After Christmas, 2005...

Mike was staying at Ulo's and I spoke to him. He said that he had been surrounded with love from my family and he was very grateful. He told me that the MD of Sosoliso Airlines had asked for a private meeting and that Chidi, Ulo's husband would go with him. It had been a long, eventful day...

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” - 1 Chronicles 16:34 (KJV)

The day after Christmas, December 26th, I woke up around 4am with severe stomach cramps. I had no idea what was going on, so I just prayed and tried to go back to sleep. Apparently, I succeeded because next thing I knew, it was morning and I woke up with a calm stomach and a song on my lips. Then followed a period of praise, worship and thanksgiving. Dorothy joined me and gratitude just poured out of us. It was wonderful. We marveled at the grace of God and how He is lifted up, exalted and magnified through the miracle of Kechi's life.

I received a call from my mom as we left for the hospital. She told me that she was going to take Tara and her best friend, Kamara, to the cinema. I was so grateful to my family. They had been with me from the word go, an awesome support group.

When we got to the hospital, we were told that Kechi's surgery had been moved to the next day. Kechi was even more active that morning, moving her legs and head around. The sister told us that Kechi had started to resist them when they tried to turn her over to clean her. They believed that it was because she was in pain. They had also noticed that she kept moving her lips,  trying to say something, as if she was aware of what was going on around her.

This made me even more determined to continue to explain to her in detail everything going on with her body.

At some point during the visit, Dorothy became very concerned about the noise the nurses in the ICU were making. They constantly gathered to talk quite loudly, making the unit very noisy. We agreed that this was probably not the way any ICU should be run. Dorothy decided to write about it and drop it in the suggestion box but I did not intend to complain until I saw negligence in the way Kechi was being cared for, and I had not seen that yet. The way I saw it, medical staff had to have some kind of armor against all the death and near-death they saw constantly. So long as Kechi was being well taken care of and they answered my numerous questions, even when I was sure they thought I was being a nuisance, I was fine.

I had handed everything over to God, including the care- givers, and I knew He was in control of Kechi's life.