Angels and Pancakes

Luke 16:22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side..."

Do you ever wonder when this actually occurs? I mean, in today's world when people can be kept alive for years with machines and medications, when do the angels actually show up? When the brain dies? When the plug is pulled? Can the soul leave the body if the body still lives? Can the body live without the soul?

Last night at work I peformed CPR on a woman who went into sudden cardiac arrest and, as odd as it sounds, these were some of the questions I was wondering as I was pumping on her chest. I found myself thinking, "Is she still in there? Are there angels in the room right now taking her spirit even though I'm keeping her heart pumping?" Somewhere between 10 and 15 people hoovered around this woman for about 35 minutes trying to save her life and she didn't make it after all of our efforts. I wonder...was she dead when we began the code or when the doctor pronounced her dead? Her case may seem simple...maybe her soul was gone before we even started trying to save her. But what about the guy three doors down who is brain dead, but stable on full life support? In today's age of technology, we've made life a technicality and death a defeat...at least in the medical field.

I hope that this doesn't sound morbid or depressing to any of you! I personally find these questions fascinating. I'm surrounded by death and people who are dying every time I go to work so, as interesting as it is to see how it all works on this side of the veil, I'm more curious about what's going on on the other side. It makes me wonder when I'm in the presence of angels! :)

For those of you who don't like talking about death, here is the "pancakes" portion of my post: I took Ethan and Annabeth out on a date this morning since I've been working a lot over the last two weeks and haven't seen much of them. We went to Ihop for breakfast (they were having a promotion for the new Dr. Seuss movie that's about to come out) and the kids were excited to order what was essentially pancakes and candy:

Then, after I loaded them up with sugar, we went to hang out at the mall and play off some of their energy at the train:

(Ethan signing "I Love You")

We had a really good day! As much as I like being back at work, I have to say that there is nothing better than being home with these two. The hospital will always be my second job.