Dad

Last week my parents moved to Florida to live with my sister. I had not seen either of them in a while but they were able to stop off in Murfreesboro and visit. My Dad has Crones disease and has been in poor health for a long time, I am used to him needing to go in and out of the hospital and used to him having surgeries... but when they stopped by our house he looked by far the WORSE I have ever seen him. He was pale, his legs looked awful he was out of breath...
For those that know my Dad though he is 1st stubborn and 2nd an incredibly hard worker! I love him, but he will not stop pushing himself until he is so sick he has to go to the hospital! He was bound and determined to make it to Florida despite how bad he looked or felt. They got to Florida and into the hospital he went.
He had been on blood thinners so they had to wait a couple of days to do a heart cath to see what the problem was. On Thursday they were finally able to do it and they found several blockages. They sent him into the ICU immediately to await open heart surgery. My sister called to inform us, and we ultimately decided to load up and drive the 12 hours to Florida.
I don't know the last time I cried so much. To be honest I was convinced I was not going to see my dad alive again. From what we were being told he was in critical condition and they were unsure what the outcome would be. When I talked to him the night before his surgery he admitted he was scared, literally the only time I can remember him saying He was scared. I was scared, my brother and sister were scared.
I kept praying for God to heal my Dad, to protect him through surgery, for him to guide the doctor and surgeons hands and for me to be at peace with whatever outcome God had planned. God was so present on the drive down. Averi and Sofie are notoriously bad in the car. They were so unbelievably well behaved on the ride down and Reiter slept much of the trip. It gave me a lot of time to pray for my Dad.I talked to him at about 530 (we had stopped at a hotel to sleep a little bit) before they took him in to be prepped for surgery,all I could do was cry. I was so scared that this may be the last time we got to talk. I told him I loved him, told him I thought he was a wonderful Dad... He told me not to cry, that I would see him in a few hours.
So we got up and drove the last few hours. Kev prayed with me and held my hand. About 10 minutes before we got there my sister in law called and gave me the news. Dad was out of surgery! PRAISE THE LORD!!! He had done well and was in the ICU still on the Ventilator. The next step would be removing the vent, they thought it would be 8 to 12 hours before they could remove it, they removed it after 2 hours! So many people were praying and our prayers were answered!
Seeing Dad still on the Vent was hard. But the next time I saw him he was off and able to speak. I have never felt so good talking to my Daddy. I have never realized how much I need my Dad, how much I appreciate and love him. I admire his work ethic, I admire how he tries to protect his kids even though we are all adults now. He is my Dad and I can not say thank you enough to God for placing his hand on Dad and giving him another day, because I needed to spend more time with him, I need to talk to him more to hug him more and to watch him hold my babies! Thank you Jesus for one more day with my daddy.