I still believe that miracles happen. When most people think of miracles, they think of the Red Sea being parted, Jesus making blind men see and lame men walk. They think of lepers being healed, and men being raised from the dead. The Lord still performs miracles today, every day. He can still heal people from sickness if it is His will (my father survived a heart attack and beat colon cancer), He can bring people back from the dead if He needs too (how many people have had their heart stop, only to be recessitated?), He has inspired medical technology and advancement to be able to give the blind sight, and the crippled the ability to walk. There are miracles all around us.
The following story is about a friend of mine's (Rozlynn Forester for those of you who know her) cousin's son. This story touched me. Truly another example of the Lord still providing miracles for His children.
'Boy pulled from pool has 'miracle' recovery, mom says'
A 3-year-old boy who was found floating in a friend's pool made a full recovery this week.
By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register
SAN CLEMENTE - It was the first sign that 3-year-old Xander was going to be OK and that the more than three minutes he spent without air did not damage his young brain. Two days after he was found head-down in a pool by his older brother, he was waking up in his hospital bed.
"What's your name?" his mother, Amy Rex, said Tuesday afternoon while he opened his eyes and started to reach for the medical tubes that extended from his body.
"Bono," Xander whispered. With his eyes still drowsy from medication, he was able to remember his nickname.
"What's your favorite 'Star Wars' character?" she asked.
Xander's eyes opened wide.
"Chewbacca," he said before family and doctors cheered.
While his family was visiting at a friend's house on Super Bowl Sunday, Xander wandered into the back yard and fell into a pool. He was found by his older brother and was without oxygen for more than three minutes before paramedics were able to get him breathing again.
This morning, he was back at his San Clemente home, playing with "Star Wars" figurines and swinging a plastic saber as if nothing had happened.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," Rex said.
It took just a few minutes for everything to go wrong, Rex said. While they were at their friend's home she saw they had a pool that ran about 3.5 feet deep and felt she could keep an eye on it, she said. She gave Xander a snack and turned for a few minutes before he fell into the pool.
"He was eating carrots in front of me and I thought he was still in the house," she said.
Then, she said in an interview today, her brother Preston told her he had a bad feeling in his stomach. He went outside to look for Xander and found his body in the pool. He started screaming.
Byron, their father, ran out and found Xander floating in the pool.
"All I saw were shoulders and hands above water and everything else below water," Byron said. "And still water."
Byron pulled him out and started doing CPR with one of their friends while someone else called 911. Then Amy jumped in to help with the CPR. A few days earlier, she had been practicing with her son, who was preparing for a Boy Scout badge.
"I almost shut down, but something lifted me up," she said.
Water came out of Xander's mouth, but he still wouldn't breath on his own. Paramedics from the Orange County Fire Authority arrived about five minutes after the 911 call. As they treated Xander, Amy saw that his body was gaining some color in his toes.
"I just felt like, I can't lose him," Amy said. "This is what we were all praying for."
Xander was taken to a nearby hospital in San Clemente and then transferred to Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange. He appeared to be getting better, but doctors said they would not know for sure until Tuesday afternoon whether he had suffered any brain damage.
Amy asked friends and family to pray. Some friends from their church went on a fast.
As they waited for Xander to wake, Byron asked Preston what it was that made him look for his brother in the pool.
The family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had just taught Preston about the holy ghost, Amy said, a still voice that would help guide him. Preston told them he heard it that day.
"He said he had a feeling in his heart to look," Byron said.
When Xander said "Chewbacca," it was a good sign that his brain was functioning well, doctors told Amy. Several tests verified that he would make a full recovery.
The immediate CPR helped Xander recover, said Capt. Greg McKeown of the OCFA. Since November 2008, firefighters with the OCFA have responded to seven calls of possible drownings, four of which have been fatal.
Now Amy's three children are wearing matching shirts that read, "I believe in miracles."
