Still here, still amazing

Just wanted to give a quick update on mom.  She is still with us, making it one day at a time, although the final stages are definitely progressing.  These are pictures from our family dinner a week and a half ago for my birthday, Fathers Day and my brother-in-law Allen's birthday.  Mom looks better in these pictures than she was feeling that night, and she's probably lost another 5-7 pounds since then.  She eats maybe a few bites a day, but has no appetite and is so dehydrated that she doesn't have enough saliva to chew and swallow very well.

Here she is with her girls... It's amazing how someone can look so beautiful despite so much pain she is in much of the time.

Here's our little family, with Wade and Allen.

Here is a lot of my mom's side of the family (missing half the cousins).  Over the past several weeks, all of the immediate relatives have come to see her for varying lengths of time.  This picture includes her dad (left, in red shirt), her sister (left in blue shirt), and her brother (middle in yellow shirt).  She has kept up amazingly well with the pace of all these visitors, not to mention the friends, pastors, Hospice nurses and everybody else who has cycled through the house.

~ She has also come to my house twice to look at my flowers and help me figure out what to plant and where.

~ She's been out in her yard spreading pine needles with my dad and showing Hillary and me what all the different plants are.

~ She's kept up (with my dad's help) with complicated schedules of at least 10 different medicines for pain, nausea, bowels, sleep and thyroid.

~ She has gone through closets, boxes and rooms with Hillary and me to make sure we know where things are and what has significance, etc.

~ She has run errands with neighbors and friends just to get out of the house.

~ One day she even told me she thought she would be able to drive if necessary... I told her, "Mom, you're on heavy doses of methadone and oxycodone - I think that's pretty much illegal."  

She is so strong, it truly amazes me every day.

And yet, despite all the things that she has still found the strength to do, as her condition worsens, and the pain and nausea continue, the most amazing thing is how much she longs for heaven.  Most people would be saying, "God, why are you doing this to me?" or "Please let me live a little longer."  She is saying, "God, why are you leaving me here so long?  Please just take me home!"  I know part of that is just wanting to be out of pain, but she is so confident in the Lord, has such a firm, unshakable foundation in Christ, she truly believes and exemplifies that "to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

"For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."  (2 Cor. 5:4-5)

I was so struck by that passage yesterday when my former youth pastor read it to mom.  Her body - what is mortal - is going to be swallowed up by LIFE, not death.  Hallelujah, praise be to God!