Factor 13

When our second son, Jason, was a little baby, we were getting desperate to own our own home.  We found a nice, unique A frame home in Lynden for a reasonable price.  We had no saved money, so we asked to borrow money from a relative (I'm not even sure anymore if it was my parents or my grandmother), and they agreed to help us come up with our earnest money and a down payment.  We put in our bid for the home and it was accepted.


Not long afterwards Jeremy became very sick.  Jeremy had been experiencing bouts of crying uncontrollably that ended up with him vomiting and the sleeping for a long time.  These bouts happened up to 4 or 5 times a month, but we had no idea what was causing them.  This time though, he just couldn't stop throwing up, plus he was suffering from diarrhea as well.  He was a very sick little guy.


When Jeremy became listless and I couldn't get him to drink anything without it coming right back up I knew it was time to get him to the doctor's office.  We lived so close that I took him there in his stroller.  The doctor looked him over and pinched the skin on the back of his hand.  He explained that when a child is properly hydrated the skin will bounce back.  Jeremy's stayed sticking up looking like some invisible hand was still pinching the skin.  He also looked at his eyes and explained that when a child gets dehydrated his eyes will look glassy - Jeremy's eyes were definitely glassy.  The doctor was very concerned for Jeremy's health and recommended, no, he urged me to get him to the hospital right away.


This was a shock to me, and presented many challenges as well.  My husband, Daryl, had left for the entire day to go to a car show with one of my nephews.  He wouldn't be back until close to midnight.  I had a little baby that I was nursing and no transportation.  I called Daryl's parents and they helped me get to the hospital and took Jason home to stay with them.


Having your child in the hospital for the first time is very traumatic.  The worst part is getting an IV into a dehydrated child.  It took a long time and I stayed by his side for most of it, but in the end they suggested I take a little walk to get some fresh air (I probably looked like I was close to fainting dead away) and go to the patient's kitchen and get something to drink.  I cried harder than I had ever cried before in my life.  Finally Daryl arrived with Jason. He had come home to an empty house and a note to call his parents.  He called and got caught up on everything and came straight down to be with me and bring Jason so he could nurse.  It was late before he was finally settled in his own room, sleeping from sheer exhaustion.  Then Daryl went home with Jason and got some much needed sleep.


The next 3 days were a jumble of tests and more tests.  He got hydrated by his electrolite were still low so they changed what he was getting through the IV.  His vomiting subsided with the IV but then the diarrhea got worse.  Then they were concerned about how much he was bleeding when they took blood samples so they test his blood.


The results were not good.  It showed that he was missing one or more clotting factor.  The doctor took me aside and told me about hemophiliac disease, how Jeremy would never be able to ride a bike or participate in sports like normal children.  That his life would be one of getting clotting factors, daily blood tests and worse.  He was so compassionate, and told me he would be running some more tests to know exactly what factors he was missing. but I went back to Jeremy's room devastated.  I cried out to God that this would not be true.  I called Daryl and told him the news and we talked over some of the changes this would make in our lives.  


The next day we talked with the doctor again and he told us how relieved he was after seeing the results of the blood work.  The factor that Jeremy was missing was factor 13.  He told us the factor 13 deficiency was not a problem, that factor 13 was not directly involved in blood clotting and that by only missing that factor, he would not fact the problems of all other hemophiliacs.  He also shared with us that it is the most rare for of hemophilia, and that there had only been a few known cases in the world in all of medical history.  He asked if he could send Jeremy's information down to the University of Washington so they could have record of this in case they ever did any studies on factor 13 deficiency.  Wow, we were amazed, shocked and so thankful!


We were able to take him home that day, and he slowly recovered.  He continued to have these bouts, but the doctor prescribed a medication to give him in the future that would stop the vomiting before it got that bad.  The medicine did the trick and kept him from ever having to be hospitalized for that again.


With in a month, we got the bill for Jeremy's hospitalization.  We had no insurance.  We also had some other bills hanging over our heads as well.  It became very clear to us that God was shutting the door to purchasing that beautiful A frame home.  What a let down. 


We contacted the sellers, and I met with them over lunch.  I shared with them what had transpired and told them that we would have to back out of our earnest agreement.  I knew that our earnest money was history.  But, surprise, the couple had such compassion on us that they refunded our earnest money in full.  My parents said I didn't have to pay them back, and we were able to use the funds to pay off all our bills and the hospital bill.  


God met our needs.  He always does.  Even when things seem darkest, God is there with us and will light our way.  We never purchased a home in Lynden, and I'm glad we didn't.  God had other plans for us (more about that later), and if we had forced our way through with that purchase, I am sure we would have lost that home as our financial situation did not improve much over the next few years, in fact it got worse.  But God always met our needs, and we were never without a roof over our heads.  

My Scar

It was a very hot night.  My sister, Lisa, and I had spent the day helping some neighbor girls run a garage sale to help pay for a broken window.  They had accidentally broken the window while playing one day, but the family couldn't afford to replace it, so the girls put on a garage sale to raise funds for the window.  I remember that their parents were very unhappy about that window being broken, but thought it was very cool that they found a way to pay for it!  I believe the girls were about 10 and 13 and at the time I was about 8 years old.

I had gone to bed, but my room was like an oven, way too hot to sleep in.  So I decided to try to open my window.  We lived in an old house, with wooden framed windows that had been painted more times than you could count.  They were heavy, and needed to be lifted up and then braced with something to hold them open.  I had much difficulty opening these windows when I was young and this might have been the first time I attempted to do it by myself.  My bedroom was on the top floor, and my bed was positioned right up to the window, so once I got that window open I would get the fresh air right on my face, delightful on hot nights.

I placed my hands on the window and began to push.  It didn't budge, so I pushed again, harder...it started to budge...so I tried one last time pushing with all my might.  The window gave, only it didn't go up, it shattered.  Since I was pushing so hard against the glass (not the frame), the momentum caused me to go through the window, and since I was on my knees at the level of the window there was nothing preventing me from flying right through that window to the concrete over 2 stories below.  I distinctly remember watching the glass shards dropping down towards the ground and the feeling that I was starting to do the same, when I felt a pressure on my chest that held me in place with my knees on the bed, my feet in the air and the upper half of my body hanging out the window...then I came back through the window opening (I'm not sure how to this day) until I was sitting on my bed, but on the way back through my arm (just above and inside my elbow) had caught on a large glass shard sticking up from the lower frame.  I was terrified!  I was mortified!  I had broken that window and they are so expensive!  I was bleeding too - badly.

I jumped off my bed, holding my arm to try to stop the bleeding and I ran out of my room - I was yelling at this point "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I broke the window" and ran down the stair and was still yelling/crying about breaking the window.  My mom had come running to the stair along with my dad and my sister, Lisa.  They had heard the glass breaking on the ground and then my yelling - they ran towards the stairs and got to me as I neared the bottom.

By this time my arm had bled enough that it was obvious that it needed attention right away.  My mother reassured me that it was OK and not to worry about the window.  Over and over as I was hysterically telling them that I'd work to pay for it and that I was so sorry that I had broken the window.  My mom carefully cleaned my arm, and discovered that a chunk of flesh had been scooped out - about 1/4 inch wide, and 1 inch long and around 1/2 inch deep.  I remember her discussing the possibility of stitches, but they decided that a butterfly bandage would suffice.  It took a while, but they did get the bleeding to stop.  While she was working on my arm she asked how I broke the window, and then she asked how I kept from falling completely out of the window since I was kneeling right next to the window and I told her about the pressure on my chest.    I told her that something, someone kept me from falling.  There was no reason I shouldn't have fallen to the cement below - I was even hanging out there long enough to watch the glass falling to the ground!

I believe that an angel held me back.  God preserved my life that day.  Falling 2 1/2 stories onto glass covered cement  would have been life threatening.  But that wasn't in God's plan for me.  He stepped in and preserved me.  He allowed this in my life to show me that He is in control - that no harm can befall me unless it is first filtered through His loving hand, and that it is for my good and for His glory.  Would He be any less loving or in control if I had fallen to the ground and was severely injured?  No, if that had happened, that would have been His plan for me and it would have been for my good and His glory.  But He chose to do something miraculous - to show that nothing is impossible with Him.

To this day I have the scar on my arm.  It is noticeable and I can't tell you how many time children have asked me how I got that scar, and it gives me many opportunities to share how God miraculously preserved my life that day.  Now that I think of it, scars are an excellent way to remember, aren't they!