Have you ever wondered if miracles still occur?

Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver, the other, gold. Michele is my new friend, met through my cousin Jud. She is spunky, sassy and boatloads of fun, on the theory that life is too short to be serious. On days when I feel too intense, I sidle on over to her blog, href="http://msfavsthgz.blogspot.com">M's Favorite Things for lessons in the School of Fun. Beneath all the beefcake-n-fluff posts, though, it's obvious Michele has oodles of heart and soul. I couldn't help wanting to share her with you:

Have you ever wondered if miracles still occur?
I have.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the motto is Bigger is Better. Faster is Preferred.
or What's in it for ME? (That one seems to be ageless.s)
Unless it hits you over the head with a 2 X 4 plank, most people miss the miracles that surround them every day.

I'd like to share a Christmas Miracle that happened just this past year.
A really good friend of my family was dying.
She had a strange, undiagnosable degenerative lung disease that was destroying the woman I'd grown up knowing.
The pain was intolerable.
The hope was dwindling.
The end was nearing.

After three years of battling, praying, medicating and being prodded, poked and being stared at like a great medical mystery while thinking " I'm still a person!", she only had three months of life left.
That was being optimistic.

Best that you should know that she never smoked a day in her life. Neither did her family. She was active in her church and social ministry was important to her. To have this vibrant woman be a shell of her former self was heartrending.

The prayers continued.
Three years is a long time when you are fighting a losing battle. Ask anyone who fights cancer. Or any long term illness.

The prayers we were asking for were for an immediate cure, instant turnaround, fast fix. Such is the way of our society.
In truth, as human beings seeing the ones that we love suffer, it is our way too.

Not Gods way. Miracles, when they happen, are in his time. The lesson? Never give up hope.
My Mom, her friend's family and her friends, never did.

Five days before Christmas, 2005 they got the word at 3 AM. Two lungs became avaliable for immediate transplant.
Three long years of praying, hoping and giving the worry to Our Lord to carry them through this trial - bore fruit.

She was rushed into E.R. and the surgery began.
As you might know, it's the first 24 hours after a procedure that have you biting your nails, zipping through your Rosary Beads and having you lose any interest of sleep.

It wasn't until Christmas Eve that the word was given. She made it through the pivotal points of recovery. Every day was a miracle. Every day was an answer to a prayer. Everyday that she was still with us strengthened our belief that God DOES hear us and answers.

Christmas Eve - the day we prepare to look forward to the birth of our Lord.
Christmas Eve - the day my family friend received a second chance at life.

Christmas Eve - the day we had revealed to us that miracles still happen today.

And her name, like mine, is Michele.