Springtime is totally popping out here on the farm. The woods are bursting with tiny wildflowers and even the redbuds are adding a hint of pink to the landscape. Foals are romping over green-carpeted fields and my husband mowed our lawn yesterday.
Our daughter's horse already has to wear a muzzle to limit his intake of grass.
And today? St. Patrick's Day, of course! Every spring is a miracle, but I have a personal miracle to share.
As I previously mentioned, my Mom was in the hospital (emergency gall bladder surgery). She got through that but just wasn't bouncing back.... Long story short, she was re-hospitalized with a serious infection and other complications. My super close-knit family was faced with supporting my parents (married 62 years) through a very painful time. My parents have always been affectionate and expressive in front of our family, but I witnessed the truest of love over and over again when my Dad held and consoled my mom as she vomited and suffered day after day. My brother and Dad cried with Mom as she endured a particularly ugly wound dressing and I had to sit down for fear of fainting.
Mom was being fed through a line, and somehow over the past few days she began to regain her strength and appetite, slowly healing. Prayers and healing thoughts flooded in through family and friends, (some of them that I've never even met, except on Facebook!). Mom would beg Dad and I to tell her what we'd eaten at a restaurant, hanging on every word and moaning if we said it was good! Eleven days in the hospital(with another stay just a few weeks earlier) was challenging her morale and on Thursday she was especially low and hard on herself due to not having been able to complete a diagnostic test (she just couldn't drink that nasty stuff). Mom, Dad and I all cried together as she expressed her frustration and feeling that she would never get out of the hospital.
For about the third time, she opined to Dad and I, "If only I could eat ONE BITE of lime jello...." After a few minutes, I said "Okay, pity party is over, let's make this a good day!" Dad encouraged her and I reminded her that God was with her, and she was improving. She began to cry a little and said she wasn't feeling God's presence in the hospital. I reminded her that God was within each of her family members, and in each kind nurse, and in her doctor whom she wants to adopt!
Just a few moments later, in came a nurse with a tray upon which was perched a lovely bowl of green jello! We said, "What's this? She isn't supposed to eat!". The nurse said change of plan, the doctor had just approved clear foods for my Mom! She smiled and savoured each and every bite of that beautiful jello, as well as a small smorgasbord of other clear delights throughout the day, and she handled them all fine. Best of all, she got to go home yesterday!!!! Mom still has a lot of healing and recovery, but now she can do that at HOME, the most wonderful of places in the world. This has been a rare experience in an otherwise-healthy family, and has been a reminder that my parents won't always be with us, and all of us are here but for a time..... Healing has been done in ways other than physical as well. It's been an experience that we'd mostly rather forget! But... I'll always remember how God answered my Mom's prayer with a simple bowl of lime-green jello (and our own prayers for her return to health).
