God? ? ?

My husband and I watched a really good movie the other night. "Facing the Giants" It is about football and one man that had so much heart ache and pain heaped upon him it could have made anyone crazy. But he had an amazing faith in God and prayed. God answered his prayers not on the mans time schedule but on Gods' time schedule. You know he is famous for that. We pray and he answers our prayers only sometimes it is hard for us to wait. This was an awesome movie. Of course I cried through the whole thing. It was great.

I feel drawn today to write about this because it moved me so much. Sorry but I am just that way. My husband and I are Christians and are trying to raise our children in a Christian environment. I am a firm believer in prayer and its' power.

In 1996 my father fell through the roof of our barn. It just so happened I was at home for a visit. My mom called me on her cell phone and told me what happened and I called 911. I raced to the barn and when I got there, there were 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and several volunteer vehicles. They had my dad on a stretcher taking him to the ambulance. When we got to the hospital they did x-rays and found that dad had crushed his right arm. He was going to need emergency surgery to save it. He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours. In the wee hours of Sunday morning the doctor came in and told us that he made it through surgery and would be in ICU for a day or two and then would be able to go home. We prayed a lot that night for God to help dad. We found out that not only had he crushed his arm but he had cracked his pelvis and lacerated his kidney. He was in ICU in traction for the pelvis. Well things went for ok to really bad in 24 hours. Dad had to be put on a respirator. A lot of things went on during that time and he ended up in ICU for 3 weeks. He turned 64 in ICU mostly unaware of anything that was going on. We were only allowed to see him at certain times and for short intervals. It was during this time that I became very close to God. We were on a first name basis. I prayed all the time. Everyday there was something new that was causing problems. He had good days and bad days. After 3 weeks he finally got to be moved to another floor and was off the respirator. He was still in traction for the pelvis though. After 2 weeks he was released to go home to a hospital bed in the basement. He had to stay in it for 6 more weeks. He had to learn how to walk again. My Dad is truly a walking miracle. The doctors never expected him to recover the way he did. He took 18 units of blood while he was in ICU.

My dad is now 76 and people still tell the story of when he fell between 17-23 feet through the roof of the barn. He told me years later that while in ICU that there was one time he felt real peace and he said I could have let go. I am at peace with my life and with the Lord. Then he said he thought about Mom and said he could not leave her with all the horses to take care of. He also said he made several promises to God. He didn't elaborate about that part though.

I still pray everyday and I feel that my life has truly been blessed. I am also teaching my children to pray. They pray for their friends when they are sick or when they are traveling with their families. The night after the tornadoes came through Thomas prayed for the people and the children whose homes were damaged. That really touched my heart.