The Delta House

I had fully intended to post a little more frequently, but things have been really crazy lately. In short, I made an offer on a house in Rhode Island and now need to get my house ready for sale by November 1st. I'm putting on a new roof, framing in two rooms in the basement, painting the entire house inside and out, laying tile, and doing some landscaping. Thank God I've got some good friends that work for barbecue! I'm sure that I will be posting some before and after shots over the coming weeks.

Anyway, I had a great experience this week that I need to share. On Tuesday night, we went to visit a friend in the hospital. Now I normally don't like doing that, and what made matters worse was that she was at Hasbro Children's Hospital.

Our friends Brian and Deb decided last year to provide foster care for a child with the intention of adopting one. They organized their house and their lives to be able to care for a child as soon as their training was complete. In December, 14 month-old Augusta came into their lives. We call her Gussy.

She is as cute a little girl as you have ever seen, and Brian and Deb just love her. Things were going great and all indications were that her mother's parental rights were going to be terminated around Christmas of this year. That would open the door for them to adopt her.

Then in August, Gussy started having some motor skill problems. She quit talking and started crawling rather than walking. The knew something was wrong, so they took her to the doctor.

Gussy had a brain tumor the size of an apple, and they rushed her into surgery. They got most of it out, but that was just the beginning of her treatment. She has had CAT scans, MRIs, PET scans and dozens of blood tests. She has undergone several surgeries, radiation treatments and hours of rehab. She was in an induced coma while things healed a bit. She has a shunt in her skull to drain fluid from her brain and a tracheotomy for breathing. She can not talk or eat and has a feeding tube sustaining her.

She has been living in the ICU for 9 weeks now, and she celebrated her second birthday there just last Friday.

And yet, she keeps smiling and clowning around like any other two year-old would. She constantly surpasses the doctor's expectations when they take her off the ventilator and have her walk.

The doctors say this is nothing short of a miracle. They gave her a 30% chance of surviving the first surgery and initially thought that she would have trouble regaining any of her motor skills. Now they expect her to make nearly a full recovery over time.

And whether you believe in God or not, I can tell you that I believe her recovery is the direct result of the power of prayer. Our entire 600 member church has been praying for this little girl since day one, and she has come through better than anyone could have imagined.

I will write more about our visit tomorrow. I just wanted you to have the background info.