Kleenex Says, "Bless You"

Just when I thought it was safe to wallow in uncertainty and despair (ok THAT’S not an exaggeration, is it?) God has stepped in AGAIN and shown me how much He loves me, how much HE is in control of all of this, and that YES ALICE, THIS IS MY WILL FOR YOU!

Let me ‘splain (no let me sum up).

Since last I updated anyone here on my bro, David much has happened. And things change on a daily if not twice-a-day basis. Every time I’d start to update folks, something would change and finally I gave up trying to keep the masses informed. As of today, my brother is getting moved back to the Cardiac Critical Care Unit at Allegheny General Hospital to await a heart/kidney transplant. If one does not become available at the end of two weeks the doctors will be forced to give him an artificial heart. Without either of these, they suspect that he has about a month to live.

And my brother still does not want to see me.

Nor does he want my kidney (turns out the transplant team doesn’t want it either, but their rejection is easier to take).

I found out a majority of this information on Friday afternoon. On my drive over to my friend Mark’s house for bible study, I had come to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to Belize. How could I? At the same time I thought of all the things that God had orchestrated (as only He can) to show me how this was His will. I was at the point where I just flat out needed someone to tell me what to do. I no longer felt like I was being objective or anything. Enter my dear friend, Greg Stuckey, who without hesitation said, “You are to go to Belize.”

Greg completely brought me down to earth when he said, “Alice, this trip has nothing to do with you. God obviously has a plan. God obviously is in control. This is not about you. This is all about God.” WOW! Gotta admit, this way of thinking was totally foreign to me!

Then last night my uncle tells me that sometime within the next two weeks that he (my uncle) will be having at least double if not triple by-pass surgery. SERIOUSLY? No, I mean SER-I-OUS-LY???!!?????

Oh yeah, and by the way, HE DOESN’T WANT ME COMING TO SEE HIM EITHER!

Sigh.

So there I was last night, sitting in the middle of my bed, crying, not sure what to think, what to do, who to call, were to go. My mind and heart were a jumbled mess of BLAH! I couldn’t pray, I couldn’t think, I just wanted to curl up into a ball and wake up sometime in the middle of March.

I proceeded to do what any normal, red-blooded American girl would do, I shopped online for shoes. I remembered getting a postcard in the mail about some place having a sale, went to find said postcard and instead found an envelope from a sweet friend in Florence. Inside was a note telling me that she was praying for me and my brother. She also sent a donation for my trip.

So I’m going to Belize. In 11 days, I’m going to Belize. My family needs your prayers tremendously. John, Margaret, Everett & I need your prayers, as well.