Soap Lessons

It is really weird how a simple little smell can bring forth a flood of emotions, memories, and lessons. While I was in the hospital with Myla, I washed my hands and WHAM it hit me square in the heart. The memories of August 1997 came flooding back.

It was the birth of my dear, sweet Caleb, our second born.  He was healthy, strong, and beautiful. 



Caleb just moments after his birth.  We had no clue what was before us.

He nursed like a champ and was taken to the nursery for a bath when it all changed.  In that nursery, our lives took a drastic turn.  Our healthy little man who was only four hours old went from strong to fighting for his life in a blink of an eye.


Caleb at about 5 hours old.

My son was fighting with all that he had in him to live. While the nurse started his bath, she noticed that he was starting to turn blue around his lips.  She didn’t know how, but an oxygen saturation machine was right beside him with a probe already on it so she placed it on him.  His oxygen was in the sixties and was quickly dropping. 

 

She turned to the right of her and this time found an oxygen mask already hooked to oxygen. She immediately put it on him as she called a code.  The doctors and nursed couldn't explain how the machines were where they were.  They were baffled, but we knew that it was the LORD'S FINGERPRINTS.  He had a plan for Caleb's life.



When we saw Caleb for the first time in this condition, pain and fear gripped our hearts.

 I remember hearing a code called over the speakers of the hospital. I recall thinking how sorry I felt that someone had a loved one fighting for life. Little did I know that I was the very person I felt sorry for.

 The staff immediately started fighting to find a respirator that he would respond to. After trying everything possible to get our little man oxygen, they placed him on the last possible machine in the building. It had him breathing 500 breathes a minute. Yes, 500. NO, it isn't a typo. It was all they have to keep him alive.


The only relief we could find was prayer.

Once they had him somewhat stable, the nurse came into our room to break the news that our child might not make it. Our sweet baby could die. The only hope that he had of living was to transfer him to Riley Hospital for Children. The problem with this was that it was 1 hour away...a long distance for a child so ill.

They allowed us to see him briefly.  Before they took him in the ambulance for transport, the nurse took these pictures on a Polaroid camera. They feared it would be the only pictures we would get of him alive so they snapped these pictures of us touching and praying over our beauty.



Our son at Riley Hospital waiting for his surgery day.  He was a very sick baby.  Fever gripped his body while the meds made him swell.  We weren't allowed to touch or talk to loud to him.

This is where the soap lessons came into my life forever. Just six hours after my son entered the world, he was taken to have a heart catheterization to put a hole in his heart to keep him alive until he had open heart surgery for a heart defect called Transportation of the Great Arteries. To read about his defect click here.  They were able to keep my son alive until he was 6 days old then he had open heart surgery to repair his fragile heart.

 



The fifth day of Caleb's life was a very unstable day for him.  His heart was failing.  We were only able to hold him, because his surgery was the following day.  They wanted us to have time with him just in case.

He was in ICU from the second he entered Riley Hospital. In order to see our son, we had to scrub our hands, wrist, and arms up to our elbows and put on a gown. As the soap cleaned my skin, the Lord worked on cleaning my heart. I learned so much during my son's time of healing. Each time I get a whiff of the skin cleanser, the Lord reminds me of the lessons of long ago.

 



Caleb taking his car seat test to see if he could go home for the first time.

 I want to invite you to journey with me as the Lord does yet another work on my heart while I share my soap lessons.  Over the next several blog post, I will write about the things the Lord revealed and taught me throughout my son's time of healing.  May your heart be changed as mine was.  My son's was open heart surgery was physical, but my was very spiritual.