Reflections of the fiery sunrise this morning:

Meanwhile at almost the same moment in time 8 – 10 hours North from here:

Of course I would rather be the one who snapped the 2nd picture, but I didn’t let the beauty of the first picture pass by in vain. Thank you, God for such a beautiful sunrise!

The second picture was sent to me by my Mom who, with my Dad, is way up North in our vacation spot. They are in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the trees are just now beginning to bud. Once Nora was stabilized we insisted that they continue on with their plans to head up there to get things in order for our family vacation this summer.

Later on in the afternoon when that same beautiful sun was much higher in the sky I received a call from my Mom. I always love the calls that start out with an excited, “Well, you’re just not going to believe this!!!”

She proceeded to explain to me how she and my Dad had been at a get together at my (now long deceased) Great-Grandmother’s cottage. The cottage is now owned by my great-Aunt and Uncle who hosted a gathering for the flock of other migrators who have headed North for the summer. Among the people my Mom met that evening was a woman from the Greater Cincinnati area. As it turns out this woman and her family now occupy a house up there that we used to rent back when Gavin and then Greta were babies. That was the first of their connections they discovered as they got to know each other. Eventually the conversation rounded to Nora, as this baby is never far from her Nana’s thoughts. My Mom explained all that we are going through and how we’re still up at Children’s Hospital. There are no coincidences, and certainly no way to explain the second connection that transpired 560 miles away in a little unincorporated community with a population of 2200. This woman who my mother had never met until that evening stopped by to visit my Mom this afternoon to tell her about HER daughter who works here at Children’s Hospital. She had spoken to her daughter about Nora and discovered that in an unbelieveable twist of fate, HER daughter was there in the ER last Sunday afternoon. She was the one squeezing the ambubag for 2 hours in a mad fight to save MY daughter’s life. WHAT??!!! Yes. Really.

These continual connections and parallels send chills through my body. I cannot explain them as anything other than Divine Providence. The invisible thread that weaves and winds through each of our lives creating a beautiful tapestry that we can’t see or imagine.

Nora is doing good. She is still on the bipap mask and tolerating it reasonably well. She has started to become a little more alert and has had some pretty sad crying spells. The plan is to give her some time off of the mask tomorrow and see how she does. Her poor little voice is so hoarse from the intubation, plus being under the mask – it is really hard to hear her. They’ve adjusted her pain medications to make sure she’s not in any pain. We think she just doesn’t like being inside of a big giant mask that covers her whole face. There has been some fevers today which have been cause for concern. They just drew some labs and we’ll have those results back in awhile. Please pray that there are no infections brewing. Things are complicated enough just the way they are, thank you very much!! Nora finally sleeps peacefully, and now so must I before the beautiful sun rises again.

Thank you for your prayers!!!

My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.
(Malachi 1:11 NIV)