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One year ago today my family and I were at Forsyth Hospital anxiously waiting to hear the first of many reports from mom’s neurologist.  It’s hard to express how we felt.  We were so hopeful in every way, even though the doctors had already started to prepare us for the worst.  I had dealt with one daughter in a coma before and had heard all the things that could be wrong when they wake up, but nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.

I’ve seen all kinds of x-rays: broken bones, torn ACL’s etc.; but when the neurologist showed us my mom’s films, we could see what had happened and we knew it was major.  I am not a doctor or a nurse, but there it was staring us right in the face.  The doctor said it appeared to be a tumor, one so large that it caused the aneurism which was so massive it caused the stroke.

At this point he proceeded to go over what could happen and how our lives and my mom’s life would now be changed forever.  We prayed and hoped for healing; we knew God could do it.  After all He had already raised one of my children from a coma and healed her from the meningitis that almost took her, so we knew He could do it again.

I was already planning in my head how I could help take care of her when she came home.  I was so thankful that I was homeschooling; it meant a flexible schedule and that I could be there for mom and papa.  We would need to think long-term care when she woke up.  I think we were all making plans for when she woke up.  Hope gives you strength like nothing else!

But seeing my mom after surgery rocked me and my family to our very core.  It was definitely a test of faith and still is today.  We talked to her and tried so hard over the next days to get her to wake up.  We watched every number and graph on the machines.  Please note my mom was not being kept alive by machines!  Although on a respirator (which the trauma ambulance did because they feared she would stop breathing) she was breathing on her own.  That was a miracle!

During the next days, we just prayed and patiently (sometimes not so patiently) waited.  We held on to each other and talked about what we were all going to do when mom was out of the hospital and home.  We told family stories and caught up with each other’s lives.  We visited with friends that came to pray and hold our hands and wipe our tears.  We held on to hope, faith and love.

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