Things are finally feeling like they are getting back to normal. It’s been a long week.

A week ago yesterday my Mom had a heart attack which led to triple bypass heart surgery. She’s been doing very well in spite of the pain and should be home very soon we think.

Not only is she the third child in her family to have a heart attack, her father (my grandpa) also had one or more before passing away.

I thought I’d share a little of what this week taught me.

It revealed God’s care and provision:   I have to tell you what a great job God has done taking care of mom.

Tuesday, the day of the heart attack, my dad had an appointment to be somewhere, but he wasn’t feeling well so he stayed home. Had he not been home, he couldn’t have taken mom to the ER. She told him she was feeling (throw-up sick) and then really bad pain in her arm and either chest or back, I think. He knew it was probably a heart attack or stroke and he made her go to the ER. She didn’t want to go. Between her sitting in the car and their arrival, she had blacked out or something because she couldn’t remember the trip there.

Tuesday was also the day some of my mom’s family from out of state were on there way here (Ohio)  for a small family reunion. Before they decided to come out here it was going to be my parent’s driving out to Indiana for this so mom could have had her heart attack someone along Route 30 between here and there.

It effected our homeschooling:  Since I homeschool my boys they were able to spend a lot of time at the hospital with me. Homeschooling mostly covered living the hospital experience, how to behave around patients, eating in the cafeteria and touring the hospital from various hallways 🙂 .  Simply put, this was real-life and they got to experience a bigger part of it.

It revealed changes needing made:  Now I know that myself,  my eight brothers and sisters (as well as all my other uncles and my cousins from this side of the family) need to take heart attacks very seriously. It’s evidently an hereditary issue.  One of my uncles had his in his 40’s and several of us (me, brothers & cousins) are at that age now.

I’ve already told my husband and boys we need to change our eating habits; and finally, yesterday!,  my review shipment of Zaycon chicken came to town. This is my first experience with Zaycon – they do “chicken events” and more. Read more about them in this post. (I’ve been waiting for this order for months!).

The importance of Others: One of the biggest take-aways from this experience for me was this – the importance of sharing needs with people who care.  Lots of people were praying for us and some were offering to help with meals or whatever.  I really felt kind of like those prayers were carrying  me through this past week.

I know other people have attested to that “feeling” as well,  so I know some of you know what I mean. If you were one of those people praying for mom/us, thank you.  And please keep ’em coming. She has a long road of recovery ahead of her.