Thursday, March 22, 2007

Doggie diarrhea and other hi-lights of my week

This morning after I got out of the shower I went in the boys' room (barefoot, of course) to wake up Kyle for school, and I stepped in "something". I immediately stopped in my track.

Oh, this could not be good.

I turned on the light and found a trail of "plops" from the boys' bunk beds all the way across the room to their bedroom door. Kirby, our yellow lab, must have been sick because he never, ever makes messes in the house.

I had no idea that much crap could come out of one dog.

Then the stench hit me. It was probably the grossest experience of my entire life, and trust me - being the mom of boys, I know gross. But this far topped them all. So after some initial damage control, I was off to HyVee to rent a rug doctor and shampoo my carpets! It needed to be done anyway, I just wasn't expecting to take the morning off work to do it. But it's all good now.

Yesterday afternoon was amazing. I went to Rochester with my friend Lori to spend some time with her husband Jeff, who is still hanging on to life. I was really looking forward to going there together and spending some time with Lori alone so that we could talk. She has been on my heart so much since this happened, and I want to bless her and support her in any way that I can. But I also was a little apprehensive about what to talk about during the hour long drive each way. Should I be cheerful? Is that being insensitive given the gravity of the situation, or is that what she needs right now and not another somber face? Is she going to want to talk about Jeff, about the prognosis, about her feelings? Would there be awkward silences, not knowing what to say? I mean we are friends, but not close friends to where I can read her and know what to say. Then I realized that since God had set this up, He would show up. I just needed to relax and rely on Him.

So that's what I did, and it couldn't have gone better! We talked the whole way there and back about her and Jeff and their relationship, about his accident, and our families. We talked about health and losing weight - Lori is in great shape and very into nutrition so she has motivated me! We talked a lot about our faith, and I have to say that she utterly amazes me. She has been unwavering in her faith. She does not believe that the accident was an "accident" but that God allowed it in order to reveal Himself to us and strengthen our faith. And has He ever done that! Even with the grim prognosis that Mayo has given Jeff - they have maintained all along that there is no chance of recovery. Yet in the face of this she maintains her faith that God is in control and if He wants to heal Jeff He can and He will.

I have to admit that I have at times thought that it is foolish of her to believe that. That she is just in denial, and needs to let go, as the doctors continue to encourage and even pressure her to do. They want her to consent to withholding treatment, and essentially pulling the plug. But she said something that astonished me. She said "If Jeff had died in the accident, I would have been able to go on with my life. But he didn't die. And I can't tell the doctors to end his life just so that I can go on with mine."

Whoa.

She has maintained from the beginning that God is able to heal Jeff. If He was able to raise Lazarus from the dead after being dead for four days. I'm sure Lazarus' body had deteriorated quite a bit by the time Jesus arrived. And yet he was healed, and completely restored to life. The same God who did that is able to heal the damage that's been done to Jeff's body. I know He can...and I pray that He will. Who am I to say that God won't do a miracle?

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