I was going to post a different Memorial Box story, but something happened in the last few days that was so exciting to me, that I just had to share this “hot off the press” story instead.

When we went to Children’s last month, the cleft lip and palate team said we were to return to our city and find two surgeons who would operate as soon as possible on Jubilee. They recommended a man in our city who had actually trained with the cleft team at Children’s. We came back to our city and got an appointment and when he saw her he said that it was too big of a job for him. He just didn’t feel comfortable doing the surgery on her mouth. He felt that he would need someone to back him up if there were any complications. He encouraged us to head back to Children’s.

The clinic is not an easy place to get in to. When I phoned them they said they were scheduling surgeries for July. They said that even though Jubilee had been seen by the clinic docs during the clinic and they knew what needed to be done, they would not schedule a surgery until she had been seen again. But there were no appointments until July as well. They would not even hold a surgery slot in tandem with the appointment. Which meant that if I couldn’t get an appointment till July then the surgery would probably be fall, at the earliest. {Are you kidding me?}

And that didn’t even begin to figure in the ear doctor and his surgery needing to be done with the mouth surgery.

I called again to ask again. Nope. Nothing doin’. But this time the receptionist said that if I wanted to I could come and just show up for an emergency appointment. Get there super early in the morning and line up before it opens and then we would be seen on a first come, first served basis. It just sounded overwhelming on top of driving for 7 hours to get there and besides Jubilee had already been seen by the doc – his notes indicated that the surgery was urgent. ugh {Are you kidding me?}

Our pediatrician here called me. She was not very happy with all this. She said she would call cause what they needed was to hear it from a doctor. {You go girl!}

She called. It meant absolutely nothing. They have their rules and they were not budging or making any exceptions – not for a pleadin mom and not even for a fellow doc….{Are you kidding me?}

Our pediatrician found the Children’s Cleft Lip and Palate team’s “competition”. {They really do call it that!} I guess that many, many people were finding the clinic team frustrating, especially when there were emergencies {Jubilee’s case is considered an emergency} so a group of doc’s started a cleft lip and palate team of their own. {Go team!}

So while Dw and I were in Phoenix my cell rang. It was the competition’s coordinator {and she had gotten my number from our pediatrician}. She was soooo nice. She was concerned for Jubilee. She talked to me for almost an hour. She explained all kinds of things to me. She understood the urgency of this situation. She gave me many phone numbers to help me figure this all out. {This has all been so new to me and a tad overwhelming – okay, okay, gargantuantly overwhelming!}

We returned from our getaway in Phoenix and I started on the 17,427 {haha} loads of wash that had accumulated the week I was gone. I was praying. Give us direction and what numbers to call. I was doing wash and I prayed outloud, “Lord would you make this easy? I am gargantuantly overwhelmed….please, please, please make it easy. Show me what to do.”

I looked at the list of numbers she gave me and chose to call one. I explained to the first girl who answered the phone the situation and that we were from about 7-8 hours away. She listened and said, “Okay, I will make an appointment for you….just tell me what day you want to come.” I questioned her….what days were open? She said, “No! You just tell me what day you want to come and I will work her in. What day do you want to come?” {Are you kidding me?}

I told her that I was going to come to Denver Monday to sit outside that clinic early in the morning, so would there be a chance of this coming Monday (5 days later). She gave me the number to their other office because it was closer for us. She said, “I am going to call them and fill them in on the situation, so give me 10 minutes…then you call them.”

I switched a load of wash, put another load in and called their other office. The woman who answered put a woman named Lynn on the phone. {Mind you not more than 15 minutes had passed.} She was so wonderfully sweet and she said, “I have you set to come in this coming Monday at 1:10 pm. Will that work for you? I understand that’s okay for you? I also have the Operating Room at Children’s reserved for April 30th.” I started to cry. Seriously friends, could it have been any easier? Only God.

The appointment was set for FIVE days later and there is no doubt that only our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God could have done that!!!

Friday is Dw’s day off. We went for a very early morning date because I was heading to my office to spend the entire day doing inventory from the fire. Yes, it has been 15 months but the insurance end is not finished. I have to go through every single item from the house and assign a date when we bought each item. Then I have to type in a replacement value. Almost every single item I have to google and find out the current replacement value. It is tedious. It is also emotional, remembering things that don’t really have much monetary value, but great sentimental value.

I ended up working straight from 10am til 10pm. Early in the afternoon, as I was working on the inventory all of a sudden I remembered! The Children’s Clinic had said that we needed an ear surgeon to surgically exam Jubilee’s ears and also put in tubes. They had said it really should be done along with the mouth surgery. I did not want her to have to be anesthetized twice either…..But it was already TWO weeks from her scheduled surgery. How in the world would I find a doctor, get an appointment and have them agree to do surgery in tandem with her other surgery??

I started praying, “Lord what should I do?” I called home and asked Emma to find the phone number list from the woman. She searched for it and could not find it. Great! Now what?

All of a sudden the Lord gave me an idea – and yes it came out of nowhere! Call the ear surgeon {although I could not remember his name for anything} who had seen Jubilee at the Children’s Clinic. He had been such a nice man and seemed to take a personal interest in her case. But how could I get ahold of him? I felt like the Lord said to call the clinic. Emma was able to find that number for me. I called.

Mind you, this was now Friday afternoon! The girl who answered was sooo nice. I told her my name and Jubilee’s name and barely started to explain the situation and she said, “I’m looking at her file right now, and it looks like the ear surgeon was Dr. Allen. His notes say that her ears need to be done immediately. Let’s see. OH, wait. The entire team of ENT’s are going to be out-of-state at a medical convention on April 30th.” {At this, my heart sunk.} And then she said, “Well, everyone except Dr. Allen!” It took a second for me to understand what she said…..everyone was going to be out of state on April 30th, except for Dr. Allen!! {Are you kidding me?}

She then said, “He’s already examined her during clinic, there shouldn’t be any problem with him agreeing to do the surgery on the 30th. I will make a note for his office to call you next week, but really, I can’t see any reason why it would be a problem with him.”

Remember when I asked the Lord to please make it easy? It couldn’t have gotten any easier than two simple phone calls. God’s loving fingerprints were all over those two phone calls. His complete favor.

So Monday we were at the office of Dr. Brad Smith in Denver. His staff was unbelievably kind. As it turns out Dr. Smith was so very nice. He answered questions, took his time. He is even an adoptive dad with a daughter from the Philippines. {How amazingly cool is that?} I told him what an answer to pray her was….and ya’ know what he said? “Well I love to be used as a tool of the Lord!!” Oh my gracious!! God you are so good, a man who wants to be used as a tool of the Lord will be working on our precious Jubilee Promise for 3 hours.

Then – it is not very often that an entire staff at a doctor’s office is kind. As we were checking out, Dr. Brad Smith’s brother, Dr. Smith {who is one of his partners} came out to the reception area. He saw Jubilee and said, “This must be Jubilee? I saw in the books that you were coming in today. You have come a long way!” {Okay, what partner does that? Unbelievable!!}

Anyway, in our Memorial Box we will put the bracelet from Jubilee’s surgery….reminding us that our God is always faithful. He works behind the scenes. He makes things easy when we are overwhelmed. He moves mountains. He always has our back.

How about you? What stories do you have in your Memorial Box? What stories do you remember of God’s faithfulness? Has He ever made things easy because you, too, were overwhelmed? He longs to meet our needs…….all we need to do is ask!!

A Memorial Box is explained here.

Please feel free to use the badge on the right sidebar….and link your post below…I can’t wait to read ALL your stories!!