Oh Phil,
As I was reading your post, I couldn't help but think of Isaiah 42:16
and apply it to you.  If that verse is true for anybody, it's you!

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar
paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before
them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will
do; I will not forsake them."

What a roller coaster.  When you get to heaven, you are going to look
back and be amazed at the ride the Lord got you on.  Amazing!

Kathy


At 07:30 PM 1/1/2006, you wrote:
>At about 4:15 this morning, my phone began ringing.  The caller I D told me
>it was the hospital where Sandy works.  My first groggy thought was, Sandy
>isn't even home.  Why would the medical transcription supervisor be calling
>Sandy and at this time of the morning, too.  Then I thought, Oh man.  I hope
>Gretchen has not been out and fooling around and gotten hurt or overdosed.
>I dragged the phone off the hook on the last ring, thinking I was too late,
>and a man started asking me questions about Brook.  She had been brought to
>the hospital by ambulance, I found out later, because she had been at a bar
>with friends.  They thought she had dropped off the edge of the world,
>emotionally, so some dummy called 9 11 and she was transported to the
>hospital where my wife works.  They had her all night and put her on an IV
>because they guy said they knew she had been on something but they didn't
>know what for sure.  I answered some other questions and since Brook doesn't
>have insurance, they don't like keeping people like this because they know
>they will never see the money.  Additionally, the guy I was talking to was
>from the part of the hospital called West Pines which is the psych hospital.
>I told him we would be there within the hour to pick her up and went and got
>Gretchen up and told her the story.  She began getting ready to leave when
>the same man called me back and said that it would be a little later because
>a psych doctor was going to be in at 7 and wanted to evaluate her.  This
>cost, alone, 1500 dollars I found out when George was here and he got so
>bad, we thought we might have to go to the Emergency Room.  So, ambulance
>cost, 600 to a thousand dollars, nearly 12 hours in the Emergency Room, and
>a psychological evaluation for 1500 and you can see why they did not want to
>admit her to the psych department of the hospital.  So later we found out
>they had checked her out and they wanted someone just to be with her for the
>next 24 to 48 hours.  They said they believed she would be ok but they
>didn't want her to be alone.  He said, if we could take her and be with her,
>even if we felt it wasn't working and she wasn't getting better, we could
>bring her back.  So, about 9:30 this morning, Gretchen goes and gets her.
>Gretchen spoke with the doctor about Brook and he began asking questions
>about who Gretchen was and who I am, since Brook had given them our names,
>and he wanted to know if her dad, Gretchen's dad, was in drug rehab.  Well,
>not exactly, Gretchen told him.  Well, what is it he does.  Gretchen kind of
>talked around the question but finally said, well, doctor, it is sort of
>like an inner healing type ministry.  What's the name of the treatment? he
>wanted to know.  Gretchen really felt backed into a corner on that one but
>she finally said, well, we call it Safe Place Fellowship.  Is it for
>addicts? he asked.  Gretchen said, Well, it is sort of up that alley you
>could say.  Well, he said, Safe Place sure is a good name for it then.  she
>filled in other background information about Brook and explained how they
>just met again after more than two years not knowing where the other was.
>She also explained how Brook had no family any more and that her sisters and
>brothers were unknowns to their where abouts, her mother died last year, and
>her dad hasn't been heard or seen for literally years.  The doctor had Brook
>sign all the paperwork so our names weren't on anything, as far as a
>signature was concerned, and he released her.  After Gretchen left, somehow
>Brook sneaked a phone call to our home and I talked with her.  She said,
>They won't let me call anybody.  I told her not to worry because Gretchen
>should be there any minute.  Gretchen told me later that when the paperwork
>was done, Gretchen helped Brook get dressed and she saw something left on
>the bed and stepped closer to see saying, Brook, what's this.  I thought
>Gretchen was going to say a crack or meth pipe or some drugs or something.
>It was a Bible.  Brook and had either asked for one or somehow, even being
>half out of it and with her I V, hunted around for a Bible to have with her.
>Gretchen asked her what happen at the Bar and Brook said she started
>praying, apparently out loud, and her drinking buddies thought she had gone
>off the deep end.  Of course, I don't know if it is true.  I don't even care
>if it is or not.  Brook is in the basement apartment of our house, where
>Gretchen lives, and sleeping.  Gretchen got it out of her that it had been
>two or three days since her last meth smoke so it appears Brook has been
>awake for several days.  Gretchen told me that sleep depravation is the
>biggest worry with meth addicts and that she herself had been high for so
>many days, when she did crash, she was at a families house and she slept,
>without waking, for three full days and two complete nights without ever
>hearing a thing.  Pretty scary stuff if you ask me.  Anyhow, I figured
>something like this would happen to Brook right away and wasn't surprised.
>Something, in this whole thing, has gotten Gretchen's attention spiritually.
>She is acting and thinking suddenly different.  She told me, as she was
>helping Brook get dressed, the Lord spoke to her and said, "So would you
>like to have some more?"  the Lord was referring to people like Brook.
>Gretchen is pretty emotionally effected by this because I think she can see
>herself in Brook and maybe she really does have something to be thankful
>for.  Brook just came up stairs and sounds very weak but totally different
>than she did yesterday.  Frankly, yesterday, I thought she should probably
>be taken to the hospital then.  Anyhow, pray for her because I truly believe
>she wants to be free but without the Lord, it is impossible now.  She also
>said to Gretchen that she wants the Lord to take over her life and she wants
>to be taught what is right.  So the desire is there, thank God, and
>hopefully our prayers, too.
>
>Phil.