A Surprise in the Night

As I crawled myself in bed, only two weeks before we were to move back to Arizona, I said my prayers, like usual, and settled down for a cool summer's sleep in New York.  As I had just recently started to enjoy my sleeping through the night nights, that night I was awakened at 4 a.m. to Jared gently shaking my shoulder and proceeding to tell me that my sister had just called to tell me that my father had just had a massive heart attack, was rushed to the hospital, and is now in surgery and we won't know for hours what the outcome may be.  Needless to say, I didn't go back to sleep and I lay awake crying and wondering how on earth I was going to get to the West Coast quick enough to see my dad if anything were to take a turn for the worse.  Between the tears and the lack of sleep, I just went through the motions that day, just trying to keep it together to finish packing things up, driving to a doctor's appointment, which due to state laws in New York, recieved a ticket for talking on the phone when Kim called me to tell me about Dad's surgery, and make sure that four children didn't know what was going on.  It was an emotional roller coaster for many days until I finally got my life in order, left the kids with Jared, and was able to fly out and see my dad.

For journaling purposes, here's what happened....my dad and the men in my family went on the annual "Boys trip" to Lake Powell for the weekend.  When they got there on Thursday night, my dad woke in the night with a horrible chest pain.  It was so painful, he thought he may have woken my brother in the middle of the night.  But, my dad just wrote it off to indigestion and went back to sleep for the night.  Over the weekend he had a few more chest pains but just chalked it up to heat stroke and being tired and in the sun all weekend.  When he got home on Sunday, he was super tired and slept it off the rest of the night.  Monday he attempted to go to work, worked half the day and then came home to rest, just thinking he was tired from the weekend.  Then on Tuesday night, 5 days after the original pain attack, he was serving in the temple, said he just couldn't finish his shift, went to check out with the supervisor to go home early, and he proceeded to tell my dad that he should be going to the hospital to be checked out because he thought my dad was having a heart attack.  Then as my mom proceeded to drive him to the hospital, my dad insisted she just take him home so that he can rest and he'll be fine in the morning.  My mom being my mom, which is what I love about her, didn't listen to my dad, and drove him straight to the hospital.

How grateful I am for inspiration and knowledge of those around us to help us when we can't see what's going on.  If that temple worker hadn't been inspired and had my mom not listened to the promptings she had received to not listen to my dad, I am not sure what may have happened, but I am sure that it wouldn't have been the blessing that we have of having my dad fight through this.

When I walked in the hospital room, I just remember welling up in tears, full of gratitude that I was able to be with him and my siblings again.

It was good to sit around my parents table again, all of us (minus Jenny, she was still in route).  What a sweet picture and fun for all of us, especially my mom to see us all come home.

 Kim and Dad

 Love this face...how could you not?  Sarah was so good to come, so close to her due date too, and to have Austin and Luke there was great too.  There's nothing like having your family close in a time of crisis.

 Luke....he was our comic relief for the weekend.  Him and David....what a pair.

Needless to say, it was a weekend of touch and go, an emotional roller coaster, and a lot of prayer.  The nurses were so surprised to see my dad rolling out of there a mere week after being admitted and to see his recovery.  Me, I know there were blessing poured from above, telling my dad his work here on earth wasn't finished and that his kids still needed him for more than just a remodeling job.  He has a long road of recovery ahead of him, but as of today, he still surprises us all with how strong he is in such a short time.  But no matter what happens, my dad will always be my Superman.