The beginning...

This past weekend was rather sobering for me when I learned that a friend of mine’s cancer had returned and he was now being told his tumor was inoperable.  Within that same week I heard of another person I know who was given a couple of months to live.  My heart was heavy and I began to realize once again that I need to take EACH day as a day to be grateful for and thankful for.  I also had the opportunity to skype with a friend who asked me the hard questions, but the ones that need to be asked, like: “If I were to die how do I want to prepare my family for that senerio and what do I want to do to help them in their grief?”  This is one reason why I started this blog.  I want to leave my “Story” behind for my kids to read.  I want them to attest to the Faithfulness of God.  Just this week my son and I were talking and he asked, “How do you know Jesus is the one true God?”  I began to share a bit about my story.  Parts of it he had not heard before.  I listed off the reasons I believe Jesus the True God.  It’s through my story that I see God’s hand on my life over and over and I can’t deny Him and His work in my life.

So it all begins when I was in my mother’s womb.  My mom was maybe 4 months pregnant with me when a blood clot was found near my heart and there was also one near my mom’s groin.  The doctors were concerned those blood clots would move and kill me.  My mom was sent to The Pas, two hours away from where I grew up, and there the doctors told my parents that they needed to abort me.  If they did abort me then they could save my mom’s life, if they didn’t, then it was possible both my mom and myself would die.  I guess our heart beats were not normal and they were told that if they didn’t go back to normal they would take me right away. 

My dad went straight to the Pastor and asked people to begin praying for my mom and me.    When my mom was in the ICU at The Pas she said she was kept sedated in a dark room but clearly felt God was at her side and He whispered, “BE STILL AND KNOW I AM THE I AM, My name will be lifted high.”  She said she wanted to touch Him. She must have reached out to touch him because then she remembers the nurse coming in quickly and covering her back up telling her she couldn’t get up and needed to stay in her bed (to try to prevent the blood clot from moving into a more dangerous place).  Through prayer, our hearts stabilized enough for my mom to be airlifted to Winnipeg.  There was one lady from our little church who said, when she was praying that she heard angels singing and it was then that the blood clot moved and my heart was stabilized.  There too the doctors in Winnipeg recommended abortion.  They assumed if I lived I would be born with Down Syndrome.  In Winnipeg my mom saw Jesus holding a baby and he said, “I come that you may have life” and he outstretched his arms to her. 

My mom had a lot of complications while carrying me and spent most of the last part of her pregnancy in Winnipeg, on IV heparin due to the blood clots, while my dad was up north caring for my older sister, who was like a yr and a half at the time.  Mom had placenta previa so there was even more concern for her and my life.  The last 6 weeks of her pregnancy, in order to get out of the hospital, she had to stay in Winnipeg with friends so she could be near the hospital while giving herself injections every 8 hrs, all while my dad was taking care of my sister up north.  I was supposed to be born mid Jan but finally the doctors took me 2 days before Christmas.  I was born 7 lbs 2 oz but was home at 6 lbs or less due to health issues.  My stomach opening only opened half way.  This meant my mom had to feed me an ounce every half hour or I’d throw it all up.  I was born with Hirschsprung disease which is disease of the bowels. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirschsprung%27s_disease  

Due to these health issues at the age of 3 months old I was only 9 lbs 1oz.  I could not gain weight.  I was not growing.  I was in ICU for 10 days, and in the hospital for 3 weeks after I was born.  By a year and a half I was rushed to Winnipeg where the Doctors wondered if I was being abused because I was so malnourished and sick.  My bowels did not work.  I was so backed up and my bowels were blown to the size of an adults.  I would scream in pain A LOT because I was in so much pain and unable to go to the bathroom.   They needed to flush out my bowels but that procedure is normally not done on babies.  They weren’t sure I’d survive if they performed it and they worried my bowels would explode. They irrigated my bowels.  While this was happening my mom was praying and she felt she heard the Lord give her Jeremiah 1:5 for me. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  (As a side note this verse has become one of my life verses).  She would later say it was only their faith in God that held them through this difficult time.

I walked and talked later than most kids.  The doctors said if I wasn’t walking by 2 then they would have me go for a Cystic Fibrosis test.  Well at 1 month before I turned 2 I walked.  I am not the brightest crayon in the box but I wouldn’t say I am stupid either.  I worked hard for my good grades and graduated as the third highest in my grade 12 and I graduated from my 4^th yr. of college with top honours.  My mom calls me her miracle baby.

So due to the Hirschsprungs my sphincter in my bum did not work. As a baby they stretched my sphincter, but by the age of 5, due to some blood in my stools they wondered if they would have to perform a full colostomy.   My brain would tell my body that I needed to poop but by sphincter would not open.  My parents prayed hard and the Doctor looked at my parents before they wheeled me into the surgery room, and said, “I know you are praying people so just pray.”  My parents prepared for the reality that I might not come out of the surgery.  In the end they did not need to remove my bowels, they just repaired and added to or remade my sphincter.  I remember that surgery well and how scared I was going through those surgery doors, having to leave my mom on the other side.  I lived off of laxatives for yrs and hated my regular trips to The Pas to see doctors for check ups.  I would scream not wanting them to touch me or check my bum.  My mom said that on one of the doctor visits back to Winnipeg one of the nurses was so surprised to see that I was alive after all I had been through.  I know my life is a miracle. 

I used to be shy and not want anyone to know this part of my story because it had to do with my bowels.  Now I think it’s interesting that I deal with quit the opposite, I no longer have a colon and I deal with short bowel syndrome.  So instead of being backed up real bad I can’t seem to get on top of the chronic runs.  Yet I continue to live and fight for life.  My mom recently saw two of the doctors who dealt with my issues and my mom’s health issues when I was young.  They were saddened to hear of my cancer diagnosis knowing full well what all I went through so many years before.  But praise the Lord I am still here.  Many times the doctors didn’t think I would survive and live.  They didn’t think I’d make it past the age of 5.  Well I am turning 37 at the end of this year. That’s something to praise the Lord about!  Though I am so ready to meet my Savior Jesus and I have complete peace about heaven, I have two little miracles of my own and an amazing husband who are not ready to say good-bye yet.  And so I choose to believe the Lord has something else in-store for me yet.  His call on my life has not been removed!  I will fight and choose life until it’s my time to enter those pearly gates.  Trusting His name will be praised through my story, past-present-and future.