Posted on Facebook on March 23, 2017:
Dear Friends and Family,
Today Emberly is on her way to a clinic in Idaho. She texted me this picture of her children who are with her and Jason on spring break. I know many of you have been asking how Emberly is doing. I've not been able to respond because honestly I've not known what to say. Two months ago in early January on a Friday night she went into seizure during a bad snow storm. Jason along with my parents and their children drove her into Redding to the Emergency Room. She was seizing and going unconscious. The medical staff told them she wasn’t going to make it unless some drastic measure were taken which they were not equipped for. Jason, Emberly’s husband requested they do everything possible to save her life. She was then heavily sedated and put on life support just to stabilize her. Sabbath afternoon she, along with Jason were airlifted from Redding to San Fransisco. I met them there and stayed by Emberly’s side giving Jason a time for a little respite. Seeing her in a medically induced coma on life support still seizing nearly tore my heart out. Every hour they would bring her out of the coma to check her to see if she was still neurologically intact. She would look at me with terror in her eyes and want to speak but unable because of the tubes down her throat. I could say more, but I will spare you and just say this… witnessing it was harder on me than her. Because of God’s mercy and the drugs she does not remember anything she endured. The medication they gave her was enough to erase the last two months from her memory. But I remember it all clearly. And in my breaking heart, greatly humbled, falling into the arms of God for His grace and mercy on her behalf, with bated breath, have stood still to witness what God will do. It’s only recently that she is beginning to remember from day to day. But she remembers nothing from the last post I shared with all of you here on Facebook. We had to wait till the respiratory therapy team came in Sunday morning to remove the tubes and bring her off of life support. The first thing she said to me is “Why didn’t you let me die?”, and “What will be my life now, wouldn’t it be better to die?” Oh how I could have cried, because I have watched people go down the long hard road of cancer to their last breath and I’ve not wanted to witness this for my own sister. I didn’t know what to say. My heart was breaking. My dear friends, I have not felt very courageous these last months. I have felt like Hagar who left her son in the desert under a shade tree and went off a little ways not wanting to see him die and cried to the Lord. Not knowing what was going to be the out come. It looked so bleak I couldn’t see it possible that she would be able to leave ICU much less come home. But by the end of the week they sent her home.
On her way to a clinic in Idaho today, she texted me...
"It's spring break and we are going through Nevada for a Dr appointment. Kids are having fun 💞”
I responded that I am praying for her, to which she replied, "Thank u soooo much I need lots of prayer, I am not getting better fast. They just say well u should not be alive so u are and that's good but I am not getting better."
"Please pray that I will be strong and stay on my diet, it's so hard for me. I don't know y I am such a baby. Mom makes the food so yummy but I have crazy cravings. I feel like I am a big baby and if I am not strong, which I am not, I will not make it?😰🤕🤒”
I asked her if I could post an update to all who love her and she said "Thank u soooo much. Tell them that I love them all 💞🐶💞🐶💞🐶💞🐶”
So, my dear friends, and family… I don’t know what to say… Yes, it’s a mystery that Emberly is still alive. The cancer has spread through much of her brain according to the MRI scan that was taken last Thursday. Her body is in good health thanks to the Dr. in Norway, who cured her of the 8 different strains of Lymes and got the cancer markers down to 0 in her blood which has been a huge blessing in extending her life. Yet the cancer in her brain continues to grow. I marvel that Emberly is still alive and in good cognitive condition.
A few Bible texts come to mind. "And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria till you had consumed it: whereas now you shall strike down Syria but three times.” 2 Kings 13:18-19
Perseverance, how much do we want the thing we are requesting for. Are we ready to give up after a while if we don’t see the complete answer to our prayers? Oh that we will learn the lesson from this king's mistake and be like the widow in Jesus' parable.
"And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" ~ Luke 18:1-8
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and reproaches not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." ~ James 1:5-6
"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” ~ John 14:13
So dearly beloved friends and family, I take courage that every prayer that has been prayed on Emberly's behalf is recorded in the books of heaven. We need wisdom and perseverance without wavering in our requests before God. Just the fact that Emberly is still ALIVE is a miracle. That alone should be enough to strengthen our faith to keep praying for the breakthrough Emberly needs. Do we not return tithe, so can we not claim and expect the promise? “Will I not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it?” ~ Malachi 3:10
Thank you for standing in the gap on Emberly's behalf. May God richly bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think, is my prayer for you. May we be faithful, praying "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Amen