Rains on the Just and the Unjust

(Sept. 8, 2011)


Thanks to everyone for your prayers over the last week. I know 95% did not know what you were praying for, but I had to keep Janell's privacy wishes. But I've received permission to share the last few's days events with you. Last Thursday evening, after a full day at work, Janell came home and cooked supper. We finished and she fixed me a plate of leftovers for lunch the next day, and said she was feeling tired and went to lay down for a few minutes. Within 15 minutes I heard her talking rather loudly and went to check on her. She was trying to tell me something but the words were all jumbled up an not making sense. When she answered my question, "Janell what is my name?" with "yes", I knew she was apparently having a stroke. I rushed her to St. Vincents hospital.
We spent the next 5 days being assessed, tested and regulated on blood thinners and tortured on hospital food. She has suffered a very mild stroke caused by a blood clot. It has ONLY affected her word retrieval ability and hearing comprehension. No physical impairments at all. Everything about Janell and all her memories and vocabulary are still there, she just has to find a new pathway to retrieve her words. The doctors and therapists are just amazed at her improvement in one week. She is expected to maske a full recovery, it just might take 2 weeks or 2 months, we don't know. For this brief amount of time, I'm enjoying a respite from her always having the last word. But I know that is what's driving her to full recovery at such a fast pace! The usual result of such a stroke located where it happened is much more debilitating. So, though we wish it had never happened, God was good to us. It could have happened a week earlier on a cruise ship in Alaska, or on an airplane. It could have happened during the night where sleeping hours would have made a big difference. And it could have been much, much more damaging.
So again, thank you to all who lifted us up in prayer without a clue of what was needed. I went back to work yesterday, and someone said to me, "when I heard what had happened to Janell, I thought to myself, "why would God allow this to happen to such a Christian couple who try to live for Him?" I told her that He says in His Word that it rains on the just and the unjust. We are nothing special in His eyes. We are being tried by fire, just like gold, and He's hoping to burn out all the impurities before he makes us into that final eternal being that with walk and talk with Him just as two of my sons and my "daughter" are today. I have more to report on in coming days about our trip, and some thoughts I've had about our childrens homegoings that I'll share in the coming days.
Please remember Darra Graham in your prayers. She has a real prayer need right now, and I will try to bear that burden with her as she has mine the last four months. I ask you to join me.
I'll be back.....