Tender Mercies....

I got the OK from my parents to post this. The reason I have had lots of nervous energy is that we found out that my dad had to have open heart surgery. He went in on Friday (yesterday) to have a triple bypass. It is hard to come face to face with your parents mortality and it took me a very long time to wrap my mind around what was happening. Peace did come as a tender mercy that filled my heart and allowed me to feel the peace of what was about to happen. Darin and Ryan (my brother-in-law) went up the night before and gave my parents beautiful blessings. The priesthood is another tender mercy in my life. We then went to the hospital to wait with my mom and try to keep her mind off of things. The sweet chaplain kept updating us on how things were going and was so considerate. We played scabble and life, that ate up almost all of the time. Then we were moved into another waiting room. When we were moved there, we met the GREATEST family. They were so FUNNY and told so many great stories that the time just FLEW by. They were there because their loved one had to have six bypass surgery (don't even know what the name of that surgery is.) I forgot to mention that once the surgeon went in he ended up doing a quadruple bypass, but now my dad should feel better than he has felt in a long time. They even sent us to lunch with promises to find us (and they did) when my dad was ready. Another tender mercy is the kindness of strangers. I can't recall having a better time at the hospital. We then went into see him. I had been pre-warned by all of my friends that have had similar circumstances that it was going to be bad. I had mentally prepared all that I knew how to, but the more I was around him and the more I looked at all of the tubes coming out of him, the queasier I felt until I ran from the room and hid out in the waiting room. Then we went home and I just couldn't get the image out of my mind. Later that night I heard he had the tubes out and was sitting up and talking and decided to go up again. I am so glad I did, because he was doing so much better. He was joking around and laughing with us. Seeing him like that helped me to sleep. Today he is doing great. He is doing so well they will probably let him come home tomorrow night (2 days early.) I also think that modern medicine is another tender mercy. I can't even begin to thank everyone for all of the prayers offered, considerate conversations had, and service rendered. What a way to bring in 2009. We are so blessed.