Blessings...

Life around the Coleman home has been rather bleak for quite a while. The last two years have taken a huge toll and the strain is massive. Everywhere you look, you see needs and realize that it is impossible to meet even half of those needs. You want to run and hide, but that isn't an option, so you keep trudging along. Yet, in the midst of suffering, of dark, swirling clouds, the Lord does provide rays of sunshine.

There are women who come in and educate my children while I'm constantly on the phone to doctor's offices, the insurance company, home IV companies, home health companies, Will's nurse, another doctor's office, or a hospital. Not only do they educate my children, but they have zero condemnation for my lack of contribution. They simply acknowledge that I am overwhelmed, and they talk to each other about what the kids need to be doing...While I totally miss educating my kids, I'm so grateful for these women.

Then there's the friend, (you know who you are...and yes, I'm updating the blog!), who magically appears at my house with clean sheets and whisks away the dirty ones. I don't even want to tell you how long it had been since sheets had been changed regularly in this house. There is no time! When you can't even get the laundry done, sheets don't even figure into the equation. But now...I get clean sheets and so do my kids!

Next, we have this couple with whom we have been friends for more than two decades whom I lovingly term, "My Crisis Management Center." They willingly drop whatever they are doing and rescue me from whatever disaster that has struck. They are even willing to move into my house and stay with five of my children while I am in Ohio with Will for possibly as much as three weeks. What kind of friend does that???

There is a family in Cincinnati who is willing to host us, total strangers, for as long as we need a place to stay while Will is in the hospital or until we can actually get into the Ronald McDonald House. Two days ago I had no idea how we were going to do this financially. I prayed all day for wisdom. The financial number is so huge that the only way it will be managed is by the Lord. He is slowly chipping away at the deficit that exists...

We are truly blessed by these and others who have simply shown up and said, "Let us serve your family during your time of suffering." It's so hard to accept the help, but at the same time, it's so encouraging to see how the Lord loves us through the hands of his people. So, yes, life is still bleak much of the time. It's lonely most of the time. But we do see blessings in the midst of the pain and the suffering and for that I can say, "Thank you."