Ten Lessons Learned from my Hospital Bed:

(Yes, very early Saturday morning I was admitted to Srinakarin Samitivej Hospital for a bacterial infection in my stomach. More commonly known as food poisoning. I arrived home Monday evening, in time for supper with my family. )

1. It helps with your anxiety levels to already have made a in-the-middle-of the-night run to the same emergency room three months earlier (thanks, Isaac, for giving us that experience with your emergency appendectomy in June!!)

2. God is gracious and has perfect timing (please, please God let me make it to the emergency room before the next stomach-churning episode!)

3. The eleventh floor, corner room is a beautiful room to stay in, where you feel like you are in the sky, surrounded by clouds, and oh-so-very peaceful…except for the very loud drilling right overhead where they are obviously working to make the twelfth floor pretty, too!

4. That jello tastes great at first when it’s been awhile since you’ve eaten, but after several meals of it, the attraction starts to wan…

5. When you have gone several hours with the “chiller?” not working in your air-con, your room can get very hot, especially during the middle of the day.

6. That a family of five can have a lot of fun in a hospital room, especially when they come to visit equipped with a DVD player, a Wii console, games and great attitudes.

7. A husband who will hold your hand during IVs and bloodwork, buy you cheese bagels and 7ups when you are hungry, sleep on the couch in the room with you during the night, drive back and forth on busy Srinarkarin Rd so that the children can come visit, wash your face when your food will not stay down, and has a great sense of humor… even when date night takes an unexpected turn, and in addition is willing to take a day off work to spend with you so that you will not be alone is definitely a keeper!

8. That having a Beauty Salon in the hospital, where your head can be massaged, your hair washed and blow-dried is a wonderful idea when you have an IV in your arm and haven’t been able to wash your hair all weekend.

9. That friends and family who care and call, help with your family, send e-mails and messages, give beautiful roses and cook dinner for you are some of the greatest blessings in life!

10. That God uses those moments when our bodies are weaker than we would like to remind us that every breath comes from Him, and to remind us to pray for all of those who are undergoing so much more than we are…my Mother’s friend in the hospital having surgery, my friend’s mother dying of cancer, all those in Zimbabwe whom my Dad is visiting right now who are starving and all the people that live in the tin shanties who I could watch out the window, far below, whose daily lives every day are so much harder than mine. Yes, even in my weak moments when I am in pain, I still have so much…a loving family, a clean hospital room, insurance that pays for me to receive good medical care, medicines that fight the infections and heal my body, a husband that has a job, a toilet that flushes and oh, so much more. Most importantly, a relationship with the Creator God that nourishes and replenishes my soul. Oh, Father God, may I ever be mindful of those who are in need of so much physically and spiritually, and may I be an instrument of your love wherever you call me.