My cousin Shane and his dad, my Uncle Bill
Julie and her little Annie.
My Aunt Nomie, my mom and My Gram
I know, I know, I know! I have not updated my blog in far too long. I have gotten caught up in facebook and it is all to easy to go and read all the status updates and forgot about the deeper blog world! But tonight I wanted to share a little bit deeper stuff than just a status update. My cousin Shane is in the ICU in Grand Rapids, MI right now. He has double pneumonia, and H1N1 on top of that. He is literally fighting for his life. I have a Grandma who was told a couple of weeks ago, that there is nothing they can do to fight her cancer, and to go home and live the rest of her life to the best of her ability. Many of you know Bart and Julie Thompson. They found out 10 months ago that their baby girl, Annie, has neuroblastoma--a very dangerous cancer. So, why am I telling you these things? In each one of these situations, prayer support from the family of Christ is paramount. As I was scrolling through facebook tonight and reading all the comments that my friends have left on my status that asked for prayer for my cousin, I was brought to tears. It is so incredible to know that there are so many people out there who are willing to hold my cousin, whom most of them do not know, up in prayer to our heavenly Father. When you go and look at the website dedicated to praying for Annie, you will see there is an incredible amount of prayer support going up for that family and little Annie. When I read Julie's updates on her little Annie, I can hardly imagine what their family must be going through. Her posts always bring tears to my eyes. I am not a parent...but I can only imagine the pain and heartache that they are dealing with, but I know that they have a HUGE army of people praying for them all the time! Some of the things she has said in her posts are so powerful! In fact, here is a little excerpt from one of them..."However God chooses to use her she will be healed - a healing here on earth where we can all see her and marvel in what God has done or a heavenly healing that we cannot see right now but will be His perfect will and who could deny her to be able to walk, talk, see well, hear, touch, smell, and have a perfect body! We love her so much it hurts but God loves her and us even more." Those are the words of a woman who knows what faith and trust in God is all about. She also a woman who is prayed for every day..maybe even every hour. My Gram, as far as I can tell, has a peace about her that passes understanding. She KNOWS where she is headed and she knows its a beautiful thing. She has lived an amazingly dedicated life. She is an example of someone who took a lot of hard knocks in life and kept on trusting God. When she dies the world will lose an incredible person! We are going to miss her SO much! We as her family, need the prayer to deal with the loss of a wonderful grandmother and Mom. My cousin's family does not know much about prayer, but they are definitely learning that they need to rely on a Power greater than themselves. The point is...Isn't it great to be a Christian? We have such strength when we all pull together for the same cause. I think that sometimes we forget how wonderful it is to have a Christian family. What would we do without each other? Sometimes I think we get so caught up in annoyances and disagreements that happen. Forget the little annoyances and disagreements! Do they really matter? We NEED each other! Its a beautiful thing and its a beautiful way to live!
