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The Angelic Blessings: Insprirational Encounters
An Angel Among Us
Published in The Word Among Us, October 2022
A Mysterious Traveler and His Message of Hope
We had everything we ever wanted: a wonderful marriage, a healthy young son, another child on the way, and fulfilling, successful careers. We were blessed and we knew it.
But then something happened that changed everything. In 1987 our second son was born. He was a beautiful child with blond hair, a round little face, and bright blue eyes. But he struggled from his first day. He had difficulty breathing, so he was moved into a special care nursery. Over the next few hours, our exhilaration turned into concern, followed by fear, and finally devastation.
Our newborn son was diagnosed several defects in his heart. And these “defects’ indicated he likely also had Down Syndrome. We were devastated and overwhelmed. We prayed for the strength to endure whatever lay ahead.
A Mysterious Passenger.
On my first day back to work, I prayed the Rosary as I drove the 45 minutes to my office. On the way, I passed a clean-cut young man hitchhiking. He held a sign that said “Saulte Ste. Marie.” That seemed strange since he was on an east-west highway about 350 miles south of Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan. There was no easy way he could get there from where he was standing. I had had never picked a hitchhiker before, but I felt drawn to give him a ride. So, I pulled over and picked him up.
As he put his backpack and sign in the back seat, he told me that he was on his way to meet his father to do some fishing in Sault Ste. Marie. What began as a vague sense grew into amazement. We had named our son after the patron saint of fishermen. I recognized that Sault Ste. Marie was named for the Virgin Mary, and I had been praying the Rosary (a Catholic prayer from Mary, the mother of God). I wondered if this man was somehow a sign from God.
My passenger asked me why I seemed upset. I told him about my son that had been born with a heart defect known as VSD (for Ventricular Septal Defect). I was amazed as the hitchhiker told me that he was born with the exact same condition. He shared he had been cured and was able to lead an active life. He assured me that my son would be fine.
I was so immersed in the conversation that I did not care that I had missed my exit. After about thirty minutes, I pulled over to let him out. He thanked me and assured me he and “his Father” would pray for me and my Son. As I drove away, I saw that he no longer carried either his destination sign or his backpack—and they were no longer in my car. When I told My wife about it later, she too wondered if my hitchhiker’s message was a sign from God.
A Dramatic Turnaround.
Our Son was discharged from the hospital after a month. We adapted to the reality of feeding him through a tube, watching him sleep all the time, keeping our ears open for his heart monitor, and warning visitors not to touch him as even a simple virus could be fatal.
One day, a few months later, he developed a high fever. As we rushed him to the local hospital and he was transferred to a regional medical center forty-five minutes away. As I drove behind the ambulance and passed the location where I picked up that hitchhiker I wondered if his words of encouragement were just wishful thinking.
At the medical center, our son was diagnosed with severe pneumonia. The doctors confidently told us they were going to treat him so they could perform open heart surgery a few weeks later—something his initial doctor was reluctant to try.
When we brought him back for surgery, my wife held him for what we feared might be the last time. But as the anesthesia took effect, he opened his eyes, and he looked very different. His eyes were vibrant and alive; they glowed an electric blue. I had seen eyes like that only once before, on the only hitchhiker I have ever picked up. He smiled at me and looked so peaceful as he went to sleep. I instantly knew he would be ok and the Lord was with him.
The surgery was a complete success. In fact, it had gone better than anyone could have imagined. He progressed rapidly, and when he came home: he was considerably more alert. He grew and developed like any other child, albeit more slowly and with all the characteristic traits of a person with Down Syndrome. My wife and I were so grateful to God for caring for our son.
An Angel in Our Midst.
Our son is now in his thirties. He inspires all who meet him. He brightens every day with his smile and unconditional love. He has an innocence that we know he will never lose. He lacks the ability or the will to hurt anyone. We are constantly challenged by the demands of his disability, but we receive much more from him than we give. Our experiences taught us that we are never alone—God is with us at every step, especially in the most trying times of our lives.
We will never forget that messenger who gave us hope at a time of hopelessness. We only hope someday we can meet him again and express our gratitude.
An Angel Returns
Our life was challenging but routine:
Our life was great but had become routine taking care of a our special needs child with health challenges. On January 30, 2022 and the week afterward was transformational for us and this routine was extraordinarily upended. We experienced a set of extraordinary events that we strongly believe was directed by an Angel of God.
Our son has Down Syndrome and has a surgically repaired heart after his birth in 1987. On January 20, 2023 he became ill. Because we had dealt with many health issues in the past, we thought this was another one of those episodes that we could manage. This event became something much more grave and far more transformational very quickly. Our concern, turned to shock, severe anguish, hope and eventually jubilation. However, on that Monday evening when this started we had no idea the journey we were about to embark on.
Our son had many chronic digestive issues over the past few years and we had become effective at managing them. We thought this latest episode would be similar to the past, but It was far from it. He had a fever, began vomiting and his belly was distended. These symptoms worried us as they were different from past episodes and they got progressively worse. We rationalized this was another typical episode as his mood was normal, and cheerful.
An unexpected health challenge:
Our son became more ill on Sunday January 29th. His first symptoms appeared in church Immediately after our Grand-daughter's Baptism. Earlier that day our son seemed normal. We had no idea he was about to embark on a transformative journey over the next week that would change his life….and ours.
After the Baptism, I went to hug him and he was shaking, pale, and began coughing. When we got to the restaurant for the after-reception the coughing got worse. We excused ourselves and left to take our son home. Similar coughing has been a prelude to vomiting in the past. By Monday morning his condition did not improve and worsened somewhat, so we called his doctor and asked for advice. We thought his issue was from constipation, which he has had in the past. By Monday evening we were unable to get guidance from the doctor, so we began the regimen that worked in the past for his constipation by administering an over-the-counter medication.
Monday evening (January 30th, 2022) we were just starting to administer an over-the-counter treatment when the doctor called us on our home phone. It was unusual to get a call this late in the evening so I answered it (normally we would consider it a spam call). Thank goodness we answered it. The doctor asked about our son and his symptoms. She told us to stop with the planned treatment and get him to a local ER immediately. She suspected something more severe. She advised us against going to the normal ER we would go to which was 20 minutes away (where she had influence) and go to the closest fastest ER. We took him to a new ER that opened near our home. This was the first of several interventions we believe were divinely directed. Thank goodness we did not give him a temporary medication (which would have had dire health consequences as we found out later), and thank goodness I answered the phone.
Extraordinary events:
We went to the closest local Emergency Room which had only recently opened. It appeared closed. It was open but so new there were no patients there. We walked in and a doctor saw our son immediately. They believed he had something called a Volvulus. The Doctor described this as a twisted colon that was causing a complete intestinal blockage and could be life-threatening within a few hours. They informed us he needed emergency surgery and they had arranged an ambulance to transport him to a local hospital for emergency surgery in a few minutes. Thank goodness we went to this ER and they examined him right away. As he left the ER with lights flashing, we were in shock and scared. Our uneventful day was about to become traumatic.
As we arrived at the hospital for surgery, we were greeted by several doctors. They had already scheduled the operating room for his emergency surgery at 11:45 pm (a few minutes after we arrived), and had called the on-call surgeon. The on-call surgeon met us a few minutes later, still with his Winter coat on, and shared the surgery plan. His name was Dr. Pastor (not a coincidence) and he shared with us that his godson had Down Syndrome and was very special to him (not a coincidence). As we found out later, he was a gifted surgeon and we were fortunate to have him come in the middle of the night to save our son. As they wheeled our son into the OR, we wondered what the next few hours held for us and if we would ever see him alive again.
We went to the waiting room for the planned 3-hour surgery. He went into Surgery about midnight on January 31st. After 2 hours the Doctor returned jubilant and proud. He informed us our Son had extra large intestine that was twisted like a pretzel. It blocked all digestion and had started to die from lack of blood flow. All the damaged colon was removed along with the blockage. He remarked the surgery “went the best it could have”. While he would have a colostomy, he believed it was temporary and went the extra step to reconnect his colon so that hopefully in the near future (3-6 months) the colostomy could be reversed and removed.
Our son recovered exceptionally well from such a major surgery over the next few days. In fact, the doctors described his recovery as remarkable and well ahead of schedule. He progressed quickly without complication or infection.
A few days later (February 5, 2022), the doctor order Andrew’s catheter to be removed to have him urinate on his own. The nurses tried but were unable to remove it as the catheter on this Sunday night (February 5, 2022). We were very worried as the catheter was stuck and unable to be extracted and there was no specialist staff around to help. It was half inside and half out. Other Nurses came to help but also had no success. Several commented they “had never seen this before in 30 years of nursing”. We were distressed. Finally, a nurse from another floor ran up the stairs to help as she had a lot of experience with catheters. As she struggled to remove the catheter, I prayed to St. Raphael.
We were blessed...again:
We believe St. Raphael was the hitchhiker from our previous time of distress before our son's open heart surgery 35 years earlier (read the previous story here). Within a few minutes the most remarkable thing happened. I saw a green light on the windowsill I had not seen before in the 6 previous days we stayed in this room. It was like a small emerald green LED light. I knew St. Raphael’s color was emerald green and knew he had previously appeared with green light. I immediate knew St. Raphael was present and helping. Within a few seconds, the catheter came free. We were elated.
Two days later Andrew was discharged from the hospital and he is now at home with us. His recovery has been exceptional and we feel blessed to be home with him again. His daily care is minor in comparison to the blessings Andrew bestows on our lives every day. We are grateful to the hospital, doctors, and especially St. Raphael for our son's recovering health. He is a blessing in our lives and the lives of many others. He brings us closer to the Lord and helps us understand what is really important. He is a gift.
the Angelic Interventions:
All this was possible because of the extraordinary events that occurred over this week. We feel blessed to have experienced St. Raphael’s comfort and healing twice now in our lives. We do not believe these events are coincidences, but rather the work of our angel, Raphael, who continues to comfort us, guide us, inspire us, and bring us closer to the Lord.
1. Angelic Intervention #1: the symptoms first appeared during our grand-daughter’s baptism.Had we not seen the symptoms, he could have rapidly regressed and we could have lost him.
2. Angelic Intervention #2: wwe were just starting to administer an over-the-counter treatment when the Doctor called us on our home phone. She told us to stop with the planned treatment and get him to a local ER immediately. Had she not called we would have given Andrew a treatment that may have been tragic.
3. Angelic Intervention #3: We went to the local Emergency Room which appeared closed and was empty. Had we gone to the usual ER, we would have waited 10 hours and likely not seen a doctor until it was too late.
4. Angelic Intervention #4: the gifted surgeon that came in to do the surgery in the middle of the night was named Pastor, and had a godson with Down Syndrome. He was also scheduled to be on a flight a few hours later. He came in and saved our son.
5. Angelic Intervention #5: the planned 3-hour surgery was completed in 2 hours and went “the best it could have”. The colostomy is hopefully temporary and the surgeon went the extra step to reconnect his colon for a future reversal. This surgeon was gifted and we believe it was not a coincidence that THIS surgeon came into the hospital in the middle of the night 6 hours before he was scheduled to board a flight.
6. Angelic Intervention #6: Our son recovered remarkable and was a “textbook” recovery with no fever, infection or complications.
7. Angelic Intervention #7: the catheter extraction was aided by the angel Raphael. It was on the weekend without any specialist staff. The nurses remarked they had never seen this before.
What we conclude from this experience.
We believe St. Raphael was the Angel that provided comfort and hope to us when our son was born. The first encounter with St. Raphael was recorded in an article recently published in The Word Among US October 2022 edition (read the previous story here). We believe St. Raphael intervened in this most recent situation to guide us, comfort us, and aid the doctors in our son’s care.
Many things in life appear unusual or a "coincidence". Perhaps these events are divinely inspired or the work of our guardian angel (we all have one)? Albert Einstein used to say, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." We believe he was right.
Perhaps things sometimes happened for the glory of God and to bring us closer to him? We may never know the full reason why our son was saved through these divine interventions, but we intend to do all we can to ensure his recovery results in positive impact.
Many times, what we regard at the time as a tragedy is actually a blessing disguising itself. We realized this from inspiration of a hitchhiker 35 years ago and now again through the intervention of this Angel in our Son’s recovery.
None of us know why we are really hear and why things in our lives happen. Perhaps they are so we can achieve things in this world that we would otherwise not. Perhaps many of life‘s events are actually unknowingly guided and aided by Angels?
