New room!

"And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." - Isaiah 65:24

Ever since the day they told us that what we were seeing with Christi was no longer the effect of the medications we have anxiously awaited rehab.  We have hoped, and fasted, and prayed since then that we would be able to recover all or any of the massive amounts of functioning she had lost.  I remember that day. That was the same day they told us that if she didn't improve fast enough they would have to do a tracheotomy to get her off the ventilator.  That is how urgent the doctors then felt she needed neural rehabilitation.
This is because she was (and still is) a long way from her old baseline.  She coos and moans and sometimes giggles a little now -- while she was reading 1st grade sight-words before.  We are still working for her to reliably be able to move her leg or foot on command now -- while she had just mastered pedaling her new bike with training wheels before.  The urgency of the doctors also become ours.
While she slept we had tried to prepare ourselves for what may emerge.  When we heard they were going to bring her up out of her coma, Deana and I discussed the possibilities.  This (significantly reduced functioning), wasn't the worst of the five possibilities - and we thank the Lord again and again for that.
Then (after the threat of a tracheotomy) our prayers, and the prayers of our friends and family were answered dramatically and specifically again - and she developed a significant enough cough and gag reflex for them to take her off the ventilator.  We expected them to whisk her away into rehabilitation as quickly as possible at that point.  Then we waited.
They moved us the next day from the intensive care unit down the hallway to a "less-intensive" care room. They told us that it would probably be Monday before we had our rehab consultation to see if we could be admitted to the inpatient rehab program (weekends are a bit slower pace here).
Though I consistently reminded my doctors and nurses, Monday and Tuesday came and went with no consult. Feeling a little neglected, I expressed my concern to a doctor, and on Wednesday, Dr. Brandys came for the consult.
She came and evaluated Christi and her readiness to participate in an aggressive 3-4 hour daily regiment of   physical/occupational/ and speech therapies.  Her notes after the evaluation would be instrumental in our acceptance to rehab or our discharge from the hospital.  If we weren't accepted that was the other option too - almost like they would be giving up on her ability to improve with such treatment.  We dreaded that possibility and hoped and prayed that Christi would perform as well as possible in order to get us in.
After Wednesday and Thursday's visits I was told that they would be making a decision on Monday.  I decided to fast and pray again on Sunday for this purpose.  Then it happened.
I later found out that it was primarily because they needed the room that we were in for someone else, but on Friday night at around midnight they moved us to the inpatient rehabilitation wing!  I think the nurse was a little worried about asking us to move in the middle of the night - she didn't anticipate me jumping for joy and pumping my fists the way I did!  We will start rehab on Monday!!
Then I thought, "I didn't even fast for this yet!" and the verse above from Isaiah came to mind.  Certainly it had been a part of my prayers over the last day or two, but I had anticipated a real push for her to be moved to rehab on the weekend. Could it be that God was so anxious to bless us this way, that when I made plans to do so He could wait to pour out His blessings?  The scriptures teach that, "When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (D&C 130:21)  He's got to be a just God, so He has to wait to bless me until I fulfill the law upon which the blessing is predicated.  But sometimes, like in this Isaiah scripture, He seems so anxious to bless that he pours out the blessing just as soon as He possibly can!
I've liked this Isaiah verse for some time now, because, in my mind, it describes God as so incredibly anxious to bless us that he can't even wait until we finish the request.  I felt it that day keenly.  As I read the scriptures that day and in the days since, they looked to me more and more like a loving Father's  excited directions on how to be blessed more and more by Him, i.e. - "Come here and look what I've got for you!!"
We have certainly felt an abundance of His blessings over the course of the last month!  Lately, I have also felt His absolute joy and pleasure in blessing us too.  That sounds strange and maybe even a little arrogant - but I mean it in the most honest of ways.  It has been absolutely overwhelming!
I really feel that He is so excited to bless all His children if they will only come.   Maybe that same excitement to bless has given Him cause to lament at times too - for the Jews and the fallen Nephites and Lamanites - with words like, "How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings... and ye would not" (3 Nephi 10:5).  It all hangs on my willingness to come - to come and be blessed!  So here's to interrupted plans and prayers, a new room in rehab, and the overwhelming goodness of God!! :)