04/13/2013
For those who do not know --Read below the FB post for Sarah Siefken, Suzanne Purdy Siefken's daughter. Please pray for Sue's continued healing!
The past 48 hours have been a journey and a learning experience. After finding my mom in cardiac arrest with my dad by her side, doing everything he knew possible to keep the love of his life alive, I was stunned. This couldn’t be happening to our family. Mom was literally fine 4 min ago. I rushed around the house helping the paramedics in and dealing with Emma as if I was out of my own body watching everything that was happening. Was my mom going to be ok? What is wrong with her? What’s going to happen to our family if we don’t have a mom to take care of us anymore? I think I felt every emotion possible: fear, joy, helplessness, trust, hope, confusion, sadness, peace, you name it. It was surreal. As soon as the journey began, I started learning two important things. The first is that I am so amazed at how we are blessed with the technology we have today! It still baffles me that we can keep someone alive when their body doesn’t work! The other thing I have been learning is the most important thing though. While I have been on a journey physically and mentally, I have also been on quite the spiritual journey.
How did I handle it all? Why aren’t I freaking out? Well, the only answer I can give to that is God. God is the answer. I am amazed at all the blessings that God has given us the past 48 hours. From the very beginning he was watching out for our family. Luke and I were still awake so my dad was able to yell for us when he needed us. My mom was in bed before her heart stopped so she has no other injuries from falling down. Even though mom’s heart wasn’t beating she was making a strange noise and my dad was able to hear it over him brushing his teeth and he was able to find her. My dad is a doctor and saved my moms life. With God’s strength he was able to know exactly what to do to keep his wife alive until the ambulance got there. Those are just the blessings from the 10 minutes we were at home! The list goes on and on. But through all this I could feel God’s presence.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9
Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
That last one is the verse my youngest sister found to give to me and my dad. These verses are so true. When I needed God most, he was with me. He never left me. He hears us when we cry out to him. Not only did God just comfort us, he healed my mom. My mom is here today as a living testament that PRAYER WORKS. We serve an amazing God that loves and cares for us. When we, children of God and his beloved, pray, God hears us. He created us. He can feel our hurt and our helplessness. One of the hardest things I had to learn to do was this: Give up the control. That was a hard thing for my dad and me to do. In reality, we had no control over what was happening with my mom. This control that we needed to give up was more of control of our minds and our feelings. Yes, it was also of mom but it was also about giving a control of how we were going to respond up to God.
We just kept praying “God, we have no idea what’s going on with mom and we don’t know what is going to happen next but we give you the complete control. God, we know you love her so much and that you are taking care of her. You have a plan for her. We give up the control to you and we are stepping back now. Please let your will be done. We are trusting that what ever happens from here on out, you will take care of us. Thanks for all you have done and we love you Lord. Amen.” That was it.
After praying that prayer, I felt a sense of peace. I knew that I was going to be ok no matter what. I knew God would take care of our family if my mom died. Either way, God was with us and he would never forsake us. And he didn’t. They doctors took my mom into the cath lab to look at her arteries once we arrived in Springfield. They thought that maybe she had a blockage somewhere. We waited and about an hour later they came back with the results. He said these were some of the clearest arteries ever! I cannot tell you the relief we felt when he told us that. We couldn’t help but praise God for the miracle he had done! They were able to take my mom’s breathing tube out around 8:30 in the morning! One of the nurses said that that was one of the shortest times he had ever seen someone have a breathing tube in! Praise the Lord! Mom was so alert and awake! She actually had begun getting frustrated cause she wanted the tube out so bad. She kept saying she couldn’t breathe cause the tube was too small of a passage way. It still blows my mind the transformation that took place. We serve such an amazing and loving God! My mom has now begun her journey to recovery. We are still praying for her heart to heal completely so this doesn’t happen again. Her heart rate has been fairly normal so that is a huge praise! I am so glad I still have my mom here on earth. She is such a blessing to me. She is so loving and caring towards all of us kids. She is our support and our cheerleader. I love her so much and I can’t imagine life without her. So mom,thanks for all you do and all the hard work you put in to make our family who we are today. You are such an inspiration to me and I am so proud of how strong you are being through all of this. I know it is hard to believe this all happened but I am so grateful for all God has done. He has given me my mom and my friend back. Praise the Lord! Everyone’s prayers are so appreciated! I want to end this post by saying: We serve and AMAZING heavenly father. He deserves ALL the glory. God is Love. He will never leave or forsake you. No matter what time of trouble you may be going through, give it up to God. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He has a perfect plan for each and every one of us. God cares for you so so much. He knows you better than anyone else ever could. We give all the glory and honor to God our Father. To Him be all the honor and praise.
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Revelation 4:11
Amen.
