Update

I just wanted to let you all know that Gary passed away early this morning. I just spoke with his wife. She is with her minister making arrangements for his funeral service.

They removed the life support yesterday morning, and Suzie said that although she knew this was coming, she still was not prepared. She kept saying that she had hoped for a miracle here on earth. However, she then pointed out that he got a miracle after all, because he is now with God in heaven.

There is a peace in knowing that he is not suffering anymore. There is a peace in knowing that when he took his last breath here, he was immediately in the presence of God for eternity. As believers in Christ, we have the ability to grieve with hope because this life is not our forever home. There is more yet to come, and it is the best!

Please pray for Suzie as she begins this journey of life without her husband here. Pray for each of their children as well. He leaves behind a legacy of a great big family that loves him dearly, along with many friends as well. I feel honored to have spent time with some of them this past week. I regret that I did not have the chance to know this man before. I have a feeling I missed out on a blessing.

Thanks for your prayers. I know they are felt.

Here is how you can pray

Yesterday I visited with the family of the gentleman I last posted about. As of now, he remains in the ICU in a coma. They were meeting together as a family to decide what to do. Basically they were given the option of having him on a feeding tube and with a trach in a nursing home indefinitely or taking him off of life support. That's a decision no one should have to make. Please pray for the Daniels family. Suzie (his wife) is such a sweet woman and is being so brave and strong. Pray for strength for her in the next several days. I can only imagine her pain. It was an honor to sit and hold her and cry together. I wish I could have known her husband; she only had wonderful things to say about him.

Today, we received some disheartening news. Our adoption agency sent us an email telling us it was "highly unlikely" that we would get our referral in time to bring Ellie home. I cannot begin to tell you how hard that was to read! But let me say this: we are not giving up. We are leaving our dossier in Vietnam until the last possible minute, expecting God to answer our prayers for our little girl. He may choose not to, we know. As I have said before, if that happens, He is still God, and we will still praise him.

Your prayers are vital to us. They strengthen us and encourage us, and well... we could use that right about now.

Live life to the fullest

I am a firm believer that there are no coincidences. I believe that things happen for a reason. I also believe that sometimes we never know what the reason may be... at least for a long time. Sometimes I think God just chooses to put us somewhere to be used, and we have to trust the He sees the big picture. I had one of those kinds of situations this weekend.

Saturday morning, I took Bryan to the church for a hike with the youth group. On my way home, I was the first to come upon a three car accident that had just happened (well, at least the first to stop). Honestly, I stopped because I saw a guy holding a little girl on the side of the road and crying. I rolled down the window and asked if everyone was okay. He said "Everyone in our car is, but I am not sure about him. He hasn't gotten out yet" and pointed to a truck that was nose down in a ditch and smoking horribly.

I parked the truck and got out to take a look. I couldn't get to the driver's door at all, since there was a deep trench underneath it. I went around to the passenger's side and had to crawl through the window to get to the guy. He was bleeding from the mouth profusely, and more importantly, he was not responding at all. No pulse. No breathing. No life. The man was dead.

I am not going to go into all the details of what happened. Suffice it to say that it was the most horrifying thing I have seen, and I was scared to death. I don't know how I remained calm at the time other than to say it was God. I did chest compressions for him as best I could with him sitting up (there was no way to move him at all until all the rescue squad got there because of the position of the truck). Once EMS got there, I was able to assist them and helped with the breathing via the ambu bag. In the end, we finally got him out and into the ambulance where they did CPR for about 20 minutes before taking him to the hospital. From there, he was transferred to UK hospital and is now in the trauma ICU in a coma.

Scripture says " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm" (Eph. 6:12) I feel that. Ever since Saturday, I have battled the "evil" that has spoken to me "you should have done more Holly. You should have breathed for him". I didn't breathe for him before EMS arrived. I admit that I was scared. I saw the blood, and I was scared. I know that's how I am trained; I have to use precaution. But then I hear "you should have had a barrier with you, then he would be okay". The truth is that we will never know if that man would be okay or not if I had breathed for him as soon as I got into his truck. Today in my prayer time, I just confessed to God that I wished I had been able to do more; I want that man to be able to walk out of that hospital and live an abundant life. That may never happen, I know.

All of these thoughts bring me to this conclusion: we have to live with an eternal perspective. I've said it here before, but never have I been more aware of it than now. We are not guaranteed another minute. Make the most of the here and now. Live with your heart focused on the prize of our forever Home with the Lord. Take in each moment. Love your family without hesitation. Love your neighbor as yourself. Live with purpose. I know I am.

Family Fun

This past week, we headed to Gatlinburg for a few days with my family. We had a beautiful cabin (thanks, Mom & Dad), did a little shopping and had a blast playing cards. We laughed, swam, shopped, laughed some more.. you get the picture, right?

We haven't been able to make this trip in the last couple of years, so it was nice to be back with my family. I enjoyed hanging out and just being together! Good times!! A highlight for me was going through the "Ripley's Believe it Or Not!" museum with Bryan. He loved it, and it was great to hang out together. Jeff took Bryan to ride go-carts one day as well. And of course, I LOVE hanging with my niece. Kristin, if you are reading this... you crack me up and I love ya! Just beware of bad melons, girl! okay??? (inside joke)

We got back into town on Saturday, but Jeff was off yesterday as well which is a rare treat. So, Jeff, Bryan and I headed up to Kings Island for some roller coasters. Have you heard that they changed the name of Kings Island? It's now "Jerry Springerville". Seriously... I saw more folks that looked and acted as if they were on the Jerry Springer show than I ever care to see again! But the 3 of us had a great time together.

We rode all of the big rides... well, I didn't ride the Beast since I am not into torture. But I think we hit the rest of them. I think Bryan rode the Vortex 4 times! The weather was perfect... a little cloudy and overcast...so there were hardly any lines! One thing I will say is that I am NEVER getting on Firehawk again. I was still shaking when we left the park last night from that experience! No thanks!!

I love my family. I love spending time together, making memories. We've made a lot of them this week. This is the only life we get, and I want to make it count!

I took the day off today as well to recuperate. Jeff is also off, so we are enjoying a relaxing day at home. They are installing carpet in our media room in the basement as I write this. We will probably paint some trim this afternoon, and I guess I will go to the grocery at some point today. Nothing major though.. just enjoying being at home with my family.

What's the best thing you have done to celebrate your family lately??

A lot of catchin' up...

I haven't been good about keeping up with blogging about the books I have been reading. So, here are the latest I have enjoyed.

1. Faith of My Fathers by John McCain with Mark Salter
I realized a couple of months ago that I really don't know a lot about the presidential candidates. So, in order to get a better understanding of McCain, I picked up his autobiography. I typically don't read autobiographies, but I will admit that I found this one to be very good. I still don't know a whole lot about his political stance on different things, but I do have a better understanding about his background. I plan to read Obama's autobiography too, in case any of you think I am biased :)




2.
Every Young Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker
Jeff and Bryan are actually working through the workbook of this great writing. I wanted a better understanding of what they were talking about, so I decided to read the book. I will say this is a MUST-READ for the parents of boys as it deals with the sexual temptations they face every day.




3.
Who I Am In Christ by Neil T. Anderson
This book was loaned to me by a co-worker and friend. What a blessing! It discussed the tendency we have to doubt God's love for us and how we can stop trying to earn His favor and simply walk in the beauty of His grace.







4. Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard

This is the story of 12 year old Veronica Swan, a mormon girl whose life was forever changed when her two younger sisters were brutally murdered. Although it is fictional, it speaks honestly of forgiveness and its importance in healing from our hurts. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!






5.
What Remains: A memoir of fate, friendship and love by Carole Radziwill
This is Carole's memoir of life with her husband, the nephew of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and their best friends John and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Carole's husband was diagnosed with cancer and expected to die at any time when John and Carolyn's plane disappeared. The book is an indepth look at life and death. It doesn't matter what walk of life you are from; grief is the same.



6. The Shack by William P. Young

This was my favorite of all of these books! This book actually blew my mind. It tells the story of a man whose daughter was murdered in a shack. Years later, struggling with anger, bitterness and a fallen trust in God, he receives an invitation to the shack. There, he encounters the Trinity in human form. This book is truly stunning and beautiful in its depiction of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's a perfect gift for anyone who has ever lost someone they love unexpectedly and has questions about whether or not God is really there and really cares. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!

Simply beautiful

Jeff showed this to me a little while ago, and once I stopped crying, I just had to share it with you all. It's a beautiful picture of just how amazing God is. It's well worth your 8 minutes! trust me on this one.

Celebrating...

HEALING DAY 2008

June 21st is a holiday in our family. It was on this day in 2007 that Bryan had his last stomach surgery. That day marked his 6th surgery in 11 months, and it started him on a journey of total health and happiness. We have deemed that day "Healing Day" for we believe that God healed Bryan that day.

When Bryan went into surgery that morning, the doctor told us that he expected to have to remove part of his colon due to the "extensive damage" that had been done in the previous year from repeated infections. It's funny how you remember phrases like that. But, I also distinctly remember Dr. Iocono saying "It's a miracle. There was no damage at all! His colon was like a perfectly healthy 11 year old boy's should be". We were thrilled then, and we still are now. In the past year, I have often found myself thinking "Bryan didn't do this last year" or "It's so good to see Bryan feel well enough to be here". I am reminded every day of the healing gift that God provided for our son, and I am grateful.

We spent the day at Woodland Skate Park, where the Quicksilver team was doing a demo and competition. Regrettably, we missed the demo (they didn't do it when the online schedule said they were going to!), but Bryan still had a great time skating. The place was NUTS, I tell you. You could not have paid me to get out there, but Bryan did. (Jeff has posted a lot of other pics here). And as I watched him skate, I thanked the Lord one more time for healing his body.