Within three hours of last night's post, I was awakened by my husband's violent coughing. I got up to check on him and found out he was having trouble breathing and having chest pain. He does not like hospitals, so when I told him we needed to go to the E.R. he wasn't pleased. He wheezed out the words, "let's wait an hour". I quickly dressed and planted myself in the bedroom chair and when he told me to go back to bed I replied "hmmmm, NO."

When I stressed to him that the longer he labored to breathe the more likely he was to put his heart back into Atrial Fibrillation, among other things, he shortly thereafter agreed to go. We were in the emergency room by 2:30 this morning and were very thankful for nurses who so quickly assessed his problems, got a doctor in the room and began medical treatment. He was admitted to the hospital but was so improved by mid-afternoon they let him come home. He will be on medications & breathing treatments here and will see his internist next week; a lung specialist on Dec. 19. He shall, Lord willing, spend the remainder of this week and this week-end resting and recuperating.

How quickly things can change in this life. You go to sleep at 10 pm and by 2:30 am you're in an emergency room with the man who's been your other half for 40 years. He's a big man and has always been the one to take care of me. Today that role was reversed and for the first time I saw frailness and fear in him.

"This getting old isn't a good thing Louise" were his words to me in the examining room. No, in our human-ness, getting old doesn't seem a 'good' thing. But when we look at that in light of God's providence for His children, it's a very necessary thing for many of us. A gift actually. Many die so very young. I have a sister who was just 4 years old when God called her home. That, we would say, is way too young; but, who are we to judge our times and the plans God has for us?

Good night my friends and God bless each of you with a sweet night's rest.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord."they are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11