When God sent us people

When my hubby went into the hospital, there was no evidence of cancer on his latest scan. I took him to the ER for vomitting and possible dehydration...and he died of cancer 16 days later.

I remind myself that this didn't take God by surprise even if it did take me by surprise. God knew and He sent us the people we needed to have with us during this tragic time!

A day or so after he went into the hospital, when things didn't even look bad, my sister in CA called and said she was coming to stay with us and help out. Then we found out that cancer was in two places in his body, and my brother-in-law in CA said that he was coming to visit and bringing their dad.
Then my best friend called to say that she was coming for the weekend to help our family in any way she could. 

So, a week later on almost the same day, they all arrived!
And the timing was something that only an all-knowing God could have planned.

They were there with us when we heard that "there was nothing more that could be done."
They were just in time to have their moments with him while he was still able to respond to them.
They had a chance to say their "goodbyes" and they were there to hug us through our "goodbyes."
They helped me with the hospice transition. They laughed and cried with us. They kept us fed, they lived in waiting rooms, colored and did puzzles and loved on our kids!

It was like God assembled the team He knew we needed!
Our pastors were a huge help to us throughout all of this. I don't know what I would have done without them.

And this sweet girl:

was such a blessing to our kids! She barely left our kids sides for two weeks, except to go to work. She took them out for food when things got intense and they just needed a break. She was apart of what my kids called the Hospice Crew. -They were at my beck and call whenever I wanted live worship music in room 11! How blessed we were to hear them! And how mighty was God's presence!
She was always showing up at random times with food! LOL : ) She was in our kitchen making mountains of french toast for all of us on the morning after Hubby passed. She showed up before the memorial with fried chicken to feed our family members in the green room right before we went out. LOL She made my kids laugh and prayed with them. She was just THERE. What a treasure! She is the kind of person who is always loving and ministering to people whereever she is, so I felt like I owed the world an apology, while we had her all to ourselves for those 16 days! : )

My best friend loves our kids like her own! When she got here, they got an great dose of loving mothering. : ) She cooked, she cleaned, she shopped. She practically lived in the hospital lobby with all of our family members. She took care of our dog when we were at hospice. She helped fill my hubby's hospice room with worship and sang hymns with my kids. She was always busy doing a million things to help somehow. She changed her plane ticket when things got worse and stayed way longer than she ever planned to. She was with us through everything.
She helped scan photos for my hubby's memorial service video and cooked food to put in our freezer.
What I will always remember, is her saying "Joy needs to go birthday shopping and I'm taking her!"
 I cried! -What a blessing it was to have her blessing Joy for me when I couldn't!
And she was my personal shopper when I needed one most!
 - I didn't know what to wear to the memorial. I didn't want to wear all black because a part of me was happy that my hubby was with the Lord and that was worth rejoicing over. I told her the story of how as a teenager, my friend and I once wore white to a funeral for an elderly woman we loved, because we were so happy that she was with Jesus! I wasn't quite up for doing that in this situation though. LOL Then she went out and bought me THE perfect dress to wear! It was white, but had a black pattern on it that made it look almost all black! (hard to explain) But it was just perfect!!!! It was such a thoughtful gift!
She is the dearest friend that anyone could ever ask for.

When my sister arrived, I was spending 13 hours a day at the hospital. My kids were SO glad to have her at our house, that I got a text from Joy saying something like "Aunt Jenny brings order to our chaos and she can cook things that aren't frozen!" LOL She ended up giving us 3 weeks and 2 days of her life! She did everything imaginable for us. She shopped, cooked, she did laundry and ran our household.
She spent two nights with me at hospice. She got in trouble for sleeping in the lobby on our first night and then spent another night in his room with me in a recliner. (a very uncomfortable recliner at that!)
She was my "christian bouncer" blocking my hubby's room from lovely visitors, when there were too many. ; )  She made sure I ate. She introduced us all to the stress relief of adult coloring books. LOL
She dealt with the funeral home when I wasn't up for it. She helped organize the memorial service and she did everything she could to make it everything I wanted it to be. She extended her trip to stay past Thanksgiving so that she could help us through our first holiday without hubby/dad. She was my Hubby's replacement (so-to-speak) on our annual Chrstimas Tree shopping breakfast date on Black Friday moring and she made it fun. She helped decorate our house for Christmas and she took Andrew for a driving lesson.
 I don't even know all the things she did. But she certainly helped us get our feet on the ground before she left and none of us know what we would have done without her! All my friends want her to stay forever! -Join the club! : ) What a gift from God to us!

The Lord knew what we would need and He was so faithful to send us WHO we needed and He made a way for them to stay for as long as we needed!
 Amazing!
He is faithful!

~Becky