When Children Pray

I believe a child’s prayer gets special attention in the priority chain.  At least it seems that way a lot of the time.  They certainly teach me a thing or two when it comes to getting prayers answered.

It was October 2007 when my mother-in-law had a heart attack.  It was not fatal, but triggered a snowball effect of one medical issue after another.  Grammy was extremely fearful of anything medical and said that if anyone ever “cut on her” she would bleed to death.  That almost happened when a simple procedure wouldn’t stop bleeding and she was rushed into an emergency surgery.  She was then sedated to give her body time to heal without movement.  As they weaned her off the sedation, she didn’t really wake up, and then it was down hill from there, one problem after another.  Days and weeks went by as my husband and his 3 siblings kept a schedule of round the clock attendance in her hospital room.  She was never alone, always having one of her four children with her. 

At that time, my son Chad and his wife lived in Australia with their eight children.  They had plans to move back to the states in May of 2008.  Chad was Grammy’s oldest grand child and there was certainly a special bond between the two of them.  When he moved to Australia the year before, he accepted that Grammy could die while he was away.  Now, faced with the reality, a decision was made.  They would move their plans ahead and come home as soon as they could sell furnishings and vehicles to pay for airline tickets for the whole family.  It was now December and Grammy hadn’t improved much.  It was just a matter of time now.  We all knew it and were just hopeful that Chad would get home in time to see her.  I was talking with Chad on the phone one day and he told me all of his children, at least the ones old enough to pray, would ask in every prayer, “Please help us get back to Arizona in time to see Grammy before she dies.”  My heart sank.  Grammy was in ICU and only adults were allowed in.  Even if they got back in time, the kids would not be able to “see” her.  I told this to Chad and asked him to prepare them, or at least to re-word their prayer to a more realistic request.  In his usual manner, he just said, “We’ll see.”  I knew that meant he was not going to say anything to them.  I felt helpless.  My grand children would be so upset. 

Days went by, the vigil at the bedside continued.  It was now January 2008.  Then it happened, a noticeable improvement.  Grammy started moving and mumbling.  Before long she was awake.  She had a trach in, so talking was difficult, but she was able to communicate and then a procedure was done to make talking easier with the trach.  She was still very weak, but improving and communicating.  Then, the day before Chad’s family was scheduled to arrive, Grammy was moved from ICU to a regular room.  I was humbled and grateful.  The next day, we picked everyone up from the airport and drove straight to the hospital.  Chad, Mary and 8 children took turns having brief visits with Grammy at her bedside.  The next few weeks were filled with lots of visits; Grammy enjoying her time with everyone, just as much as they with her.  Some days were filled with hope that things would just keep improving and some days were not.  Then Grammy took a real turn for the worst and was unable to wake again.  She died soon after.  Those few weeks were such a sweet tender mercy to the family.  I know that I was filled with amazement at the manner the prayers were answered.  I don’t think any of my grand children were amazed though.  I think they simply expected it.  That, in itself, is the big difference.