My dad...it is sad to see them get ill and nothing we can do...

I saw him changing but I thought it will stop and I kept getting phone calls from my daughter Lindsay who lives with them....she would tell me Grandpa is just sitting in his chair starring Mom..I am worried...he isn't talking at dinner time...he isn't going out and helping plant the garden with grandma...I kept thinking this isn't happening...I could hear it in his voice on the phone in the morning as we talk everyday at 6-7 a.m. Then he kept telling me he can't find things and he would misplace things that he always knew right where everything was...this is not my dad. I called his doctor twice and sent him over there and they did blood work and told him to come back in a month. My dad kept telling me how tired he was and exhausted. I started to get even more worried and how he was when I saw him he just wasn't my dad....I called again and spoke to the nurse this time and asked for an MRI and she asked the doctor and it was done over a week ago and the call came the same day Senator Kennedy's test results were announced on TV...I woke up to that and thought please not my dad...a few hours later I got the call that I was right my dad had something wrong with the brain and to bring my parents in to see the doctor today...our lives were changing...I had my middle brother take them over as he is good with my parents and has time for them...my dad has been having mini seizures and we had to go to a neurosurgeon now and I made the appointment for Rush in Chicago as that is where we all go and they were very good and got us right in. The surgeon wanted my dad to have a spinal tap and I got him into Dr. Lubenow and he took him the next day and yesterday my dad had his spinal tap and now we wait for five days to see if it is lymphoma...I think the wait it the hardest...and knowing our lives are forever changing just like my husbands did so many years ago...my husband does not drive and now my dad does not drive and he was my main support all these years...it has just been a devastating loss slowly to see him slip..he cries a lot now and it just reminds me of my husband...please pray for us and for the days ahead for my parents...my mom has so much on her plate and they have so many financial decisions to make..they are wanting to sell our home that we have been in for 24 years...it is our only place that has been safe through out these storms and it is so difficult to go through many more storms as we are all just about broken ships...hugs, cheryl

Through the Years of Weeping

There were chapters & seasons in this journey of life
that were harder than I dreamed they would be,
Where the climbing and the toiling was an uphill battle
with no end in sight I could see.
But God in His beauty penetrated the darkness
that tried to overwhelm me there,
And I found that the knowledge of His truth was more important
than any heartache that didn't seem fair.
It was there in the tossing...and the uncertainty of life
that I held onto the Anchor that holds.
For the blessedness of His Sprit dwelling within me
was more priceless than mountains of gold.
It was there that God taught me & tenderly brought me
to a truth that I needed to know;
That faith must be tested in the fires of adversity
to be refined and have chance to grow.
Through the years of weeping...my Father was always keeping
my prayers and petitions in His hand.
For the times He answered "no" or said I wasn't ready
He gave the grace so that I could understand.
No matter the circumstances or whatever it involved
God strengthened me with His faithful heart.
And when the trial was over, I knew much more of God
than I ever knew of Him at the start.

©Sheila Gosney

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Psalm 30:11-12 NKJV