To God Be the GLORY

This is the continuation of my last post.  I left off with asking for prayers for Faith's surgery, and I thank ALL of our prayer warriors who joined in the effort.  We were scheduled to be @ the hospital at 10 am and surgery was scheduled for 1:20 in hopes of going earlier possibly by 12:00.  We as life would have it, that didn't happen!!!  We arrived around 9:37 for pre-op and were taken to a room by 10 am.  Shortly after we arrived the FLOOD of friends and family began pouring into our little room and I am so  GRATEFUL for that flood.  You never know just how much you are loved and who your true friends/family are until you experience the love and support like we did that day.  First it was a friend/former deacon from church, then one of our youth who is just like one of our own children, then it was 2 other couples who  have children the same age as several of our children, then my parents arrived, next Faith's teacher (and my co-worker @ school for 8 years who has always reminded us of my younger sister & teacher, Amy), then Faith's Sunday School teacher (another of my co-workers of 8 years from school), then another family from church whose daughter is Faith's age and whose son is Jonathan's age (and who was also one of our youth in Charleston).  They kept me SANE and served as the peanut gallery keeping my baby entertained while waiting for the BIG event. 

All was going well and as scheduled at this point, she got her IV just before 12, and the dr. came to "sign" her arm just before 1:00 and to explain again the surgical procedure, and to let us know that as soon as the OR was free, then we were set to go.  We were excited and anxious to get things over with, because at this point she had not eaten anything since 7:00 pm, and hadn't had any liquids since about 11:30 pm the night before, so it had been just over 12 hours.  We thought we were "HOME FREE", and then the waiting game began!!!!  1:20 came and went, then we waited; 2:00 came and went, and we waited some more.  About 2:40, the time we were originally told would be her possible surgery time, I checked with the nurse's desk to see what was the hold up and they told us the OR had just called up to tell them we were waiting on a room.  About 3:15 the dr. came back in to explain that another dr had gotten backed up with surgery and as soon as the OR was available we could get started.  He then proceeded to stay and "chat" with us for a few minutes and in the conversation ended up sharing his testimony with us.  He is a West Point graduate and thought God's plan for him was to lead men into battle, but God changed his heart and mind and after years of running and wrestling with God, he finally surrendered to God's call on his life to become an ortho dr/surgeon, and how God had provided the means, the will and the way for him to pursue God's perfect plan for him.  He also went on to say that what he does in the OR is nothing short of God's plan and that he cannot take ANY of the credit for what goes on, it all goes to GOD and he is just being used as God's instrument to carry out God's will for his life!!!!  WOW WHAT A POWERFUL TESTIMONY, and just what we needed to hear!!!

After he left, then Faith got very upset; she was hungry, tired, scared, ready to BLOW THIS JOINT & missing her daddy!!! (As was I on all of the above).  At this point, everyone cleared the room except myself, my friend Mandy (who is also a youth parent and 1/2 the couple who brought me home from Charleston & an EMT/911 operator), and our token youth/red-headed step child, Keeley.  She was the next best thing to having one of Faith's siblings at the hospital with us, so she just stayed to help keep Faith calm.  SOOO to keep Faith occupied we started calling everyone I could think of who she was "missing" and "needing" to keep her calm - we called daddy, mamaw, papaw, Trey, Aunt Becky, then mamaw and papaw called us back.  It did the trick and about 10 minutes after 4:00, they came to take her back for sugery.  HALLELUJAH!!!!!  A little teary eyed and scared, they wheeled her out then we went to the lobby to WAIT once again. 

As  I sat down to "relax"  I opened up my Journey magazine to read my daily devotion, and God Spoke to me once again.  The title for the day's devotion was "In sickness and in health" and the key verse was Matthew 11:28 "Come to me all you who are weary and Heavy burdened and I WILL GIVE YOU REST"!!!!!!! How much more reassurance is that to know that God is taking care of me and my baby girl.  The additional/deeper walk verses came out of Isaiah 58:10 - 11, "...if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  AND the LORD will guide you CONTINUALLY and satisfy your desire in the scorched places and MAKE YOUR BONES STRONG (which he was doing for my baby, through HIS loyal servant and instrument, our dr.) and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters DO NOT FAIL!!!"  Wow, how much more could that have spoken to me and to our situation to give us the reassurance that everyone would be ok and that everything that we were going through was all in HIS hands, the master physician and ultimate healer, and we had nothing to fear because he would provide for ALL our needs, physical, mental, and Spiritual.  Well I was able to take a deep breath, relax & get a bite to eat knowing that God had this all under control and Faith was in HIS hands.

We got notice around 4:30 that surgery had started and things were going well, then around 5:35, Dr. James came to see us in the lobby to tell us that she had done GREAT, surgery went as expected and he gave us copies of her x-rays to show us the "little" screw he put in her elbow.  Well let me tell you  "it weren't no little screw" as us East Tn hillbillies would say!!!  But praise God it was over and we could take her home soon, after a more than 10 hour wait for surgery to begin and another 1 1/2 - 2 hours wait/recovery time, we finally got to "BLOW THIS JOINT" and head home.  BUT before we left, she ate 3 PB crackers, a WHOLE milky way bar, sipped some mountain dew and was able to almost fill a hat, so to speak, in the bathroom.  All the while, our 3 amigos (Keeley, and Robbie & Mandy, my taxi drivers/chauffeurs from Charleston) never left our side.  My mom and dad also stayed with us until we got her home, then they headed back across the mountains to TN.

Faith's  request for supper was Chic Fil A, which we thought she could handle because of what she ate in the hospital, but as soon as she took the first bite of chicken, she got sick, most likely as a result of the anesthesia wearing off.  So after we got her settled and gave her something for nausea, we fed her one chicken nugget every 10-15 minutes until she had downed the whole 6-8 piece box.  She then asked for her fries, which we told her would probably NOT be a good idea until her food settled, PLUS we were afraid they would be too greasy for her to handle.  Shortly after that she dozed off into La-La land and was out for the night.  Robbie and Mandy stayed with us until a little after 11:00, they were my rock that kept me sane, then they went home to get some much needed rest.

Around 4:00 am I woke up in a panic, realizing I had fallen asleep before Faith got her next dose of pain meds and not knowing whether or not the "Happy Juice" would make her sick, I pumped her full of Motrin and she drifted off to sleep again. Around 6:19, Keeley and I loaded Faith into our friend's (Larry Wyatt's) Tahoe, so she could spend the next 2 days resting at home with her friend, and Keeley and I jumped in the burb and headed for Charleston.  We were doing fine and making good time, until I missed the 85-26 interchange to Columbia and we headed south down 85 into Greenville/Spartanburg and had to back track to I - 26.  I guess I was so excited to be going back to camp and taking Keeley with me, PLUS I was trying to make sure we had permission forms/medical release forms for Keeley, that I just wasn't paying attention.  Keeley was acting co-pilot, until she fell asleep, and with some fancy driving, and  little bit of  extra "GOD - SPEED" we made it back to Charleston @ 10:19 (exactly 4 hours after we left Shelby) just as the ministry teams were leaving to go off campus for the day.  We found Artie, got a couple hugs from the leaders/kids, then followed Artie's team to their site where we got to play games and love on some kids ALL DAY LONG!! 

I got the best of BOTH worlds this week, got to be there for my daughter, AND got to experience camp yet again, just in a different capacity.  Worship was GREAT, as was church devotion time.  Got to pray with one of our youth over God's calling on her life to do more to spread the gospel, although she didn't know how or what, and got to hear the praises and testimonies of ALL the decisions that were made for Christ.  I may have told you that when all the obstacles kept getting thrown in our paths that Satan used to try and keep us from even LEAVING Shelby to go to camp, that I told God that I knew that he must have something BIG in store for us and IT HAD BETTER BE GOOD, because Satan was fighting too hard to prevent it from happening.  WELL GOD SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT, as always, we had 7 salvations, at least that many or more rededications & several calls to ministry, 2 of which were my Casey and Jonathan.  NONE of this was any of our doing, it was God's and most of the decisions that were made came about as a result of our kids praying for and with each other and not with an adult!!!  PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Well we left Charleston on Friday by Noon and got home around 4:30, Artie got to preach Sunday morning, ALL of our youth who made decisions came forward at the end of service and we baptized 8 youth on the spot!!!.  Then Sunday night we had our camp service night where the children and youth got to share about their experiences and what God was doing in their lives.  It was AWESOME and IT WAS GOD!!!  We knew that if we persevered and weathered the storm that God would provide and HE did.  This was the largest group of youth we had ever taken on a trip before, this was the most decisions that have ever been made and we had the LEAST amount of trouble, drama, etc. out of our group. 

If you don't believe in God or the power of prayer, then just come take a walk in our shoes and see the fire in our kids' hearts and lives.  They are like energizer bunnies on steroids right now and are already asking if we can continue to do ministry and mission projects within our own community.  The song by Stephen Curtis Chapman comes to mind "Don't let the fire die", and our kids and feeding the flames and keeping the home fires burning.  We already have our chaperones lined up for
CONNECT (our winter retreat in Sevierville, TN) and M-Fuge next summer @ North Greenville University in Greenville, SC;  AND we  are already entering a state of prayer for next year, with the expectations that God will continue to bless us even more.  Sit back, buckle up and hold on, this ride's getting ready to start, and I want to be first in line to see what God is going to do. Please join us in praising God for the plentiful harvest and that we will continue to grow in HIS Grace AND in praying for our youth as they continue the work that God has begun in them. 

Thanks for being there for us and may God truly bless ALL of you!!!!