Waiting on the Lord

Its 11:30 pm on May 12th and here we sit at Pops house visiting, sharing but mostly being near an incredible man of God. You know my dad never spoke much about his faith or his Jesus to me but he certainly demonstrated it. I learned more about him the last couple weeks than I had the previous 43 years of my life. He always had the answer be it electrical, be it plumbing, be it mechanical, be it life. We will miss him very deeply ...... I know lots of people will.

The past three weeks he has been in the hospital and the doctors, his amazing doctors, tried desperately to keep the fluid from building in his lungs. They had to have drained more than 5 liters of fluid off total and had moved his chest tubes to keep chasing the fluid pockets. His battle was ferocious, painful, and tiring. Some amazing things happened during these three weeks and the battle took a twisted turn.

The 2nd floor staff at HRMC worked valiantly and put up with a whole lot of Weavers for three weeks. Hats off to them. We laughed with them, cried with them, prayed with them, waited with them but mostly became family with them. It was so beautiful to watch them high five and hug Pop as he was being transported out of the unit. Pop joked with them until the elevator doors shut. We had seen folks come and go for three weeks and this was no normal dismissal. A regular processional. When he got home his face lit up and he chatted with folks and was feelinig great. We even began doubting he was as ill as we thought. When the morning came we began to see what Pop had returned home for. As the day today passed he became more and more unresponsive. The hospice nurses take such great care of him it is incredible. Nurses certainly gifted and ordained by God to take care of the ones He is calling home. As his condition declined they mentioned it may not be 24 hrs. The process was rapidly speeding up. Friends and family continued to drop by to see Pop and to tell him they loved him and I could see the pain on some folks face. The praise team stopped by and began praying with Pop and his whole breathing and all changed. He could hear I know as he was squeezing my hand and in the middle of the prayer a song broke out and I swear I heard angels praising God. "Peace like a river" flowed into "It is well with my soul". Incredibly beautiful and conveyed exactly what Pop told my sisters and I when he had his talk with us about what was going to happen. Kinda reminded me when Jesus told his disciples what was happening to Him and they thought....nahhh. He told us he was good where he was ... that it was Ok. He wanted us to be good with it too. Its kinda cool when the one laying in the hospital bed is teaching the ones doing the caregiving how to give care, how to love, how to accept a change in the battle plan. That he did. The battle plan changed. A new strategy was put into play ... one that couldn't fail.
So here we sit trying to get some sleep, Waiting on the Lord. He is good and Pop told us it's going to turn out better than we ever imagined. As far as I can remember he has never lied to us so I don't expect him to start now.
Thank you Pop for teaching us to love God and to love people. We love you and we are going to miss you.
TW