Managing Blessings: The McClains

There is a quote in my office that I keep directly across from my field view, making sure I can see it every day.

“Regardless of the stress I’m under, most days I’m managing blessings.” – Lysa Terkeurst

The reason it’s there is to help me keep things in perspective.  It’s all too easy to get caught up in the day to day “struggles” and forget that even in our hardest of times we are truly blessed.

As we enter into a season in our culture where the large majority of us will find some time to slow our minds and consider the things we are thankful for – we thought it would be a great idea to share some stories.

These stories are of people just like you and me who have found themselves in difficult situations and yet still have been able to find God in the midst of them.  Because of that, they have been able to recognize the blessings and remain thankful for them.

This post’s story is shared by Andrea McClain, a mother of four, whose family faced some incredible medical challenges:

Q:  For those who may not know, can you briefly share what your family went through. 

Our daughter, Kestin, was born with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH).  This is a condition where there is a hole in the diaphragm.  This allows the organs in the abdomen to float up to the lung area, preventing the lungs from fully developing.

We knew all of this before she was born so the doctors gave her only a 50/50 chance to survive.  After she was born, it was the worst case scenario – she had almost no diaphragm at all.  Honestly, medically speaking, she shouldn’t have lived.

She just kept fighting though.  She was put on a heart/lung bypass machine for a while and had multiple surgeries.  She literally fought for her life for several months.

She was born in January and when she was finally ready to come home 7 months later, she came with a ventilator, trach, g-tube/feeding tube, and required 24-hour monitoring.  We had nurses in our house almost every day, 24-hours a day. 

She had many more surgeries along the way.  We had to go to Children’s Hospital Boston for a couple of surgeries that none of the local children’s hospitals were capable of doing.   

We had many scares along the way but for the most part she continued to improve.  By the time she was 5 years old she’d gotten strong enough to get rid of most of her medical equipment. 

Q:  What were some of your greatest fears at the time?

Where do you want us start?  Of course our biggest fear was that Kestin would die.   We also worried about the other 3 kids at home not getting enough attention.  When Kestin was born, Kerrigan was 4 and the twins, Cannon & Caden, were both 2.   

Statistics show that the divorce rate is really high with families that go through huge tragedies like this too.  We didn’t know that at the time.  We totally understand it though.  Luckily Rick and I were able to work together as partners. 

Of course we also had the financial worries too.  Kestin was a multi-million dollar baby.  Even with insurance, we paid medical bills for her for many, many years.

  

Q:  What were your biggest prayers?

We would pray that she would live and she would make it through every surgery.  We prayed for our other kids and for all of the other worries mentioned above. 

We had so much support from PCC.  Every time there was an emergency and things looked grim, people would show up to pray with us.  Jim Blackwell visited us almost every day.  We had people helping us with the younger kids and fixing meals.  We were like a mission trip right here in Pendleton.   

We prayed all the time.  Everybody was praying for us.  Even people who didn’t know us were praying for us.  By chance, we have met some of those people and they are shocked when they realize we were the family that they had prayed for years ago.  They are even more shocked to see that Kestin is a perfectly normal teenager!

Q:  They say hindsight is 20/20 – looking back where do you see that God was working during this difficult time?

We were never alone.  Even if nobody was around, we knew God was there.  It’s hard to explain but all we can say is that we literally felt His presence.  We felt it in our bodies and our minds and we could see it in the things that were happening around us. 

We still worried that Kestin might not live but we felt a calmness and comfort because we knew that whatever happened, it was what was supposed to happen.  It sounds weird saying that now, but it is true. 

There are many stories we could tell of times when there was no way that things happened coincidentally or no way that it was just luck that Kestin had defied all medical odds AGAIN.  It wasn’t just once.  It happened over and over.  The only explanation was that God was there.  She is truly a miracle.

Q:  If there was something you could say to anyone going through a similar situation, what would you want them to know?

It is so hard to let go.  It’s so hard to let people do things for you and it’s even harder to leave the situation in God’s hands.  We want to be in control but sometimes we can’t be.  The only way to get through it with peace and sanity was to let it be God’s will. 

There was a time when the doctor’s said there was nothing more they could do for Kestin.  That’s when we really knew that none of us was ever really in control. Even the doctors had never really been in control.  It was all in God’s hands the whole time.  We just needed to trust in Him.  Once you do that, you will be at peace with whatever happens. 

The prophet Isaiah shared these words from God to his people.  I believe that God also says them to us in the middle of our toughest challenges and hardships:

Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

Remember, no matter what you are going through, God is walking alongside you.  He has given you so many people to help you through a difficult time – to meet your physical needs as well as your emotional and spiritual needs.  You are not alone and you have so much to be thankful for. 

Regardless of the situation, you have a God who will walk through it all with you and that is something to celebrate and be thankful for.  Amen.