What are the chances?

Jaqueline and Ashley left for Mexico on October 19, 2009- ten days before Ashley's first birthday. We changed our phone plan so that we could stay in touch and when we called to wish Ashley a happy birthday, Jaqueline informed us that she was sick and had been vomiting. We chalked it up to the different food and the water down there, but a month later Ashley had a seizure that landed her in the hospital where they found a brain tumor.

Jaqueline sent me a text message that read (translated): "I need your help. Ashley has a brain tumor and the doctors say she will not survive."

Thus began our journey to save Ashley. Little did we know that God would use the circumstances to follow in order to save Jaqueline.

I know for a fact that God allowed Jaqueline to suffer through the surgery for her appendicitis so that she would know that she could trust me with the big things. So that she would know that she could reach out to us with anything. And that is what she did.

To be honest, God opened so many doors and provided us with help from so many people that it would probably take about 20 posts to describe it all. I don't want to skim over it too quickly, though, because God answered prayer after prayer and that is something I need to remember and share.

I loved that there were so many "What are the chances?" moments because it was at that time we could respond, "Thank you, God." Here are a few:

1) We were at a loss as to how to help get Jaqueline over here with Ashley and so I called my dad for help. It just so happened that a few days prior he had met a lobbyist who was willing to connect us with Congressman Moran who just so happened to have a daughter had a brain tumor and survived. What are the chances?

2) In the span of one week, two US Congressmen wrote letters on Jaqueline's behalf. What are the chances?

3) Ashley's condition began to deteriorate and we reached out to friends and family to help us find a doctor who spoke Spanish who was willing to join Lee right before Christmas to fly down to Mexico and bring Ashley here to the US. A Spanish speaking doctor and pastor responded with a call asking, "When do we leave?" What are the chances?

4) We realized that Ashley wasn't stable enough to travel commercially and a loving, generous family offered to pay the entire cost of sending a Med Evac to Chiapas, MX and back to DC (over $31,000). This same family knew Congressman Moran. In fact, a family member had actually taught his daughter while she was going through treatment for her tumor. What are the chances?

5) The day after Ashley traveled here, Jaqueline was sent to Mexico City where my aunt's co-worker generously put her up in a hotel, scheduled an appointment for an emergency visa, and accompanied her to the appointment. What are the chances?

6) Jaqueline was denied; we flew her to Tijuana to appeal to someone at customs. They called the hospital to confirm that Ashley was a patient, but then denied her humanitarian parole. Jaqueline stayed with a Christian family who had just lost their daughter to cancer almost two years prior. Jaqueline spent Christmas with them and became a Christian during her time there. What are the chances?

7) Almost immediately, one of our close friends reached out to her family who happened to have connections with someone from Homeland Security. I remember talking to him on the phone and asking, "What are the chances of this working?" and when he replied, "We just need you to fly her over here and we'll take care of he rest." I had to fight back tears. Wow! We had reached a point where we had so many doors shut that we didn't expect any more to open. On December 30th, Jaqueline arrived in Washington, DC to be with her daughter. The picture above is from their reunion. Praise God and...seriously, what were the chances?

While Ashley was in the hospital, we experienced so many 'close up' miracles. They may have seemed small in light of everything that was happening with Jaqueline, but they were huge because Ashley was alive and that in and of itself was miraculous.

And so we asked, 'What are the chances?' many times and God used those moments to remind us that He was the one running the show.

There is only one response to that:

"Thank you, God."