Kisses from Heaven (Part 1)

Short little beautiful moments…

3rd May 2017.

I am pregnant, waiting to give birth and we had just arrived at Waikato Hospital by ambulance - the third hospital in three days. (Background: when I was first transferred out of Taupo Hospital I had began listening to a church podcast named ‘JOY’. I only got through 9 minutes and was amazed that it was all about giving birth.) The Rotorua doctors had just found the ‘shadow’ but it hadn’t been confirmed as cancer.

So now Vernon and I are in the smallest, most sterile and depressing assessment room. I told Vern about the podcast and played it for him. After the 9 minutes (where I had stopped it a few nights earlier), it never mentioned birth again and continued to minister to us in the most incredible way. The podcast spoke about having joy in our situation, it was honestly meant for us at that moment and we realised that we could still be joyful – we were having a baby! Vern was not a Christian at that time but felt the tangible presence and peace of God that night. We left the room with our hearts strengthened and were able to focus on the excitement of having a baby. Vern took this photo before we left to remind him of his first real feeling of Gods presence.

7th May 2017

We were still in Waikato Hospital and Pepe had been born. Vern didn’t have a bible and so I called my friend Jade and asked her to pick one up on her way in to visit me (it was Sunday morning). She told me the Christian bookstore was closed on Sundays but would go in the next day. That night when she came to visit, she came with a Maori / English translation bible and told us that morning at her church someone brought a box of free, new bibles.

15th May 2017

We had recently arrived home to Taupo and Vern was sitting on the couch with a faraway expression on his face. I asked him what he was thinking, and he replied “The lawns. For some reason I’m thinking of the lawns”. I gave him a kiss and thought nothing else of it, our lawns had become a bit overgrown from three weeks of being away. The next morning at 9am we heard a knock on our door. Our dear friends Pete and Dianne (who we purchased the house off), heard we were home and had sent their gardener over for the entire day!

17th May 2017

On the 17th of May we knew that the specialists were reviewing the results from my initial biopsy. Vern and I were both anxious about it but tried not to show each other as Vern had to be in a meeting at work for the whole day. I was extremely tired as Pepe had been up a lot in the night and this was one of the rare times when we had no-one in the house helping me (I hadn’t started the keto or fasting). Tired, and fearful, at 10.30am I received a text from Vern’s sister Waiaria who said she was on her way from Tauranga (2 hours). When she arrived, she brought such a beautiful peace with her said she woke up that morning at 4am with us on her mind and kept thinking she had to ‘run’ over.

May 2019 onwards

During the last visit I made to Christchurch while pregnant, Vern and I were talking to dad and he was telling us about all the leave he had accumulated at work. He had been in the prison service for over 35 years and had over 4 months leave they were wanting him to take. We were joking about him going on a big holiday. As it turns out, all that leave he spread over the next year to come and look after Pepe for us.