God is Good, God is Big

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I mentioned in my last post that my mom was in the hospital this last week.
I had decided to save the details for another post because I knew it would be LOONG!!
There is much I wish to say, but am at a loss in how many details I should share.

Let me just start with saying that about a month ago, my family came out of a very dark time.
It was probably the worst time my family has ever gone through.
Even though it was a time of growing and refining, we were very happy to be at the end of the tunnel.
We were ready for whatever God had for us next, but we didn't want it to necessarily be a painful or hard thing.
We were ready to SERVE not SUFFER.
We had just done gone through suffering.
It was time to move on.

Well....last Sunday, I had my week all planned out how I wanted it to go.
Some of my dear friends from CollegePlus! (the online college program that I HIGHLY recommend!) were coming into town and staying with the Reynolds.
I knew which days I wanted to see them and how long I would stay. (such a selfish little girl, I know! :P)
They were coming Tuesday and leaving Friday morning.

Tuesday morning came around and I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my math.
Every morning, my mom sits in her room and has devotions with my three youngest siblings.
Right after that was done, my mom asked me to come in and get her some ibuprofen.
She complained of having a weird cramp in her right hip.
I won't get into TOO much detail, but before I knew it, she was taking multiple pills to try and get the pain to subside.
BUT IT JUST WOULDN'T GO AWAY!!!! O___O

She started crying and trying to get a hold of my dad.
He wasn't answering due to being away from his office and his phone.
It started to get really scary...

Pretty soon, she let me call the doctor (she hadn't wanted me to before just in case she was just being a wimp and it was nothing serious)
Needless to say, the nurse was NOT helpful.
She was very unconcerned, even with the sounds of my mom's painful, pleading cries in the background.

FINALLY, we got a hold of my dad.
My mom sobbed out to him what the problem was.
He said she needed to get the emergency room NOW!!!!!!!!!
I.Was.Terrified.

I was given the task of driving my mom to the hospital.
That was the fastest I've driven or ever intend to drive!
When I got to the hospital, I had to drop her off to go find a parking spot in those stupidly set up hospital parking lots. :P

I got inside and registered her with a very grumpy nurse.
Pretty soon, my dad and my mom's best friend arrived.

The doctor came and said he was pretty sure it was kidney stones.
The nurse started pumping morphine into my mom.
They said the pain should start going away within a few minutes.
For a little while we believed them.
But then the pain spiked even worse than what it was when it had started.

They ran several tests and a catscan.
The end result showed it was NOT kidney stones but a tumor.
WHAT?!?!
MY MOM?!
They originally said it was two tumors located in her ovary.
She needed to have surgery right away.

Needless to say, this KIND OF threw a wrench in my plans to see my CP! peeps :P
But God is good to His children. (even when they don't necessarily deserve it >.<)
Mrs. Reynolds so kindly offered to have us stay with them while my mom was in the hospital.
UH YES?!?! :D :D
We actually ended up staying with them for like two and half days which was twice what I had planned.
Thank you, God!

But back to my mom...
She had surgery, and they found a tumor the size of an elongated softball in her ovary.
The part that had made it so painful was that her ovary had twisted SEVEN TIMES!
This had caused cut off of blood flow. ouch!
My mom was a trooper though.
She was in the hospital all day Wednesday and came home Thursday in time for Meddie's birthday.
Our church family was simply amazing during all this.
We couldn't have been more blessed!

Even though a lot of good came out of this, we still wonder,
"Why did this have to happen now?
We just came out of so much.
Did we really have to have one more thing on our plate?"

Then Sunday morning rolled around.
God really knows what He's doing.
In Sunday school, we watched a video on God's creation in space.
It was incredible!
God is SO BIG!
How can we NOT marvel at His creation and His majesty?
How can we possibly doubt Him?
He is so big.
The main message our pastor preached on was about suffering.
God has 1000's of reasons why He has us go through hard times.
Thousands.of.reasons.
And if we question Him or try to lean on our own understanding, we are fools.

So this is what God has taught me this week.
He is good. He is big.
(there's no book this week because not only was I a little tied up, but Anna was also sick. God's timing is great!)

Trust God.
Always.

Love,
Katie :)

song of the week: Beethoven - Fifth Symphony