Reality of Life ~ A 2012 Flashback Share

Throwing Marley Across The Room (Figu... Tobacco, Dad, & God . . .

Reality of Life ~ A 2012 Flashback Share

I always enjoy coming home for the summer and it is usually difficult to say goodbye to family. Even though after 8 weeks I am ready to see my own shower and bed, I begin to question if living overseas is the right thing for my family. I often debate this question the week before we leave and I begin to think that maybe we should move back to the States. This time the night we landed, God reassured me that we were exactly where we needed to be for His purpose.

We arrived in BKK at midnight and got to our apartment around one in the morning. When we arrived at our apartment I immediately went to bed and Jana got online to check up on things through Facebook. A few minutes after I went to sleep Jana started shaking me. I looked up at her and she had tears in her eyes. I became very frightened and asked her what was wrong. She told me that a Thai couple’s daughter (from the awareness center she visits regularly) had just died from heart surgery complications.

Yesterday we went to have breakfast with this couple. I had never met the couple, but Jana had become friends with them through the Rainbow Room (Awareness Center). The husband was Thai and studied at Georgia Tech. The wife was also Thai and had studied in San Francisco. They both lived in Atlanta for several years before moving back to help their aging parents. Their daughter was born a few months before Marley, and she had played with Marley several times at the Rainbow Room. It was very sad to look at pictures of their deceased daughter and watch Marley pointing and trying to talk to the girl in the pictures. I have no doubt that she recognized the girl from playing together at the Rainbow Room.

As they took us through their story it made me very sad and very nervous. Their daughter had a hole in her heart and the hole started forming into a valve. They took her in for surgery, but after the surgery, her heart started pumping blood without oxygen to the upper part of her body. Within a few days she became very sick and they had to do another emergency surgery. She did not make it and died. The couple told us that they took her in on a Tuesday for what they thought would be a routine heart surgery, and left a week later without their daughter.

Life is hard. I can’t begin to imagine what life would be like without Marley around. I have told you in the past that when she was first-born I had a hard time accepting her disability. I still struggle sometimes with her limitations, but her personality melts my heart. Even when I get mad at her, her little pucker face makes me smile. I know death is part of life, but what do you say to a couple that just lost their only child at one year of age?

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I often question God about the events that happen around me, but I have to believe that God can bring good out of every situation. Before Marley it was easy to say that is life, but now that I have a daughter, I understand the pain this father must feel. Right about the time that he was beginning to accept this new person and love her; she was snatched away by death. The only good news from all of this is that we spent about two hours talking to them on Sunday about their pain and doubts. They are both Buddhist, so maybe this event will crack open some door for us to share God’s love with them. God places us in situations to “live life” with others, but we must be willing to do it.

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