Surgery Time Change and Some Gentle Reminders

Just wanted to let everyone know we have had a change in time again for the surgery. We are back to first case of the day (woohoo!).  So we will leave here around 4am and surgery should be around 7 - 8am.  Thanks for keeping her in your prayers during this time. She will probably be in until anywhere between 12 -2pm.  Maddie's two concerns she has is how her scar will look and that she will be really grumpy to the nurses when she wakes up. :)  So as you pray, please ask God for His peace in her concerning both of these things. 

Gentle Reminder from a loving Father...

Today my nerves have been on edge.  I'm a bit jittery and just ready to get done already.  I'm finding that having peace is sometimes a choice.  Just for my own sake I wanted to write down the gentle reminders God has given me. He really is so awesome and faithful even when we are weak and doubting. 

~ When Maddie was a baby and in the NICU she had one day in particular that was awful.  She had a really bad episode of apnia and bradycardia and the nurses were having a difficult time 'getting her back.' I felt like I was watching a horror movie as I watched nurses and doctors running and scrambling to get my baby girl to breathe again.  One nurse had hollered to another nurse to get me out of there.  I remember feeling like I was in the midst of an awful storm, but all that went thru my mind in that moment was the song "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus."  It played over and over in my mind. Thru the years, I have looked back on those 20 minutes and know that Jesus spoke directly to me. To my heart. To my spirit.  That song has been so special to me since that time.

So today during worship in church. I was really having a difficult time keeping my thoughts positive and not letting fear creep in. God knew and reached down and spoke directly to me again as the worship leader just started singing acapella "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus."  It was as if He was saying to me, "I've got this. Its done. She is already healed. Just walk this out in faith."  How wonderful that even when I'm unfaithful, He loves me enough to remind me for the millionth time in such a gentle, loving way.   And in a way He knew I would 'get it' immediately.

~ After church today a guy we didn't know came up to us and asked who her surgeon was going to be.  I told him the name and he said that the same doctor had just done his open-heart surgery this past February.  He told us what a wonderful experience he had and how incredible this doctor was.  It was just awesome and so encouraging  to talk to someone who has just gone thru this whole thing and see he is just fine. 

~ When we were leaving UVA on Wednesday, we ran into a family we know from church. We chatted and I told them what we were doing there.  They then told us they were there to see the same doctor we had just had an appointment with because their daughter had the exact same defect Maddie had and had gone thru the same surgery when she was 2 years old. Now they just come for her yearly checkup.  I just thought, isn't that incredible, that as big as UVA is and how many people are there on any given day that I would bump in to them and hear their story.

None of these things are lost on me.  I know God has spoken to me thru all of these people and they don't even know it! I just thought, as emotionally draining as this journey has been, I don't want to lose sight of the great things God has done just for this mama's heart.  I know He cares.  I am feeling surprisingly calm right now.  And choosing peace...