Monday March 11. Hard to believe it is nearing the middle of March already. It is three days until I officially complete my 73rd year on this planet. On Saturday we said goodbye to my younger sister’s husband. He has had some health issues, but 1 month ago he went in with an earache which even with treatment turned into meningitis, then into seizures which he never rallied from.

Autumn is struggling to keep food down. She has had a significant weight loss again. Personally, this is hard for me. I have been a student of natural remedies and have seen them work amazingly. BUT when the main issue is the stomach anything oral is useless because she either can’t swallow it, or it doesn’t stay down. The other day she said “Mom I don’t know how much more vomiting and pain I can take. This also of course affects the meds for nausea, as well as the meds for pain.

Still praying, and still trusting, but currently my girl is struggling.

The Bible says in Ephesians that He WELL ABLE to do over and above what we can ask or think. So, I continue to stand on that promise. Regardless of the roads were travel in this world, we are never traveling alone, unless we choose to be. He is always there, but we need to open the door to invite Him in.

Little Miss Wren Elizabeth is the sunshine of Grandma Autumn’s life. They live with Autumn and she gets to wake up to Little Miss Sunshine every day. What a wonderful blessing!!!

The Falls Chapter 4 Part 1 (ENJOY!)

         It was hard to believe, it had been less than three weeks since I left the hospital, and now I am back again. By this time, I was starting to wonder about things. I didn’t doubt God’s existence. Just possibly wondering if he had lost my address.

         The last time I remember feeling quite like this was in 1983. We just relocated so I could go to nursing school. My husband had undergone back surgery, and it wasn’t looking real good for his return to the type of work he was doing. One of us needed to do something different.

I had been, by choice a stay-at-home mom, with some home jobs for the elderly in the manor across the bridge.  Some cleaning, shopping, whatever needed to be done. Therefore, it was very exciting for me when I was accepted to nursing school. If I had to go out into the working world, I wanted it to be as a nurse. This had been a dream of mine, since I walked the halls of the Tomah VA hospital with my Dad as a very little girl. I was going to be a nurse like my dad.

         The first week of June we moved out of our own home, and into a rented house 45 miles away. That same day, one of the little grandma’s I took care of, had a stroke. At that time in my life, I thought anything bad that happened in a forty-mile radius was somehow my fault.

Two days after we moved into the house, I received a call from the hospital {via my sister}; my husband had been admitted to the ER because of a fall at work. He was back at work on light-duty; He worked in a foundry, where they made big motor blocks. It was very hot, hard work.

He and his boss came around a corner, both slipped on some blasting beads that had been dumped on the floor; instead of in the bin where they belonged. He tried to break his fall and twisted his back, breaking the natural fusion. He had a disk removed three years earlier. He was probably headed back for surgery.

         The next day I went back to mow grass at the other house, then I went to a graduation party. One of my good friend’s sons had graduated from high school. It was a fun time.

         The next day I went to my sister’s house, she said I needed to return a call. The friend I had just been with the day before had a house fire, she ran upstairs to wake her boys, and the furnace blew up. Her boys had already jumped out the window, they were all safe, but she died in the fire.

         I sang at her funeral on Friday. Don’t really remember Saturday. Sunday we all got up and went to our new church. We had three of my sister’s kids with us. I remember a lady sang a song  called “He’ll find away.” Which was written and sang by Donna Douglas  AKA  Ellie Mae Clampet, from the Beverly Hillbillies!

I still remember her saying,” Maybe you have had a horrendous week, or maybe yours is coming up.” “Thank God mine is behind me,” I whispered. We had only been at our new home for one week; what a week it had been.

         When we got home from church, it was naptime. We had just laid down, and someone knocked at the door. It was our landlord’s son; we had an emergency phone call. Our phone wasn’t hooked up yet. My husband felt funny going to our landlords, we just moved in. Therefore, he drove the 4 miles to town to call. He didn’t come back for what seemed like a long time. I figured if it was anything big, he would have hurried. You know how it is? Some people’s idea of an emergency is maybe different than yours.

By this time, the kids were out enjoying our long new driveway on their bikes. It was beginning to rain lightly, which makes bike riding even more fun. When he came in, they all continued riding, another reason I figured the news wasn’t too bad. He came in and stood across the room from me. I said, “So what was the big emergency?” Then I caught a good look at his face, something was wrong. He said, “Honey your brother Marty just drown in the Tomah Lake.”   

I think he went outside to bring the kids in. I don’t know if my voice yelled, or only my heart. God, you said you would never give us more than we could handle (I have since learn that that saying isn’t in the Bible at all. It says He will never allow us to go through anything ALONE! …Lord have you lost my address. I am here now. LORD! I can’t do this AGAIN!

Just then the kids came in and said, “Mom come and look there is a rainbow.” I wanted to say who gives a rip about a rainbow. Nevertheless, I stepped to the door anyway, and I looked out across the sky. Ephesians 3:20 He can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. God had not only sent me a rainbow, but one of the fullest, clearest double rainbows I had ever seen before or since. That still small voice whispered, “Yes I know where you are , and YES! I remember my promise.”   

Now we return to two decades later and here I was in the middle of the second person’s, third try at an IV. I was asking God for another rainbow. I was the person people came to with their problems. They came to me for answers, yet here I lay with nothing but questions, a lot of them.   

One of the attributes of God is teacher. Did you ever notice the teacher doesn’t talk much during a test? Maybe he’ll touch your shoulder, but he doesn’t have much to say. Which didn’t go along with my plans. It wasn’t that I doubted him or his ability. I just wanted to know what I had done, or was doing wrong so I could fix it, get better, and get on with life. I had had enough of this chapter.

That is what I had always done for myself, and everyone else. If it broke, I fixed it. After all wasn’t that what God put me here for was to touch lives and solve problems?? HMMM!

Blessings! Thanks for Reading!