We Stand in Awe of You

In 2004, our family experienced a true miracle from God. This blog entry recounts what God did for our daughter.

We have been given a miracle by the loving, healing hands of our Father. As many of you know late in the summer our oldest daughter, who had just married her husband a few months earlier, began to have some medical trouble. She was born as a tiny 3 pound baby with a small hole in her heart. God has protected and sustained her for 20 years, never needing medication or surgery for that condition after her first year of life. Praises be to him.

Then suddenly she began having heart palpitations, fainting spells, shortness of breath, etc. She went to the doctor and several tests were performed. These tests were read locally and then sent to a larger medical center to be interpreted. In September we were told that the strain of this tiny hole had caused one heart valve to become damaged and it was leaking. This then caused damage to her lungs -- we were being told the pressure in her lungs was 65 and should have been under 15 -- the diagnosis was pulmonary hypertension. Life expectancy with this condition, according to some sources, was less than 5 years. You can imagine the shock and heartache our family felt.

Our beloved daughter and her husband had just begun their long life as family and those "reports of man" were so difficult to hear. It didn't take me long as a mother to know that once again we had to turn to the Father -- our only Hope in life's hopeless situations. We prayed and interceded and asked hundreds of other faithful prayer warriors to join us in prayer as she planned to visit another specialist.

As most of you know I was readmitted to ICU the very week she had to visit this specialist and that made all of this even more difficult as I laid there thinking about what our precious children were facing. Yet in the midst of it all we watched and marveled at the God-given strength and faith that our daughter maintained. She refused to drop out of school for the semester as she planned to graduate in December; she maintained her commitment to her fall internship; and continued to care for her family.

When asked how she felt, she would always tell me, "I am fine, Mom." She spoke faith and we believed in faith. According to Mark 11:23: "For assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain (that diagnosis), 'Be removed and be cast into the sea', AND DOES NOT DOUBT IN HIS HEART, but BELIEVES THAT THOSE THINGS HE SAYS WILL BE DONE, he will have WHATEVER he asks. 'Therefore, I say to you WHATEVER things you ask when you pray, BELIEVE that you receive them and you WILL have them."

I laid in that ICU bed praying and interceding for my child during her appointment -- I prayed to a loving, Heavenly Father who created her in HIS image and who loves her far more than even her parents or husband love her. It was a long day but that deep abiding peace that only comes from the Comforter -- the Holy Spirit -- reigned in my heart and mind.

I called her cell phone several times for a report because I knew she couldn't call me in ICU. My Mom was in the room with me and finally I connected with her on her cell phone. I sat in that hospital room and listened as she told me that when they first saw the doctor, it was not good news. Then the doctor said she wanted to repeat all of the tests. This was completed and the doctor came to tell her -- SHE WAS FINE!

Documented by tests that were read at two different locations these were the diagnosis she had received 6 weeks earlie:--By Chest x-ray -- enlarged heart -- she was actually told that if she had not gotten to the doctor when she did that she was 2 weeks from being in heart failure--By EKG-Echo -- leaking tricuspid valve of the heart--By Echo Pressure check -- pulmonary hypertension of 65 (Normal being 15) -- this being a very serious life-threatening diagnosis.

This is the MIRACLE we received verified by the medical testing -- --her heart was of normal size--her heart valves are all perfect--her lungs are perfect--The high pulmonary pressure is normal.--The tiny hole with which she has had for 20 years was the same and unchanged.

In all my years of serving Christ I have never seen or been blessed to personally witness such a divine intervention of healing. I know God can do the same for any of us and it is our prayer that God will receive ALL GLORY AND PRAISE for this and that her healing will be a testimony and encouragement for others facing impossible health or life situations. God gave this victory -- He is able, willing, and quite capable of handling all of our dire life situations when we humble ourselves and seek His face.

To our family and friends: Thank you for being His intercessors on our daughter's behalf. So many of you have been agreeing in prayer with us and we all know WHERE TWO OR MORE AGREE-HE IS IN OUR MIDST.

We stand, we stand in awe of You, Lord.