My Healing Father- update!

Can you guess who came home on Thursday?  OH PRAISE JESUS!

I can hardly believe it that finally, Thursday evening almost 15 days of being in the hospital,  they let my Daddy go home.  He was so stinkin' restless not getting any sleep, it was just time they let him go & build his strength up at home.

Boy were the last 2 weeks a ride!  

I have never had my faith tested, my heart ache nor my body just tremble like this in my entire life.  When we at times think of others trials or what they may be going through it's not often that dear to our hearts because it's not "our family" enduring the pain.  I have always had sympathy, prayed over others & even hurt for them; but never realized the difficult pain that they were actually going through... until I myself lived it.  There were several days that I felt helpless hanging my head while trying to drive myself back & forth to the hospital wondering if too ANYONE in this world could possibly understand the ache my heart had.  I truly at times thought, "will my Dad make it"?  Of course I trust my Lord, but you just simply never know.  I felt as if my heart chains were literally being yanked & like I have stated in several of my previous posts, I begged for God's mercy.  There are several days I barely remember because I just starred quietly at him for hours in ICU with my Mom.

I remember many days & nights sitting in ICU for 6 days just holding his hand knowing that God was there.  I felt warm even though it was freezing in there.  I rested several days watching my parents as they would both sleep.  My Mom never left my Dad's side.  NEVER, not once.  I had to beg her to walk out & take afternoon strolls around the hospital.  

I have never in my life had my faith tested; in this depth anyway.  This heart surgery that was suppose to be a simple "fix his heart & we leave & recover"- turned out to be 2 weeks of my life where I learned to trust God.  I learned that it was okay to be upset at the process, emotionally exhausted, & that God WANTED me to beg for him, but also trust that He had his will on the situation, no matter the outcome.

I will never forget one day I was eating in the Cafeteria alone during lunch, which I often did for the past 2 weeks & the cook said, "you are back, are ya ever going to leave"?  I first wanted to smack him, but then knew it was the opportunity to be positive & reach out & just said, "God is working on repairing my Dad's heart, & mine too because I am learning faith & trust in God".  He smiled really big.  I was glad anyway that I was able to just plant a seed.

Where are we now?

I sat at church this morning & just cried.  The first song that came on broke me.  We sit with my parents, Dad is the usher.  The fact that he wasn't next to us today was hard, but I knew he was at home resting.  I enjoyed praising God so much this was the first time back since his surgery.  I wept with tears as I sang the songs praising God for his mercy & glory & for giving me a new found faith in Him.  I have said this many of times does this mean I'm perfect?  No.  But changed.

This is our church singing the song that they sang this morning, but this was from a few years ago during the winter:



Dad has now been home for 3 days & has been healing.  He lost tons of weight while he was in the hospital because he wasn't able to eat normal food for 2 weeks!  But we are trying to fix that now & help him to gain his strength back.   We take several small walks around the house a day, today he walked outside with me & Avery & Chad to the mailbox & back 4 times.  After dinner we made a circle around the house 6 times.  He has improved so much & to GOD BE THE GLORY!

{Avery sang, "I'm in the Lord's army" while we walked} 

I want my Daddy to know that his heart surgery not only repaired his heart but mine.  I feel this is that time in my life that I will ALWAYS remember when I am 80 years old that I learned to trust God, no matter what.  I feel this is that moment, this was it, that changed my heart & outlook on life.  I take so many things for granted & while I have always been close to my parents, this made me love them a billion times more & respect them & appreciate their love for each other.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, support, cards, gifts, e-mails, notes, texts, phone calls... I have had so many people reach out to my family & oh my goodness I am forever thankful.  Dad wants to right a blog post to everyone soon so be watching for it.  He has a great testimony of how the Lord has too changed his heart & softened/molded him into even a stronger man than he was.  We get emotional when we both talk about it; when he is better I can't wait for us to sit on their porch & re-live God's wonderful grace on our family.