LOOKING BACK

Friday July 7 2006, may not have been important for most people, but it was for our family. It was Adam's 20th birthday. Adam is our oldest son. I remember when he was born, it was the hottest July in recent memory and the air conditioning in our little 2 bedroom brick rancher was "kapoot". To beat it all Marilyn was more than 2 weeks past due for our firstborn. After going into labor late on the 6th of July 1986, Adam Reid Duggan was born the next morning. He had been cooking so long he had long blonde hair and a full set of teeth. (I am kidding about the teeth.) He was so pretty that people often mistook him for a little girl. For the next 17 months we wondered if God could be any better than He was to us. In one doctor's visit all that changed. A week before Christmas 1987 we received the word that our only son had cancer. In a story I have told hundreds of times we should have never known about the tumor growing behind his heart and lungs until it was too late, but we did. Surgery and recover at St. Jude hospital in Memphis was the longest two weeks of our lives. Finally, expecting long painful episodes of radiation and chemotherapy, we were told that our son would need neither. As a matter of fact, he would receive no treatment at all. He would be followed closely for the next 18 years and be a case study for other children with neuro-blastomas. Well, those 18 years have passed and the trips back to St. Jude are behind us. Hopefully, what the doctors learned from our experience has helped to save the lives of other childen with this same terrible disease.

So pardon us while we celebrate. Our oldest is 20. Nearly 90% of the children who experienced the same doctor's report as we did 18 years ago never saw their 3rd birthday. We do not know why Adam survived. We just know in no way did we deserve it. All we can do is say thanks. Thanks to all the families who prayed for us. Thanks to those who came through with monetary gifts that allowed us to leave our jobs and spend all of those days with our son in Memphis. Thanks to God for his grace and healing power. I can now understand just a fraction of how God must have felt when He caused John to write, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."
In His Shadow,
Pastor Ken