(FMF Friday) Table

Our Thanksgiving table was blessed with the presence of my sister and her boyfriend this year. Although I text and talk with my sis almost daily  this was the first time we got to see each other face-to-face in over a year. I was so happy that they made it up.  We so enjoyed our brief time together.

My little sister has had a rough time of it the past few years. She has had terrible health issues and several stays in the hospital. We came dangerously close to losing her back in 2010 to pneumonia – when she spent almost three months in the hospital (the majority of which was in the intensive care unit). I had to make the decision to let them ventilate her when her oxygen levels were so low that she couldn’t breathe on her own.  I thank God that He allowed her to survive.

I believe it was in 2012 that she ended up back in the hospital….diagnosed with endocarditis (probably as a result of an infection she caught while in the hospital so long in 2010). It attacked her heart valves. Emergency surgery followed – an artificial heart valve put in.  Again she teetered on the brink of death for several days. Our good God brought her through that as well.

I won’t go into any more details of her health scares, but suffice it to say, she has often questioned God’s decision to let her live. She has gone through periods of great discouragement and depression. I am here to tell you that God knew I needed her. She has been here for me as I’ve traveled the path of grief. She’s always been a phone call away when I have been low.

Having her at our table again was a wonderful thing. It made a hard week happier. For that I’m thankful.