on my heart, and receiving her love in return.

It was hard, bitterly hard.

And priceless.

Overwhelmed. . . . . .

and grateful.

Those two words sum up - pretty succinctly - how I feel this week.

I'm so overwhelmed by life.

I'm so overwhelmed by the grace of God.

I'm so grateful for His Love.

And I'm so, so grateful for the Body of Christ, near and far, who intercedes on our behalf.

Wordless Wednesday - True Road Sign Edition

(Posted because - you know?  I needed to laugh about something this week!  True road sign in Mississippi.  I'm. Not. Kidding.)

Sunday's Sentiments: Hanging by a Thread

“If you are hanging on by a thread right now, 

make it a thread attached to the hem of Christ’s garment. 

It will be enough.”        

Jared Wilson

(with thanks to Not Just an Ordinary Life - a very inspirational blog)

Well, Now We Know What God Thinks of THAT Plan!

This could be another, "Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men" post, really.  But in the interest of not boring you, dear readers, I'll change it up a bit.

Some of you may know that my dear, 91-year old Grandma is on hospice care for colon cancer.  Has been for 14 months.  The running joke around here is, "Grandma didn't get the memo that hospice means, 'You're dying.'  She thinks it's code for, 'Nice nurses come and visit every week.'"

Last Friday, Grandma took a definite turn for the worse.  She collapsed and (mostly) no longer has the use of her legs.   {Here's why I say, "mostly" - overnight Sunday into Monday, at 3 a.m. she got up and WALKED from her bed to her chair.  With no cane.  Yup.   That's my Grandma.)

Tuesday morning, my mom contacted me and let me know that she had had a (TIA) stroke, and could only say, "Yes" and "No".  She wasn't taking in much food/water at all.  In a frenzy, I started making plans.  Negotiating work schedules and classes and commitments, we decided to leave today (Thursday) if she got very bad.  If Grandma hung around, I had decided to rent a cheap-o car and drive up to Indiana for the weekend, after my science class on Friday, just to be there for my mom.

Fast forward to this morning.  I wake up and it's clear - I'm S-I-C-K.  As in, stomach bug, can't get out of bed, lying around in misery, trotting in and out of the bathroom sick.

Not fun.

I got out of bed about 45 minutes ago, and took a shower.  That felt heavenly!  So with only 3 bites of eggs and 10 saltines to credit to my account today, it's pretty obvious.

Not going anywhere tomorrow.  And sometimes, it takes God allowing a nasty stomach bug to make me realize that maybe it wasn't such a good plan after all.

The downside?  I had to cancel Science Class, b/c I'm just so weak. 

The upside?  Would you believe. . . .Grandma has her speech mostly back.  She's had a "good day" according to my Mom.

I'm thinking I might go shop for her Christmas present.