God is so very very good! His blessings abound, if we will just trust Him and refocus our eyes on Him, instead of on the darkness that is getting so much publicity these days. Many will say we are living in dark times, but even so, I believe we are living in miraculous times and that God is surely on the move and doing mighty miracles in the lives of His people! The fire may be hot, but it doesn't mean that we have to be burned. I try every morning to continue to thank God for the big and small miracles of our lives. So here are some of the big miracles where God preserved our lives, proving again and again, that He is FAITHFUL!Twice, in college, I was pursued by predators, who meant me harm. Both times, the Lord alerted me to the danger and helped me to safety. One time, I was walking to my bus stop, and a man was following me and tried to get me into his car. When unsuccessful, he left, rounded the block and again tried to cut me off, as I crossed the street. I found a store and stayed there till I felt safe. Another time, a man was following me home from the bus. I realized I should not go straight to our apartment, but again found a store with people in it, where I waited, till I felt it was safe to go home. The Lord protected me!
I guess my greatest fear was that our children would be hurt and injured by someone intending them harm. I've always known that the Lord loves them even more than I do and have tried to remind myself that they are in His loving arms, when they are far from me. It is my job to pray, at His prompting, for their protection and that He will send angels to watch over them. I understand that many people do not believe that evil exists, even as they may "sort of'" believe in God. I am all too familiar with the face of evil and know that there is a battle in progress, and we are often the targets in this intense, bitter war, going on in the heavenly places and here on earth. We've had our share of brushes with evil and I remind myself to pray for the children, because our God is ABLE and so much GREATER!
In high school, when Kelly got her first car, the first day she drove it to school, something really strange happened. The inside and outside of her car were covered in moisture. She got a towel and washed off the outside, leaving very early in the morning to catch her bus, but she found that the inside was just as drenched with water, as she turned right from our cul-de-sac, and was blinded when the early morning sun hit the water. She was frantically trying to wipe the inside of the front windshield, pulling over and hit two big rocks and then found that she had also hit a dog, and the knee of a man, as he was walking the dog. The dog had minor injuries and the man was fine, but very shaken up, as was Kelly. The police who came were baffled, as all the cars in the driveways were dry......all except Kelly's, which had been soaked inside and out. Our other car in the driveway at home was also clear. So very strange. God thank you for protecting Kelly and for protecting the man and his dog. Our lives are in Your hands!
When Kelly went off to college in Charleston, she had three major life threatening events during that time. In all three, the Lord preserved her and sent her loving help and care. One day, I was prompted to urgently pray for the safety of both our girls in college, and for the Lord to send them protectors. I eventually got a midnight phone call from Kelly. She was held up at gun point, on a very rare, snowy evening in Charleston (see earlier blog posts). She had two police officers offer her a ride home from the library, but declined and then was robbed in the last block from her dorm. The assailant had a gun in her face, but only wanted her book bag. He was caught by another officer, before her alert call even went out to the officers on duty! She was calm, composed and unharmed and I believe God used that incident for good, for her and for her assailant.
On another occasion, she developed a pilonidal cyst, that became so infected that it was the size of her hand. It went misdiagnosed, during several trips to the ER, until she passed out in pain and her friends were able to get her to a doctor who performed emergent surgery, preventing her from becoming septic from the infection. My older sister, Gerri, had had a similar cyst in college and thankfully lives about 20 minutes from campus. She took her to her home and nursed her and changed her packing till she was well enough to go back to school. God had my child covered!
The last incident is another scary one. Kelly was riding home from work on her moped, in sandals and a little sun dress, during rush hour traffic. A young woman in a car turning right, did not see her and Kelly tried to swerve to avoid impact, but was unsuccessful. Her moped was dragged under the car for about 30 feet. She remembers flying, seeing the asphalt upside down, by her head, and landing out of the traffic up on the side walk, fifteen or twenty feet away. She had no helmet on and landed on her head and then her foot and side. An off duty paramedic saw the incident and believed that she must be dead. But Kelly sat up screaming and her only injuries were a scalp wound, missing flesh on her hip and injuries to the foot and ankle. No broken bones, no head injury, no paralysis, no PTSD, and a paramedic on hand immediately to render aide. She was back in school in a week and graduated a month later. Researching this type of accident, in Charleston, I saw that they were normally fatal. I couldn't find any where the person survived without paralysis.
It reminds me of what we heard that winter from the men who rescued my mom, after her car went over a 65 foot cliff, here on eight mile road, on black ice. "This isn't the way it usually goes." "This isn't what we normally find!" A car un-crushed and a person alive! God is so very good! My mom had prayed, as she was going down, "Help me Jesus! I'm not ready to go yet!" I told her that she must have had four fat angels hanging on to each side of the car, keeping it from flipping, keeping the wheels on the ground! Looking back over our life, I am beginning to realize how many times we have heard, from medical personnel or first responders, "This isn't the way it usually happens. This isn't what we normally find!"
When I arrived, Caleb was in a dark corner room, no one with him, still and looking like he had passed away. I was upset. Why was no one with him? They explained that they were just waiting for me, and he was sedated on morphine...paramedics were standing by to transport us both to Denver Children's Hospital to start dialysis. The hospitalist explained to me that his gut told him that Caleb would survive, but we needed to go now and not wait til morning. We arrived at 3 a.m. and as we got out of the ambulance, one of the big burly guys in back cried out, "We've got pee!" It was blood red. We bypassed Emergency and went straight to the PICU. About 10 people were standing by to begin work on Caleb.
I told them, "It's going to be alright! We've got pee!" They looked at me in disbelief and gradually all but a couple wondered away. They began giving Caleb more hydration and meds to bind up the toxins that had been accumulating in his body. Very very quickly his kidneys began to recover at a rapid rate. The nephrologist and the urologist puzzled to find the cause of the bi-lateral kidney failure. In the end, it looks like he had all three possible causes of kidney failure simultaneously. He was dehydrated, had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic for his bone graft site, and he developed a blockage below the kidneys. The normal routine with his diagnosis would have been 7 to 10 weeks of kidney dialysis. By 6 pm Thursday, he was well enough to be transported to a normal floor. He was discharged Saturday morning, off of pain meds and looking like a person who had been reborn! The doctors and nurses kept saying, "You do realize this is not what normally happens..."
Babies like Dillon are often in the hospital for two or three months, he came home after ten days. Thank you, Lord! Accidents like Kelly's are usually fatal, victims of violent crime are rarely as clear headed, they are rarely as unharmed, the assailant is rarely captured so quickly, infections like her's often result in an infection of the blood stream which can be fatal...People rarely survive a 65 foot drop, the car usually rolls head over heals....a child whose mom is so ill at birth, usually has attachment issues....children abused, usually choose abusive spouses....paralysis usually isn't temporary, young children usually can't be with friends who are dying, they can't understand it. Separations under stress like this, usually result in divorce. People usually blame their spouses and focus on what that person did wrong instead of what they did and usually are unable to forgive or trust again. We usually fall prey to fear and pain and destruction and the forces of evil usually overcome our frail bodies, minds and will. That is the wisdom of the world....what usually happens...
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