Heaven is for Real...Todd Burpo

I just finished the most amazing book ever! Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and is truly incredible. The power of prayer and Heaven is is real! Larry and I feel that Natalie is only here with us today, because of the power of prayer. I think I have told a few of you this story, but not sure...

I remember the morning we got the call that the night staff was having a hard time getting Natalie's oxygen back up. She was already on transplant, but there was still have few kids in front of us on the list. This was the one night no one decided to stay at the hospital, which was probably a blessing, because I would have been flipping out.

Larry and I got the call around 5:15am and we were at the hospital by 6:45am. When we got there, the nurse asked if I wanted to hold her. I had not been able to hold my baby girl in almost 3 weeks, so I was all over it. I remember thinking how odd it was, because she was already intubated. I remember after her first surgery, our nurse saying they do not like you to hold a child while they are intubated because of the fear of the tube moving or something like that.

I did not question, because I wanted to hold my baby girl. We were at the hospital right at shift change, so all the night staff was coming in telling us they were praying for us and the morning staff coming in shocked and saying they were praying for us. Natalie had been there now 30+ days, so we new the staff pretty well. Our pediatric cardiologist also came by, but did not really say anything. Dr. Zellers normally is not CV-ICU, because he does the heart caths, so I remember thinking this is a bit strange as well.

I am convinced that God was guarding our hearts that morning. There was a lot of things that did not make sense to me, but I just did not question, because it was all happening so fast.

Her surgery did not last near as long as the first one, for one reason in particular; it worked this time! Dr. Forbess preformed the exact same surgery he had a month earlier, but this time it worked. The doctors all told us after her first surgery, that they had never seen a baby not tolerate the BT Shunt before. I just thought, nice our child wants to be the first. My father always told me to never do anything half way and to put 110% into all I did. I just figured great, Natalie has already started young...life is going to be interesting.

The surgical team calls every hour to update you during surgery. I remember when Larry got the call the surgery was successful. The nurse said something like, "She is doing great, this is so much better than we expected." Again, we did not think much about it.

Once Natalie was back in the room and settled, Larry was napping on the couch beside her and I got up to go the bathroom and stretch my legs. A nurse came up to me and was telling how Natalie was such a fighter and how a few of the nurses that were not there that day had called in crying because Natalie had unexpected surgery and to keep them updated. She then went on to tell me again, that they had never seen a child not respond to the BT Shunt before.

I went back to Natalie's room and starting to think about what all had actually happened that morning. I looked at Larry who was now awake and told him, I am starting to think either the doctors did not think Natalie was going to make it or they had no idea what was going to happen during the surgery.

I can't tell you all again, how blessed we feel to have our little miracle in our lives. We owe it all to prayer and to our Lord Jesus Christ....thank you!

After this experience we had with Natalie this book means so much more to me. I truly believe that Natalie one day will walk up to a picture of my dad and know exactly who he is without me ever telling her. I just know my dad, Jesus and their team of Angels were with Natalie during all her surgeries.

Here is an overview of this book:

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven. Heaven is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence is clear. Colton said he met his miscarried sister, who no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how"really big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us. Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

I urge you all to read this book. The book is not long and will literally take you less than day, because once you start you will not put it down.

God is so good and loves us all, especially the children...