Married Life

Shortly after moving to Green Bay we joined Pilgrim Congregational Church. Around this time, we visited my cousin and her family in New Hampshire. She had recently begun homeschooling their four children. Bruce and I were very impressed with her children. They sat with us for hours and carried on very intelligent conversations with us, who were basically strangers to them. I remember thinking that they were very well behaved, but since I knew nothing about children, I figured that was just how they were. I also remember thinking, " Why on earth would anyone want to home school?".

About a year later, our first son Alex was born, and I quit my full time job to be a full-time Mom, at least temporarily. (Isn't it interesting how God changes people's hearts?) The most wonderful thing about being a new parent is the awe and wonder of experiencing first hand, God's creation. How can anyone hold a newborn child and not believe that God created him is somewhat beyond me. Once again I was in the Sweet Spot, and I knew that from then on I could not go back to working full time. Our second son Ted was born a year and half later, and it seemed like life was good and nothing would bring us down.

Well, as you know, life is not perfect. Shortly after Alex's second birthday he became ill. He had flu-like symptoms, and began eating less and less. He lost nearly 1/3 of his body weight in the month after his 2 year physical, he was 21 lbs. at the physical and 14 lbs. 3 weeks later. He just laid on the couch and wheezed for two days before we took him into the emergency room, where he was immediately admitted to the ICU. Upon his admission, he was severely dehydrated, and pheumomia in both lungs, and a large blockage in his intestine which required immediate surgical removal. After his surgery where they removed 6" of his lower intestine, he had a colostomy, and then both his lungs collapsed. The surgeon at the time, openly told us that Alex was the sickest child he had seen in a long time and would probably die. He handed us his teddy bear, and left us to absorb his information.

I remember thinking that this couldn't be happening to us and our little boy. Why would God give us this blessing for such a short time and then take him away so suddenly? The answer, I decided later, was to prove to us who was really in control. We tend to think that we are in control of our lives, when all the time it is God who is in control. It was our first lesson in giving our children back to God.

Alex was on every prayer chain from Green Bay to Tennessee. Friends and family all over were praying for him, and I literally believe that he was prayed back into health. He was in the ICU for two weeks, and over the next two months had multiple surgeries. At Christmas time that year, he was allowed to come home for Christmas Day. Our pediatrician made a house call and gave him his fluids inter-veinously. What a blessing she was! That day we had at home, the first one we had had in more than a month, was a gift from God. It was a ray of hope to me that some day we would be a family at home again.

That year the big Christmas toy was a Tickle Me Elmo. At that time, crazed Christmas shoppers were lining up in the stores to buy this "had to have" toy for children.The nurses at the hospital some how found, bought and gave Alex a Tickle Me Elmo. It totally brought me to tears. We had no money for anything that year, no toys, no Christmas tree, and no Christmas dinner. It's quite a helpless feeling, not being able to provide for your family the way you think they should be provided for. But God was truly taking care of us.

 Not only did Alex receive the year's most desirable Christmas gift, but there was a package hanging on our that day. One of the families with young children at our church had gift wrapped two toy cars and delivered them to us for Christmas. "Santa" came in the form of Christian love that year that we will never forget. People think that the little things don't amount to much, but they do. Those two plastic cars that may have seemed so insignificant to others, ment the world to us and our two small children that Christmas Day. We were so very grateful to our church family for their simple gift, and to the rest of the church who provided meals for us for several weeks upon our return home from the hospital.

Eventually, Alex was able to come home and was healed. He had spent more than 2 months in the hospital, and had had atleast 6 surgeries. We were thrilled to finially be home together again. Bruce was back at work, and we were on the road to recovery. However, it was not without a price. After our insurance had paid their portion of oru medial expenses, we were left with more than a $500,000 balance due. It might as well have been a million, because it was an impossible amount for us to pay. My husband's income at the time was only $26K per year. I can't say I lost a lot of sleep over it, all I cared about was that our son was alive and well, the money just didn't matter by comparison. Some how we knew that God would take care of it.

Well, we kept the faith, and I remember for the first time giving money to the church. We would probably loose everything anyway, so what difference would a few dollars make? Wouldn't you know, that shorly after that we got a call from someone at the hospital saying that we qualified for some special grant program, and our debt was reduced to a few thousand dollars. Who says God's not a banker? There was that Sweet feeling again, God was taking care of us.