Oh Victory In Jesus...My Savior Forever!

The last time I posted, I ended by saying that my next post would be one of healing and victory. I praise God to say that I can certainly post about healing and victory. It is coming in His time and not ours…and we all know how tough that can be. BUT, it is coming and we are thankful.
This post could be forever long but I will hit the highs and the lows of the past 3 weeks. Has it really been only 3 weeks and then I can say, wow, has it already been 3 weeks. Isn’t it funny how time can do that to us sometimes? We have been through a lot as a family in the last 3 weeks. We have trusted in the Lord and rested in the promise that His ways are not our ways and His timing is not our timing. We have been to the throne and begged for healing and then surrendered to the possibility that if healing did not come, it would be His will and He would give us the grace we needed to sustain us. I’m so thankful His mercies are new every morning!

Okay, here we go…Daddy had 4 bypasses on Tuesday. He did great, got off the respirator in a perfect amount of time. That night his BP dropped and gave us a big scare. After several days of working on the BP, he finally moved to a room. He stayed in the room a few days but little complications kept popping up. One week after his surgery, he was having pretty bad pain and his heart was getting into a rhythm that I cannot name…but it was basically quivering instead of pumping and the blood was just bubbling inside his heart. Back to ICU. Heart cath the next day on Wed. morning. One bypass had collapsed and on Tuesday, he has suffered a heart attack as a result of the collapsed bypass. They ballooned it but it only partially opened. Came out saying he needed a defibulator but was not strong enough for surgery. Fast forward a couple of hours and they call to tell us to come and see him b/c the surgery cannot wait until the next day. We go in and get a lot of comic relief over him chasing his mules and trying to take me to the dog pound…oh that pain med…how sweet it was for him! 5 long hours later, he is out of another successful surgery! We are terrified but praising God for letting him live. It was a tough day and a day that made me come face to face with having to imagine living without my daddy. I knew for certain that that would only be possible because of my “heavenly daddy” who would see us through. I love it in the Bible when it says “But Then or But God”…cause that is when something BIG happens. So here is mine…BUT GOD was not finished yet, let me tell you! The very next morning, we get there for the first visit and a different man was in that bed. He was sitting up (HALLELEUIA) and with no teeth, no glasses, and a mess of hair, he looked better than ever (HALLELEUIA)! He was talking and just seemed like a different person! He told us that he had known for certain he was dying on Wednesday and had surrendered to the Lord to take him home if that was His will. Praise God He said, NOT YET JIMMY!

Long story short, he gets better and better and that Saturday, he headed home. He is weak, man is he weak, but he is home and recovering. He is setting little goals for himself. This week’s goal is to go to church on Sunday morning. Not sure if he will be strong enough but he really wants to go. We visit as regularly as we can and we thank God everyday for grace and healing and answered prayers!

Now, not only that but during these three weeks, I have also had my Chez Ami trunk and have been having my home shows for my company. In addition to that, we had to say a devastating goodbye to our precious friends, Ryan and Amy, who are following God’s call to serve Him about 10 hours away from us. We are all missing them desperately and grieving for them. To say that they are CLOSE to our kids and us would be a major understatement. It has been extremely difficult to give them up and not get to see them. To top it all off, they came to say goodbye on my birthday of all days! We went to dinner and then had to say goodbye, what a terrible memory for a birthday to have!

Did I mention that we also started school and I missed the 2nd and 3rd day of teacher days when I was with Daddy during the scare. In 15 years, I’ve never missed school the first week but it was necessary this year. Claudia started 1st grade and loves it. Pictures of that later on. I do not have them loaded yet!

Okay, now you are thinking, I thought this was not going to go on forever…believe me, this is the condensed version of the trauma, drama, and emotion of my last 3 weeks! I just have to say this, God is good and He is worthy of my service, devotion, and my life!