What Are Children? .....

I'm not going to tell you anything here you don;t already know, but it just may serve as a reminder. Having three children of my own, all grown up and on their own, I can tell you first hand you always love them. However, there are also times when they will push your patience well past their limits. Why not, they're kids. But what is the root of what they really are? I discuss this in my first book The Soul In Our Hearts as well as my most recent release. Balancing The Scale. I can sum up what they are in one word. "BLESSING". The miracle of life that has made people wonder for years. A little person growing inside you that with all the pain of birth is so quickly forgotten when your child is handed to you. That process I call a "MIRACLE." Why do I choose these words? Let me tell you a shortened version of a story I told in one of my books.

By now most should know that I was a carer firefighter and worked as a Paramedic on the road for my entire adult life. In that time I delivered 13 babies. Eleven of which were normal deliveries, and two that were not. In one case the baby was born with no heart beat. Myself and another medic were able to revive this child and she lived. Some may call this a basic routine call. We're trained for this. However, no amount of training can prepare you for that one call where everything goes wrong from the start. One day at the firehouse we received a call for a female who was severely hemorrhaging from her vagina. When we got there we found out she was two weeks from delivering her baby. I can;t even begin to tell you how much blood she lost. But from her vitals signs she was close to dying. While doing all we could to stabilize her before we moved her, nothing worked. Nothing stopped the bleeding, and her blood pressure was slipping even lower. If she didn't get an emergency C-Section soon, we would not only lose the mother, but the baby she carried. It was a hot summer day when the ambulance arrived for transport. We had her ready and packaged to go. My self and the paramedic from the ambulance rode in together. You need to remember, whatever medications you administer to a pregnant mother, is also going to affect the baby, therefore, we could not administer certain medication to raise her blood pressure. Together we worked feverishly to save her and her babies life. Our uniforms were soaked from sweat. We were constantly wiping the sweat from our brows so as not to have it go into our eyes and cause a burning that causes your eyes to tear from the salt in your sweat. We were 15 minutes from the hospital. In a case like this, 15 minutes seems like a lifetime. I notified the emergency room of the situation and they had an operating room ready and waiting for us. If we didn't get her blood pressure up, this would have devastating effects on the baby if the child lived, and a normal C-Section is always better for the mother than an emergency one.

I remember saying a pray in my head and asking God to help me find a way to save this woman and her child. At that very moment, I remembered reading a technique in the medical journal about this exact situation. I told the other medic what I was going to do. There was no time left. It was try it, or just hope for the best. I remember the EMT driving the ambulance trying to drive as quick as he could while considering safety and not throwing us all over the back of the ambulance. When we arrived at the hospital her blood pressure was coming back up, she was starting to stabilize, we rushed her straight to the OR, gave a quick report, and that was that. We all wanted to stick around. The hospital chaplain was there to stay with the husband who was crying while hugging us and thanking us. After ten minutes there, I got another call and had to leave.

Later that day I called the hospital to check on the outcome which they could tell me do to privacy laws. I contacted the EMS coordinator who could only tell me the mother and baby were critical but alive. The following day the doctor from the hospital called me and told me that if it wasn't for our interventions, both the mother and baby would have died. In our business, we don't look for a thank you. Our thank you is to see a positive outcome. To wrap this story up. Months later while I was working a shift, I was called to the watch desk. When I went downstairs the person at the watch said there was someone I took care of outside that wanted to thank me. As I walked out the door to greet them and saw this mother holding her baby, I immediately recognized her as tears filled my eyes as it did for everyone. I will never forget her words. "I had to come by to show you the life you saved, and say thank you."

Now you asked me why I call children a "BLESSING" and a "MIRACLE?" Did God answer my prayer that day, or did I just remember an article? I don't care what anyone's religious beliefs are. You will never convince me that God didn't answer my prayer. In these past few weeks I have heard of people I know or follow that have delivered babies, or attended a first birthday party of someone I know. Every time I hear of a birth, it reminds me of my story. Children are a gift bestowed upon us, and a large responsibility. They will learn what we teach them, they will do what we do, speak as we speak, and act as we act. The biggest part of parenting is not putting closes on their backs, or food in their mouths. Although that is important and critical for survival, our biggest responsibility is to SET THE RIGHT EXAMPLE. For those that have children, God has blessed you with the greatest joy of all. A life. A life that you created. A bond that will last forever. Sorry for the long blog post, but it has so much meaning. Thank you .... Caesar