Even as someone who unequivocally believes in a God capable of miracles, I am still often stunned by the miracles that actually occur in everyday life.
To update you, James underwent open heart surgery last Thursday. The surgery itself went well, although when the surgeon got inside his heart and looked at the third defect (which they weren't planning on fixing for several months), he realized it was worse than previously thought and James would not be able to wait for another surgery months down the road. The surgeon decided to fix the third defect right then, although the main concern with doing so was that this procedure, coupled with the other two corrections, would cause too much bleeding for his body to handle. There was hardly any bleeding--the doctor called it a miracle--and it would prove to be just the first in a long line of miracles for James. Among other things, he was off the pacemaker by that evening, off the ventilator the next morning. He woke up before he was "supposed to," was able to eat before he was "supposed to," and was able to be held and cuddled by his parents long before he was "supposed to." Honestly, I have not even been privy to all the things he's done that no one expected him to do.
After being told initially that James could be in the cardiac ICU for up to a month, with 7-10 days as the minimum, I am so pleased to have been informed this morning that his is off all his machines, passed all his tests, and is eating well enough to be kicked out of the hospital completely. His parents will be bringing him home in the morning--a short 5 days after open heart bypass surgery! If that is not a miracle, I do not know what is. The doctors and nurses are all shocked by his amazing progress, they keep shaking their heads and saying they don't know how he's doing it.
I know, without a doubt, how he's doing it. The prayers of so many, offered so sincerely on James' behalf, have been answered in a miraculous way. Their entire family will be together for Christmas, which is something we had not really considered possible last week. We hope and pray he continues to improve and recover without incident. I personally hope he does his parents a solid, and from here on out has the least eventful childhood on record. Seriously, kid, not so much as a stray pea up the nose for you.
Sometimes, after watching the news and seeing what a mess this world is, and then getting a phone call like I got this morning about James' homecoming, I wonder if I'm still inhabiting the same planet. Today, I wondered if there really is positive news like this, or if I had just snapped and gone to a "happy place" in my head for a while. Luckily, that's when I heard Sam's voice shouting "Mom, can I have poop for lunch!?" followed by uncontrollable laughter.
Ah yes, this is our same every day imperfect mess of a world. I guess it's only fitting that while a small child could make me contemplate the palpable closeness of a divine and loving Heavenly Father, another small child could keep me unquestionably grounded in the unavoidable monotony of life. That such things can coexist so peacefully and constantly is in and of itself is a kind of miracle.
Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment