{"id":741,"date":"2013-03-11T21:07:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T21:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=741"},"modified":"2013-03-11T21:07:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T21:07:43","slug":"surgery-no-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=741","title":{"rendered":"Surgery No. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"brothers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Middle of the night,<\/p>\n

Sleep wouldn\u2019t come.<\/p>\n

I looked for you there, snuggled in my bed,\u00a0 calling out Your name.<\/p>\n

I lay there waiting for Your peace, hoping Your loving hands would wrap around me with the message,<\/p>\n

\u201cDaughter, I am here. Your boy will be just fine.\u00a0 He, too, is in my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

I rested knowing that I know You heard my pleas.<\/p>\n

Routine as normal \u2013 dogs, breakfast, school.<\/p>\n

Our other routine \u2013 surgery\u00a0prep came next.<\/p>\n

Pack, prepare, read, re-read, do anything however small to take your mind off what comes next.<\/p>\n

The clock ticks slowly, but it now says it is time to go.<\/p>\n

My momma heart aches.\u00a0 I know this is going to hurt.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s afraid, he doesn\u2019t show it.\u00a0 Once again, he is comforting me.<\/p>\n

Thank you, God, that this time . . . this time the surgery is on our home turf.<\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t splintered as a family.<\/p>\n

Again, I wanted to feel your peace.<\/p>\n

After necessary paperwork to the surgical suite we go.<\/p>\n

I found You there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

as our pastor was praying with someone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A gentle reminder that we are not the only ones that hurt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Off we go to his room.<\/p>\n

I have to smile because maybe it should have our name on it because it is the room I had in the fall.<\/p>\n

Stevens Family Surgical Suite<\/p>\n

By now, our new family tradition is trips to hospitals with March being our \u201ccelebration\u201d month.<\/p>\n

Three of the seven surgeries took place in March.<\/p>\n

Questions<\/p>\n

Questions<\/p>\n

More questions<\/p>\n

Then it came. . . the dreaded question.<\/p>\n

What did you do to get here?<\/p>\n

Nothing.\u00a0 He did absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n

Grief washes over . . . loss of a child, loss of a childhood, two brothers changed forever.<\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

when the boy comforts the nurse who realizes what she said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He comforts her like she is the one who has walked our story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later things don\u2019t go as we had hoped for the IV.<\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

as the nurse asks for God\u2019s hands to guide hers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relief fills the room.<\/p>\n

More questions<\/p>\n

Laughter stemming from how small town news travels fast<\/p>\n

We pray.<\/p>\n

Prayer –\u00a0it is the only thing that makes sense.<\/p>\n

It is what I\u2019ve been doing since the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

as hands – \u00a0loving, healing hands were placed<\/strong><\/p>\n

as words were prayed from your Words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is time to go.<\/p>\n

I sat<\/p>\n

I prayed<\/p>\n

I kept my mind busy by keeping my hands busy<\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

when an old friend stopped to see someone else<\/strong><\/p>\n

She simply smiled and said, \u00a0“Look at the possibilities.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look at the possibilities!<\/p>\n

She dared us to dream.<\/p>\n

Not just for the immediate future but for where Your plans were taking us.<\/p>\n

Dreaming with new hope.<\/p>\n

Wait<\/p>\n

Wait<\/p>\n

Wait<\/p>\n

It is done. We talk with the surgeon.<\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the surgeon said she wished all her patients were as healthy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After all he\u2019s been through, her words give us new perspective.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now he just has to awaken.<\/p>\n

Wait<\/p>\n

Wait<\/p>\n

Wait more.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s starting to rouse.\u00a0 We can come back to the suite.<\/p>\n

Seeing something for the first time that I wasn\u2019t sure I would ever see.<\/p>\n

Five years! We have waited five years for this chance.<\/p>\n

This could be a game changer for him.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is the end of this part of the story.<\/p>\n

We are left alone and<\/p>\n

slowly . . . <\/i><\/p>\n

I feel them coming. I cannot stop them.<\/i><\/p>\n

big,\u00a0BIG tears start to stream down. <\/i><\/p>\n

I look across the room to see my tears mirrored in the Daddy\u2019s face. <\/i><\/p>\n

I found You there<\/strong><\/p>\n

as we realized it would all be okay . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n

because You were there all along.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And now, his feet<\/strong> can follow wherever You lead him. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Middle of the night, Sleep wouldn\u2019t come. I looked for you there, snuggled in my bed,\u00a0 calling out Your name. I lay there waiting for Your peace, hoping Your loving hands would wrap around me with the message, \u201cDaughter, I am here. Your boy will be just fine.\u00a0 He, too, is in my hands.\u201d I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[274,312,427,463,484,491,601],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}