Everyday miracles
Tiffany Youngblood Gilliam – Seven years ago, my husband, Shane, who was a construction contractor and volunteer
youth minister at Osage Baptist Church in rural Osage, Arkansas, called and said our little boy, Braedyn, had been in a wreck and was in
terrible shape. I asked if Braedyn would be OK. My husband had no response, which alarmed me terribly. Waiting for my parents to drive me to the hospital, I felt so
helpless. I dropped to my knees and began praying! Then, I started phoning
everyone I knew and asked for prayer and they called other people. When I arrived at
the hospital, my husband was crying in a way I had never
seen a man cry. He didn’t want me to see Braedyn.
When I did, it was terrible. His head was caved in on the right side.
He had blood coming from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth. His pelvis appeared to be completely crushed. His catheter was full of blood,
which means internal bleeding. The doctor told us the prognosis looked “very grave” and he might not make the flight to a
big hospital in Springfield, Missouri. The thought of placing my baby on a helicopter
by himself was just more than I could handle. The pilot asked if I wanted to ride, which is not
usually allowed. I held onto my little boy’s arm and prayed
during the whole flight that God would heal his broken little body. I
told God I knew Braedyn was only on loan to me, but I wasn’t ready to not
be his mommy. I fully trusted God that He would take care of my baby boy. When we landed, everything was so fast-paced. I was placed in a little room all
by myself. There, I just continued to pray. After an eternity – actually only about 40 minutes – the doctor came into the room. He seemed
to be in shock!! All of the x-rays and tests had been redone and my little boy
didn’t have a broken bone in his body. No internal bleeding. He was bruised and banged up very
badly, but the doctor said “I can’t explain what happened. I thought I was
going to be telling you there was nothing we could do, but
instead I get to tell you that you are very lucky.” I said, “We are not lucky, we are BLESSED! Our God
saved our little boy." When we finally got to see him, his head was no longer caved in.
He did have to be bed-bound for two weeks, but it
was nothing we couldn’t handle. When we went for a check-up, our family doctor cried and hugged Braedyn. He said “I prayed so hard but I never thought I would
see this little guy again.” God is so good! Braedyn is our
little miracle boy!