God's on billboards, too
Back in college, I had this strange dream about three ambulances and a coffin. It was so bizarre and so vivid that I ended up telling some people about it, but after that, I didn’t really give it much thought.
Fast forward to less than ten years later: It was in February of 2003 when we found out that Mio had a brain tumor. We were in and out of hospitals after his initial operation that month. One afternoon at home, his caregivers noticed that his hands and feet were turning blue, and we had to rush him to the hospital in an ambulance. I sat in the front seat, trying to hold myself together, when suddenly that old college dream flashed in my mind along with a quiet whisper, "I knew this was going to happen long before you did."
And it hit me – God knew what I was going to face long before I even knew I’d have a Mio in my life. In that moment, I felt so deeply that He had been with me all along.
That dream came to mind again in 2006. Mio died January of that year... just short of three years after we first found about about his tumor. Three ambulances. Three years. God knew all along.
In 2024 and 2025, I found myself thinking about Mio more frequently than I did before, since his death in 2006. So you can imagine how I felt when I saw this billboard one morning in November 2025 on the way to drop off my daughter Amanda.
The months before that had been especially tough, and even though I tried to focus on my blessings and enjoy the happy moments with friends and family, there were many days filled with questions, frustrations, and heaviness.
That billboard was God nudging me again – reminding me that the things He removed from my life had to go so I could make space for what He had planned for me and my family. God knew I needed a reminder that He had been with me all along.