Chapter Fourteen: "Hosanna"

We decided today to get up early and drive home and be with our Church family.

We decided this last week, what we didn't know is that we would be celebrating.

After forty long days in intensive care, forty days of worry, of highs and lows, of tears and prayers, and phone call checks in the middle of the night. After one heart surgery, one heart cath procedure, we are out of intensive care.

Blair and I decided to take Ellie to the zoo Saturday (pictures to come, she loved the panda bears) and while we were there we found out they put the order into move him. This Mama cried. Right there by the panda bears. We went home when it started to rain, Ellie and I napped, when I woke up, they called us and told us they had moved him.

I can't begin to describe the joy I felt.

We got to celebrate with our church family. People who love us and have been praying for us. People who have supported us with financial needs, groceries, offers to clean our house, offers to visit us here in DC, to get our mail, to watch Ellie, and always always always they are praying. Always.

I completely forgot that it is Palm Sunday. Time seems to slip from me easily. So here we are with our church family, celebrating Dean's step down, celebrating the coming of the King, singing Hosanna.

I love that word, Hosanna. I love Palm Sunday. The celebration, the story, the start. Hosanna my heart sings, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna.

Last year during this time, I started a poem? Prose? Thought? Thought is probably the best word. As we sang the song Hosanna, as we welcomed the king, I asked my heart, do you truly welcome Him in?

We sing Hosanna often, not just during the Easter season. We sing it on a Sunday, we open our hearts, we are close to the Lord that day. How often though (And I am guilty of this) do we sing Hosanna on a Sunday morning and then go on with our lives as though we weren't just welcoming in the King?

Hosanna becomes just another word, we don't take into our hearts and live it.

I am learning how to live it though.
,
Hosanna, my heart sings, on those hard days when I feel like we won't make it through this.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when we find out Dean has had a great day.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when we find out Dean has NOT had a great day.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when I am pumping for the seventh time today.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when my husband makes a mistake and gets a ticket.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when I see Dean throw up from drug withdrawal.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when I get to hold him, wires and all.
Hosanna, my heart sings, when I can put my hand to his little chest and feel his beautifully patched together heart. The one that shouldn't be working. The one that did need and will need, so much help...

Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Welcome to the King of Kings.

This is not a Sunday morning ministration, but an anthem for the daily. I am learning to welcome the King, not just one Sunday in a year, but every day. In every way. Terrible things happen to people I love who I care for. Hard things that I want to carry for them, as I'm sure people wish they could have carried some of this for us. The fact remains that He. Is. King.

And as my pastor reminded me today, He Wins.
Over sickness and death, He Wins.
Over addiction and pain, He Wins.
Over bitterness and jealousy, He Wins.
Over loss and strife, He wins.

Live Hosanna with me friends.
Welcome the King into your life, not just once in a year, but every day.
Sing it in your heart. Cling to it in the darkness and the ashes.

I am greeting these next days with Joy in my heart that is unimaginable, with the hope that we are going to get to take Little Dean home. I see a light at the end of this tunnel...knowing that home doesn't mean the end of his medical need, but that it is a chance for me to snuggle him and Ellie close. That we will be a family of four, all together...something my very soul longs for.

My heart sings Hosanna.
It welcomes the King.
Every day.