Friday, December 16, 2011

day 23 - home for Christmas

Well, she made it.

Hannah's Nana made it home in time for Christmas.

Technically, she's her grandmother, but she raised Hannah and her sister and is Hannah's mom.  Hannah's sister passed away in 2005 and her grandfather passed away in 2009.  She found out about the cancer on November 16 -- one month ago today -- and by then it was too late--it was everywhere.

Hannah was devastated because Nana was all she had left down here.  And that can be pretty daunting when you're only 23 and are still working hard to make it through college.

But several years ago, Hannah was introduced to the power of God and His love and so now, she knew that the most important thing in this whole situation wasn't the fact that she would be left alone, but the fact that her Nana didn't know Jesus.  And she wasn't even sure she would even talk about it.

We joined together and began praying.  I entered the urgent request in my journal on November 22 where I asked God to heal her, but most of all to save her. Our family prayed together and talked about it quite a bit.

I got word from Hannah on December 7 that her pastors were coming to talk to her Nana the next day about salvation and for us to pray that she would be open to them.  We gathered with the Oil at the Ottoman as a family and asked God to soften her heart and save her. On December 8, her Nana agreed to be baptized the next day. My journal entry the morning of December 9 was for God to fill her with the Holy Ghost as she came out of the water.

She wasn't able to make it up the stairs at the church to the baptistry, so they baptized her in the bathtub.  She came up out of the water speaking in tongues! At 8:30 pm the night of December 9, Hannah's tweet was that her Nana had been baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost!  (That was also the anniversary of the day that Hannah received the Holy Ghost!) We all rejoiced.

They got her back home and in bed and physically, it was down hill from there.  But spiritually, it was a mountaintop! She told Hannah that there was something empty in her all of her life and that it had finally been filled.  She told her she had never been so happy.

Last night around midnight, she breathed her last down here.  But because of Christmas, she breathed her first heavenly air! Because HE was born...and lived...and died...she was re-born into eternal life!

Hannah grieves today because she is alone. But her heart sings because her Nana lives!

The gift of myrrh was unwrapped and displayed and the greatest gift of all came to Hannah's house.

What a wonderful Christmas gift.  We love you, Hannah!

© 2009-2011 by Melani Brady Shock

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