time with ones you love is so limited.

Hello...im stepping back into the world of blog. There's a few things I want to blog about but I cant seem to get them all out. Maybe writing this one will help the rest flow? We shall see...

I was talking to my grandmother today, probably none of my readers know her...but thats ok, Ill give you a picture of her. My 'Mom-mom' lives in upstate PA, she lives with her husband and getting to see her is a treat. My grandparents had a rough time earlier on in life. They lived barely making ends meet, they lived without Christ, and they lived through the death of one of their children (my moms sister). Life has not exactly been a cake walk for them.  Thankfully they found the Lord through Aunt Wendys death and after much convincing they quit the bad habit of smoking about 12 years ago.  Unfortunately their health has been spiraling downward pretty quickly for the last 8 or so years and excelling at a faster speed as of late. For years Ive wondered when the 'ticking time bomb' would go off. When will I lose her? She has congestive heart failure, her weight is not under control, she has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gout, and has had numerous mini strokes.  Sometimes I look at the statistics and am truly amazed as to how she is still alive. She always tells me that she hears the 'breaks' on her life coming to a halting screech. She says that the Lords not ready to have her in heaven.

I can remember back to so many years ago when I was younger, I was allowed to go and spend time with her and my grandfather at their house. One particular time when I was younger I was up all night screaming because I wanted my mom and dad...they got up early that day and headed to take me back home. We stopped at McDonalds along the way and after eating I decided that I was fine to go back to their house. I still remember sitting in the backseat and telling them that "I was all better now" to which they laughed and continued to drive me back home. It wasn't until I was much older that I was allowed to go back and spend time with them. I have so many fond memories with them. We would always go to the dollar store and I usually had an certain amount of things that I could buy. One time after much convincing that mom let us eat them all the time my brother and I got Sour Warheads...we then tried to sell them on their porch. We weren't very successful but we had a blast, we got in a little trouble when we finally confessed that we never had the candy before but mom would never let us buy them.  There were countless nights that we would stay up late playing monopoly with our own rules. We would have mom-mom laughing so hard. There was another night that we were sitting in the living room watching a TV show and suddenly a bat started flying around in the house. We flipped out, mom-mom made me run out of the room to go get pa-pa. I finally got him to wake up and he was able to catch the bat and kill it. We watched every episode of Touched by an Angel, our favorite being the one with Wynona Judd in it...we would cry every time.  Every year I would call her on April fools and ask her if her refrigerator was running and that if it was she should go catch it, it became such a tradition that I cant ever try to 'fool' her anymore.

My favorite thing about her though? Her prayer life...whenever I need prayer she is one of the first people I go to.  She has told me that whenever she is really worried about me she will get on her knees. Now, this may not seem like a big deal to you but when she gets down its usually impossible for her to get back up. Shes had to have my pa-pa come help her up on numerous occasions. He's told me that he's yelled at her before because its dangerous with her health, yet she still continues to do it. Usually when I am going to take a test I will feel anxiety and then I call her and feel completely at ease when taking my test. Its like she has a special connection.  I know one reason why shes still alive...the Lord knew that my prayer life fails so often that I would need someone like her continually praying to get me through school.  My mom-mom is one of my best friends, I love calling her and just telling her whats on my mind, knowing that it wont be gossiped about later, I wont be judged and that she will pray for me about it all.

My Mom-mom isnt perfect, and she'll be the first to admit that, but I have learned so much from her. I cry every time I think about losing her and what it will be like to not have her to call and pray for me. I know my time is limited and I need to take advantage of every moment I can with her. I could lose anyone in my life in the snap of my finger and just thinking about this made me realize how much my time with the ones I love is so limited and I need to make more time for them, and remember to show them how much I love them.