TWTWTW

EDIT: Dad is in the hospital tonight with pneumonia. He says he knows now that he should have stayed there last night instead of coming home. While I thought they were both sleeping, they were not. See below for details.


This was the thought that came to me this morning. Does anybody else remember that acronym? It stands for That Was The Week That Was. I have a very vague recollection of this television show from my youth. I googled it this morning, and sure enough I wasn't crazy. It ran in 1962-63, was from England (which I did not remember at all) and at the end was hosted by David Frost. Google information says it was satirical and was dumped right before the 1964 election. It apparently was tried in the US with not the success it had in the UK. I don't recall watching it, but loved the title and the acronym. I'm certain it was not my kind of humor, even back then.

Well, I say all that to say this - it has been quite a week. The week that started out with that gorgeous sunrise and moonset, and found me standing on Lake Street with my locked car running, waiting for my knight in shining red Toyota truck to rescue me, has been a real challenge for our family.

Kevin has asked me to apologize for him for his tardiness in being able to publish Chapter 4 of our story. He has been very busy with school and work, and has had some health issues this week. Not to mention the dropping of the internet at home, so he has to do all computer work in computer labs here at the university.

But - he was on track to prepare it this week when he was downed by a small front lower tooth. As the story goes, when he was a little guy, probably about 7-8, he and the neighbor kid were "rassling" around on the front lawn. They collided heads - his brand new front lower tooth hitting the hardest head on the block. It chipped, and was very painful, which led to a very early-in-life root canal. We don't know why, but the pain flared up last year when he was on the East Coast in Teen Challenge. Fortunately, they got him in to a dentist, who did a stop gap measure, which held out until this week, when the pain has been unbearable. So yesterday he had some oral surgery, and spent the evening with gauze in his mouth and no feeling in the lower half of his face. Now his wife, Sema to blogland, has to have wisdom teeth removed this week-end, so it has not been a good week in the Kevin/Sema household. Please pray for both of them as you think of it.

On to an "unspoken request" as we call them in our church - something I can't share, but desperately needs God's intervention. Yesterday was a very tough day in this situation. I know I can count on you.

THEN -- I was outside enjoying a real taste of spring yesterday afternoon with the kiddoes and came in to find a message from my mom - Dad was unconscious on the hall floor and the ambulance was on the way - she thought he'd had a stroke. Chills went up and down my spine. She was still home when I punched in her number, and couldn't talk because the ambulance had just left and she needed to follow it.

As the story unfolded, he had been coughing badly all night, so they miraculously got him in to the doctor at 9:00 a.m. He had a temp of 101 and they sent him home with antibiotics. He dozed most of the day off and on in his recliner. About 5:00 Mom had to help him out of his chair and he was very weak and disoriented. When she couldn't hold him up any longer, she encouraged him to lean on the wall and just slide down to the floor. That's the last he remembers until he saw all of these faces looking down at him - the paramedics. They all thought he'd had a minor stroke.

Now when you have such an incident on a Wednesday afternoon and you belong to a fellowship of believers who meet on Wednesday night for various activities at the church, you get a lot of instantaneous prayer going up for you. I thought for sure they'd keep him overnight, but by 9:00 he was home - very weak, but home. At first I was stunned that they didn't keep him, but then I decided to give the glory to God who heard the prayers of His saints in our church.

He had a temp of 105 when he got to the emergency room, and they diagnosed him with serious bronchitis. I live very close to their house, so jumped into my car in my jammies, robe, slippers, and jacket to go over and help Mom get him down the hall into bed. He insisted on trying to get up from the chair himself, and succeeded. He didn't really need two guides, but we did it anyway. I slept there in the guest room and heard him cough a couple of times, but we all had a good night's rest. I got up at 5:15 and quietly left, hoping they can get some good sleep this morning. Mom's exhausted. So - another prayer request and praise!

I'll end today with a nice, heartwarming story. My youngest brother is an interesting fellow. He has never followed the path of a 9-5 job - I never quite know what he does. I even asked his oldest son one day, "David, if I asked you what your daddy does when he goes to work, what would you say?" I never did get a good answer. But he has been in marketing, P.R., running political campaigns, etc. He was the p.r. person for the movie about Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, and the other missionary martyrs in Ecuador in the 1950s, The End of the Spear, which came out last year. Because of all of his interesting work, he has made friends with many interesting people in politics, religious organizations, etc. Now he's free-lancing, I think you'd call it. He attended the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Orlando a couple of weeks ago. His youngest son (age 10, if I remember right) has been having devotions with his mom every morning from Joni Eareckson Tada's latest devotional book, Diamonds in the Dust." My brother got to talk to her at the convention and thanked her for her influence on his son's spiritual life. (If you don't know who Joni is, you definitely need to Google her and find out - fabulous person!) She said, "Find me tomorrow and let's call him." He did, they did, and my nephew was floating a ways above the earth for a couple of days. They did not know there was a camera present, but I'll end today with this delightful picture that was taken at that moment. He of course had to hold the phone to her because she is quadriplegic - read up on her if you don't know her story.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!!