Hi everyone, I am not sure if you have been following along but I will try to make this brief. Sorry for the delay but Nicole usually does the posts through our website… please read up on all of my posts on Facebook.
1. Hosted a medical team, saw 2700 patients and over 800 professions of faith
2. Our truck and container Came
3. Our world changed on Tuesday June 13th.
It appeared as if nicole was just sick and tired from working super hard for a week. She went from tired Friday and Saturday, to unable to sleep Sunday. To have Monday start a series of events showing us all something was wrong. I went to the doctor and got meds to see if that help her sleep and feel better.
Tuesday started a series of things that made the doctor say “get her out of here”. It took 50 hours for the life flight to come and medevac us to Brisbane Australia. During that time her symptoms got worse and the doctor was forced to give her a Really strong drug. And gave her 3 doses until the symptoms stopped. The downside is the effects of the drugs still linger till today (Sunday). So it’s really hard to gauge where she is at this moment.
We were medevac’d around Thursday at noon. Rushed to the hospital, and they have not ceased taking samples from her multiple times a day. Even a spinal tap. X-ray, CT scan, next up is an MRI and EEG. The weekend has slowed the process but they also want to see where she is without the drugs. Monday will start things back up. They sent off the samples to test for every crazy thing. Some will take a week response. I will repost a Facebook post here:
Update: Sunday June 18th, 2017. Nicole Stokes slept through the night without any “assistance” for the first time in 10 days, and it was her first actual full night sleep in 17 days. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers. The weekend has gone slower due to less staff. They are still testing and taking samples, but mostly checkups. More serious tests will happen on Monday when the doctoral staff is back.
We have felt super encouraged with everyone sharing the posts and writing us, thank you so much to the body of Christ comforting us in this time. I try to let Nicole read one or two comments here and there, she only has so much energy.
Im a grateful to God that we have an amazing marriage, the good and the bad God has used to help Nicole in this recovery process. The memories keep her focused and give her strength, saying things like “she is fighting for me” through this. Her beautiful and sensitive heart is so clear and is being revealed more in this event. God (prov 18:22) shown His favor to me through her. This has only made me love her more.
This “event” has made us just trust in our Heavenly Father more, we are praying to be like Job… knowing we don’t deserve answers nor does God have to give us one. We are mere servants (Luke 17:10). Reading a little bit about Job and in 2:10 the word “evil” has a semantic range of: evil, bad, adversity, affliction, harm, hurt, trouble, unpleasant, sad, unhappy… and much more. It’s easy to receive “good things”, but those things that are “unpleasant, sad, unhappy” things are not easy. But that’s why He is Sovereign, He uses those things so His grace can shine through. Even in unpleasant times He wants to show us His grace, sometimes His Sovereignty is unclear to us… but that’s why Job said “receive”. There is no choice in the matter. The only choice is how we react, and we choose to react in Praising His name. This event has:
1. Made us focus on Him more
2. Made us love one another more
3. Realize what’s really important
4. See the body of Christ bless us
5. Remind us we have an awesome family
And much much more.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Continue praising His name with us. I will keep you all updated as things occur here in Ozzie land.
Stoking The Fires 