Going Home

Here's what you need to know first:

• Roughly 15 years ago my sister Andrea was treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The radiation treatments left her lungs weaker than a healthy person's, and she has been on oxygen ever since.

The day after Thanksgiving this year (November 23rd) Andrea, who had been battling a upper respiratory infection for a few weeks decided to go to the hospital. She wasn't feeling better, and the year before she spent 8 days in the hospital with similar symptoms. She wanted to keep that from happening this year and thought by going to the hospital she could make it a short stay.

Didn't happen.

While her husband was driving her to the hospital, she stopped breathing and slumped over. Her husband had to make a decision- call for an ambulance while they were on the road and wait, or keep driving. There were risks either way, but he decided to keep driving. He also did one other critical thing. He cried out to God.

By the time they got to the hospital, her heart had stopped also. They got her heart started, put her on a ventilator, and then the wait began.

Over the last four months we have wondered: will she live/will she wake up/will she ever breathe on her own/will she be mentally the same/will she have to go to a nursing home/will she be able to get out of bed... you get the picture. The first couple of months were really tough, and a lot of awesome people were praying for her.

In the last 4 -6 weeks, there was a really strong turn for the better. In the last couple of weeks, a timetable to leave the hospital was talked about for the first time. Today, after 4 months in two different hospitals, Andrea got to go home. She got to stand up from a wheel chair, walk over to the car, throw her own stuff in the backseat, open up her car door, and GO HOME. She still has a way to go. She still has a trache (for a little while we hope), but she got to go home and continue her recovery there.

God is good, and would have been no less so had He not granted our request for healing and taken her to Heaven instead. I'm really glad He said yes, though.

I know I'm biased, but this is one of the coolest videos I've ever seen.