I want to give everyone who has been praying a final update on my father.  I went with my mother on Sunday to visit him at the nursing home.  He was heavily sedated and wasn't responding to anyone.  While we were there, an older woman came in whose husband shared a room with my father.  She said..."I need to tell you...your father became a christian.  He IS saved.  I just needed to share that with you."  She said that she had talked to him about the Lord many times.  One of those times, he told her he had been SAVED!  I truly believe that kind woman's words were a gift from the Lord to us, knowing that he would be in heaven.  

(This is my father)

The nursing home called me early this morning and said things were getting pretty bad.  I got up, threw on some clothes, and drove there as fast as I could.  I knew in my heart he would not live through the day.  I spent the morning talking to him and telling him how sorry I was for not coming to see him more often.  He was by now in a coma, his breathing was quite shallow and labored.  I kept bathing his face with a cool cloth, and continued to talk to him all morning.  The nurses were all so kind...they even found a Bible for me somewhere.  I read many passages of scripture, most of them from the Psalms.  I don't know if he could hear me, but I like to believe that it was comforting to him...it was a comfort to me as well.  It was so amazing to me how the Lord used that time to comfort me through His word while I was trying to bring comfort to my father.  It's a memory I will always cherish.  My mother and sister-in-law came after lunch.  I had been sitting beside him and suddenly noticed his chest had quit moving.  My family left to find a nurse...but by the time they had returned, he had started breathing again.  I stood there, holding his hand, and through my tears I told him to fly home.  And then he stopped breathing...it was so peaceful, and I could almost imagine God Himself welcoming my father home. The time was 1:45pm. It was the first time in my life I have been so close to the edge of eternity.  I am happy to say that my father is finally home.