gratitude and a heavy heart

Today, I have a heavy heart. There is a little boy fighting the battle of cancer. I hate that word. This boy is twelve years old. I do not know him on a personal level but on a spiritual connection. You see he is a brother in Christ. I have been following his mother's blog for about two weeks keeping up with his progress. Waiting on the word that the Healer has healed and he is whole again. We are believing God for a total healing. No more brain tumor, no more headaches, no chemo and radiation. Please God, heal Andrew. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I know the Father as a miracle worker. I have actually seen Him in action. This November will be two years since we received a miracle in our family.

The day after Thanksgiving 2007, Black Friday. My mother and I had never done the early morning shopping extravaganza at walmart. So, we decided to get up at 4:00am for a day of shopping. We had a wonderful day, good shopping and a quick bite for lunch and more shopping. At about 4 pm, I headed home drop dead tired. Mom headed home too. I was making tacos for dinner at about 5:15 when my sister called. "Mom's got a really BAD headache and we are taking her to the ER." I'm like she's just tired Amy tell her to rest. "No, you don't understand Brandi. She's in pain." Pain that makes you vomit and collapse in and out of consciousness. Her boyfriend Gary carried her off the couch into the truck. On the way she said her goodbeyes, to him and what to tell us girls. She has told me since, that at that moment she felt like her life was over and she was dieing. She was in pain but at peace with this being IT. She knew she would be with the Savior shortly.

In the ER, they did the MRI and sure enough, a ruptured brain aneurysm. She has described it as intense heat and water running inside her head. Oh, and the most massive pressure you can imagine. There is not much room in the skull. When blood is flowing out , where is it gonna go? The water running she heard is the blood flowing out of her vessel. So, this was a real serious cituation.

She was taken by ambulance to Shands UF and thats when I arrived. The next few hours many test were done. The doctors told us that it would be touch and go through the night. The next morning she would be going in for brain surgery to clamp the vessel. By this point I felt like collapsing from being over whelmed and exhausted. I spent the night in the Shands waiting room, I couldn't sleep if I tried. I cried out to Jesus all night. He answered!

By morning the bleeding had stopped. She even looked better but the Drs still wanted to do the surgery just to make sure. We prayed about it and decided to put it in God's hands. She was having the brain surgery. This was the saddest time. This is the time that a mother and her two daughters say everything you may never get to say, on this earth anyway. No matter what, we love her and she loves us. There could be no other mother for me and I know she feels the same. I left that room with peace and knowing my mother would make it.

I still spent the next five hours in prayer. Most of it on my knees in the chapel. Waiting... Finally here she came down the hall on a stretcher, totally out of it, but moving and alive. Hours later, when we were allowed to see her, she looked bad. Scar from one ear over the forhead to the other ear. She spent two weeks in ICU and she hated every minute of it.

Today, she has lasting disabilities. Short term memory deficit, blindness in one eye, and pains occasionally on the left side of her head. Especially if she is about to cry. Mom, don't cry if you are reading this. Don't hurt yourself.

You are our miracle! I love you so much!

Sadly, we found out that the ICU pod she was in had all anuerysm patients at that time. She was the only one to make it. One was a eighteen year old boy. It cannot be explained this side of heaven. Only the Heavenly Father knows!