My Mom went to be with Jesus this Morning!

My phone rang at 3:45 am and I just knew it wasn't good. I missed the call but saw it was mom and dad and my stomach fell. I called right back without listening to the voicemail and a woman who I thought was the nurse answered and I told her who I was and why I was calling and her response was "we went to get your mom up for the day, and she didn't wake up she went to be with Jesus". Mom 5 years ago was given 6 months to live. She was on hospice for over a year, first while still living in their home with just dad. Then my youngest brother Kelly took them to live with him, and that didn't work. Mom always over medicated herself and dad helped her. When Kelly, with hospice help tried to take control of the medication, they both got angry with him. Their are seven kids in our family and we are all spread out, Oklahoma, Arizona, Southern MN, and then other places throughout MN. The boys live the closest. My oldest brother is very controlling and when mom was first given the 6 months he stepped in and made himself power of attorney and things were a mess. My one sister stepped in and helped mom plan her funeral and get things back in control the way mom and dad wanted them. My youngest brother, who they went to live with became power of attorney and my other brother kind of laid out of it all. I went down to my brother's to meet with hospice (this was before we moved to Alaska) and before we met with hospice I was had basically got mom and dad to agree to live in an assisted living housing. When hospice was there, God took everything out of our hands making a real tough situation (with such a big family that never agrees on anything) easy. Dad got really sick during the night, mom thought he was having a heart attack and gave him heart medicine, while hospice was there dad was vomiting so bad my brother took him to the hospital. The hospital they took him to had a nursing home attached...to make a long story short, hospice got mom into the nursing home while dad stayed in the hospital until a room in the same nursing home opened up. The greatest thing about this nursing home was it was a Christian nursing home. They each at first were in different rooms at different ends of the nursing home. Eventually a bigger room opened up and they moved in together. Dad, is going blind, he has immacular degeneration. He's always been very active and at first all he did was sleep. Eventually the home figured out they had to get him busy and they had him doing all kinds of volunteer work (ie passing out mail, making Friday popcorn, taking care of the patio garden, assisting the maintenance man). Dad's so proud of his volunteer hours. Mom was proud of dad. They had a really different relationship. It actually seemed like a love/hate relationship as they always argued and complained about each other to us. But I tell you, after almost 60 years of marriage lived that way, not a one of us doubted that they loved each other.

Mom was such a strong woman. She loved the Lord with her whole heart. We knew she was always praying for us. They both are members of The Church of God of Prophecy. When I first came to the Church she had a hard time understanding that we could be THE Church as we lived in Utah for so many years and that's what the Mormons believed. Then when she wanted to join the church but had been married before (I have one 1/2 sister) she was devastated thinking she couldn't join...but then found out because her first husband was no longer alive that she could join. But dad wouldn't and my dad, though he yelled a lot, is a very meek man. Mom basically made all the decisions. But when mom took her wedding ring off, dad was so angry...so out of obedience to him, she put it back on. In due time dad went to the assembly with me, and at Fields of the Woods, while I was up on prayer mountain praying for him, this man with his 8th grade education, was down below reading the markers. When I came down he wanted to join immediately. I encouraged him to wait until we got home so mom could be there. My mom use to be very jealous of how close dad and I were (that's another story as to why) and was upset that he came without her (she just got stubborn and said she wasn't going and dad didn't give in). When we got back my dad joined the church. At that time it was one brother, two sisters and their husbands and me that were in the church. As time went on the rest of the family were disfellowshipped (one sister and her husband unjustly) but dad and mom were still in TCGOP. When the disruption took place, they really didn't understand much. And as the years went by and their health and minds kind of deteriorated I didn't even try. Mom loved the Lord. She is the one responsible for my being a Christian today. I don't know how God looks at all that took place with the her and the Church but I know she loved God. I remember her telling me she took one of the nurse's aids into her bathroom and tried to help her pray through to the Holy Ghost. Oh how she was always praying for us kids. She use to not like Jody at all. I'm not sure when it changed but I know she grew to love him. She was never supportive of all the moving we did to pastor, but when we went to Alaska she told me she knew God was in it and though we would be a long way away she knew God would take care of us.

When we were in the Juneau airport on Tuesday, I called her (I usually tried to call once a month, and I visited them in February). She sounded really weak but when I asked her how she was doing she said ok. And we just talked briefly and she seemed to gain strength as we talked so I didn't think anything of it. See mom is a breast cancer survivor, but for years she talked about dieing, but as of late she hasn't. Her last words to me were that she was praying for me but knew that God was taking care of us and she ended with she loved me and was praying for me.

Oh my dad, is going to be soooo lost. If I didn't live so far away we would love to have him come live with us and I know he would want to. And with the girls out of the house it would be perfect, but not so far away. I don't know if he can even just come for a visit. Please pray for him, and for my family. Like I said I don't know how God looks at mom's covenant but I know mom loved the Lord more than life itself...but my family has NEVER been close. I don't know how everything will work out with the funeral. It looks like Jody, Jessa, Joleesa (Joleesa only qualifies until 9/30) and I can fly at no charge all the way to MPLS. thru Northwest. Will have to get Jenna a ticket from Chicago to MPLS. I won't know until I go into work today how many days I have off, but the tentative plan is to leave out tomorrow. Jody gets 4 days off with pay and any time he needs beyond that. The girls probably won't have as much time so they'll have to come down later. The thought of being in airport and flying so soon is not appealing. And my desk at work isn't even caught up from the 7 days I was just gone, but I'll get as much done as I can and they'll have to deal with it.

This has been a week of trials after a fabulous victory, but I do, PTL, feel His love and peace in the heartbreak. What a wonderful way for her to go, just go to sleep and then be with Jesus. But please pray!!!