Living In The Storm: In Sickness And In Health

nobody does a wedding like my dad. nobody. last night i had the priviledge of meeting with a very special couple who my dad is marrying at the end of the month.

mom and dad have been walking couples through pre-marital counseling and weddings for 3 decades. last night i felt very inadequate, knowing that my mom is usually the one sitting at dad's side helping everyone along.  i know she always would say just the right thing to help calm the couple down, "we WILL have fun, and you WILL get married" is among the top of her most repeated phrases.

sitting, watching my dad walk through picking out this sweet couples vows, their ring vows, their music, etc etc, just allowed my mind to wander and think about the raw emotions pulsating through my body. here is a man, my daddy nonetheless, walking through some of the darkest days of his life, and all the while he is coming along side young couples and whispering in their ears, "this is the way! love each other. forgive each other. love with a love not of your own."

if my dad married you (like he did SO many of you readers) if you've watched my dad do a wedding, if you have watched him love my Mama at any point in their almost 40 years of marriage, know this: you will rarely  find a more "real life", tangible, example of, "in sickness and in health" as you will find in their marriage.

you want to know what real love is? watch a man stroke his wife's hair over and over again, all while whispering in her ear, "i love you, i love you, i love you!"

you want to know what real love is? watch a man humbly and willingly lay down ALL of his own wants and desires, and elevate his wife's needs and wants, with NOTHING in return.

you want to know what real love is? watch a man who is the living definition of " in sickness and in health" exhort a couple to promise each other that EXACT same thing a few short weeks from now.

very few people in the audience that day will know the weight of those words as they graciously and lovingly come out of my daddy's mouth, but me, this sad excuse as a "fill in" for my mom, will hear those words and feel those words like never before.

MOM UPDATE:
mom has been stable for almost 6 days now. her heart and her mind have found a pretty calm and happy place. while we are VERY relieved that much of the anger and torment seem to have been stilled, we are now more aware than ever what the disease has taken from her mind.

hopefully in the next few days or so, Mama will be transferred to a rehabilitation facility for some transitional rehabilitation.

praise:
mom has been stabilized remarkably fast.
she has been laughing, smiling, and singing almost everyday!

the other day while i was there i am pretty sure she thought she was leading a bible study, and inbetween hymns mom would break out in a loud voice and lead the whole room in prayer. it was one of the SWEETEST moments. she was also asking anyone who entered the room if they needed a little something to drink and eat. again, she is definitely in her element.

prayer requests:
mom has lost an incredible amount of weight. please pray that she will "eat her face off" as my children say and get some meat on her bones. :)
prayer that when the transition between facilities takes place that it will be smooth.

before my mom ever met my dad she overheard a conversation he was having with another man. my mom has the gift of intuition, she can feel things most people NEVER even sense. anyway, after she heard that conversation she ran back to her group of friends and begged them to pray for this unnamed man she was ease dropping on :)

i am very confident that if Mama were able to ask something of  you, she would beg you to pray for her man. once again, he sometimes goes unnamed in her mind, but she would sense he needs your prayers.

pray for my dad, who at one point, almost 40 years ago made a promise that he would love "in sickness and in health."

~s