When all You can do is say Thank You

Today, October 3, 2008 is a day I will never forget! It is the day that, by all rights, my father should have died. But...thank God he didn't. I am writing this from the Intensive Care Unit of Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Here in room 14, dad's outstanding nurse, Dana, continues to fulfill the needful duties of giving the kind of care that goes beyond the paycheck and originates in the heart. I must say the entire staff has given us excellent service and care.

Two days ago my dad had a 13 hour spinal, corrective surgery. This was the 8th spinal surgery he has had, truly enough surgery to kill most men 30 years his junior. Dad is 72 and is a real hero to me. He is a great father...not a perfect one...a great one! The difference between being a perfect one and a great one is two things. First, telling the truth. If you tell the truth, there is no such thing as a perfect earthly father. The only perfect Father is in heaven. Secondly, perfection is actually based on forgiveness. When mistakes are made, it is forgiveness that creates perfection, just like we receive when our heavenly Father forgives us our trespasses and sees us as being perfect through Jesus' blood. All that to say, I have a perfect father.

Dad worked hard, being bi-vocational, to support our family when I was a lad. He has always been conscientious and giving toward others. A gentleman by choice, but a man that could square up to you and cover his own tracks if need be. He was a farmer and cowboy in the beginning. He grew up in a farming family with roots that find themselves in the boots of hard-working men. Dad is of the same mold.

There just isn't anything he couldn't do. Need an engine overhauled? Need to repair something? Want to build a house or barn? Working with wood, metal, fiberglass, whatever? Dad could do it. He pulled me up in my first deer stand at a very young age. He took me on my first airplane ride...he was the pilot. He taught me to fish...to build...to admit mistakes...to go forward in the face of opposition...to stand for what you believe. Dad is still extremely teachable, a rare quality among 72 year olds. He continues to be a student of the Bible...of people. He is a prolific reader and well versed in almost any subject. He calculated fire-direction in the army for towed howitzers long before they used computers to do the calculating. He did it with a pencil and tablet.

Dad's life today is fulfilled in being at the church he loves with the people he loves. He enjoys spending time with his kids and grandkids. I enjoy being with dad on Sunday evenings after the work is all done to watch a little football while eating MiMi's homemade goodies.

All of that nearly ended today. I held dad's hand and draped myself over him as the doctors feverishly tried to get his heart to function correctly. It was desperate times! He had suffered a post-operative heart attack and the domino effect had shut his kidneys down to 10% function. He was becoming toxic. His blood pressure was falling. His heart was racing and it was a night that crept by minute by excruciating minute. Early in the morning the cardiologist, Dr. Kerns, called me out into the hallway. I was not prepared for the news he gave me. "Your dad is in a dangerous state. His heart and kidneys have taken a backseat to his liver. His liver is now failing. One test should be at level one and your dad's is at level three. His enzymes should be at 60 and they are at 2700." "I want to be honest with you," he said as I braced myself. "People who have both kidney and liver failure have about a 90% mortality rate." I stared the man in the face and knew the odds of dad surviving the day was slim.

When I told our family the news we were all devastated. Devastation gathered us around dad's bed and turned into a prayer vigil. Calls and emails were sent out to summons fervent prayer. Prayer is that all important ingredient of the Christian walk that becomes the seedbed of great things. There were many tears in the room this morning. Could we be praying our final prayers with the man who has prayed so many for us?

Everyone left the room for a break except my wife, Tricia. She remained in the room with dad and continued praying. In boldness of spirit she felt to speak against the 'spirit of death' while proclaiming life. She sang to dad of healing. Then she placed a phone call wherein the party did not answer but his ring tone was the song, "How Great is Our God." When Tricia turned around, dad's eyes were opened and he was reaching up with hands that had not moved in two days. Tricia called an intercessor in our church, New Life, and told her a miracle was happening, to which Brenda answered excitedly, "I know because God gave me a word for you. Psalm 118:17, "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord" Trish quickly called me on the cell and I ran through the ICU expecting the worst.

Instead, God had turned the situation from devastation to the beginnings of an amazing miracle. Dad looked straight at me through swollen eyes. When I took his hands, he could squeeze mine and nod in answer to 'yes and no' questions. I wept openly with sincere gratitude to God. I thought my dad and I may have had our final moments together, but God had other plans. Our family joined us in the room with shouts and tears of celebration and thanksgiving to God.

Throughout the day dad has progressively lived in a miracle. His kidneys started working. His blood pressure leveled off and they had to reduce the medication. His heart began to work well....so well, that the cardiologist called up to the nurses station to say, "Tell the family the tests show Vestal's heart is functioning perfectly!" Dad is much more alert and appears to be in minimal pain although his back has been fused from the tailbone to the T-4 vertebra between the shoulder blades. Amazing! At this writing I have not heard any reports on the liver enzymes. Given the change in everything else, I expect there to be positive changes here too! One of the team doctors dropped in on dad an hour ago and said, "I have looked at the charts and what you say is true. This is a miracle."

I am aware that we have a ways to go. Dad is still on a ventilator; he has been fitted with a dialysis port for temporary dialysis in order to cleanse his blood further. There could be more 'what if's'. However, I choose to cling to the good and use them as faith-builders for the next obstacle. God is performing a miracle right before our very eyes!

When I think about the day we walk down the hall with dad and his 'new' back; when I think about a summer fishing trip where I get to watch him catch an Arkansas sandbass; when I get to look forward to watching dad and his brother play another game of dominoes; or watch dad worship again in church; or consider rooting the Dallas Cowboys through to another victory whilst eating a pan of brownies....all I can say to the heavens is "Thank You!"

Keep dad in your prayers for a full and complete recovery.

Thank you God for letting us witness this day of miracles I will never forget.

PS. While I was writing this blog, I saw men from a funeral home go down the hall to pick up someone who deceased today. Thank God they passed by our room.