I read this to our church family last Sunday:
"I was cleaning my kitchen floor last week and found myself wonder how long it had been since I last cleaned it. As I tried to remember I realized that it was last cleaned by one of you. And then I had to pause as I felt the fullness of the support you offered us during this season of our lives. Our minds and hearts are still reeling from our last year and a half with Oliver and I have barely begun to tackle the large stack of thank you notes we are blessed to need to write, but I didn't want any more time to pass without voicing our gratitude for your support for our family.
You have prayed for us. Usually I find that prayer is listed as “last but not least” but I decided to list it first because of how important prayer has become to us. Every time you prayed for us you shared our experience and pleaded our case before our God. Our situation was and is not a pleasant one, so it immensely encouraging to have you come to our home to pray with us and to know that you were praying and upholding us continuously on your own.
You visited us in the hospital before and after Oliver was born, and some of you were even able to see us up in Portland. You gave me rides to and from the NICU so that I could be with Oliver until I was able to drive on my own again. You have fed us countless meals. Some of you faithfully brought us a meal every week, and some made batches of my own recipes so I could have them on hand. A few of you offered to be a babysitting nurse and learned about Oliver's care so Joel and I could go out for an evening. You fed our cats and got our mail when were stuck in Portland for two months. You helped coordinate getting some of Oliver's food from our home freezer to us in Portland when my milk supply dropped from the stress. You mailed us books and music from our home. Your brothers and sisters in Corvallis and Portland brought us food up there and even stayed the night several times to help care for our girls. You helped transport and host our daughters as we got ready for discharge, and when we got home we found that you had deep cleaned and picked up our home and put food in the freezer for us. You handmade Oliver's baptism gown at the last minute when you realized that I didn't have one for him yet, 48 hours before you gathered at our home to celebrate God's covenant love and care for our family. You cleaned our toilets, vacuumed our floors, and mowed our lawn. You stayed up all night with us to help us stay awake and attentive when the night nurse had off. You dug holes in our garden and gave me flowers. You gave us counsel and supported our marriage by babysitting so we could have date nights. You washed and folded our laundry. You taught me how to run Oliver's emergency back-up generator. You helped us with childcare, and some of you came over almost every week to help watch our girls when I had to care for Oliver between nursing shifts or run errands. You gave little gifts and surprises to our daughters to make them smile. You helped us with many aspects of Oliver's memorial service and hosted our extended family, and continue to reach out to us as we enter the season of grieving and adjusting.
I'm sure I've missed some things but that's what I remember. Thank you. Thank you for being the physical hands and feet of Christ that mercifully and graciously kept us from completely falling apart this last year. Thank you.
I also want to tell you about the witness you have been in serving us so fully and with such endurance. Most likely you are not aware of how your expression was an example of loving and serving Christ to many people we met along our journey over the last year and a half. In each step of Oliver's medical progression, beginning with a few days after his birth, we met with a variety of social workers, case workers, and palliative and hospice workers whose job it was to offer us practical survival help as we lived with Oliver's medical conditions. Also, the doctors and nurses would often compassionately check in with me to make sure we had adequate help. When I described the support you gave us and assured them that we did not need any information or help with childcare, meals, transportation, cleaning, therapy groups, etc. etc., they were often surprised and always very much impressed. Again and again I heard them say things like “wow, you are really blessed to have an amazing community! That is really rare.” It is easy to take our church family for granted, but even a brief consideration of what our lives would have been like without you or any Christian support network is unimaginable to me. Your support for us provided many opportunities to talk to the medical community about our church family and our faith.
Thank you."
I only cried at the second sentence, and then I was able to gather my stage presence together and continue through the rest of it.
And I will add to that our thanks to all of you who have cared for us from afar. You also have prayed for us. You have hosted us in your homes. You have sent us financial gifts and flowers. You sent us a box of organic, allergen free snacks and boxes of goodies for the girls. You sent us care packages with surprises for all of us, and you ordered pizza for long distance. You crafted special gifts for Oliver and for us in his memory, and you gave us a tree in his honor. You flew and drove out to be with us the week after Oliver died and wept with us at his memorial service. You mailed us dozens of cards and letters even literature to help guide us through grief. You sent gift cards to treat us and help add pleasure to our lives. You keep calling to check in with us. You read, and continue to read, these blog ramblings of mine and encourage me to keep writing.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. We thank God for you.
