This has been a difficult time not only for me but my family as well. It started last year when my family learned my husband had fourth-stage, lymph-node cancer. And where was it located? In his legs.
Thus, I could not take care of him. He is in a nursing home and the place where he now resides is taking good care of him. I see him every day and stay about two hours each visit. We have good visits, though, I wish he was home.
Then this year the worse thing happened. My oldest nonverbal autistic son, who lived with us, passed away in January. It was so sudden. One morning he woke up with a fever and chills. The next day he was gone. We loved this sweetheart whom we had taken care of from birth to his death because he could not dress himself or feed himself.
My husband did most of his care until he became sick last year. (I centered on our youngest verbal autistic son.) I took over and Brad and I became a pair. I learned what he loved to eat and what he did not like, such as tomato sauce on his spaghetti. It was a busy time but a loving time.
We miss him so much. It still hurts. Every day something reminds me of him. I wish I could go back in time and have him reappear, but, of course, that cannot happen.
But even in these terrible times, God is there for us. The local Knights of Columbus has been awesome. They cleaned our yard last year, taking down the overgrown flower garden and planting grass in its stead. They trimmed bushes and made our yard look awesome, and this is a large yard of an acre of ground. This spring they cleaned the land, and when a huge tree branch fell last week, they cleaned it up. The Lord was there through it all since that branch could have fallen on our house. He protected us. Thank you, Lord.
Others have assisted us with monetary funds, which was badly needed. I also wondered how I was going to pay for items for our youngest autistic son since his birthday is July 6. However, God was there. A friend and I went to a local church garage sale and behold I found fun-scary toys like a stuffed Dracula and a CD player. I did not want to spend money on another CD player which Andrew has destroyed whenever he has had one in the past. He wants a fountain pop so he ruins them to get more pop.
This is why I did not want to buy another CD player that he would destroy. It gets expensive. However, I found a used one at that garage sale. God was there for me. He also was there for a great neighbor who moved my outside table and chairs to mow because the regular mowers do not move the table and chairs and the grass grows tall underneath.
So even in our heartache, the Lord is there. Be thankful for all who have been there for you. God is Gracious. Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”