Hannah Happenings

Hannah Happenings are special & uplifting experiences with God throughout our earthly life with Hannah and after her death.  These are not just neat coincidences or fun stories, these are the true workings of God that we have seen through our journey with Hannah.   This page will be updated on an ongoing basis.

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God’s Guidance

At the end of June, 2010, after much prayer and discussion we felt God’s leading that it was time for Bill to resign from his job of six years.  It was a great job that he really enjoyed, but that required extensive travel with much time away from family, and he didn’t want to miss out on Hannah & Jacob’s lives and be “the dad that was never there”.  After making this decision to step out in total faith, feeling the Holy Spirit’s guidance that this was what He was leading us to do, Bill’s last day was August 6^th.  Many people questioned our decision, they thought we were crazy and wondered what Bill was doing leaving a good job with no new job and a shaky economy.  We later found out from the Doctors and the autopsy that Hannah’s tumor was estimated to have started sometime around the first week of August.  Bill was able to be there throughout everything and spend time with Hannah and our family.  Had he not resigned from his job, he would have been out of town the morning that we took Hannah to the emergency room and found her tumor.  We had planned financially for a period of time without a job and were able to have that time to be together without the stresses and pressures of work.  This fact alone gave us great strength and hope during the worst time of our lives, that God is with us.

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God’s Comfort 

One afternoon, several weeks after Hannah’s death, while listening to music and reading an email I began to tear up.  I hadn’t started to cry or make any type of sound when Jacob, who was sitting behind me across the room playing on the floor with Legos, suddenly said “Momma…Hannah says, Mommy, don’t cry it’s beautiful here”.  When I asked him why he had said that, his quick reply was “I don’t know?”.  Not only was the timing amazing, but the fact that Jacob calls me Momma and Hannah called me Mommy.  It was so quick and without prompting or any knowledge on Jacob’s part that I was starting to cry, that it had to be God’s comforting.  Whenever I would start to cry when Hannah was sick, she always very quickly would say “Mommy, don’t cry.”  I can still hear her sweet voice every time I start to cry.   – Amy

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Make A Wish

Many seriously ill children receive opportunities to experience special events and trips provided by different organizations.  Hannah’s illness was so aggressive and progressed so fast that she was not able to experience any of these opportunities while she was sick.  However, our amazing God knew what was awaiting our beautiful Hannah and granted her (and us) an unbelievable beginning to her last year with memories that we will treasure until we are with her again in Heaven. 

*We had a lot of beautiful snow at the beginning of 2010.  Hannah & Jacob had so much fun playing in it, building snowmen and having snowball fights.  It was the most snow they had seen since leaving Pennsylvania, and it was a great way to start the year. 

*At the end of February we went on our third annual trip to Disney World for ESPN the Weekend, it was our most wonderful trip yet with a tour guide for our entire stay and VIP treatment.  We had fun eating lunch with, as well as attending parties and sporting events with athletes and celebrities.   Disney, with their specially trained chefs, is the one place where Hannah was able to dine out and be like everyone else.  With her multiple life threatening food allergies Hannah was not able to eat out at regular restaurants, and we always had to bring her safe food prepared from home. 

*In April we took a trip down to Glen Rose, TX for a visit to Fossil Rim Wildlife Park, Dinosaur Valley State Park and the Creation Evidence Museum.  We  enjoyed a private guided tour of Fossil Rim where Hannah was able to feed all kinds of animals and pet the giraffes (which she loved).  We looked for dinosaur tracks, learned about what the earth was like pre-flood. 

*In June we went for two weeks to Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.  We visited every place that Hannah has ever lived…we went to Hudson, Ohio where we lived for two years when Hannah was little as well as Imperial, PA where we lived for three years before moving back to Texas.  We stayed in several hotels (which Hannah & Jacob loved) and swam every day, went to parties, concerts, movies, blew glass Christmas ornaments and watched some great golf.  It was a special time for us being able to spend a lot of quality time together as a family. 

*In August we made our yearly visit to Minnesota and extended our usual one week to two weeks.  Hannah spent time with all of her cousins, attended Corn Fest, ate raspberries straight off the bush at her relative’s Sanderson Farm in South Dakota and had an absolute blast.   

*When we returned from Minnesota, Hannah & Jacob began Friday School which they loved and Hannah was able to attend for a month making some sweet new friends.  She was also able to go to the first two weeks of her beloved N-Tech (our homeschool co-op). 

While our sweet Hannah went home to be with Jesus sooner than anyone could have ever imagined, we will always have these special memories to cherish.  Throughout the year we did not take any of this time for granted, before all of this God had placed in our hearts the preciousness of our lives.  As we look back, God has been working with us and preparing us for this for some time.   Hannah was here for such a short time, but when we think of eternity we are all here only for a short time.   “But our citizenship is in Heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 3:20

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The Holy Spirit

John 16:5-7 (NASB) – The Holy Spirit Promised by Jesus

⁵ “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

When we receive the Holy Spirit, He leads, guides, comforts, convicts and intercedes for us.  We have many stories of feeling the leading of the Spirit that we will share over time through our posts, following is one such story that I felt led to share today.

The day that Hannah went to be with Jesus we had no idea what the day held for us.  Not knowing how large Hannah’s tumor had gotten and how uncontrolled the growth was, the doctors had allowed us to take Hannah home from the hospital for the weekend.  This was Hannah’s first time home in a month and we were getting ready to take her in for her appointment in the Oncology outpatient clinic.  We had packed for the hospital thinking they might readmit her, but thought she would be getting a blood transfusion and would possibly come back home for a few days. 

That morning friends came by to pick up Jacob for our Homeschool Co-op, and Hannah came out to say hi to her friends.  As Jacob was leaving the house and saying goodbye he suddenly turned around and ran to Hannah and gave her a huge bear hug.  Hannah was not feeling well and was extremely tired, so she was a little upset by that hug and yelled “Jacob!”, and he just said ever so sweetly with a big smile “Bye, Hannah” and quickly ran to the van.  None of us knew that this would be that last time he would see her in this life. 

A few weeks later Jacob started to ask why Hannah was mad at him.  He asked this a few times and we assured him that Hannah was not mad at him and how much she loves him and can’t wait to see him again in Heaven.  Then one day he asked why Hannah hated him, and it was heartbreaking to hear him ask that.  Again we assured him of Hannah’s love for him and that he was her best friend. 

The next day I was going through one of Hannah’s desk drawers finding all sorts of treasures when I came across the best “treasure” of all…it was a folded piece of brown construction paper.  I turned over the paper and on the front was written “I♥U Jacob” and it had a drawing of Hannah & Jacob holding hands.  Their hands and feet are hearts and there are hearts on their clothes, inside are lots of X’s and O’s.  We gave the card to Jacob and he found such comfort in it and didn’t ask why Hannah was mad at him anymore.  We don’t know when Hannah created this special card, but we do know it was made out of love and we know why it was created.

 There’s no doubt that the Holy Spirit led Jacob to give his sister that sweet goodbye hug.  There is also no doubt that the Spirit guided Hannah in making the precious card for him.  I also know that it was the Spirit that prompted my cleaning out that drawer at that time.  The helper is always with us and is always at work…He is real. 

If you don’t know Jesus and you haven’t received the Holy Spirit, all you have to do is believe and invite Him in.  It’s not by our works or by being good enough or by anything that we can do, it’s all about Jesus.  As we read in Romans 10:9-10 (NLT) ⁹ If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Galatians 5:22-25 (NLT)

²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!  ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.