Life Post # 2

This is a followup to Amy's post a few days ago. It's kind of my version of what happened during a couple of days in June. It's a bit long but hopefully it will be worth it one day if Jake and Grace read it and learn some things through our experiences.

When people go through certain things and struggles in life, these struggles either reinforce their Faith or drive them away from God. After all, sometimes it's really tempting to doubt the thought process of giving in to a God who would allow so much suffering in the world or allow things to happen like the death of an innocent child (which has happened to 2 couples we know the past year and a half). I've heard others that may describe the presence of Faith during struggles as people's "crutch" or just as a fallback for people because certain things in this world cannot be explained. However, those others do not understand that this Faith is as real as real can be and is even reinforced through and during these struggles. Doesn't matter if you know scripture from front to back, doesn't matter what education level you have, doesn't matter the race, income level or anything else because you can only learn certain things through the experience of struggles. It is in some of these experiences that God makes himself plain and let's us know without a doubt that He is the God we think we know and so much more.

The previous week and up until Wednesday June 17th I had been and was under a high level of stress at work trying to get a proposal finished for a very strategic project for my company with one of the major oil companies. I was answering to one of our senior V.P.'s (who answers to the CEO) for this proposal so there was no room for mistakes. The bid was due at 12 pm Wed. and there was a lot of work left to do. I had to leave work at 11:30 am on Wed. as we were scheduled to meet with Jake's surgeon Dr. Heinle at 1 pm to go over what he plans to do during surgery and get any questions answered.

Tuesday evening on the way home from work Amy called a said her car was overheating. Recognizing this could be a big problem as we had to have 2 cars the next day, we both showed up (with Grace screaming because she was hot) at our trusty mechanic 30 minutes before they closed. I explained our situation and was given a Ford Focus to drive around Houston the next day so Amy could have my truck. When we got in later that night and as we were trying to get the screaming kids to bed, the lights go out. We found out a nearby fuse blew out, and it would take a few hours for power to be restored. When I found out that this power outage affected only the 11 houses on our street, I decided that it would probably be best if I just went to bed so nothing else could go wrong at least on Tuesday. Yes, I was being like one of those little people in that famous book, "Who Moved My Cheese" when they found out that the mice had once again found cheese.

Usually, I am not a very emotional person but Wednesday morning was not easy for me. Going through the initial consultation with Dr. Heinle before Jake's first open heart surgery, we weren't looking forward to this day as it's not too pleasant hearing about the risks with Jake's condition and everything that could potentially go wrong during this second open heart surgery. Going through these struggles there are times when it feels as though the prayers aren't working, that the peace which is so evident at times is kept just out of reach, and God just seems a bit distant. That's where I was at on Wed. morning. Before I got out of the neighborhood, I realized I had forgotten the questions I had written down for Dr. Heinle. These are questions that had been developed from hours of reading and talking with others about sub-aortic memebranes, and I kept them in my pocket on a little piece of yellow paper so I could add to them as questions or thoughts came up. Might not seem like a big deal but my thoughts at the time were that having the answers (whatever they might be) would help me to have some semblance of control over things because I would be able to better explain to Amy and others what's going on in Jake's heart and what the plan is to fix it. Getting the answers to these questions from Dr. Heinle was a must and he was the only one in the world who could answer them. The fact that I was in such a state that I could forget them freaked me out. So on my way back through the neighborhood in search of any peace I could find, I turned on the radio to a certain Christian radio station that I never listen to. The very first thing I hear is the DJ talking about how his little kid was going to be coming home from Texas Children's Hospital for the first time since birth today. His child had some major birth complications and had spent most of the time in the NICU so today was a huge day for his family. I was blown away because I know without a doubt God wanted me to get the message that He understands and is still there. Call me crazy but there is no other explanation for that happening to me at that exact time other than God wanted me to hear something about hope.

I get to work and immediately sent out an email to my college roommate Jason from CA requesting him to pray for us to have strength the rest of the day. Jason is the type of guy that you would want to go into a battle with because you know he would fight with you until you take your last breath. I learned later that as soon as he got my email, he got his family together and they prayed for us right then. I was blown away by this. So things are going crazy trying to get this bid together and be on the way to Texas Children's by 11:30, and I get an email. It was from someone in the other division we were working with questioning if I should be able to leave before the bid goes out. I was fortunate to have the help of an intermediary who politely made sure that the someone who sent the email understood that there are some things more important than work and that I would leave at 11:30 no matter what. I stress politely because I probably would not have been that polite if it had been me trying to explain to that someone that they have no idea what they are asking. It was a good thing Jason sent those prayers up when he did.

As I am driving around Texas Children's trying to find a parking garage that's not full, I am learning that while the Ford Focus is great on gas mileage it's acceleration rate can potentially get you run over with the pace of things in the Medical Center Area. As 1 pm is getting very close and I'm still looking for a parking spot, I receive a call from the mechanic who proceeds to describe to me the systemic cooling system failure that occurred in Amy's car saying that when one part of the cooling system fails the engine attempts to get back to thermal equilibrium which causes disruptions in fluid flow which causes higher temperatures and pressures on parts that aren't designed for those higher temperatures and pressures and that's basically the reason that all the major components in the cooling system needed to be replaced. It was such an impressive explanation (memories of my classes in Thermodynamics haunted me) that the only response I could think of was: "Wow, that's interesting". He then asked if I wanted to talk price or if I was busy with something. I couldn't keep from laughing a bit as I said, "please fix everything."

I meet Amy and Jake up on the 20th floor of the West Tower (Pediatric Cardiology Central) and we are called in fairly quickly to a room where Jake's vitals are taken. We are reminded of how fortunate it is that Jake is one of the few kids who likes getting his blood pressure taken. We then go in the consultation room and Dr. Heinle's nurse shows up to inform us that Dr. Heinle is still in surgery and it wasn't known when he would get out so we would need to re-schedule the consultation for the next Wednesday. As we're leaving a little disappointed that things didn't work out as expected (and I'm thinking of another half day I have to take off), Jake is taking it upon himself to make a grand exit by smiling and yelling "Bye, Bye" to everyone we see on the way out making them all laugh. Then I see that we are pretty lucky to have Jake as he's a kid who is teaching us the value of having a good attitude about life regardless of the circumstances. The fact that Dr. Heinle was still in surgery with no estimated finish time meant that most likely things were not going as expected for another child in the OR and his/her family in the waiting room. As I called our friend to cancel some plans (we were supposed to go out with them after the appointment), I was reminded by the friend that the family/child that Dr. Heinle is working with probably needed some prayers right then and that she was going to pray for them right after she got off the phone. I am blown away again because I know Amy and I are very blessed to have friends who continue to teach us more and more about the powerful effect of prayer.

For a change the evening was quiet but late at night Jake wakes up crying and Amy finds he is burning up and shaking. We take his temperature and it is 102 F and it appeared to be going up so we quickly get him some Tylenol. This is a concern to us given Jake's defect and leaky heart valves so I say a little silent prayer for God to take whatever is going on away. We give a call to the on-call pediatrician and wait to hear back. As mysteriously as the fever came it disappeared (within 15 minutes) and Jake is fine the next morning. When the pediatrician called back, I was really at a loss at what to say as he most likely would class me as crazy if I told him what I was thinking. Why am I blown away again by the possibility that it was most likely the prayer that helped that fever to just disappear? It's the second time in 24 hours that there is no other explanation to me other than God just decided to intervene.

Yes, through these experiences this Faith stuff is our reality and we are blessed because of this. What all of it comes down to is that when we choose to view life's experiences from a Faith perspective it's not because we think Faith gives us all the answers in life or we have been through what some might describe as "crazy religious experiences." The choice to accept this Faith has to come first. Then during those times that the spiritual forces mentioned in Ephesians 6.12 are doing their job of getting to us and tempting us to give in and doubt if it's all worth it is when God willingly steps in to show just a little of Himself. The struggles stink but we are thankful to know and see that God still likes to provide hope to people by communicating in unexpected ways.