It was a Sunday.
A beautiful, brunch-with-my-Papa kind of Sunday.
I had just helped my baby climb into her chair when I noticed someone wheeling towards me.
Her eyes sparkled. Her silver hair was neatly tucked into a bun. And her bright, flowered dress stood out amongst the equally silver-haired crowd.
I had barely pushed my chair from the table to get myself something to eat when she arrived. But soon, we were chatting and laughing and swapping teacher stories. It wasn't until my empty stomach reminded me I still hadn’t eaten that I began to stand once again...
And then she saw it.
My ever so lovely assistive device. A sight not altogether foreign in this place but unusual, just the same. It was only as we were making our way to the food line, my new friend asked the question I could tell she had been holding in, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why do you walk with a cane?”
So with a shrug and half-smile, I gave her the quick answer, "A stroke."
But she pressed for more and more and more and by the end, I had told her everything.
About the auto immune disease. The stroke. The miscarriage. The septic shock. The rainbow baby. The blood clot. The lung issues. The heart complications. The surgeries. The whole big mess and a half.
I watched as her eyes widened with each new thing but as I drew to a close, she said something I will never forget, “What incredible healing you’ve had!!!!!”
No "I’m sorries." No "Whoa, that’s a lot." No "I can’t believe you have been through so much!" Instead, all she offered was a baffled look and a “What incredible healing you’ve had!!!”
It wasn't until I rode home with my loves that I sat under the full grace of her words.
Little did I know that two weeks later I would be in the hospital with severe sepsis and pneumonia in both lungs. Little did I know that I would my recovery would last weeks and weeks. Little did I know that I would be back in a place that I have been so many times before.
A place where my heart would need to meet my Jehovah Rapha, my Healer. Just so that I could look beyond what the world sees as healed and accept the grace of what He has done over and over and over again...
In bringing me home to my loves.
To see their faces. To know their touch. To hear their voices.
To be present. To count each heartbeat. To hold every hand.
To be loved. To be humbled. To be handed a life worth living.
And to be grateful to a God who loves me so much that He would fight for me, that He would know my heart, that He would bring healing and stall this disease once again so that I could be here today to say with all I have...
Thank you for one more day to love them all over again.