Divinely Placed….

When we last spoke, I shared that we had a new plan, and because of the comfort level that the Lord had given me, I was actually comfortable moving forward. As you can probably foresee, this plan proved to be the most successful. Even though my wife would have a long way to go, and even today we still deal with issues, she was going to be on a path to healing.

The glory of that last statement goes to the Lord, but He put so many people in our paths to help us on this journey. Without many of these folks, we would not be where we are today. This week, I want to tell you about these folks who played such a vital role in her healing.

D-

D was our nurse, and we spent a large amount of time with her in the wound clinic, when she would visit us while my wife was in the hospital, and even outside of work when we just had questions.

D had this energy about her and always made my wife smile. She would greet her with a “Hello, beautiful,” and in those hard days and hard appointments, she was a light in many moments of darkness. She would hold my wife’s hand while she had to endure such painful skin debridements, just encouraging her at all times.

We needed that.

I don’t know if she understood how much those moments were helpful and supportive. She would give us materials when needed and show me again and again what I was supposed to be doing at home. She did so with grace and patience.

This was so kind of her because many people speak about the pain associated with an incident, but many do not spend time thinking about the cost of the materials it takes to care for a loved one. We are blessed to have good insurance and paying jobs that allowed us to be okay, but we still had times when we could have struggled. D made sure we never got to that point.

Her medical knowledge was nothing compared to the kindness and love that she showed each and every day we were there, and we were there a lot.

I will never be able to repay her for the kindness and love she showed my wife, so I just try to carry that same attitude and level of caring throughout my profession as well.

Doc P.

Doc was the man who had done our surgery, and it could have been very easy to blame him and be angry with him. Many told me to find another doctor or get a second opinion.

It is not that I didn’t want a second opinion, and it wasn’t that I wasn’t angry with Doc. He had hurt the person who made me feel whole, and the anger building in me could very easily have been directed at him.

Even through all of my own struggles with anger, and at times still losing faith (more on that later), I didn’t want to blame Doc. I know he played some role in what happened, but I knew that this was something out of his control. I wasn’t sure why it was happening, but I was sure that this was not all his fault.

His character came out throughout this ordeal, and to this day, we still see him every couple of months. He is almost apologetic for this thing happening.

He never gave up.

He never passed us on to another doctor.

In fact, he too tried to keep the cost down for us. We had a number of skin grafts. I know the number is bigger than eight, but I can’t remember an exact number. What you need to know about that type of procedure is that insurance companies consider these still experimental and refuse to pay for them.

Doc went above and beyond to speak with companies and get many of these grafts donated for little or no cost to us. He called in favor after favor, and I am not sure what it cost him on the back end of this event. He never mentioned it. He also cut his fee for doing the procedures.

Some would say that he should have. He messed up.

I say, Jesus would want us to give each other grace and put our faith in the fact that the Lord put these people in our path for a reason.

Sometimes in life, we allow our anger to run away from the right people in search of the perfect solution. We are not guaranteed a perfect solution or perfect people.

Doc was able to help us physically and financially, and he took this moment to reflect on his procedure and change what he does. That type of self-reflection and continued support throughout our recovery shows me the type of man he is, and the world could use more doctors like that.

If we had run in anger, I am not sure we would be where we are today.

Family

I am doing this one as a group because there were so many family members who were so helpful.

My Mom and Dad allowed me to go back to work and spent hours sitting with my wife, keeping her company, and doing simple things like laundry. When one partner is down, the other finds out just how big the load is that you share.

Without something as simple as helping with laundry, doing dishes, and sitting lovingly and watching Flea Market Flip for so many hours, they meant the world to us.

Our son took days off from work to spend time with his mom and to help with doctor’s appointments. This allowed me to work and keep moving forward. Many times, I thought FMLA was a path I was going to have to take, but with our family’s help, we were able to make it work.

My wife’s family was there too and came whenever they were able, but they called all the time to encourage her and help her stay positive.

Our church family at TUMC made meals for us for weeks. This made things easy as I worked into the evening most days, and food was easily accessible.

Our friends came to visit, pray, and lighten the load when they could.

We are so incredibly blessed to have people who care about us and are willing to put their lives aside when we need help. We appreciate and love each of them.

Martin and Bex – @martinandbex (YouTube)

This one may not make sense to everyone.

Martin and Bex are YouTubers who can be seen as not appropriate to share on a Christian-based blog like this one, but what they brought was laughter.

In total, we were dealing with this situation for about two years before my wife was able to get out of her wheelchair full-time and walk again. That is a long stretch of sadness, depression, and questioning, “Why?”

Martin and Bex are a couple in the UK who play pranks on each other and, in truth, just have a great time in life. Sometimes the pranks are a bit risqué, or the language is a bit colorful, but when my wife needed to smile, we would watch YouTube for the night.

Her favorite at the beginning was when Martin was working on a light or ceiling fan. As he was about to do some work with a tool on the wiring, Bex would just yell and scare the dickens out of him. He would get so mad.

Why she found this so funny, I am not sure, but there are plenty of videos where Martin gets upset, and they always gave her a few moments of genuine happiness.

Laughter and smiles were not abundant during this time, and if this is what made her feel better, I am thankful for it.

Even if some would deem it inappropriate.

The Lord placed all these people in our paths at the perfect time.

We are divinely designed.
We are perfectly placed.
We are meant to be……
Where we are.
Who we are.
Doing what we are doing.

You may know what I am talking about. There may be people in your life just like this. Maybe you just need to recognize them. Maybe you’re that person for someone else.

All we can do is live in faith and strive to be the person the Lord has designed us to be.

Thank you for all who were designed to be in our lives. We love each of you.

Talk again soon…..