2011, Ending in Prayers (Part 1)

I mentally began writing this post in my head on Christmas night, thinking it would be filled with high lights of the last few days and how we celebrated Christmas.  But sometimes life has other ideas.  First off, we did have a wonderful Christmas!  Christmas Eve we enjoyed a beautiful and touching candlelight service at our church followed by dinner at our house with some dear friends.  Then we set up the camera to try to capture a picture of the Jolly Old Elf when he made his anticipated delivery…of which we were successful!  YES!!!!  On Christmas Day we awoke early (yep, early…) and had a wonderful time opening presents and sharing with each other before church.  Then came home and all put our jammies back on and spent the day playing with new toys, napping and eating (way too much!)  It was a perfect Christmas Day.  On the 26th we traveled to GA to spend the day with my parents and celebrate with them before heading to my in-laws.

This is where my post veers off from where I had planned and why I haven’t updated or posted this week. I haven't been sure I should write about this or even if I could, but I have said I wanted to be transparent and this is where and what we are dealing with now...

On Tuesday after Christmas we experience one of those moments in life that you know will be forever cemented in your mind.  After lunch my boys went outside to play in the woods behind their Grandparents house (one of their favorite things to do).  A bit later, as we were all still sitting around the table in the kitchen, we heard my oldest start to yell.  At first, honestly, we thought it was the yells of playing boys…until my husband stepped out on the deck to hear my oldest  scream, “He is unresponsive, Help!” as he crouched over his younger brother.  My husband began to run and I followed behind.  He reached my youngest son before me and I yelled asking if we should call 911.  He said yes.  When I reach my son, he was blue, not breathing and gurgling…and we had no idea what had happened.  My older son told us the last thing his brother said was, “I am blind! I can’t see!” and then he did a half spin and started to fall.  My sweet oldest son acted quickly and caught his baby brother and laid him on the ground before calling out for help.  He had no idea what had happened. 

I stood there… looking down into the face of my baby boy…he looked unlike anything I have ever seen.  He was blue and pasty and I didn’t know why.  This is the child that plays hard, loves hard and is this missing piece of our family puzzle that we didn’t know was missing until he joined us.  Truly I couldn’t tell you what I was feeling because it was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

I dropped down on that cold, muddy ground and with all my heart called out to the only one I knew could help us at that moment….God.  I prayed and I prayed harder and louder than I have ever prayed.  I needed the help of my God; I need Him and His power more than any single thing in life. 

After trying to determine if my son had received an injury my husband grabbed him up and began to run out of the woods.  As he began to run, a small moan escaped that little body.  When my husband dropped to the ground with him as the ambulance was arriving my son opened his eyes, but there was no responsiveness….no acknowledgement of anything.  Still not knowing what was wrong and desperate to help I thought maybe he was choking but his jaws were clamped together and I had to use 2 hands to pry them open to try to see if his airway was blocked.  His jaws never relaxed but at this point we had shallow breathing…