A Miracle Hug!

If you have read my previous post “Lacey’s Story” you know about her difficulties. 7 years ago this morning she was born. I have been so charged up for the past few days! God gave us a miracle that morning and the beginning of many! Our fears were GREAT and we didn’t know all that was going to happen. I vividly remember seeing her almost lifeless twisted form being rushed away to the small NICU unit. I remember the shock in our hearts and the disbelief. Her little body was hooked to tube after tube. The doctors in the little NICU unit had no explanation as to whether she would live or die or for that matter what to do. I remember sitting in a chair that day, my heart broke and my pastor saying you did the right thing. I remember the flight nurse from Tampa General Hospital coming into the room to take our little baby to their specialized NICU and telling my broken hearted wife don’t worry I will take good care of her and I promise I will call you when we get to Tampa.

We had a party for her this past Saturday at Chuck E Cheese and I don’t think there was another parent in that building that could have been more thankful for their child’s 7th birthday. Last night as I put her to bed she threw her little arms around my neck gave me a great big HUG and said “I Love you Daddy” my heart pounded with thanks to God for his miraculous power.

Give your family a HUG today and let them know how thankful you are for them.

Please keep Lacey in your prayers we will be flying to Texas next week. She has another surgery on her back August 8th.

Lacey's Story

I stated in my first post that my wife and I know what trials are all about and that I would share them at a later date. This is a brief story written by my wife to share with you about our daughter Lacey.

On July 24, 1999 Lacey was born at the Regency in Winter Haven,
FL. The doctors immediately knew she had a lot of problems.
They told us she would not be able to live, they had never seen
anything like this before. The neonatal doctor had her flown to
Tampa General Hospital where she spent the first 32 days of her
life. There she was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndrome by
Tampa’s genetic specialist who is considered “king of Genetics”.
The syndromeis King Syndrome.

Lacey was the third child they ever had known of being born
with this syndrome in the US, the second had died at 3 days old.
Lacey’s problems consisted of severe kypho-scoliosis which made
her spine crushing her lung, so she started out on a vent and
gradually made her way to oxygen by a cannula 24/7. She has
chronic respiratory insufficiency, webbing of the neck, low set
ears with severe hearing loss (she wears hearing aids),
arthogryposis , which is contractures in all of her joints, so
she can’t raise her arms up or straighten her wrist, fingers
or legs. The joints in her knees are in a frozen state so her
legs stay bent all the time, therefore she is unable to walk,
she scoots on her bottom to get around in the house and rides
a wheelchair everywhere else. She also was born with a severe
club foot and a vertical tailus, she has had surgery on her
feet 3 times but still her feet can’t sit flat on the floor.
More of her syndrome includes failure to thrive, so she has a
G-tube for feedings to help with nutrition, malignant
hypothermia which can cause death from anesthesia and she has
coded twice from this, and hypoglycemia.

The first two years of Lacey’s little life was not easy. She was
in and out of the Hospital constantly something going wrong. But
we were blessed and Lacey was quite a fighter. The most serious
was Lacey’s lung condition she was having a lot of problems and
they just didn’t think she was strong enough to fight the many
things against her, but she was and she did. In September of 2002
her spine was an 80 degree angle and her body was the shape of a C.
Lacey’s pulmonary specialist told us if something wasn’t done she
definitely wouldn’t be able to survive. Her spine was crushing the
lung so severely even with oxygen and a bi-pap machine she was
having difficulty breathing. Shriners in Tampa had been seeing
Lacey but felt her condition was to severe for them, so they found
us the surgeon in Texas who had invented this surgery that has
saved Lacey’s life! She has now had a total of 16 surgeries and
is 6 years old. She will have surgery in Texas every 6 months until
she is 16 or 17 years old. Lacey is such a miracle her pulmonary
specialist wants us to have a book written about her life.


To read more about Lacey's life changing surgery in San Antonio
see my link

Titanium Rib -VEPTR- saves lives

Mowing a straight line

Gardening is one of my passions. I can get lost in my own world.I can think and meditate while I am mowing, trimming hedges, pulling weeds or just cutting and pruning my roses. Last year my daughters and I had a nice butterfly garden. I would not call my yard and garden a paradise but when I am finished it looks well manicured. I like for the drive to be edged so the grass looks like a curb. I am one of those guys that if you don't weed eat and blow the driveway then you haven't mowed. I mow in one direction with a self propelled walk behind mower. Everything has to be just right when I get done. I like to look at the lines that the mower has made across the fresh cut grass.

This brings me to the point of mowing a straight line. My lot is on the end of a cul desac. So guess what? I have a triangular lot. BAD IDEA. I have a fence across the middle separating the front and back. I have always tried to mow a straight line between my yard and my neighbors. As I get to the fence and look back to the street there is normally a curve that looks like a bad golf slice. It frustrates me to no end. Sounds silly but I told you I like a straight line. I have to go back and try to fix it. Today as I was getting prepared to start the cut between our yards it was a little high from the recent rain. I thought to myself today I can't cut a golf slice because it will be very noticeable. So I started at the street and I kept my eye on the fence post and mowed toward it. I never took my eyes off the the post. When I got to the fence and looked back toward the street I had mowed an almost perfect straight line.

As I look back at my life I am reminded of the many curves that has happened in it.. I was aimlessly wondering along not focusing on anything. The curves were being thrown at me. Today as I was focusing at the post the thoughts began to roll in my head. We must continually be focused on Jesus Christ our redeemer! When we look back down the road of our lives we will have some curves but when we look ahead we will be on the Straight Path.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

My message is this

1.Stay Focused
2.Press On
3.Hold On
4.Only look back at your mistakes to improve
5.Strive for perfection Hebrews 6:1
6.Don't beat yourself up for past failures and mistakes