4.30 p.m.

I reported that this last weekend was brutal.  Irene had extraordinary pain on Friday evening which ended up being a severely distended stomach.  She was rushed for a CAT scan with the concern of a perforation or burst in the intestinal/stomach areas.  Today is a new day.  She has no pain, the apparent blockage that caused the episode seems to have passed, and she’s doing very well.  The 24/7 dialysis was removed today.  She is having dialysis, but it will be daily for 2-3 hours instead of around the clock…The “nose tube” which was placed on Friday evening to siphon fluid from her tract has also been removed. What an amazing turnaround!!!!!!

The nursing team at UCSF has been extraordinary…they are many times the unrecognized and unsung heroes on the front line tending to patients.  Today I walked into the blood bank and saw Josephine Juan, one of the attending RN’s for Irene in the ICU, donating her O+ blood…Wow… so very cool that she wanted to donate for Irene…

Another friend, Kathy McFarland, is also giving platelets today…for the second time…Wow… driving over 4 hours twice…an amazing commitment to Irene….

I share these stories to let you know that everyone’s care and expressions are overwhelming us with thanksgiving…each person supporting us in their own way…. We thank you sooooooo much…!!!! We could not travel this road alone…thanks for your support…!!!!!!!

Dave

Dear Dave & Irene –
My wife Christina, my kids, Katarina (11) and Jake (9), and I are all praying for His strength to indwell you to overcome the pain you’re suffering while we wait on Him for the miracle of complete healing and recovery.  We have a couple churches here in the East Bay lifting you all up in prayer as well.

Speaking of miracles, I have a little one (or two) to tell you about…

I met Dave a couple years ago when I started working with one of his accounts.  He is truly one of my favorite people and a very good brother in Christ.  Though I’ve never met you, Irene, I know that you’ve got to be pretty spectacular by extrapolation, since he is very clear that you are his “better half”. 

Dave emailed me and another brother about the amyloid about 2 months ago and asked for our prayers and directed us to the website.  I spent a little time on the website to get the gist of your situation and then went home later that day and told my Proverbs 31 wife about it.  After talking about it at the dinner table with all of us deciding to pray for you daily, Christina later came to me and told me that she’d like to knit a “prayer shawl” for you. 

I didn’t quite know what that was so I asked her.  Although my wife had only started knitting about 6 months ago, she had just heard about this ministry in which a knitter would knit a shawl or blanket while praying for the recipient - praying the whole time while knitting.  In this way, the recipient would literally be “covered in prayer”.  Christina asked me if I thought it was a good idea that you would be the first recipient of a prayer shawl she made.  I told her that I thought it was a beautiful idea and that I would be happy to deliver it to you.

The next day at work I ventured back onto your website at lunch and read a good portion of it that I hadn’t read before.  Among other things, I learned that your favorite color is purple and made a mental note to tell Christina when I got home so that she could use that information in selecting the yarn for the prayer shawl.  At the dinner table later that evening I mentioned that I had found out what your favorite color was.  Christina immediately stopped me from telling her and the children.  She said that they had all gone to the fabric store that day to select the yarn.  On the way they were talking about what type and color yarn to get since they didn’t know you at all and didn’t know what you’d like.  They decided to pray about it when they got there and let the Holy Spirit guide them. 

Christina walked over to our front door while telling me this and grabbed a large paper bag from the fabric store.  She told me that they prayed together for you when they entered the store and then asked the Holy Spirit to show them what material to use.  Christina told me that Katarina then made a beeline for this one particular yarn and said that it was the yarn that should be used.  Christina then asked me to go ahead and tell her what your favorite color was.  When I told her it was purple, she gasped and lifted a couple of skeins of the loveliest purple yarn I had ever seen out of the bag and we both praised God!  He knows you so well, Irene, that he even knows your favorite color!

It took several weeks, but Christina completed the most beautiful purple shawl I had ever seen last week and we wrapped it up and I took it with me to work in San Francisco.  After work I tracked down Dave and told him the above story and gave him the shawl for you.  After praising the Lord, he told me that God did another miracle just then.  Dave told me that he had taken your favorite purple blanket home to wash it the day before, but hadn’t finished it.  He said that you had just asked for it and he had to apologize to you that he didn’t have it.  He went on to say that God organized everything just right so that on the day that you needed the comfort of something familiar that wasn’t available, you would be comforted by something new but similar that was created to bless you, cover you in prayer and edify Him, the lover of your soul.

God is so good, Irene.  He is blessing many through the story He continues to write for you and through you.  A small example is my wife and children, who will never forget this little miracle, a loving answer to prayer and faithfulness.  And we know that He intends to bless you far more greatly through this ordeal and test, this refiner’s fire. 

We love you,

Paul, Christina, Katarina and Jake Grabowsky

I was planning my evening to go to my friend’s 27th birthday party, when I got the news my mom had been readmitted to the hospital.  She had only been home for 5 days.  Seven days before, my Mom was admitted to the hospital for edema which had made her legs soft like marshmallows.  Doctors had also found two blood clots.  One pulmonary, and one in her leg. 

I wrestled with heading to the emergency room where my mom, my dad, my sister and two of my parents closest friends, had already been waiting for hours to be admitted – or going to be with my friends to distract me from the worry that consumed me. In thoughts of my mom, I made a twenty-six picture collage out of 8½ x 11’s with aspirations of a cheery hospital room.  When I finished my collage, I took a shower and got into bed.  I called my dad.

My dad assured me that I should go to my dinner.  If I came first thing Saturday morning it would be better, and my mom added her reassurance in the background.  Still, I laid in my bed in my pajamas in a dark room and pondered my decision.  The night wore on and although I knew my friend would understand if I felt it was important to be with my mother, I still felt it was important I go celebrate with my friends.  I wrestled with my decision, and decided to call my dad again for an update. 

His phone rang to voicemail which raised my level of anxiety, and I burrowed deeper into my covers.  As I was lying there, my phone rang and annoyed me from the ball of covers around me.  It was my friend Ruthie.  She was on her way to the party and asked what I was up to.  I told her I was going to take a nap asked her to let me know when she got to the party.  As my head ran over every detail of what I knew of my mom my phone rang, and it was my dad.  “Sorry, we were praying when you called…I have an update.  The doctors have found a tumor in your mom’s liver” he said.  I was in shock. 

I had never seen my mom drink.  She had grown up in a broken home – broken because of alcohol, and had made a commitment to God and our family that she was never going to drink.  She had kept that commitment.  I was choked up.  “Are you alright?” my dad asked me, “No, but I will be,” I assured him.  “Ok. I love you, keep the faith” he told me. 

I hung up the phone and burst into tears.  “Why God?! Why? It’s not fair!” I cried out in desperation, “Please heal my mom!” I cried. 

Ruthie text messaged me,

“Here.  Still feel like coming?”

“I’ll be there” I replied.  With puffy eyes I got out of bed, curled my hair, put on some mascara and a hat, and left my house to meet up with my friends.  It was comforting to be amongst the company of my friends.  My friend Mike, the drummer for Asyst, told me Asyst was playing in Monterey at Club Octane the following night.  I nodded at my friend Ruthie and unspoken “wanna go” and she smiled. I told Mike we’d be there. 

The next day I rose early in anticipation of seeing my mom.  I waited until I couldn’t any longer, and at 10:30 a.m., I headed out into the already beautiful weather of Santa Cruz, California, to the hospital with my collage.  Folded in quarters and pressed across my belly, the collage was a sandwich board on me as I went upstairs to room 2211, and walked in.  The bed was made.  The sheets in perfect hospital corners, the pillow fluffed and the sun came in softly through the window.  Anxiety rose inside me.

Calmly, I walked to the nurses station.  One kind attendant (three attendants later) took me to the room where my mom had been moved.  I greeted her and handed the collage to my dad.  He hung it on the wall.  My mom hadn’t slept all night and was dosing off even as I had entered in the room, so we left.  My sister and I went out Mother’s Day shopping and Dad went home to take a nap.  We reconvened at lunch, but my mom was heavily dosed into deep sleep so we hung out in the lobby.  The weather was beautiful, and it was calling me.

“You can go exercise, Joce,” my dad said, “Didn’t you want to go get on your bike?” I had.  It didn’t take much convincing for me to go for a ride from my house through Capitola Village around The Hook to The Point and back, stopping at The Point to enjoy the surf, but the waves were flat and no one but the surf class were out. By the time I got home, it was already 5:30 p.m.  I called my dad and Ruthie.  I made plans to meet up with Ruthie for the show at 7:30 p.m., and got in the shower.  By the time I was ready to go see my mom, it was already 7:30 p.m., so I called Ruthie and told her I would be leaving the hospital closer to 8:00 p.m. 

When I got to the hospital, I was informed that my mom had been given a dose of Morphine.  I had never seen my mom with her mind altered, and the effect of the Morphine was hilarious.  She kept my family and our friends in stitches for hours.  Before I knew it, it was 9:30 p.m., and way past time to meet up with Ruthie to make it to the show.  I secretly started thinking about not going to Monterey. 

I picked up Ruthie in Watsonville, and we had a delicious dinner.  By the time the meal was over, it was 10:15 p.m.  We knew the show started at 10:30 p.m., but we assured one another that we are always on time for the music and headed out to Monterey.  Just outside of Watsonville Ruthie commented that she was tired and didn’t really feel like going to Monterey anymore.  I had just got my second wind and told her that although we weren’t past the point of no return yet, we might as well still go, she agreed, and we headed to Monterey. 

This was our second trip to see Asyst at Club Octane, so we knew where to park.  We took the last parking spot on the roof of the parking garage.  We walked down a row of 30 cars, down a ramp of 15 cars, and down another row of 30 cars to the one flight of stairs that granted roof access.  We got our wrists stamped and went in to see Asyst. We made it in just before Asyst went on stage. To our surprise, only one other friend besides Ruthie and I was there when normally 10-20, of our friends would have been there.  This put a damper on our fun. The band only played 3-4 songs, and despite the free gear from the Captain Morgan girls, I was seriously disappointed how the evening was panning out.  When Asyst was done, I was very ready to go.

After one more trip to the ladies room Ruthie and I and headed out.  On the way out, Mike repossessed his hat I had borrowed and invited us to go eat with them at Denny’s.  We told him we were too tired and were heading home.  At 1:30AM, the dawn of Mothers Day Sunday, Ruthie and I walked out to my car.  She and I laughed and joked on the way back out to my car recapping how much fun we had had that night.  We got to my car, got in, and as I started the engine I realized there was something on my windshield.

“What’s that?!” I asked Ruthie thinking it might be a flyer to another show, “I don’t know” she said.  I reopened my car door and pulled a rather large object off my windshield.  “Just Andraé” I said as I starred at the LP in front of me.  “Oh my Gosh!” I exclaimed letting out a giggle, “Someone left an LP on my windshield!” Ruthie and I started laughing.  I pulled out of the parking stall and Ruthie pulled the LP out of the sleeve.  “It smells old,” she said as I concentrated on finding the freeway.

“Bless His Holy Name (Psalm 103).”

“Come On Back My Child.”

“God Loves the Country People.”

“It’s Not Just a Story.”

“Lord, You’ve Been Good to Me.”

“Lullaby of the Deceived (II Timothy 3:13).”

“You Ain’t Living”

Ruthie read off the songs, “Good thing we’re Christian!” she exclaimed.  I laughed, “Yeah! Good thing!”

As we approached the freeway we were still talking about the LP. 

“A-N-D-R-A-É, that’s how he spells Andraé” Ruthie said,

“Really” I said exhausted.  I feigned interest, “A- É, not just ‘e’, huh? Interesting”

“Yeah, Andraé Crouch” she said – suddenly a memory tickled my brain… Andraé… Andraé … Andraé Crouch…my mom came to mind. 

“Andraé Crouch?! Did you say Andraé Crouch?!” I asked her in disbelief.

“Yeah, Andraé Crouch” she confirmed, “Why?”

“No way!” I said, my head spinning, “Andraé Crouch?! My mom LOVES Andraé Crouch!!”

“Well, Happy Mothers Day, Mom!” Ruthie said.  What a blessing I thought, an LP for my mom of Andraé Crouch for Mothers day.  I didn’t know anyone other that my mom and my DJ friends that still loved LPs…and here I had an LP of one of the singers that defined the music my mom loves in my hand for her.

When I gave it to her at the hospital later that day, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the same year ‘Just Andraé’ was produced, 1972, as a birthday present my mom’s sister had offered to take her to see a concert… Andraé Crouch, or Michael Jackson…my mom had chosen to go see Andraé Crouch.

God had truly sent my family a message by leaving this LP on my car:  I know right where you are at, I know you, and you are mine.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made.  I am here, I know what you like and dislike, I know your needs, and I will meet them.  No matter where you go, or what you go through, I am right there with you.

My family would later be told that my mom did not have a tumor in her kidney, but she did have Nephrotic Syndrome caused by Amyloidosis.  She is still in the hospital at UCSF even as I write this.  We claim total healing for God to wash her blood by the Blood of The Lamb. 

Bless the Lord,
O my soul,
And all that is within me,
Bless His holy Name.
He has done great things,
He has done great things,
He has done great things,
Bless His holy Name.