My Testimony

Two years ago my life changed forever.

We were living in Ft. Collins at the time.  My husband (dh) had been having some stomach problems that just would not go away. We had been going to doctors and specialists to diagnose the problem.  Because of this we had been monitoring his vitals very closely, which later on would prove to be very important.  On Wednesday, October 29, 2003, he underwent an upper GI.  In signing all of the consent forms one of the side effects of the anesthetic was that the patient could have a massive headache up to 3 days after the procedure.  For some reason this stuck in my mind.  My mom had spent the week with us while dh had the upper GI done.

Dh stayed home from work Thursday then returned to work on Friday, October 31.  Dh was job site manager for a heating and air conditioning company.  His job included being site manager for 11 custom home building sites.  After he  left for work, my mother headed back home midmorning.

Because it was Halloween, my plan for the day was to take our children dressed in their costumes to see their maternal great grandmother who was in a rehab center. We planned on heading up the mountains around noon to see my dad’s parents. DS1(dear son#1)., who was 5 at the time, was dressed as a giraffe, DS2(dear son #2), who was 20 months, was dressed as a gorilla, and DD(darling daughter), 6 months, was dressed as a baby chic. 

One thing that I have learned as a mother is that you need to be flexible.  Because of fussy children, I had to rearrange my plans.  After visiting the rehab center, we went home and I put the little ones down for naps. When DS2 and DD woke up then we planned on heading to my grandparents’ home which was about 20 miles from my house.  This would soon become a blessing that we were at home in the afternoon.

About 3 p.m. that afternoon there was a knock on the door.  When I opened the door there stood my dh.  He was talking, but making no sense at all.  He was a very funny green color.  He was able to tell me that he had a massive headache.  Remember that one possible side effect of the anesthetic, the bad headache? 

Believing that this was a side effect of the anesthetic I got him into bed and called our family doctor.  When I explained what was going on, they said to bring dh over immediately to the office.  I was able to get a neighbor to stay with the kids and I took off with dh.  After an initial exam the doctor sent us to the hospital for dh to have an immediate CT scan.  While dh was having the scan done I headed back home to get some clothes for him and DD.  I had made arrangements with some friends to keep DS1. and DS2 overnight.  I would take DD with me.  I really believed that dh would be going home the next day.

Immediately upon returning to the hospital, dh told me they were transferring him to a Hospital in Denver  because the CT scan showed blood on the brain.  Possible causes were West Nile Virus, Stroke or Aneurysm.  My heart sank.  Nineteen years ago my dad’s cousin, who was 38 years old at the time, had an aneurysm. He now has the mentality of a 12 year old. 

At this point, my cousin  and his wife came up to the hospital to pray with us.  My cousin agreed to drive me to Denver because I did not think that I would be able to focus on driving. He was, and continues to be, a real blessing in my life. 

During this time dh would have times of clarity and then fade.  Later he told me he remembers very little of his time at the Ft. Collins Hospital or of his trip in the ambulance.

I called my parents from the Ft. Collins hospital to meet us in Denver.  My mom had just arrived home 10 minutes before so her suitcase was still packed.  My cousin  and I arrived at the Hospital around 11 p.m.   Despite the snowstorm that was raging, Mom and Dad made it to Denver in record time. My cousin stayed at the hospital with me until my parents arrived at around 1 a.m.

To read more go to Gods Divine Plan part 2

(cont. from part 1)

Dh had a CT scan on Saturday morning. When it was over, the Doctors came out to tell me that dh had two aneurysms and one had ruptured and was bleeding into his brain.  The other was a very odd shape and they did not think that it could be fixed by coiling it.  They would try but if not they would have to do brain surgery on Monday.  IF dh survived the procedure that night I would be visiting him in a nursing home for the rest of my life.  They only gave him a 10% chance of survival and living a normal life.  The doctors also told me that if we did not do the procedure that night dh would die in a matter of hours. 

The procedure was expected to last around 6 hours.  They took him down at 5pm Saturday, November 1.  During that time I had many people come in to support me.  I would do fine for a few moments then I would totally lose control and cry uncontrollably.  At one of these points I crawled up into my dad’s lap and he read from the book of 1 John.  I barely remember the words but I recall very vividly that I felt the presence of my Heavenly Father as I sat on my Earthly Fathers lap.

After 4 ½ hours the doctor came to tell me that they were able to coil both aneurysms. They also told me that dh had done very well during the procedure. I wanted to hug the doctor.

Dh ended up spending 16 days in the Neuro ICU.  He had at least 3 strokes but God performed a miracle and has totally healed him.

Six months later, in March of 2004, we officially moved  and lived with my parents until we moved into our own home on Jan 26, 2005.

In May of 2005 we had a missionary boy from Papau New Guniea stay with us.  He took one look at DS1’s bedroom where all of his hot wheels were displayed and asked “and why do you have all of these and not be able to play with them?  What’s the point?”  At the time we really didn’t think anything about it but as the days rolled by we started to realize that we were raising our children to be materialistic.  I had my collections and dh had his collections and our kids had theirs.

God really started to convict us that we needed to change some things in our lives.

In the middle of July our church held its annual meetings in Colorado Springs.  My parents, kids and I all headed up on Sunday afternoon.  The hotel that we stayed in that first night was very dirty, so when we got up the next morning,  packed up all our stuff and headed for the church were the meetings were being held.  As we arrived we were greeted at the door with a very urgent message that a 12-year-old girl from our church, who had been our babysitter, was in Children’s Hospital in Denver and not expected to make it through the day.  My parents headed for Denver and I stayed at the meetings with the kids.  By 4:00 that afternoon she died.  Later we found out that she died of an inoperable brain tumor that caused a severe bleed in the brain.  This really touched me because of my husband’s history of brain trauma.

When dh heard of  her death it was very hard on him.  Why would God heal him and take a 12-year-old girl home? 

When I arrived home late Wednesday night dh and I started talking and we both felt that God was calling us to some kind of ministry.  Because of the fact that we were apart when we heard of  her death we processed it our own way.  We both felt like God was calling us individually and as a family.  When we told DS1 that we felt like God wanted us to go into some kind of ministry he said,  “When do we leave?”  Then we told him that we would have to sell everything.  He went and immediately packed toys and other things to be sold at the sale; He came in and asked us to take his hot wheel bed apart so he could sell it too.  God even laid it on his heart to go into ministry.

We also felt that purchasing the house that we were currently living in was not what God wanted of us.  But we did not yet know what we would do.  We just knew that we needed to get out of debt if we were ever going to be able to go into any kind of ministry. 

In passing we made the comment that maybe we needed to buy a motor home and live in it and get out of debt.  The next day a man came into dh’s work and started talking about needing a campsite host- manager for the camp ground that he owned.  Dh started asking questions and the man offered the job to us.  Some of the perks of the job are that we get to live there for free and pay no utilities.  What a way to get out of debt.

To continue reading go to Gods Divine Plan part 3

(cont. from part 2)

At  this point we were set up to have a very large garage sale, to sell a lot of our collections and extra stuff.  The night before the sale we prayed and asked God to bless the sale if it was His Will that we sell everything and move into the RV.  Our garage sale grossed over $1300.00.  I believe that God blessed our sale.

So we started looking in the newspaper for RV’s to purchase that would suit our needs.  We went to Denver one Sunday to look at one.  On the way home the weather was clear where we were but up ahead of us we could tell that it was raining.  Just to the edge of the storm we saw a very clear double rainbow.  Gods promise that He is with us.  Later we decided that this was not the RV for us.

My dad noticed in the paper that there was one that looked exactly like what we wanted.  We went and looked at it and I liked it so much that I gave them a deposit and they dropped the price $1500.  They were a very nice Christian couple who would have become great friends had they lived closer. 

We picked it up the Thursday before Labor Day and took it on a trip to NM to see dh’s parents.  My parents went with us and met dh’s parents for the first time.  What a fun trip that was.

We had cancelled the contract on our house and were planning on moving out by the end of October and into the RV, when God sent another blessing our way.

Just before the Women’s retreat with the Christian Church I prayed that God would place me in a room with whom ever He wanted me to be with.  I found out that I would be in one room then when I arrived I found out that my room had been changed and I would be with a lady whom I did not really know very well.  She and I stayed up until 3 a.m. talking and sharing.  I had told her about our desire to be out of debt and how God had directed us to do it.

She called on the following Wednesday around noon, to tell me that a house was being offered to us for the winter.  I believe that God will sometimes give us choices, both of which are in His will.  It has been a true blessing to live in the house.  We are able to clean up the camper and sort through more stuff to be sold this spring at another sale.She had since become a great friend. 

By the way, the doctors never found anything wrong with dh’s stomach and he has never had any more problems.  I believe that God used that problem to monitor his vitals in preparation for the aneurysm.  The doctors at the Hospital were continually asking us about his blood pressure for the previous two weeks.  We were able to give them a complete history of everything for the time that they were concerned about.

I do not want to close with out acknowledging a few other blessings during these last two years.

First, if we had gone straight up to my grandparents from the rehab center that Halloween, then we would not have been home when dh came in.  I have never thought of fussy children as a blessing before but they were that day, and I try to remember that when I have to change my plans because of fussing.

Dh drove home from Longmont after passing out at work.  He does not remember driving home at all.  He even drove on the shoulder sometimes.  We only know this because a co-worker saw him and called to tell us about it.

My mom was a great blessing; she stayed with me the whole time.  She would call me when DD needed me, then the rest of the time I could go be with dh.

The friends of ours who took care of our boys for the entire two weeks.

The pastor who brought us air mattresses to sleep on. The nurses who gave us milk and blankets the nights that we slept in the waiting room of the NICU.

Both of the top brain specialists in this part of the country were both on call those Friday and Saturday nights.  One was the brain surgeon and the other was the radiologist who did the coiling.

The cousins that I had never met before who brought food into us, and gave us a place to shower and relax if we needed it.

I want to encourage everyone to write out a testimony of what God has done in your lives so when the hard times come you can go back and read and remember Who is in control and that you are God’s precious child. 

I want to close by thanking my Lord and Savior for the blessings and miracles that he has given to my family.

I am going to start out with praising my Lord and Savior for the gift of life. 

Jesus Christ for giving eternal life.

My family for following Gods direction in their lives and showing me The Way.

I am blessed to be married to my best friend and have 3 of the best children in the world.

My sister is my dearest confidant and friend.