He Gives Good Gifts

It was November 14, 2009 – Grace’s fifth birthday. She had friends over for a birthday party that day when I received the call.

Luke’s sister Emily had been having very bad headaches that week. She waited for them to pass, but on Saturday morning she awoke and went to the bathroom multiple times in a row. When her husband asked her how many times she was going to go to the bathroom, she replied,” I haven’t gone to the bathroom yet.” He took her straight to the hospital.

There they discovered an arteriovenus malformation (AVM) – a malformation of blood vessels in her brain – that had ruptured. The AVM was something that had been there since birth, but she had never known.

Until it hemorrhaged.

So on December 3, 2009, at the age of 25, my dear friend and sister-in-law underwent an 18+-hour-long brain surgery. There were no promises about the outcome, only the knowledge that God had knit her together in her mother’s womb, and He always does what is right. We spent those 18 hours praying, begging God for Emily’s return to health.

He answered.

There are many details I’m leaving out, and the recovery process was long. (Read more about Emily’s story here.)

But I’m so incredibly thankful. God has not only blessed us with the gift of Emily’s life, but of the lives of her two precious sons, our nephews. If she had died that day in the hospital, not only would we all be missing Emily, but we would have never known these two precious boys (the second whom we’ll meet very soon)!

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:9-11

Thank you to all of our friends and family who prayed Emily through her AVM ordeal. God heard our cries, and we are still so very thankful!