Surgery Scheduled for my Amazing Dad

Hey - I just wanted to give you an update on my Dad's health.

We just went to the doctor's yesterday (Monday) and scheduled an appointment to get his gall bladder removed. He will be going into surgery on this Wednesday, tomorrow, the 1st of October. He will be staying at the hospital in Altamonte Springs overnight, possibly for two nights. My Mom will be staying with him. Please pray for him and Mom. Dad is currently in a lot of pain and fatigue. It seems like he is always tired. Anyway, back to surgery - the surgeon told him that he will, with my dad's permission, look for anything unusual and, if need be, remove it. This would bring his surgery up to a c-section type of incision, thus making recovery longer and the stay in the hospital longer.

You know what is amazing? My dad and his attitude toward his sickness. He is constantly an awesome example of long-suffering. I remember when he first got sick, about 5 years ago in September. I was 8-9 when he first got sick. When September came, that meant going outside to throw the baseball and run around; fires and "cold" nights with hot chocolate and a good book. (I know - don't tell me - Floridian.) I loved hanging out with my dad. I was and am a total Daddy's Girl. No one was more fun than him. When he got sick, it devastated me. I couldn't do anything that I used to do. Mom was always helping dad, making soup for him or taking care of 2-3 year old Timmy. I don't know if she even slept at night. When dad got sick, I couldn't do anything that I used to do. No softball, no bike rides, no "Hi, daddy!" when he got home, because he didn't get home. He was always home, in bed or on the couch. He was always asleep or moaning. I didn't know what was happening. I thought he was dying or something. It took me about a year or two before I realized that this was God's weird way of blessing us. Uh, don't ask me what the blessing is - I'm not really sure. I know that it was a test for me, and it still is. I used to pray every night for him to get better, I still pray every night for him to get better. Nothing has really happened and everything has happened. I don't feel different and I feel totally different. I can't really explain it, except that God grew my faith since then. I have had to trust that Dad was going to be fine, trust that God was in control, trust the the doctors knew what they were talking about, trust that the medicine wasn't going to kill him, trust that all of this was for good. "for the good of those who love Him..." never was as confusing as it was then. Dad's unending faith in God was a great example to me of what a true man of God was. His sicknesses were trivial to what he deserved - and he knew that. He knew that he deserved eternal fire from Hell, yet he was given this gift of just Crohns Disease. Just a few years of sickness instead of an eternity. What is a few years of sickness when you have heaven staring you in the face - eternal happiness, eternal wellness, eternal worship to the Savior. This is just a blade of grass in a field. Trivial compared to what is around us.

Pray for my family, as we go through this together. Pray that dad makes it through well - with out any complications. Pray for his health, that he would be forever healed from this Crohns disease. Pray that the surgeon would be an amazing surgeon with a steady hand. Pray that the surgeon would receive wisdom. Pray for dad, that he would make the most amazing recovery in the history of surgery - let it be called a miracle.

Yet, we pray that God's will would be most important in our minds and lives. We know that whatever our holy, almighty, all-powerful God ordains is right.