Saturday, March 13, 2010

A LIFE SAVED BY GOD ( 2ND TIME )

On three (3) separate occasions in one week, I would have the same vision: Every time I'd look out my front-door window.  I envisioned myself running down the opposite side of my street, screaming for help. A week later, this vision would become a living nightmare when my five(5) year old daughter fell unconscious after suffering a (complex) Febrile Seizure.
The only difference between the vision at the front door and reality was my daughter: I was running with her in my arms screaming for help. Her lips had turned a purplish color after her temperature went from slightly-elevated to 103 degrees in a matter of a few minutes  My next door neighbor brought her out of the seizure, but when she arrived at the hospital, her temperature had risen to 104 (degrees).
The doctors tried everything they could to get my daughter's temperature under control. She was given a Spinal Tap (to detect infection), and her body was packed in ice to lower temperature (among other things).  But, nothing seemed to work. Still her temperature continued to rise to 105 (degrees). The doctors also told me they thought my daughter had been in the seizure for too long a time -- over 10 minutes -- and that she may have sustained brain damage.
Two days had passed and her temperature was still at 105 when the doctors informed me they had done everything they possibly could, and that if her temperature started to rise again, she would die. I was devastated. A few hours later I looked over at my five-year-old; she was so red in color and hot to the touch  But, she was neither in pain nor discomfort--what so ever. (Praise God!) She was even smiling at me and giggling, and moving about in her bed. Later, when I had to leave for a half an hour, she even had the strength to sneak out of her bed, pass the nurses station, and play in the playroom, with the other sick children. The doctors were unable to explain to me how she could be acting like a healthy five-year-old, but medically be so close to dying. She should have been too weak, too sick to get out of bed. Yet, she managed to do so.

That night, I was so exhausted I just laid across the foot of my daughter's bed after she had gone to sleep, and took a nap myself. The nurses were kind enough not to disturb me, as they continued to monitor her throughout the night. I awoke about 5 (am), and was told she had been sleeping peacefully, but her temperature had started to rise again ever so slowly toward 106 degrees. It was while listening to the nurse that a serene calm suddenly came over me, and I started to remember the spiritual things that had happened to me, during the week of my daughter's arrival at the hospital. Each time, I entered the hospital to visit my daughter, I would have to walk past the hospital chapel, and when I would do this I'd feel a light tugging on my right arm, it was as if something or someone was pulling me toward the chapel . But, I'd resist - telling myself: 'I didn't have time to go in; I had to be with my daughter'. After thinking about it I realized this had happened to me on at lease three (3) separate occasions, and I was suddenly aware, 'I hadn't prayed!
Oh my God! 'I hadn't prayed, for my little girl!' I always prayed! I pray for people I know, people I don't know. I pray for other people's sick children, yet I forgot to pray for my own. How could I forget to pray? That had never happened to me before! It was a little past five(5) in the morning when I knelt beside my daughter's hospital bed and asked God for forgiveness. Psalm 9:1 says, "I will praise thee, O Lord with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works." I didn't follow scripture. I had ignored the presence of God, when I was shown the vision at my front door (3) different times, for a week. God was there. I was blind to His presence when my little girl was burning up with fever, yet she was happy, and was not suffering. God was there loving and comforting her. And when I was being spiritually pulled to the chapel for prayer, It was God, tugging gently on my arm pleading for me, to come with Him and pray for my little girl. How could I have been so absorbed in a crisis that literally screamed for the intervention of God, and not call upon him. I was mystified and humbly ashamed at my actions. Oh, my God please forgive me! Please forgive me! I asked with fervent urgency, as I prayed for forgiveness and help for my little girl. That, if it was His will, to please save her life, once again. (He had saved her life at nine (9) days-old. See first time post). 
When I finished praying, I felt in spirit, it was alright to leave the hospital for a short time, just long enough to check on my eight (8) year-old daughter who was very sick with the flu, and had a rising temperature. It took fifteen minutes to ride from the hospital to my home, another ten minutes to find out that my daughter's temperature had subsided (Praise God!) and that she was doing fine.  
As my husband and I turned to rush back to the hospital, the telephone rang. It was a nurse calling from the nurse's station outside my daughter's room. She was so excited, she was screaming into the telephone that my daughter's temperature had suddenly gone from 105(point something) degrees and rising (a death watch!) to a life-saving 103 degrees, in a matter of a few minutes. She said that the hospital staff couldn't understand, what had happened! I knew they thought my daughter was going to succumb to her illness because she was so sick. But, God had other plans for my little girl and saved her life once again, and I praised a most merciful God. The doctors also had told me that my daughter would suffer with more Fibrile Seizures during her life, but the Lord was watching over her and to this day, many years later, those seizures have never occurred, nor was there any damage to her brain from the seizure. Psalm 29:2 says," Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." I PRAISE GOD FOR ANSWERED PRAYERS!