I Will Not Fall

In November of 2006 my daughter, Rowynn who was 8 at the time had some pain in her lower left pelvic area. We took her to the hospital and they said there was a stomach flu going around but the area she was pointing to was not the usual place for that. They said to take her home and if it got worse to bring her back. It got worse, we brought her back. The nurse and doctor where complete jerks and allowed our daughter to be in pain for almost 7 hours, with complete mistreatment, before agreeing to send her for a scan. They then found out that her ovary was either swollen or had a large growth. At that time the original doctor came in for his next shift and went off on them, gave our daughter morphin and sent her to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando.

They took her in for surgery the next morning and had to remove her ovary because it twisted over and died. What was supposed to be the size of a walnut became the size of an apple. She is so strong that the surgery was on a Thursday and she was back in school on Tuesday.

I knew she would be OK because before leaving the house we were listening to Z 88.3 a Christian station here in Florida. I prayed to God saying that I needed to hear Praise You In This Storm. Within 5 seconds (literally) the song that was on finished and Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns came on and a peace that God was with us came over me.

The month before my mother-in-law passed away and we were still grieving her so we could not deal with another tragedy. God protected Rowynn and she is well and fit.

2003 my family was at the school bus stop and a car did not see the bus stopped and hit my wife and oldest daughter. He was doing 55 and hit my wife directly, threw her in the air and she hit a concrete sign. Then the driver hit the curb and on the bounce caught my daughter, Kaitlyn under his wheel and dragged her about 40 feet before coming to a stop. God again protected them and they left with what would be considered minor injuries and left the hospital the same day. The news called it a miracle. God gave me a feeling of forgiveness for this person because He knew I would have to concentrate on the love for my family and take care of them rather than the anger towards the guy and wanting to hunt him down.

Fast forward to today. Our last two children are miracles because we were told it wouldn't happen again. Since our son, Liam we have tried for another child. That would be almost eight years. We finally decided that it wasn't going to happen and discussed me getting a vasectomy. In the mean time, about two weeks ago we found out we were pregnant, at about 7 weeks and we were exstatic.

I've been exercising because I have always been in decent shape but just wanted to improve my health. On Tuesday I had to go to the hospital because I had been feeling chest pain for about a week. They told me it could be either Angina or a swelling in the lining of my heart and/or lungs. Since my release I have been trying to get a hold of the Cardiac Clinic that is supposed to give me a stress and other tests to no avail. They have not called.

On top of that scare, yesterday my wife had some pain in her lower right side. We thought, and so did the hospital, that it may be appendicitis. We got there at 3:45 PM and finally at 9:oo PM we were told it was actually a spontaneous miscarriage. Devastated we asked that they make the discharge quick so we could come home to our three children and break the news to them. They did not take it well. We were up to 3:00 AM trying to console them. Needless to say we are all wiped out and feeling a great loss. We still love God, we still thank Him for what we do have and we are still Praising Him in this storm. However, our praise is still filled with tears, gnashing of teeth, tearing of clothes and a mouth full of earth from being kicked down again. But like my last post I am standing up, full and upright. I am not sitting down through this one. With the help of God, my family and all of you I will Stay The Course, push on and keep praising out loud.

Thank you God, Amen.