My Grandma

Anyone who knows me, knows how close I am to my grandma. Just recently, Darren and I let Ada go and stay with my parents for a few days and when we met them to pick her up, it was a screaming, crying fit to separate her from Nana and Papaw. It made me think of how I used to act when my parents made me go home. I can remember crying and my dad carrying me out screaming and kicking. I have the best memories of time spent with them. They lived in Pine Bluff and owned a liquor store when I was in elementary school, and I remember when they bought the house I grew up in out in Grapevine. I was in second grade and went to a small school called Grapevine Elementary. She used to drive from pine bluff and pick me up from school. She would always have to go back to the store but she always took me next door to this place called Anderson's. They made sandwiches and had junk food, you know a little mom and pop store. I always got a bologna sandwich and funyuns. Her house had a pool, a big one, and we always swam and played. She had this bag of rollers, you know the velcro kind, under the sink and we would always play hair and I would brush and roll her hair. We painted nails, drank wine, yes even me, and never went hungry. I can't tell you how many meals we ate there. I can still her that dinging of that little vent on the top of the pan, like when she cooked beans or peas.

Anyway, I could go on and on of all the memories I have growing up. She has always been such a special person in my life. I lived with her my first year of college, she bought me a car, she taught me so many things in life. I watched her take care of her mother who was dying of cancer. I watched her take care of her father-in-law after grandma kitty passed away.

I have such a strong sense of family in me that I know came from her passed down thru my mother.

I say all of this to ask that all of you pray for our family right now. She has recently be diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." There is a confirmatory test that she has scheduled for April 2nd, but her doctor is quite sure this is what she has. IN the past year, things have just spiraled downward for her. She has lost feeling in her left foot, has trouble swallowing, breathing, moving in general, and now more muscles are beginning to twitch. She has battled with not knowing a diagnosis until recently and being pretty positive about it. Better than I am anyway. There is no known treatment or cure for this and it's completely debilitating. Please pray for us and her that we keep our hearts and mind close to Jesus and remember the blessings he's giving us already. None of us are prepared for this, but I know we can all have faith and trust that God can carry us through.

There are no words to describe how much I love my grandma and how hard this is going to be. But, I do know one thing we're all fighters in this family and we are not giving up. There is no disease that can define a person and this is not going to define my grandmother. We are gonna fight this with everything possible and that begins and ends with faith in Jesus Christ.