Let me start by giving you some background of how God sent me a clear message.
It was the end of January and I had gotten a phone call from my husband almost in tears, and not making any sense. His grandfather had called him at work uncontrollably sobbing; the only thing he could get out was Lee. This was his wife, and my husband’s grandmother. Tom got to the house, and called 911, grandma had died in her bed. It was a shock, but one we had known was coming just not when.
Grandma was the rock in the family. She had many health problems, but that never kept her down. A few years earlier she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, that along with the diabetes that she was controlling, she had bad veins in her legs. She had surgery to remove the collapsed veins and while waiting in the CICU the doctor told us that she had died on the table twice, that we should say our goodbyes, my daughter who was two at the time was with us and wanted to see her grandma GG, so the doctor and nurses let her in…not something they do especially in the cardiac ward. Everyone was there, and we all prayed like we have never prayed before. This was the beginning of the knowing we wouldn’t have her with us much longer. Something happened: a miracle. Grandma came out of the surgery and while it took another four years for her leg to start to heal, we had her with us. Of course the big hole in her leg, or the congestive heart failure didn’t hold her back oh no…there were still monthly dresses made for Emma, baked and canned goodies to be made, and much more listening to be done. Grandma had watched Emma from the time that she was a little baby, and there was such a bond there. For both of them, Emma and Grandma
That day my mom had been watching Emma because she had no school that day. As soon as the fire officials, police and the mortuary people had gone, it was time to go and get Emma. I told Tom that we would tell her together, that she needed to hear what happened. So when we were done of hearing of all of her adventures with her other grandma, we sat her down and told her that GG (that is what we called her) had gone up to be with God in heaven, along with a list of other animals that were there already. This is hard enough for an adult to understand, but a six year old girl who adored her GG, it was devastating. That night we read what Heaven was like out of the bible, with the river of life, the gold city decorated with precious stones, the wall of jasper, and of how everything was made whole again. After we read it, she said mommy I want you and me to go there now. I want to see GG and be with her. Those little words tugged at my heart and cracked it…I too wanted that. I told her that God put us here for a reason and we hadn’t fulfilled that reason yet, but when we did, that is exactly where we would go when it was our time, and then we would get to see all her animals and her GG.
Two nights later my husband who was also very close to his grandmother, came in the house to wake me up…none of us had gotten much sleep. He was holding one of our daughter’s rabbits, named Tina. She had gotten this for Christmas along with another boy rabbit named Forrest. The rabbit looked sick and was just lying in his palm. I asked him what was going on and he didn’t know. We had a rabbit before we got the two who had a stroke, yes rabbits can have strokes, this left him mostly paralyzed. The fear in my stomach turned. This rabbit Tina looked just like the one we lost to a stroke who couldn’t or wouldn’t move. I felt for sure that this one had indeed had a stroke. I told my husband to go to bed and try to get some sleep and that I would stay up with the rabbit. I grabbed an eye dropper, a glass of water and set out to get this rabbit to try and take some water, in the event it was just dehydrated. I wrapped the bunny up in an old towel propped upright because at this point all it could do was lay, it had no control of its head. I opened the bunny’s mouth and dropped water into it, petting and praying over the bunny. Asking god for a miracle to heal this poor little bunny. There was no way I was going to tell Emma that after losing her great grandma that the bunny was sick and she could very well lose the bunny as well. In the morning, I had to go to work, and I put the bunny into a box towel and all propped it up with water right under her nose and put her in the bathroom, so Tom could do something with her in the morning.
That day at work I called and looked up pet stores in the surrounding areas. Nobody had anything close to the bunny we had. The thought was that we would just replace it and Emma wouldn’t know the difference. While I was doing that Tom was getting Emma ready for school and taking the bunny to the vet to see what the problem was. The prognosis wasn’t good. It turned out that the bunny had jumped a wrong way and broken its back. The only humane thing to do was to put the bunny down. The vet offered to do it for him. He thanked the vet and said he would take care of it. In the meantime he was frantically trying to find a replacement bunny also…yes call us cowards I am not afraid to admit it. We both enlisted our mothers’ help, so now we added to a total of four on a search for a replacement bunny. Now this wasn’t just an ordinary type of rabbit, no of course not, it was a dwarf lionhead. For those of you that don’t have a clue what they are, they are a cute rabbit that only gets up to a total of four pounds, and they are furry like a fluffy cat.
Tom finally got a hold of the original person we got the bunnies from and thank goodness he had one that was gray, just like Tina! Hooray!!! I sailed from work up to Vancouver on the “Trade Bunny Mission”, now this isn’t just a 15 minute drive no…about 45 minutes later I pulled into the house and was greeted by a wonderful man that had the replacement bunny. I got the bunny a little smaller than Tina, but figured we would feed the bunny and it would grow quickly if we could keep Emma from going out to the cage for a week we could pull this off.
I called when I got closer to home, and said “Operation Trade Bunny is a go”. Tom helped me put him in the cage and feed the rabbits. We were still eye dropper feeding poor Tina which we had put into the shop to hide her…neither one of us had the heart to put her down.
A few days later god taught me a good lesson. I was asleep when I felt the tapping of someone trying to wake me up. I looked up with sleep filled eyes and saw that Tom had come in late, and was waking me. Now usually Tom will come in late, but try to keep quite not to wake Emma or I up, so I knew if he was waking me up there was a very good reason. I asked him what was going on and he urged me to follow him. I was really worried now; I mean what else could have gone on. He told me to get my boots on and a sweatshirt and follow him outside, I did so trying not to wake Emma, and he took me out to the shop and told me to look in the cage. Now the things rushing through my mind was that Tina had died and we would have to bury her, out in the pet cemetery as we affectingly call the hill where all of our loved animals have gone to be buried. I couldn’t believe my eyes Tina was sitting straight up holding herself up. She was eating and drinking as though nothing had ever happened. All I could get out was an astonished how? Then as I looked into my husband’s eyes which mirrored my own disbelief I said I guess our prayers were answered. It was truly a miracle.
The next day after taking Emma to school, Tom took Tina back to the vet. The vet in total disbelief looked at him and said her back was broken, I checked. There is nothing to explain this. Well yes there was! God had heard our prayers and answered them.
Now to the lesson that god taught me from this whole incident. God heard our prayers and instead of having full faith in him, I trusted on my own, to what I could do. God can do all things, God is loving and merciful, but I didn’t have that child like faith that he would heal even the lowliest of creatures, surely not something as simple as a bunny for a child who had already than her fair share of grief. Not only did I get a big slap in the face, but it opened my eyes to how wonderful he is and that I can trust him with anything, he knows best.
Now we are the proud owners of not only two but three bunnies. Emma thinks that one of them is for a friend of ours…sometime at a later date we will tell her of the miracle bunny!
thesleights 