Dated: 6/24/98, sent to all on our e-mail address book as notification.

Sorry for that last e-mail. Most of you are aware of the outcome, but for those of you that aren't our beautiful 20 year old Sara passed away May 11th. I rushed home April 22nd from the local hospital to e-mail you all and ask you to pray because I was watching her become so seriously ill right before my eyes and I didn't know what else to do. My server changed codes and the e-mail wouldn't send. Today in my effort to finally look at the computer again in 2 months I accidentally sent the old e-mail. For those of you unaware of what happened to Sara and for those of you without details I would like to take a moment to share our story. As many of you are aware we brag on our kids all the time because we are so proud of them. We expect our children to be good humans, therefore they are. Sara worked > 60 hours a week as the manager of a floor covering and window covering store and went to school at night. Sara worked with every builder in town, their customers. She sold the product, purchased from the manufacturer, did all the accounts payables and receivables and the warehousing. The only thing she didn't do was schedule the installers. It was a very big job for a very little girl and she handled it so professionally. She shined. She was taking 10 credit hours in school at night this semester. She told me she wanted to finally complete her freshman year this year. Her other goal was to move out and get her own place. 2 weeks before she got sick she moved into a furnished condo with a pool and garage. She was so proud of it and bought all new towels and bedding and even some dishes. Then one day she complained of being tired, cold, thirsty. The next couple days she continued with her life but just didn't feel great. Of course, we thought she was just run down and needed some rest. Monday 4/20/98 she went to work, left and went to the doctor and asked me to meet her there. He determined she was dehydrated and allowed us to take her home and rehydrate her with Pedialyte and Gatorade. The next morning she was grey and now had a fever. We put her inpatient, started IVs, did chest X-rays and assumed she had pneumonia. On 4/22 we airlifted her to Phoenix Good Samaritan hospital. Within 24 hours she was put on a ventilator. During the next weeks every possible test, culture was done. Every test came back negative, every culture never grew anything. She was tested for Hunta Virus, HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis, Legionnaire's Disease, etc, every lung condition possible test was done. Each revealed she did not have that disease. Often blood samples were taken to try to grow a bacteria or virus and nothing ever grew. She didn't have a bacteria or virus. Before intubating her we asked her if she could have injured her lungs by mixing cleaning supplies, being around any chemicals from her store. She said she hadn't. We questioned her about drug use or any medication use. There was none. By the time she died she had 3 chest tubes, a tummy tube and a tummy air hole for drainage. She had a laparoscopy to see if any of her other organs were perforated or if any were infected in any way. All her other organs were totally normal, healthy, working. We saw the photos taken of each organ. Daily we prayed over her, read the Bible to her, sang church songs to her that we knew she knew like JESUS LOVES ME, THIS IS HOLY GROUND, THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE, I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY. We never gave up hope. God made it very clear He was and still is in charge. She had the best doctors in Arizona, pulmonologists, cardiac surgeons, infection and disease control. Daily doctors gathered and brainstormed outside her room baffled. A lung biopsy was done and sent to the Mayo clinic. The report came back "unknown etiology, perhaps underlying immune deficiency disorder like lupus." The doctors checked for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. She didn't have that either. Thursday before she died Dan had a vision of Jesus with Sara standing beside Him, but her face wasn't there. Dan cried and begged Jesus not to take her. The next day Dan received the vision again and this time Sara's face was there. She was wearing a white robe and she was smiling. Dan asked God to please let her live through Mother's Day for me. His birthday was 5/12 and he told God she didn't need to stay for his birthday but please let her live for me for Mother's Day. He didn't tell me. Saturday before she died I was standing at the end of her bed and I noticed she was smiling. I told the nurse "She's smiling." And the nurse patted my arm and said "Of course, dear." And I knew she couldn't smile. We had paralyzed her to prevent her from using her oxygen anywhere but her lungs and she was very heavily sedated. I went up close as I could and put my face up to her face and I saw that none of her muscles had moved, of course she couldn't be smiling. I went back to the end of the bed and I saw her spirit lifted up, her face lifted and she was looking up and she was smiling. I knew then that Jesus was there and that he must be healing her. Dad came in to relieve me. It was 7am and he was flying back to Iowa and wanted to spend the last 30 minutes before he left with her. I left her feeling total peace. I believe she left with Jesus that morning as well. The next 48 hours her body deteriorated until she passed away. The chest tubes never drained much fluid and there really was small indication that she ever had pneumonia. We may never know what condition killed Sara. When we had to go through her things in her condo and move her back home it was wonderful to find she had no secrets, she was who we knew her to be. Her bibles were on her bed along with her journal and the book she was reading. It was LEFT BEHIND by Tim LaHaye. She was more than half way finished with the book. That would be my wish for everyone that when its time to go through your loved one's belongings you find every indication that they have a relationship with the Lord so you can be assured of their whereabouts. It was wonderful to not find drug paraphernalia, no trashy novels, nothing unbecoming. Just as when David killed Goliath and King Saul saw it. The king asked his lieutenant "Who's child is he?" David honored his parents by being an Israeli hero. That's how we feel about Sara. She honored us with her life. We are very grateful that God gave her to us for the time He did and we will never forget her. We never left her side, we worked every shift with every nurse, we oriented many of them on the special equipment Sara had, we grabbed an hour's sleep here and there and never left her. We were exhausted but we would still be with her today if she were still alive. We wouldn't leave her. One day a tall, beautiful blonde nurse said she could see we were Christians but that she had a 3 year old son and if he died she would be so angry with God. There I stood holding Sara's hand and my other hand on her face, ministering to her and loving her as best I could with all the tubes and hoses and wires. I told the nurse no, that both our kids were sick or hurt at a very young age and that we came to terms with that a long time ago. We both know that they are a gift from God and we will be grateful for whatever time he gives them to us. Later, I walked down that long hallway from Sara's ICU room to the waiting room and I cried, "please God, I will witness to these people, I will move to Phoenix, work in this hospital and tell everyone about Jesus, just don't take my baby." But He took her home to be with Him. I know she loved her condo, but Jesus gave her a mansion. He said so. I know because its in the Bible. We each have many bibles at our house and I know many of you do to. One thing I learned from this experience is never leave home without your bible. You never know where God is going to send you today. When they airlifted Sara I went along and I happened to have my 365 daily Bible with me. Its written in chronological order. Had I not had that I wouldn't have had one. There wasn't one in her room and there wasn't one in the waiting room. I had to call the chaplain and have him find a Gideon Bible to bring me much later in our stay. I only tell you these things because I know many of you were unaware of the crossroads in our lives and I know you care about us. We appreciate your prayers. I implore you to read your bible, invite Jesus into your heart, raise your children to go to church with you and give them time every day. Its worth it. love, Kim <><