Eleven Years Ago, today.

[CajunBass]

Some of you may have heard this story until you're sick of it, but maybe there is one person who hasn't. (Long and boring alert.)

I'll just give the Readers Digest condensed version here. On November 27, 2007, my wife Sandy (AKA: Misty) suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain. By the grace of God, and with the help of a crackerjack rescue squad, a flight crew, a Huey helicopter, and a really good surgical team, she survived and is still with me today.

The miracles I saw that day.

It's a really LONG story. On second thought I won't go into it in detail. I'll just say, PRAISE GOD for his mercy and grace. I remember telling one of the rescue squad crew that I wasn't worried about her. If she died she was going to heaven. I was just worried about what I'd do without her. What a comfort that knowledge was.

I spoke to the surgeon just before he went into the OR and told him I would be praying for him. He replied "I'm just God's instrument." You can't imagine what a comfort that was.

Seven hours later she was out of surgery and in the intensive care unit. The nurse had gone off to take care of something else, after assuring me she stable. I was bent over her bed praying over her. I was asking God to spare her.

Then I heard a voice...in what to me was an audible voice, just as if you were speaking to me. It said, "You're praying for the wrong thing." I looked around and realized I was the only person in the room, other than Sandy, and she didn't say anything.

"Praying for the wrong thing? What does that mean?" I thought. The voice replied "Genesis Chapter 22."

"Genesis Chapter 22?"

I racked my brain...what was in Genesis 22? hen it hit me. That's where Abraham is called upon to sacrifice the thing he loves most. His only son, Issac.

I realized I was praying for the wrong thing. I had no right to ask for her "back." She wasn't mine in the first place. She had given herself to Jesus Christ long before she ever knew me.

I changed my prayer then. I acknowledged that she was not mine, but belonged to Jesus. I prayed Lord, she's yours. If You want to take her, take her. But if You don't need her right now. I do. But I will praise You either way.

Sandy of course survived, and is still with us today. The story is more involved of course, but I tried to shorten it as much as I could, so hopefully, no one would fall asleep reading it, but there were other miracles that happened over the next several weeks and months.

So, I just wanted to say, PRAISE GOD!! THANK YOU JESUS.

(On the down side, Sandy now has ammunition to use whenever we have a "spat." She'll look at me with a grin and say, "You told God you wanted me back." And she's right.)

Edited: Well Duhhhhhhhh...it wasn't "eighteen years ago." I've got no idea where that came from. It was eleven years ago.

[Screamin_Reel]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[hatcreek]

A story like that deserves to be shared at least every year on the anniversary of it's occurrence, Wayne...

Thank you

[jlperkins]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed it

[sdbrison]

A story like that deserves to be shared at least every year on the anniversary of it's occurrence, Wayne...

Thank you

Yep

[lundfisherman]

Would like to hear the long version. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeff La]

Miracles happen daily, we just don't percieve them all.

[AdamB]

Amen!! Prayers for you both and your families.

[CajunBass]

Thanks all. I forgot to mention one very important thing. That first night at the hospital, I was wandering around and found a computer lab for patients and their families. I was able to share my fears, my thoughts, my praises, with my friends here on the BBC. Someone was here 24 hours a day, so I was never really alone. The sent flowers, they sent cards, they prayed. When I cried, they cried. When I shouted for joy, they shouted with me.

Many thanks to all where were there that night, and over the next months and years. You don't know how much it was appreciated.

[CajunBass]

Would like to hear the long version. Thanks for sharing.

I'm going to add one more little incident that goes to show that God will humble you when you forget to be thankful.

This happened maybe a week, maybe a little more. Sandy had come out of the comma, but was still pretty much "out of it." She could speak, and make sounds, but she couldn't string two words together to make a sentence. She seemed to understand what I said, but her brain just wasn't "right" yet.

Anyway, I was waiting for the elevator one evening, when an older man, older that I was anyway, came up. I knew him from having seen him around and knew his wife was in there for the same thing, but I also knew she was still in a comma.

"How's your wife doing?" he asked me. I replied "She's doing alright, I suppose, but when she talks she just doesn't make any sense." He quietly said, "I just wish my wife would talk."

WACK!!! I felt as if I'd been slapped. I felt more than heard God say, "Be thankful for what you've got." I watched as he stepped onto the elevator, totally forgetting where I had been going or what I was going to do. I stood there and thanked God over and over, and prayed for that man and his family.

Later, that same evening, I saw the fellow, and his kids taking a walk down the hall with a nurse. I knew right away that they were going to make the decision to take his wife off life support. Don't ask how I knew, I just did.

[lifetime1962]

Thank you

[Richsav730]

Praise the Lord! And thanks for sharing.

[CajunBass]

The first day, as the operation was in progress, I was in the waiting room, alone. Oh sure, my pastor and three or four of the deacons from church were there with me, but I was alone.

I became aware that there was someone standing in front of me. I looked up and saw a young black man standing there. He spoke and said, "It looks like you're having a bad day." I like to think I smiled and said that Yes, I was. "Someone you know in here?" he asked. I told him about what happened to my wife, and how I wasn't sure she was going to make it.

He grabbed chair, pulled it over, and sat down. He told me he was from Rhode Island, and his sister was there for the same thing. "Let me tell you what you're going to see today, and over the next few days." We talked for some time. He told me how his sister had come out of her coma, and what challenges she was facing. When he stood up to leave, he said, "Before you leave here, you're going to have the chance to help someone else."

Later far into the night, after Sandy was in the ICU, I walked down the hall, trying to find a place to grab a few winks. I found a dark corner and tried to get comfortable. Not long after, I noticed a nurse and a young woman come down to the waiting room. The nurse left to get back to what she was doing, and heard the woman softly crying. I looked around, and there was no one to comfort her. She was more alone than I had been. I thought, I guess it's my turn.

I asked her the same question. "Someone you know in here?" She stopped crying, and replied. My mother. She was scheduled for surgery this morning, but they had an emergency case come in so they bumped her out of the ER, to take that one. They're taking her in now."

I told her that it was my wife who had been the emergency. I told her what had happened and we talked on into the night. At some point, I asked, "You ain't from around here are you?" judging by her accent.

She laughed and said she was from Cameroon, Africa. I thought a moment and said, "It's amazing how God works. He moved a young man from Rhode Island to Fairfax, Va., so he could comfort an old redneck from Richmond, so I could I hope, comfort a young woman from Cameroon, Africa. It wasn't an accident that we were all here, at the same place, at just the right time."

I saw her over the next week or two, and found out her mother was doing fine. Where she went from there, I don't know. I don't think I ever saw the young man again, but I'm so thankful for the both of them.