I am still in complete awe when I think about the family of Andrea. I know some might think that this situation is no big deal and that maybe I should move on but for some reason Andrea and her family still have a hold of my heart....I am thinking more and more though that it is God who has my heart and he is sharing it with people I will probably never meet. I feel so blessed that God has moved me with this story and it is certainly making me closer to him with every prayer I pray for Andrea and her family. Below is a blog post written by Andrea's brother....I thought it might be nice if you could read words directly from her family. Their faith is SO strong!
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What an incredible message she is sending all of us. This was written by a young woman who has been following Andrea’s story and is like so many other messages I’ve received from many of you. She gave me permission to share it with all of you in the hopes that her story would encourage you. If you’ve felt the same way about not knowing how to start finding God in your life or not knowing how to pray or not knowing what it’s like to hear God speak to you, then it’s my hope that you’ll find this story incredibly encouraging.
Andrea had another solid day today with her numbers staying within the appropriate ranges. Her temperature is up just a bit tonight, but that’s been a battle she’s won over and over again. For most of the day today though, her temperature has been at 99 degrees. Her EVD was removed today! That’s great news. That essentially means Andrea has been able to reabsorb the fluid her brain is producing. Within the next 48 hours, she should have her ICP monitor completely removed! Her ICP numbers have remained low (they were between 3-9 all day today) without the need for sedatives and without the EVD. What an amazing answer to our prayers! She is also scheduled for a tracheotomy on Monday at 1:30 p.m. so that the medical staff can have direct access to her lungs. This is a very normal procedure and it’s the result of her breathing on her own for long stretches the last 2 days. Yesterday, she was off the ventilator for 13 hours and today was nearly the same. The staff does put her back on the ventilator in the evenings to relieve her of the exhaustion that now comes from breathing on her own. How often do we take breathing for granted? Unfortunately, for me, with every breath I take. That will be different for me going forward. In nearly all the ways that we’ve prayed, Andrea’s needs have been met. There are a couple more items we would be so thankful for your prayers for:
1) The swelling in her brain to be reduced,
2) Andrea’s ICP to remain below 10,
3) Andrea’s tracheotomy operation to go smoothly on Monday at 1:30 without any added challenges that would inhibit or prolong her healing,
4) A fearless and calm awakening for Andrea as she comes into consciousness,
5) Andrea’s medical staff to “know” Andrea and develop a love for the same as ours and to have the wisdom to accurately prescribe a plan of care for her full, complete and healthy recovery,
6) Andrea to be healthy enough to walk on her own and attend the “Women of Faith 2012” conference on 8/24/2012 with her nurses from IU Methodist,
7) Andrea’s ventilator to be removed within 72 hours without triggering any difficulty breathing,
8) Andrea’s tubes to be pulled from her mouth within 72 hours.
The medical staff has continued to remind us that this is going to be a long process…a marathon. Even with the progress we’ve all been able to witness in her the last 4-5 days, we still have a good deal of work ahead of us. She is still listed in critical condition, yet stable. The staff indicated that until the swelling in her brain is reduced, they will not be able to accurate diagnose what her short term and potential long term damage may be. I choose to believe that God’s promise for complete healing is already in place. I want to challenge each of you to pray expectantly with me. Let’s go ahead and thank God for what He has already accomplished in His plan for her complete healing. If you pray thankfully for that now, you’ve then assumed a belief that it’s already done. And that’s how I am going to pray going forward. I don’t want God to find a fraction of doubt in my heart and I know He has a promise in place to heal His believers.
If we “choose” to believe that God has already healed her and that we’ll see it occur in time, we can go ahead and thank Him for what He’s done. Between now and the time His miracle unfolds, it may be that he wants to bring more people into the tent where we’re all praying right now. In other words, someone may look at the number of people who “Like” fortheloveofandrea.com and say, “Isn’t that enough? Aren’t there enough people watching this to go ahead and perform the miracle God?” Maybe not. Maybe it’s 10,000. It could be that God wants to bring more people into our tent before He performs what I expect will be an awesome story of healing. Isn’t that just like God? In addition to giving you more than you ask for sometimes, He sees the bigger picture. If we believe in His scripture written in John 9:3, then I’d say God has a lot more people He wants to bring into contact with Andrea’s story, so that when Andrea is healed, there will be a much larger number of people amazed at His works on display. It pays to be patient in a lot of things in life, including this. It isn’t easy though for family and friends who love her so much and that would give nearly anything to trade places with her right now. You know, it could be possible that this whole event is for each one of us watching and praying. It could be possible that if we initiate or strengthen our relationship with Him and we bring more people into contact with her story, we could get to her recovery quicker. Is that possible? I think so…
What could be more rewarding to God and those in Heaven than to see us on Earth develop a deep love for Him through an experience like this and then go on to share it with others?
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for all of these gracious people who are in our tent right now praying and trusting in You for your will to be done. Thank you for the work you’re doing in each of our lives right now through this process. Thank you for allowing me to serve You in a capacity that’s allowed Andrea’s story to reach thousands of people. Thank you for their specific prayers and humble hearts. Thank you for Your answers to their prayers and thank you for the healing You’ve done in her body. While we patiently wait for her to wake, we will put our hope in you that as we build our tent out, You will continue to bring people to us that need to know You. And I pray that we will properly and wisely steward our experience in such a way to draw people closer to You. May You be glorified in all of this and may You be honored and praised for who You are. We love you and trust You and are forever grateful for Your Son who died on the cross for our sins. It’s the most precious gift we could have ever undeservedly received. Your grace is amazing and we will wait in anticipation of Your will to be completely done here. Thank you for allowing my family to serve You and thank you for loving us more than we can possibly understand. Amen.
All the Best,
Tyler Voss
11:58 p.m. 8/27/2012
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