Memorial Box Monday:In His Hands

Today I have a lot that I want to say and not a lot that I am allowed to say. So instead I'll do a Memorial Box Monday post with sweet Linny over at A Place Called Simplicity which is a page I visit sometimes, even if she hasn't blogged, just to listen to her playlist! We have the same taste in music...anything that glorifies HIM is ok with me!

This Memorial Box Moment happened when I was quite young, about 6 years old I guess, but I still remember it like it was yesterday! As a child I was vexed with nose bleeds from the time I was a little over one year old. My mom found me in a pool of blood one morning and finally calmed herself down enough to realize it was coming from my nose. From that time on I went through countless trips to the ER to get my nosed packed and I had somewhere around 6 surgeries (or maybe it was 9 I can't really remember) to try to cauterize my weak blood vessels. This particular time I had my tonsils removed and I had my nose cauterized in the same surgery. The doctors stressed how important it was that I did not throw up. This was an issue for me because the anesthesia had a history of making me very sick. After the surgery I fought and fought to keep from getting sick. For days I fought it but finally a few days after the surgery I just couldn't help myself. I was afraid I would get in trouble so I didn't tell anyone. So after about four times of throwing up nothing but pure blood I finally told my Daddy. I remember him grabbing the phone and dialing my doctor while telling mom to get me ready to go. The doctor told my parents not to wait for an ambulance to get me to the ER immediately. I remember my mom calling my grandfather to pick my sister up and I remember my sister standing on the edge of our porch in her pj's by herself and us pulling out of the driveway as my grandfather turned on our road. I was so scared my Dad was a Pastor of a small church and they had just purchased him a 1985 Buick LeSabre (just like the one in this picture only it was Maroon) because we drove so far back and forth to church.

Well I remember being in the back seat with my mom and I was still throwing up, I just couldn't stop! Our main road here in Cleveland is APD 40 it is the "short-cut" to town and my Dad loves stopping here when he is telling this story to say it wasn't even open yet, it was about to open and so he used it to get to the hospital faster, he just likes me to know that I am older than the road I travel everyday :-) Thanks Dad!

Anyway we were on APD 40 and we were coming down a big hill and my Dad had the car "pegged out" as he says basically he was going as fast as the car would go and the speedometer couldn't keep up. When we were coming down that hill I remember saying "Pray Mama Pray" and I remember my Mom and Dad starting to pray and at that exact moment the front two tires on that brand new car blew out. I remember the car starting to spin and then just as quick as it started I believe the hand of God touched that car and it stopped. At the bottom of that hill was one of the busiest intersections in Cleveland but since it was kinda late at night there were no cars there that I had noticed on the way down the hill. However when the car got finished spinning there were not one, not two, but three police cars sitting at that red light and one detective. The detective and his wife had been coming home from eating dinner and they got me and my parents in their car...all I can remember is the car was white and ALL the interior of that car was white and I remember thinking oh my goodness I am going to get red blood all over their white car! They drove us straight to the ER and the Police Officers told my dad that they would bring his car to the hospital.  We got to our local hospital and they couldn't get the blood stopped they said I would have to go by ambulance to a Children’s hospital 30 miles away. My mom rode with me in the ambulance and my dad walked outside to see us off before he called someone to come get him and his car was sitting there with the spares out of those officers’ cars on it. They had changed the tires and brought it up there so he followed the ambulance. We got to T.C. Thompson's Children Hospital and I was still bleeding from the ripped stitches in my throat, the doctors came in and tried all they could and they went back out and told my parents that they had done everything they knew to do and that I was still bleeding. But Praise God I serve a God who likes to work when NOTHING else will. The hand of God came down again and touched my throat and for reasons that the doctors could not explain my throat stopped bleeding instantly. I did not need a transfusion;  God took care of the problem. I had to spend several days in the hospital, I think that was because the doctors couldn't believe it and expected it to start back up at any moment but my Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving* God had big plans for my life and he healed me completely that day!

(*I borrowed that from Linny...Sorry Linny! but isn't that a PERFECT description of him?!) So when I find my "perfect" Memorial Box I am going to put in a Matchbox car that looks something like that Maroon Buick to remind me that even when situations spin out of control God's hand will guide you into perfect provision.

The thing that sticks out to me today about that day is that in the time of trouble I can call on Him (Pray Mama Pray) and He will keep what I have placed in His hands. So today as I wait on an answer about whether or not a current circumstance will stand in the way of our journey to our sweet, sweet Brooklyn Jane I am doing one thing...Mama is Praying! This is a mountain (there were actually two small mountains and one large one and God has already moved the two small ones right out of the way!) and I am asking my Mountain-moving God to MOVE IT! God Bless You All!

UPDATED TO ADD: The mountain that was standing in our way recieved an answer and the answer was No. God is still in control and I know that when the time is right to add to our family God will do so in the way He chooses. We are trusting Him and looking at all the options. Please continue to pray!

2 Timothy 1:8-14

 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,  which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

In Christ Alone,