Prayers for Mom

For those of you who live near us and see Mom from time to time, she looks good and seems good. However, it's the times you don't see that would tell you she still needs our prayers. It's now been 16 months since Mom's ileostomy reversal. Her body has come a very long way, but she is still dealing with side effects of all it has been through. A good day would mean going to the bathroom 3 or 4 times for 15 minutes each and no pain. A bad day would mean going 8 or 9 times sometimes for as long as an hour with a much pain due to having eaten something that she didn't know would affect her in such a bad way.

Aside from the physical aspect, this all takes a large toll on her emotionally and there are days when she wonders how she could live the rest of her life like this. That's obviously hard on us too as none of us know when her body will be as recovered as it will get. I tell her all the time that she has come so far and regained the ability to go and do pretty much everything she wants to these days. I'm not in her shoes so I can only encourage and remind her that I'm not going anywhere. And to think positively. She told me today that sometimes she thinks her address should be 275 A (meaning her bathroom; 275 is my parents' house number). I told her her address could be Spartanburg Regional Hospital.

Please do remember to lift my mom up in prayer whenever you think about her. If this is the way her life will be until she leaves this world for Heaven, I pray God will help her come to a place of contentment with it. Mom has so much to offer others (which can still be done around bathroom visits!) including lots of Nana-time for years to come with Philip, Braewyn and their new cousin (he's due in just two months!). Also remember my Dad in your prayers who gets the brunt of Mom's frustration when having a bad day. I pray as I have before that God would give him extra patience, compassion and the right words to say to Mom.