{"id":19490,"date":"2014-05-15T00:20:43","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T04:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19490"},"modified":"2014-05-20T15:59:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T19:59:07","slug":"shield-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/15\/shield-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon’s Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy;
\nand may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.
\nFor it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
\nYou surround him with favor as with a shield.
\nPsalms 5:11-12<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On a Thursday evening I get a text from my son, saying he was not feeling well. \u00a0I ask him to describe his symptoms\u00a0and I also get his step-dad involved. \u00a0We think he needs to drink something to help ‘clean’ him out. \u00a0When he does get the bottle of nasty-tasting stuff, he can’t keep it down. \u00a0He tries to sleep that night but not very well. \u00a0The next morning, \u00a0he asks that I call one of my friends who is a nurse practitioner\u00a0and get him an appointment. \u00a0At 1:15 pm he goes for the appointment. \u00a0After the exam she determines it could be appendicitis, and sends him for a CT scan to get better information. \u00a0Brandon calls to say he is going in for the scan at 3 pm. \u00a0I am praying this whole time asking for God’s help in evaluating the situation quickly. \u00a0Brandon calls after the scan to say he is going home. \u00a0I suggest that he go over to see my friend\/nurse practitioner, Julie, for the results. By the time he gets to the office she has called me to say he has appendicitis and for us to go to the emergency room.<\/p>\n

I reach Brandon just as he is getting out of his truck, and tell him to meet me at the ER… that he does have appendicitis…and they will be operating today. I ask him to call his dad and I contact my husband, John. \u00a0I managed to get there before Brandon and tried to get paperwork started but he had to be\u00a0there. \u00a0Once he arrives, he checks in. \u00a0This is about 4 pm. John arrives around 4:05 and we all sit down. \u00a0At about 4:15 we are called\u00a0back to a room where everyone has a job and are asking\u00a0Brandon questions. \u00a0They begin putting in an IV and drawing blood. \u00a0Julie had tried to reach the surgical group she knew that were very qualified to work on Brandon, but could not reach them. \u00a0When she spoke with the ER doctor, he said he would take care of reaching one of the team.<\/p>\n

By 5 pm Brandon was being wheeled\u00a0up to the surgical suite to begin the process. This was my first time experiencing emergency surgery on my child (who happens to be\u00a023). \u00a0I was a nervous wreck, but Brandon had peace\u00a0about the whole\u00a0situation. \u00a0From the time he was hurting to the time we left the hospital, he had a peace about him. \u00a0I kept looking at the clock in the waiting room. \u00a0The surgeon had said it was a 45 minute procedure and recovery would be about an hour. A friend of ours came out who had assisted with the surgery. \u00a0Her name is Rose, and she has a sweet, sweet spirit. \u00a0It was then I knew Brandon was well covered in prayer while he was being operated on. \u00a0God is so merciful!<\/p>\n

The surgeon came out and said Brandon was doing great! \u00a0Brandon would have to take it easy for a week to 10 days before he could go back to work. \u00a0I was just so happy to hear that he was fine! \u00a0I stayed the night with Brandon at the hospital and neither of us got much sleep. \u00a0Saturday around noon he was discharged; and we went to my house where he would stay with us for a couple of days. \u00a0He is a little sore, but moving around. \u00a0He is such a trooper…not asking for attention, just wanting to get better and get back to work.<\/p>\n

Through this whole adventure, I can see how God shielded and protected Brandon. \u00a0Brandon was wise enough to listen to his body—the way God designed us—and knew that something was not right. \u00a0And from the CT scan we learned that Brandon was born with just one kidney that is functioning. \u00a0I know God has this covered, but we are now going to get a little education on what he should and should not do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for taking care of my son. \u00a0Thank You that I will be able to have many Christmas, birthdays, and other celebrations with him. \u00a0I thank You for Your mercy and Your shield. \u00a0I thank You that You give us mom-hearts to pray every day for our family and that we have great pray-ers as friends. I pray Your protection around those today who are hurting and seeking You. May someone give them a word of knowledge and comfort from You. \u00a0In Jesus’ name I pray, amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You. For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield. Psalms 5:11-12 On a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3367,1287,425,6326,6327,6325,6302,3174,1071],"class_list":["post-19490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-give-mercy","tag-god-gives-us-peace","tag-god-is-a-shield","tag-psalms-511-12","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tina-marin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-54m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19490"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19788,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490\/revisions\/19788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}