- Please pray for a co-worker's brother in Ivory Coast. He has been wrongfully imprisoned because of his political views/affiliations by the current party. Please pray for his release and a a quick trial date.
- Please pray for one of Susie's friends in Budapest. She is pregnant and recently discovered a growth in her body. Please pray for God's peace to be with her and her husband, her kids, and her parents who have traveled to be with her. Please pray that God would spare her child that is in the womb. Please also pray for a healing of this growth.
- Please pray for my (Ben's) dad. On Monday, the 25th, he will be having open heart surgery for 2 arteries that are currently blocked. We are thankful the doctors were able to find this before it resulted in a heart attack. Please pray for God's healing hand to be with him as he goes through surgery and the 2 month recovery process. Please also pray for my mom and my brother as they deal with the stresses that come with this.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Prayers Requested
Thanks for the many ways you have prayed for us over the last year. Today, we ask that you pray for a few people that are close to us.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Gift
A year ago today was a significant moment for Team
Thomas
Around 7:30 in the morning, I said goodbye to my beautiful
wife as they wheeled her into the operating room. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I knew that
I had to. As I went to the waiting room
that morning, surrounded by family and friends, there were 3 things that I was
hoping for.
I was hoping that by the end of the day my beautiful bride
would be alive. I was hoping that she
would have the ability and cognitive function to remember and recognize
me. I was hoping that our baby would
survive the 6-8 hour ordeal under anesthesia.
I never mentioned these three things to anyone. It was just between the Lord and me.
Throughout the day, we gathered in the waiting room. We told stories, made each other laugh, some
prayed off to the side, we ate and we waited.
Even Susie’s perinatologist, Dr. Glover came and waited with us. Everyone did great in the midst of the
heaviness of those moments. Every hour
and a half, they would call my name. I
would get the standard update, “Everything is going fine.” I knew not to expect much more than
that.
After about 7 hours, maybe 7 and a half, they called me to
meet with the surgeon. Susie’s parents
and brother joined me for what may have been the most intense meeting of my
life. Dr. Glickman came in, and he told
us a lot of things. He got almost all
the tumor. The pathology came back inconclusive,
or at least he wasn’t sure about it.
There were so many questions, emotions and thoughts swirling in my brain
as well as being asked of the surgeon. I
can honestly say, all I cared about was seeing Susie.
After another hour or so, and us moving from the waiting
room to the Neurological ICU, I walked in to her room. I saw my bride and she was beautiful. Her head was bandaged, she had an IV going
and was connected to all sorts of monitors.
I walked around to the side of her bed.
I kissed her on the forehead. She
was alive and she recognized me in the midst of her grogginess. What a joy and peace that gave me in my
heart. .
A few minutes later, a resident doctor came in and said,
do you want to listen to the baby? We
said yes. He rolled over an ultrasound
machine and within a few seconds we heard it.
Our baby’s heartbeat was strong.
Our baby had survived the surgery.
I kissed Susie again and went out to the waiting room. I sat down on a relatively comfortable
waiting room chair and I exhaled.
Everything I had hoped and wished for that day had come true. I knew that we would have an uncertain road
ahead of us, in light of what Dr. Glickman had shared, but that could wait for
tomorrow. Today, I had everything I
needed.
I ate some spaghetti, went into Susie’s room and made my
bed, right next to her and laid down. Well,
I mostly laid down, except for the times she wanted me to pass her phone to her
so she could play Words with Friends.
A year later, I look back, we look back on this year, and
call it our gift. It is certainly not
anything we would have ever imagined or scripted – pregnant with a brain tumor
– but the lessons we have learned along the way, we are so thankful for.
It is showed us how much God loves us. How much He cares for us. How much He is with us. All the things we knew about God before and have spent our lives sharing with others, have
been deeply confirmed over this past year. What a gift!
It has also showed us how much we love each other. Susie & me, our kids, our wonderful
families, our friends and people we’ve never had the privilege of meeting. All over the world, we have been loved and
cared for. What a gift!
Each day there have been new lessons learned as well as old
lessons reinforced. Our lives will never
be the same, and we do not know what lies ahead. However, we do know that even in the darkest
of circumstances, God’s presence, love, grace and mercy were with us and will
be with us. We know that our love for
each other will not dwindle or diminish, and that by God’s grace our kids are
experiencing His love and ours. What a
gift to go into each day with these truths reinforced in our hearts, minds and
souls.
Happy Craniotomy Day!
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