Hannah's turn :)

Yesterday was a very heartening day. Hannah's email to family this morning explains. Her letter will serve as my blog for the day. :) Hannah writes:

"The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust." (Psalm 103:13,14)

That was how I felt: weak.

After three days of not seeing much improvement in Nathan, my heart cried out for some encouragement. I needed a boost. Wednesday morning, I got a call from Wilma (the sister of a friend from Cebu). Wilma has been a nurse in Vienna for more than 30 years. She told me that Salzburg doctors are experts in trauma cases. We have heard that several times, but it's good to be reminded. So I started the day with renewed strength. I told myself that even if this was another not-so-good day, it would still be a day closer to Nathan's full recovery!

As we went up the stairs to the ICU, we met Nathan's evening nurse on her way down. So right there and then, she gave us a pretty good report on Nathan! He had gotten a good night's sleep. In the morning, they sat him up on the edge of the bed and he managed to use the spoon to feed himself some soup! You can imagine how encouraged I was.

But that wasn't all. When the Lord encourages, he sometimes overdoes it. :) Nathan was wakeful and clear-minded. We brought him his laptop and he was able to use the touchpad to find the songs he wanted to listen to...and later even told me how to go to the song of his choice!

And that's not all...he finished a bottle of the high-calorie drink!

There's more. That evening, while Greg and I waited in the ICU waiting room for the nurses to finish some procedures with Nathan, a man came in. Usually Austrians are not forward when it comes to talking with strangers, much less foreigners; they worry that their English is not good. But not this man. He walked in, sat down, and initiated conversation with us, in English! When we told him why we were there, the first thing he said was: "Good thing it happened in Salzburg; the doctors here are good!" He went on to explain that he was there to see his father who, like Nathan, was hit by a car as a pedestrian...and is now paralyzed from the waist down! I shuddered. That could have been Nathan! I'm afraid to even think what it would be like if he too were paralyzed! I'm thankful our Father only gives us what we can handle!

All this is to say the Lord met me when I was down and out. He lifted my heart up to look to him for strength and hope.

Thank you for praying.