Update on Mama McKee

A good friend sent us this beautiful scripture that helped them through a critical time. It is found in the Book of Mormon,   II Nephi 2:24:

“But behold all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things”

Each day that I look up and say , “Yes we are here in ICU one more day and Sister McKee is still alive, I feel gratitude in my heart. The Lord really does know all things and does so much that we do not understand and yet all things have been done in His wisdom. We trust Him. I often tell the missionaries how the Lord trusts them to go out and share His very important gospel message and also trusts them enough to allow each of them to carry His name and represent Him. The real question is “Do you trust the Lord?” We know that the Lord trusts us and allows each of us to represent Him in some way. Do we really trust Him or do we only trust Him when things go well. He is in charge and we do trust Him even though we do not always understand.  What we do know is that He is there and that He will lift and carry us, especially through difficult times. Our responsibility is to trust Him enough to know that all that we will experience is directed by Him and that He really is in charge of the details of our lives.

We are so grateful that all of our children were able to come out and for those who helped them in this effort from plane flights, baby sitters, bosses letting them off work etc. So many kindnesses(many miracles). Steven flew back home on Sunday, Scott flew home on Monday, Mike flew home on Tuesday and Michelle flew home on Wednesday. How we appreciate and love them and their physical, spiritual and emotional help.

Sister McKee had surgery to put a  trach put in on Monday. She is still breathing through the ventilator tube through the trach. On Tuesday they turned off the ventilator for an hour and she took her first breaths on her own. It was a huge moment for celebration as we (the family) and staff cheered, tears streaming down our faces. She breathed with only the oxygen tube and no ventilator for an hour. They will try this twice a day for awhile to see if she can be weaned off of the ventilator over the next few weeks. ( a miracle). She even gave me a thumbs up while she was doing it. (another miracle).  Dr. Li came in a took the tube out of the top of the head which was draining liquids out of the brain. (another miracle). He stapled up the hole in the top of her head and then he  took all of the stitches out of the back of her head(a miracle). They were able to put water on her head and rinse out her hair for the first time in three weeks. (another miracle). What a blessing to wash through that dried blood and massaging that head for the first time. No hair products but Michelle (a very sweet nurse and friend now) made a bow out of hospital gauze and put it in her hair. She said , I can tell that this woman likes to look nice when interacting with others so we need to do something here. I’m not sure that Sister McKee would appreciate that bow style but we loved it.

The physical therapists are working with her now as well moving arms and legs and trying to sit her up. The doctors also took her feeding tube out of her mouth and did surgery to put it directly into her stomach. This will help to clear her mouth of tubes and hopefully allow her to heal the mouth area after having tubes in for so long. (miracles)

We received 14 new missionaries in on Monday. I left for a period to meet them at the airport and interview them. On Tuesday the assistants did all of the training and I went over to transfer meeting and interviewed 12 missionaries going home. After the interviews we brought all of the departing missionaries over to the ICU to tell Sister McKee goodbye. I have not gone into detail about her health with the missionaries and so it was quite a shock for them to see her in this state. Many tears and much love. She waved to each of them. I know that she loves them and they love her. It’s all about miracles. 

The William McKee Family