Heart Reflections Live

My miracle man hubby turned 44 this month! How blessed we are to have such a man as head of our home! In our situation, every birthday, anniversary and Christmas becomes a milestone, as we are so blessed to have him in our lives...

You see, my beloved has 3 major heart defects (tricuspet artresia, pulmonary stenosis, and transposition of the great vessels). Max has never had surgery for any of these, and any one of these conditions can cause death before the age of 16. We are so aware of God's Soverignty over our lives, His calling on Max, and the exhortation to number our days.

People often ask us how we cope with this uncertainty "hanging over" our heads, but I believe that God has given us a special Grace in that department, and we've learnt to trust in Him , not our circumstances. We have just about clocked up 6 months without me having to call the ambulance in the middle of the night, which is great as we had a bit of a bad run earlier in the year, what with wasp stings and various other unknown factors. Sometimes I think God allows an attack, just so Max can witness to a certain doctor or nurse on duty, or pray for someone in the next bed without the peace and hope we have.

So, what happens when Max has an attack? His heart goes into AF (Aterial Fibulation), which coupled with his defects, leaves us in a life and death situation. He needs oxygen very quickly, as soon as the ambos arrive. They often put at least one canula in him too, and phone Emergency to let them know Max is on his way again. They immediately stabilize him with amiodorone at the hospital and once his heart rate has calmed a bit, they cardio-invert him to put him back into normal rhythm. Then he's fighting to get outa there and to get on livin' life!

I'll never forget the time he had a turn early one Sunday morning. I rang our Youth Pastor to be on standby to preach, picked up Max from hospital after his cardioinversion, he put his white shirt on, dots and patches showing through, rocked up to Church and he got up just in time to preach!!

People sometimes ask us why God doesn't just heal Max- I don't know, maybe we have a better testimony the way things stand now. God often uses me to share spontaneously with people in hospitals while we're waiting about our faith in Christ in our situation.

The most important thing I learnt when this first happened nearly 6 years ago, and yes back then I thought I was going to lose him on our oldest daughter's first birthday, was that no matter what happened, Satan would never triumph and that God would get the glory!! That brought us joy in the midst of possible pain and adversity, and it taught me to have no fear for the future. If I feared I would have missed out on nearly 8 years of marriage, 2 beautiful daughters, and the little twin boys who are coming late November.

I just want to encourage you to trust God for your future, live to glorify Him, and to treasure the little moments of the life He has granted you.

Labels: contentment, family life, Milestones, testing times