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One cool morning on our usual ride to
the babysitters, I casually commented on the thick
blanket of fog covering the rolling fields, “Man its
yucky out here today!” My three year old daughter
corrected me from the backseat: “No Mommy -- isn’t it
beautiful? It looks just like this in Heaven -- even
the grass is ALLLLL white!” Cold chills ran down my
spine because I know that she really knows, after
all -- she was there!
Saturday, July 21, 2007:
Pretty normal day. Saturday. Our
family was doing what is typical I guess for a summer
Saturday. We made a trip to Lowe’s - bought some
plants. We ate lunch at home and put the kids down for
a nap. I have flashbacks frequently reliving the calmer
parts of the day - I remember wishing later “If I could
only rewind to that morning or to lunch or ….” After
naps were over I brought the kids outside to play.
Bucky, my husband, was running the weed-eater and I was
sanding down an antique highchair for a surprise gift
for my sister who was about seven months pregnant.
Cyrus, our five year old son, and Lydia, our 18 month
old daughter, were playing on our swing set. I was
about 15 feet away working on the highchair. The kids
had been given strict orders to play in the sandbox only
– and had been doing great. Man- when people say
something happens “in the blink of an eye”- they are not
kidding! Literally, in the blink of an eye, I heard a
“THUG.” Cyrus was now standing over his baby sister
sprawled out on the ground and repeating “Liddy, are you
ok??” Apparently, she had climbed up the ladder of the
swing set to go down the slide and fell. We assume she
hit the back of her head on the corner of the sandbox.
I could not get there fast enough -- 15 feet felt like a
mile. I knew the second I saw her that this was not a
normal injury. She was awake but not moving and her
eyes stared, fixed to the upper left. She was moaning a
noise that will be in my head for the rest of my life.
Immediately I grabbed her up and ran into the house. I
can fix this I thought, every second praying “God,
PLEASE HELP MY BABY!” I laid her up on the kitchen
counter, put water on her face, she was repeatedly
snapping in and out. One minute she would come to,
scream, and flail her arms, then just as quickly, she
was back out and moaning again. I screamed to Cy to run
and get his Dad. I picked Liddy up and carried her back
outside -- totally clueless as to what to do. I laid
her on the driveway and dialed 911. Randomly,
the responding 911 Dispatcher was an old friend -- I was
so upset I just remember blurting into the phone that
“the baby was hurt … she fell off the swing set …” When
Bucky came running up I handed him the phone because I
just could not get a grip to even tell her I needed
help. He spouted out all that he could see and
immediately help was on the way. We carried her back
inside again to wait. Still she was in and out of her
surroundings. She would come to, throw up, and then go
out again – her eyes never leaving the stuck position to
the upper left. Soon the rescue squad & firemen
arrived. Our home was full, furniture being shoved
about to create an instant workspace. We knew it was
serious yet still hoping that they will say “Things are
going to be fine, don’t worry!” – But instead they
radioed for the medical rescue helicopter. As they
prepared her for transport to a local church parking lot
to meet the helicopter, neighbors came from out of
nowhere to take Cy under their wing. The two mile ride
in the ambulance was a daze of chaos. Once we arrived
at the landing pad to await the helicopter, the rescue
squad workers asked me to step out of the ambulance.
They needed to do a procedure that I could not watch
(drill a central line into Liddy’s shin). I was left in
the parking lot clinging to Bucky and Liddy’s favorite
pink blanket. Again, coincidently, our close
friends - Liddy’s babysitter, just happened to be
driving by the church, saw us, stopped, and cried with
us. The rescue squad workers told us that there was not
enough room on the helicopter for a parent to ride with
her to UVA so we would have to drive! Can you believe
that?? This is a child who has never left our sight
much less FLY, HURT with total strangers!? (We later
were told they did not think she would survive the
flight and didn’t want to have to also deal with an
overly distraught parent in the helicopter.) I know
that Bucky drove 100 mph- no exaggeration- the entire
way to Charlottesville. What would normally take 30
minutes to drive -- took us 15 minutes. Praying every
second of the ride … I remember trying to plea bargain
with God, “PLEASE, I will do anything you want me to -
just please don’t take her away, she is just a baby!” We
parked at the ER entrance and went on a search to find
our baby. The entire first night is such a blur -- CT
scans, X-Rays, blood work, checking-in,
questioning-by-social-services-to-make-sure-we-don’t-abuse-our-children
kind of blur. The scans showed that she had a skull
fracture at the base of her skull/neck and a bleed in
her brain. They would watch her and hope that the
swelling would go down on its own without surgery.
“Subdural hematoma” would be forever in our vocabulary.
Day 2 – Sunday, July 22, 2007:
Lots of visitors … long morning of
staring at Liddy in her crib and praying around the
clock. As hard as the staff tried - we were NOT leaving
her room – and that is where we stayed for the whole
time she was there. About 3 pm Bucky and I watched in
shock as she suddenly turned gray and the machines
monitoring her alarmed the horrible truth: she was
coding. Staff ran from everywhere dragging out tools
like drills and instruments. They grabbed us and made
us get out. All we could do was hold one another and
cry … begging God for mercy. “This can’t be happening!
Not our baby girl! Please God! Don’t take her!! We need
her!” Every thought runs through your head … “I can’t
go home without her … What about Cy!? Why is this
happening to her? She is innocent! She hasn’t even
lived yet!” The doctors came out and said they “got her
back” - they drilled a hole in her skull and put in a
temporary shunt to relieve the pressure. They explained
that they would watch her … do CT scans every couple of
hours. If the pressure and swelling did not go down
they would have no other option but to do a major
surgery of removing the sections of the back of her
skull. They didn’t offer much hope warning us that with
a child her age the blood vessels are small and there is
not a good chance of survival. Through the night and
into the next day there was little change. We were
exhausted, changing into clothes Mom would bring to the
hospital, eating meals from the cafeteria or what our
babysitter would bring. We perched at Liddy’s crib and
waited -- no change. She was on a ventilator. There
was a technician who would hook her up to a mobile unit
– breathing her breaths with the hand pump while
switching her – so they could take her to the CT scans.
It makes me sick to even recall some of the details --
in your mind forever but just pushed into a place you
hate to go. Every scan seemed a little worse than
before. “Dear God- PLEASE help us!!” I have never been
one very good at expressing my faith, sharing my love
for God, or well, even praying comfortably without my
mind wandering from thought to thought, but on this
particular night in the dark corner of the pediatric
ICU- I dropped to my knees and begged God for mercy on
Liddy. I have not cried so much in my entire life as
this time. I told God, I could FEEL his presence in the
room with us -- and I now know what that feels like….
Amazing!
Day 3 – Monday, July 23, 2007:
Today is the day. If the scan this
evening shows no improvement – it would be time to do
the surgery. The medical staff told us they would take
her down at 3 pm for the “tell all” scan -- but 3 pm
came and went and no technicians came. Then they came
in and said it would be 5pm. Again, 5 pm came and went
and no technicians came. The ER was overflowing with
people and we were pushed back until they could free up
the CT scanner. About 7 pm, I was saying good-bye to
family that was visiting and heard my sister calling out
my name. She had just left a few minutes earlier, so it
caught me off guard to hear her calling my name. She
was escorting three men and explaining “these men want
to pray for Liddy!” They were strangers to me, but I
assumed they were friends of my sister – maybe from her
church. The men started to explain … “I know this is
going to sound weird but God sent us to pray for your
daughter…” Average looking, clean cut men - if it were
a different situation I may have hesitated – but
something about them just seemed “right.” Hard to put
words on a feeling like this one- but I just knew. I
quickly led them thru the crowd - visiting hours were
over and you are supposed to call ahead and ask
permission, only two visitors at time allowed -- but we
WERE going! When we got to Liddy’s room, the technicians
were taking down her crib rails. The nurse indicated
that it was time and they were ready for her. “WAIT!
Please, wait for just a minute -- let them pray for her,
that is why they are here!” She agreed hastily and
continued scurrying around the room preparing for the
scan trip. The three men gathered around her crib and
began to pray for Liddy. They anointed her with oil and
asked God to raise her up “in Jesus’ name.” Liddy had
barely moved in three days – but at that moment, she
SHUTTERED. I saw it with my own eyes. She was without
a doubt- touched by God! I instantly knew! He heard
all of our cries! The men completed their appointed
task and the medical staff took Liddy down for her
scan. We walked the men out and as they were leaving
one of them told me, “She is going to be just fine, God
sent us here and I know.” Just before getting on the
elevator, one of the men – Tony, reached in his pocket
to retrieve a small plastic red cross - across the arm
of the cross it read simply FOR YOU. He explained that
on Sunday (the day Liddy coded) at church he found this
small red cross in a basket of give-a-ways. He picked
it up not knowing why or who he got it for. He handed
the small red cross to me, smiled and said, “I guess it
was FOR YOU.” I knew at that moment - I felt
different. God just showed me that He heard our
prayers. I felt as though I could breathe again. It
seemed I had not taken a breath in days and now I felt
strangely comforted. I am not saying that these men
were angels from Heaven- they were angels from Earth.
They live ordinary lives just like us. They obeyed God
even though they didn’t know us or what our reaction
would be. I knew that was NOT just a random thing -- It
was a GOD thing. We later learned that these three men
were from different parts of the valley and they all had
their own “trials of faith.” They were sent by God to
help us, but they testify that God used this as a lesson
in their own lives.
Day 4 – Tuesday, July 24, 2007:
After thoroughly reviewing the scan,
the doctor reported, “I can’t explain what we see … her
scan is showing remarkable results of improvement!!” We
studied the “before and after” scans on the screen: the
swelling was going down, the pressures were getting
closer to normal, and she’s on the road to recovery.
Praise the Lord! Our miracle!
Liddy had to re-learn everything,
walking, and hand-eye coordination. She hated seeing
the nurses and doctors come into the room because that
meant they were going to mess with her. She had spunk –
and attitude! Her love for cheese puffs returned
immediately! J
Her eyes remained in a “fixed” position – now lower
right - because of the pressures that had been on her
optic nerve. (It took about a month for them to return
to normal.) Ten days after Liddy’s accident, we were
taking her home – we had been given a gift! We were so
very thankful, but almost felt guilty leaving children
that may never walk out. The ‘crew’ that had been
taking care of Liddy had become like family to us. I
have so much respect for what they do … healing
…comforting – they were great!
Today Liddy is a happy, singing,
dancing little spitfire! She can’t wait to start school
next year. She occasionally asks, “Mommy, can you tell
me about when I was a baby and died and Jesus gave me
back to you?” Wow, an experience like that opens your
eyes to so many things. I have no doubt that there is
something special God wants Lydia Faith Cox to
accomplish -- she has a calling on her life. I feel as
though we witnessed a TRUE MIRACLE. Every time I look
at her, listen to her laugh, or even say prayers with
her at bedtime, I am reminded of how great of a God we
have. There is a small, faded and tattered picture of
Jesus and his lambs hung on Liddy’s bedroom wall. Taped
to the corner of that old picture is a tiny red plastic
cross that reads FOR YOU. When I see it I am reminded
that when we are given a MIRACLE – it is not to be kept
secret – rather it is to be passed on FOR YOU, and you,
and you … until the world knows what we have witnessed.
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