a request

I spent about four hours feeling sorry for myself in a purple chair yesterday morning. I was in the Naval Hospital waiting room with yet another sinus infection and a lovely case of conjunctivitis to go with it. I’m fine and most importantly, baby is fine, but still –bleh. That’s how I felt. Then I received a good dose of military hospital reality that made me stop feeling so bad about my little runny nose. While I was actually in the ER, I couldn’t help but listen to the goings on of other patients hidden among the maze of thin curtains. A man next to me had come in with his wife and daughter and was about to be wheeled away for surgery. I stared at the feet of the doctor and the marine's wife as they spoke. Apparently, this man suffers from night terrors and other symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He wakes up screaming. What will happen when he wakes up from surgery? On my other side, a young marine was brought in by a friend after he spent the night awake, angry and suicidal. Apparently, he too suffers from PTSD and it had caused him to get into an altercation with a friend that set off his restless night. He sounded scared. I was scared for them both. Suddenly the harsh reality of where my husband works was all around me. The surgeon’s feet reappeared behind curtain number one and I listened to her tell the family that she likes to pray before taking a patient into the operating room. Could she pray with this family? They said yes and she did. She offered up the most sincere prayer for her patient and the work she was about to do and I found myself silently praying with her (and thanking the Lord that there are surgeons in this hospital who pray!) I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratefulness for my own husband’s safety and peace of mind and the need to pray without ceasing for him and others to be protected from the lifetime effects of combat and war. I don’t mean to be a downer today, I just felt this was important to share. If you could spare a moment, will you please, please pray for a marine, soldier, sailor or airman that you know? No photo in my post today as I’m sure we can all picture someone in our minds–a relative, a friend, a friend of a friend or just the faces you see on the news every night. Picture them and pray for them. So many have wounds only our Great Physician can heal.