A Miracle Working God - Memorial Box Monday

Almost two weeks ago I woke up on a Thursday morning and just felt awful. I had a pain in my abdomen just below my rib cage in the center. It was nagging, but I've given birth to 3 babies so it was manageable. I left our three children at home with my husband and ran out to do a couple of errands. I got to one store and almost called my husband to come get me. I was unable to stand from the pain, but finally got back in the car and felt okay enough to drive myself home. I spent the rest of the day and night getting progressively worse. The pain was so intense I was in tears, begging, pleading for God to take the pain away. Two of "our" boys from Club 180 were spending the week with us so they along with Righ (my wonderful husband) and our 3 children prayed over me endlessly. They were all very concerned for me. The pain seemed to subside for a while, but about 9:30 it was intense again. I contemplated going to the emergency room. Now let me clarify something, I am not a doctor seeing girl and definitely not a hospital girl unless it is a true emergency. So at 11:00 I decided it could not wait any longer, but I was determined to drive myself so the kids could have Dad at home. Trying to be brave for my little ones!! I got to the ER and described my symptoms. The triage nurse was so kind and I asked her if she thought I could go home. Her response was, "Honey, if anyone needs to be in the ER, it is YOU!!!" So I stayed and my dear sweet friend, Robin, came to be with me. I was so insistent she not come, but she was way more insistent and I am so THANKFUL she won! Later on I proved to need her so much! They took me to the back and gave me morphine for the pain. Nothing, didn't touch it!! The nurse and doctor were so surprised. Okay, they gave me another dose of morphine. It helped that time. For the first time all day I was feeling so much better. Still a twinge of pain, but okay. The doc ordered a CT scan to rule out gallbladder issues or gallstones or kidney stones. It came back normal except for A MASS IN MY COLON. That didn't really explain the pain, but it was certainly something to be concerned about.

By this time, it was 7:00 am and the doctors were changing shifts. Dr. Bolin became my new doc and he was very concerned about the mass. He decided to admit me to the hospital. Let me add, we are adopting 2 precious children from Ghana, Africa and God has provided every penny for that. Well, our health insurance is not great. Actually, it is lousy so to me being there was ticking away at my adoption fund. I was very worried about that the whole time. Right about the time he decided to admit me, I became sick. Nauseous sick. Just felt sicker than I ever had with nausea. So here comes more medicine. This time it made me sleepy so the next few hours are a blur. I can remember glimpses of things. I remember my sweet husband walking in and I saw his worried face. (My parents had driven in from out of state to be with our little ones so he could be with me.) I remember my friend, Robin, hugging me and telling me how much she loved me. I remember several dear, dear friends being in my room. Later I was told they just stood and prayed and prayed. The love that was shown to me that weekend is overwhelming and makes me cry each time I think of it. To be honest, that whole Friday is blurry for me. I do remember our friend, Dr. Pete Sulack, coming in and praying with Righ. They prayed for complete healing over my body and for the mass to be gone. They prayed and prayed and prayed. Then he left, too. Now, it was just Righ and I. As I went in and out of sleep (drugged up sleep), Righ and I prayed and believed God had healed me. I still felt very crummy, but we knew our God was going to heal me.

The next day, Saturday, I was scheduled for an ultrasound and an upper GI scope with our new doctor, a gastroenterologist. My nurse forgot to call for my ultrasound so that never happened, but the GI scope was perfect. Still no answers. I was starting to feel better, but my bloodwork had come back. I was low on everything, iron, red blood count, hematocrit, B12. If it dropped any lower, I would need a blood transfusion. So we waited until the next day.

Sunday morning I woke up and felt better. My ultrasound looked awesome, but I felt well enough I could go home to my babies. I was still moving slow, dizzy, but ready to get out of there. That afternoon was uneventful. I slept a lot, but that night my pain returned. Only briefly, though. And it was gone again. I was scheduled for a colonoscopy on Tuesday because they really needed to check that mass. We had no other answers yet.

Monday I started my prep for the colonoscopy. It was awful! I kept begging my husband to please let me skip it. I felt better, just very weak and we both had faith that I was healed. In my mind, what was the point? I had already endured so much over the weekend. So many pokes and pricks and so many drugs and iron transfusions and on and on. I was weary of it all.

My husband won, though. He took me back to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. As we were waiting for everything to begin I had my first thought of "Oh my, what if it is cancer? What if I have cancer? What will happen to my husband and how will he take care of our 5 beautiful children?" At that point, I began to plead with God. I pleaded for Him to take my uneasiness away, to take my anxiety away and for the enemy to flee. God was among us and He is all powerful! The next thing I remember is waking up to my nurse and asking for Righ. A few minutes later, he came back to me and said, "It's over! It's over, baby! No more needles (I have tiny, tiny veins) and no more hospital!" You see, when our surgeon did the colonoscopy he FOUND NOTHING! He told my husband I have the perfect colon! He took photos (yuk) and showed Righ where the mass was on Thursday night. He kept saying over and over how he couldn't explain it. He was confused, amazed. Righ wasn't. He told the doctor our God is bigger than this and He took care of it! He healed my wife. Of course, the doctor shrugged him off, but God did it. He took care of little ol' me!!!

People have asked us in the last week and a half if we were afraid. Honestly, no! We walked in faith and we just knew God was going to take care of it. So you see, I needed that colonoscopy (that I begged Righ to let me skip) so we could prove to everyone how BIG OUR GOD IS!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is awesome, incredible, awe-inspiring and He is a MIRACLE WORKING GOD!!!!!

So this is our Memorial Box Monday post compliments of A Place Called Simplicity. We know God has plans for our family to care for the orphans. He used our children in Africa to change our lives. We know these two precious orphans are only the beginning! He has called our family to take care of the fatherless, to speak up for the ones who cannot speak for themselves, to do whatever He calls us to do next. Thank you, God, for miracles!