What a week

It wasn't until this morning while at church that I glanced back at this week and everything that has happened. The week wasn't super busy, but many events led to feelings of being helpless, peace, excitement, hope, sad, and a variety of other emotions. I cannot believe 1 week ago today, many lost their lives during the Joplin, Mo. tornado. And, even if they didn't lose their life they probably know someone who did or experienced destruction in some way. A couple days later, many lives were changed too here in Oklahoma.

Monday morning our family received an email saying that my cousin's nephew, Quenton, was involved in an accident the night before and was in critical condition in ICU at the OU Medical Center. Just the week before, I had been playing with Quenton at my other cousin's baptism. Quenton, who is 4, isn't related to me, only I guess by marriage. However, that side of the family is really close. Quenton is still in ICU, but God intervened many times that evening so that he would still be alive today. Quenton opened his eyes yesterday, but only 1 eye was tracking and had a seizure, so the doctors gave him more medicine to put him back asleep. Doctors say this is normal though. I posted this to Facebook and many said they would pray. One included a professor who lifted Quenton up during one of their prayer group meetings they have every week at work. This professor is still getting updates. This makes me extremely happy to know our professors seek God and do care for their students in this way.

Tuesday marked the Oklahoma tornadoes. Our amazing weathermen kept warning us (even the day before) that the storms we were going to receive were going to be really bad). My niece and nephew were at my house and we decided to not do the usual thing, so we went up to our church since my dad had keys and stayed there. The church has a basement area so we thought it would be good. The church is not usually opened as a tornado shelter, but since we were up there, we definitely weren't going to turn any away. One family who was on their way to Guthrie was stopped by the police and said they couldn't go further. They are just 4 of about 25 who made their way to our church for shelter. The sirens sounded although there wasn't a tornado in Cushing, but Guthrie did get hit hard. Incredible how God works.

I remember the next several days at work trying to get things done, but my mind was obviously in other places. I kept refreshing my Facebook page to see if anything had been said about the rescue workers who were desperately trying to find this little 3-year-old boy, Ryan Hamil. God works in mysterious ways. I remember saying a prayer on Wednesday, and then right after I saw a Facebook page that was created to make people aware of this situation and basically telling them to pray. Today, this page has close to 43,000 followers. It is incredible to me to think of all these people lifting up prayers for this family and to others involved. Knowing Ryan was in God's hand whether here on Earth or with Him in Heaven, I said another prayer on Thursday morning that they would find this precious boy to help bring closure to this family. During their press conference later that morning, I realized that they found Ryan probably right around the time I was praying that prayer. God heard and answered my prayer (and others who were praying) even though it isn't the outcome any of us would have desired.

However, at the end of the week, one of my really good friends, got married to her best friend. I was blessed to be a part of such an occasion. It is so exciting to see this happen between two people who have put Christ in the center of their life and relationship.

God has definitely been teaching me to pray and to pray daily. Only our God can be the Ultimate Healer and Comforter during these times. He is our Hope. He answers our prayers, and I know that His will and understanding is much better than mine. He is also showing me to celebrate the good in our lives. He provides blessings every single day. Please be looking and watching and thanking Him for providing those to us.

I feel like I could write forever about this, but in the end all I can is, what a week. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.