Today I must work

Resist articleToday I must finish this. I’m telling everyone so I’m held accountable! It must be done before I go to bed tonight. This is a small resist experiment I started working on last month. Thankfully I started so early, because I’ve been very distracted these last ten days and it’s due, along with a short article, on Monday. Concentrating on work is good, and you can see that I have Hershey kisses to keep me company.

I want to take a moment to thank to everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging. I feel truly blessed on so many levels. We are all amazed by my sweet hubby’s recovery from the stroke he had on March 7. It was actually a series of as many as seven small strokes. We suspect that the first warning may have been a severe headache he had two days before on March 5. After a series of “stuttering strokes” on the 7th, his right arm and right leg were paralyzed for two days, and when he woke up the next morning and they moved perfectly normal. He’s never had any speech related problems, even though the stroke was on the left side, near the speech center of the brain. The only lasting effects he is still dealing with is his vision. All things considered, that seems very minor. It is hard that he is not able to drive right now. He loves to drive. He was a school bus driver for nearly twenty years. The last several years he has been my dedicated chauffeur. It does feel really weird for me to sit in the driver’s seat and have him next to me in the passenger seat. We are hoping this is temporary. In any case, I’m considering sweet hubby’s crisis over, other than being vigilant about what we eat.

We are now focusing all our attention on Eric and Bethany, and their unborn child. We learned earlier this week that their baby has a very rare neural tube defect, which is always fatal. That was very difficult news to digest. We have grieved with them and supported each other and prayed. God has given us all tremendous peace. Our network of family and friends have come alongside them and us in the most loving way imaginable.

This young couple has written two heartfelt, but informative letters to help everyone understand the situation. Each time, their love for God, for each other, and their baby has shined through. They have decided to fully embrace their role as parents and love their baby during this pregnancy, so they will have no regrets later. Until they find out the gender of their baby, they have decided to temporarily name their child Amalya (a-MALL-e-ya) which is Hebrew for “Work of the LORD”. They write, “We strongly feel that this child truly is a work of the LORD and want to be reminded constantly of that fact as we continue on this journey.” They plan on giving the baby as many experiences as they can now, since their time with Amalya will be severely limited after birth. In that spirit, Bethany gave the baby cotton candy while we were celebrating my mother’s 76th birthday earlier this week. My sweet hubby plans to spend time reading his book to Amalya. I hope to start on a special project myself next week, after my article is done, of course.

We are all aware that this journey will be difficult over the next many months, but we know God will never leave us or forsake us.

In the meantime, our other daughter, Lydia, and her finance, Brock, have freely decided to postpone their wedding until later in the year. The new date is still pending, but Bethany encouraged them not to postpone it too far away. She enjoyed planning her own wedding so much, that she can’t wait to help with the preparations!


Comments

4 responses to “Today I must work”

  1. Maria – As I was reading your blog today I was filled with joy with how blessed your family is to have such strong faith. I can only imagine how many peoples lives will be touched, influenced, helped because of all of this. God is using your family in mighty ways. You are exampling how to rely on God through the hardest of times. Blessings to you all.

  2. Susan O. Schaller Avatar
    Susan O. Schaller

    God bless you all !

  3. Hi Maria
    I have enjoyed following your blog. I wanted to comment since it will be 3 years on Tuesday that our granddaughter was born with a serious genetic condition called holoprocencephaly (part of her brain did not form correctly). It’s quite rare and our son and daughter in law were told (when they found out in their 4th month of pregnancy) that the baby would probably not live more than minutes or at the most hours. We all cried, prayed and felt God’s peace as we walked with them through the remaining months of the pregnancy. Leah Grace was born on the first day of spring. A beautiful gift from God despite her health challenges. She spent 10 days in the NICU and they finally took her home not expecting more than a couple days with her. But God was gracious and she was with us for 99 days. We were able to hold her, care for her (though it was difficult because it was 24 hr a day care since she did not have normal ability to sleep and had a lot of seizures). Her little life touched so many people. At her memorial service my son shared that he felt her life touched more people in her short 99 days then he probably would in all his years of life. I’m so thankful for her life as imperfect as it was. Just two months ago my son and daughter-in-law had a little boy and even though nothing will replace the place in their hearts that Leah Grace holds, it was exciting for us to welcome a healthy son (grandson). I wish you the best as you walk through this with your daughter. God will be there through it all. Blessings

    1. Thank you for sharing your family’s story, Laurie. I’ll have my daughter read it, too. There’s no doubt that We serve an amazing God!

      Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read my blog, and also to those have have comments. We all really appreciate it so much.