Grandpa S Got A New Lung!

As promised, I wanted to tell about a great experience in our family this last weekend. I apologize in advance for the wordiness of the story, but it means a lot to me, so I don't want to short-change the details, as someone may find inspiration there...

To start, my father-in-law (S) contracted a lung disease many years ago, where his body attacked his own lungs and left them scarred and increasingly inefficient at absorbing oxygen from the air he breathed. I won't even try to get into the details of the illness, but it made him cough more and more over the years and eventually left his lungs severely scarred.

Over time, it became apparent that he was going to need a lung transplant to keep going. He has been on supplemental oxygen for about two years now, I think, and his lung capacity was reduced to critical levels (i.e., about 1/3 at rest, and that decreased dramatically when he became active). After a long struggle to complete the requirements to get on the list for a lung transplant, they finally listed him last Monday. Then, an amazingly short six days later, he got the call on Saturday night that a donor had died and that a lung was on its way to Stanford, where he was staying and waiting for the surgery.

His wife rushed to catch the earliest flight to San Fran that she could. By the time she got there Sunday morning, the 8-hour surgery was nearly complete. We kept our cell phone on at church on Sunday in case any news came through. Sure enough, halfway through Sacrament Meeting, we got a call letting us know that the surgery went perfectly and that he was doing well so far. The story only gets better in that, by Sunday afternoon, he was sitting up, smiling and asking for his books (he's an avid reader). He has continued to improve since that point as well, and we're hoping for a grand recovery and several more years of his welcome company here on Earth. Maybe he'll even put up with me snagging more flies in trees on fishing trips! :)

At times of great suffering, people often turn to God more earnestly than they do otherwise. While I'd like to think we turn to him as a family all the time, I must say that we did pray more earnestly and with perhaps greater faith than we have at other times to petition the Lord for his blessings on behalf of S as he went through this experience. I don't think it was a coincidence that this all happened on the day that my mother-in-law called a family fast for her husband. Now, our fast on Saturday night and Sunday took on a different twist than we had anticipated, and I know that God heard and answered our prayers for S.

Finally, after hearing that he was getting a lung, we knelt together as a family and prayed, not only for him, but also for the family who had lost a loved one that enabled our father and grandpa to receive this great blessing. I was personally overcome with gratitude for this individual's and family's gift to our family. I continue to hope and pray that (1) they're comforted through their loss and (2) they somehow know that great good came of their difficulty/loss.

Needless to say, I've "seen God" many times this last week...