April was a month of its own, but this post needed to be set apart. April is the month we celebrate the birthday of our Papa, Nathan’s Dad. April 2nd to be exact. We celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Christ. It’s a beautiful month of Believing in the Miracles of God. The Orange Family had a Miracle of their own this month.
In the previous month of March, our Papa went to Liberia... Africa, for mission work as he does regularly & has since he was in his 20’s. This is a true, selfless man of God & leader of our big family. Coming home & being unwell soon there after led us to believe he was sick... but from what? Being that we are in a pandemic... the sign of a fever means you have Corona! It means quarantine & no visitors & no one allowed to come to the hospital. Our Papa had some symptoms that were spot on something quite different. Something different as in Malaria. No real need to panic because he has had it before, & our precious Nonna being a nurse & caretaker of many has treated him before & knew exactly what he needed. She knew what to watch for & if & when she wasn’t able to take care of him... the hospital he would go. But no one would want that with Corona because going to the hospital meant so much more in 2020. With the unknown of test results, we all stayed away & dropped groceries on their porch. We were 99% he had Malaria. But tried to be cautious. Even still, Several days of fever that we were all just hoping would break....but it just kept coming back.
Nathan got the call from his Mama... I can hardly type the words without my eyes filling with tears because it was such a scary day. To know and hear the panic of her voice & the desperation of needing Nathan to come quick... to make sure the ambulance came to the right driveway & got to him. Being that we are just through the woods, we were able to rush over. I stayed at top of driveway to make sure they found us & Nathan went on to the house to be with his Dad. All precautions were off at this point... Covid or not..Nathan was going in the house. I know this is a time he will never forget. His dad being less responsive & confused & scaring us all. Having to watch the ambulance drive away with our Papa & our Nonna having to be left behind was the hardest thing! We were all now living a nightmare of the reality of a different kind of Malaria.... Cerebral Malaria... which goes to the brain. He has not had this before. If left untreated it is 100% fatal. Hospitals don’t have what you need to treat it. Medicine had to be flown in from the CDC to treat him. It was a scary, unknown time of worry & prayers for a miracle. Did the medicine get in him in enough time? Was there going to be damage to the brain? Was recovery possible? The waiting on calls from the doctors was long. Remember we have a world Pandemic on our hands & people dying everyday! The thought of someone not being there when he needed it because of the strain on the hospitals... was debilitating.
Our Easter morning was quite different this year. But after much crying & praying, our family lanterns lit & time together with our Nonna... we finally got to hear his voice. It was weak & slow to speak, somewhat confused still... but Oh Glory He was Alive!!!!! Risen from this state of incoherence. Much celebration & a homecoming was just around the corner! It definitely made our world stop. What pandemic? What other problems? Nothing mattered but the life of this man! We know God always has a plan. He doesn’t make mistakes. His purpose is perfect even if we don’t see 20/20 perfection. We don’t have the vision to see what God sees. We know He did answer our prayers though & we are abundantly BLESSED to have our Papa still here on this earth with us. JESUS is ALIVE & so is our Papa!
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