the miracle workers

Sometimes we're so busy looking for the miracle we've asked God for, that we can miss the one that He's doing right in front of us...

Indiana had said she wanted the miracle, but not the surgery.

Over the last couple of days, God gave her both.

No, Indy’s heart wasn’t supernaturally healed just before they wheeled her into the operating room, but our family knows a miracle has happened over the last three days just the same.

There’s really no other way to explain a little girl undergoing open heart surgery on a Thursday, where they bypass, then completely stop her heart for many hours while they repair it, then restart it, put her back together, and three days later, she’s about to walk out of the hospital with the same spirit and joy she had when she came in.

If you’d have asked Rebecca and I on Thursday evening when they brought Indy in from surgery to her room in the ICU, what the future was going to look like… we would have guessed that it was going to be a very long, very hard recovery process. One that we knew we’d have to pace ourselves for. We figured somewhere about now maybe, Indy would hopefully start beginning to feel a little big better. That maybe by the end of this weekend, perhaps the worst of the pain, and the tears would finally be subsiding, and that sometime after that, she’s start turning a corner and we’d see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Instead, around 3 AM in the morning that first night after surgery, that light appeared and Indy made a turn that surprised us. Her eyes got a little brighter, and her color started coming back. We could see it. And then, by sunrise, her smile had returned too.

I took this at 6:40 AM.

An hour later, she was up and walking across the room, and sitting in the chair next to the bed.

By the early afternoon, they’d begun removing some of her IV’s and downgraded us from the ICU to a room in another wing, and she was in her regular pajamas sitting by her bed eating a ham & cheese omelette.

And opening gifts and reading letters and cards that people had sent to her.

By 6:30 that evening - right at 24 hours after surgery - she was playing card games with Rebecca and our neighbor Bessie.

And before bed, she was walking the big loop around the hallway in the Cardiac Care Unit.

The next day, Saturday, was amazingly more of the same. In between getting meds, X-rays, tests, therapies and some serious napping..

Indy had lots of friends come to visit. Some from Montana and other places and some from the houses next door to ours in Waco.

The afternoon was filled with more games played and lots of pages colored.

And some new books that she’d been given were read.

This morning - the 3rd day - they were ready to remove Indy’s chest drain tube and her main IV… something that was more than a little scary and painful for Indy. As they did it, I’m not sure who turned whiter - her or me. But she - we - got through it, and within minutes she felt like a brand new girl.

All she has now are a few electrode stickies on her chest that monitor her heart rate and a little oxygen gage taped to her finger.

Before long she was in her new tennis shoes and we were walking out of the cardiac wing and finding our way to the outside gardens to get some fresh air.

This evening, as a celebration for all her great progress, Indy got to choose what she wanted for dinner, which more friends graciously showed up, when we walked to join them in the big waiting room area.

Since we’re in Texas, she wanted burgers and fries from In & Out, which as unhealthy as it is, was kinda perfect, since that’s kinda what our stay here in the children’s hospital has been like:

Pretty much… in, and out.

The doctor said that more than likely tomorrow morning they’re going to discharge Indy and let us go home. Hallelujah!

Home doesn’t necessarily mean our little farmhouse in Waco quite yet, but it does mean we’ll at least get to move to a nearby hotel or Airbnb, until her follow up appointment back here at the children’s hospital, which will be in the next few days or so.

It’s now late in the evening here at the hospital and Indy is sleeping. So is her Mama.

I can’t tell you what a blessing Rebecca has been, and is, for Indiana and for me. She’s a natural born caregiver, and she’s so good at it. Especially for people she loves.

She took care of both her Mama and her sister when they were dying of cancer many years ago, and whenever there is a need, there is something inside her that kicks into a whole different gear. A grace and a love that is always there, always ready to be poured out, especially in difficult times such as these.

It’s such a beautiful thing to behold. Love in action.

To be clear, there has been some challenging moments over the last three days since Indiana came out of surgery, but absolutely nothing like Rebecca, or I, or any of us, expected. Even our regular doctor, and the nurses and the staff here at the hospital have been surprised by how quickly Indiana has recovered from such a difficult operation.

I don’t think that this has happened just by chance. It’s an absolute miracle. The one Indy asked for. The one we were all praying for.

It didn’t come in the form we thought it would, but it came just the same. I think that’s how miracles often work. We’re often so busy looking for the ones we’ve prayed for, that we miss the one He’s doing right in front of our eyes.

Jesus, the great physician, used Dr Fraser and his team in a mighty way. His mighty hand has been on all the physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses, therapists, and everyone here at Dell Children’s Hospital to work the miracle He had in mind for Indiana.

And for us.

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