JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: Faith

Faith

By VickiLynn

7 May 2008

No Hope! March 4th, 2008 my Bruce went into the hospital not feeling well - he thought he had food poisoning, the emergency doctor #1 thought he was dehydrated and gave him some fluid and sent him off to Dialysis...

...where the nurse noticed right away that there was more wrong then what you see on the outside and sent him back to the emergency...

...where Doctor #2 ran test after test and found something very wrong and sent him to ICU...

...where the Doctor told us he had to go on a respirator where he would stay for two weeks - unable to speak or move - they gave him durgs to keep him still and I sat and prayed for a miracle - all the while the Doctors kept telling me he was not going to make it... trying to keep me as they say 'in the real world'...

...please do not even try that on me...

....I know Who to call on when the way looks foggy or on a clear day...

...I know WHO whom I believe in and I know WHO holds my hand...

I would just keep asking the Doctors if they found a small Miracle in their pockets, the reply was always - "not yet"

...but Bruce woke up two weeks to the day after we got him to ICU, I had not spoken to him since March 4th, although I had sat by his side for two weeks hoping to see his eyes open or holding my breath when his heart would stop beating or blood pressure would go too low and the alarms would go off. I would sit there everyday talking, read to whatever part of his "spirit" could hear me. And Pray, Pray Pray for that miracle...

The Doctor came into Bruce's room the next day and said that things had made a great turn and although he was not out of the woods - they could see the sun shining in!

I love it when a Miracle happens! Our God is still on the Throne and still answering prayer. Any questions, feel free to speak to us. Bruce and I have seen things you would never think would happen in the last 23 years.

I married Bruce one month after he got hurt on the job. Bruce worked for the Sheriff's department - in the jail and had made a name for himself with the people unfortunate enough to find themselves behind the bars. His fellow co-workers called him tiny, he was 6 feet 5 inches tall and was around 320lbs if not more and wore size 20 shoes and had hands the size of baseball mitts.

The day of our wedding Bruce had just had his knee operated on trying to fix or repair the damage that had been done to it on the job training and was still will to stand for our whole wedding. I tried to talk him into sitting on a chair - he would still be as tall as most of us. He would not have it. He was so excited to be getting married - (more then I - I was a very happy single person) he pick out the suits the guys would wear and bought me some beautiful jewelry and choose the song to use for my wedding march... it was beautiful and perfect - it made me feel like a Queen... I had only met Bruce 5 months before that day and he knew all things perfect for me - just for me. It was like he was born to meet me and make me life complete.

The wedding was beautiful, my friends sang - my sister made a few of the dresses and the others had someone else make theirs and never met to see how long they should be so they would all match... and you know what... they all matches perfectly even the 2 little girls we had in the wedding matched in length just like someone took great care in making them so.

It was 72 degrees out the day before we got married and on April 6th, 1985 it rained, then there was sleet and snow and hail... some of the people on the way to our wedding slid in the ditch...

and so our lives have gone ever since that day...

...a few months after we were married we would find that the accident at Bruce's job would be covered up and we would loose everything... his job, the wonderful business he had started that was running like a top, our money we had saved, Bruce's health... we have found that you truly can live on "love."

Every year after the year we were married we would find Bruce making at least 3 trips to the hospital trying to repair his body from the fall at work that happen a month before our big day. Bruce has spent every year we have been married in the hospital, loosing first his right leg then his left leg, then the uses of his kidneys, then his left pinky finger then the uses of his right hand - then the uses of his left shoulder and then the right pinky- he had open heart surgery one year after we were married trying everything to keep his legs. Bruce did spend one year where he did not go to the hospital and that was the year I almost died from a tumor growing in my belly - they told him I had 5 minutes left to live when he got me to the hospital...(I can tell you when I blacked out-or right before I did - there was no fear, there was only peace - great peace... in my heart) but 8 pints of blood and major surgery later and then some more blood and another surgery to repair an oops that happen during first surgery - 4 days without food, because the staff or the doctor at the hospital forgot to order me food - and then on my 9th day they let me go home... a month later I got to go back to work... then it was back to Bruce visiting the hospital again, once there was a little mistake done that stop his heart - that was a little mind boggling - but all was well, they got it going again... no body is perfect you know... no harm done...

So, when we say we know the power of GOD - We know the power of GOD...

HE has given us Miracle after Miracle and JOY! Real JOY!!!

There is not a day that goes by that we can not thank HIM for HIS wonderful Grace and Mercy...

where does our Faith stand - Safe in the Arms of Jesus and the Father of all, the Great I Am!

The joy of the Lord is our strength!!!

Rom.10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Isa.51:3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Bruce is home now and doing pretty good. He is a bit wore out... but slowly he is feeling better...