Testimony of Debbie & John Karpiak (04/18/1999)

Well, I want to ask John and Debbie Karpiak to come at this time and tell us what the

Lord's done with Them and in their lives and Kenner will probably preach to us a little bit

We we don't let women preach in this church unless they're under three years old, but at that point it's okay.

Come on Well, I think everybody knows

Kenner Kenner's our miracle, baby For anybody that doesn't know

Kenner was born with a birth defect and It's called

Vaughner's dissociation and it's a syndrome and It It has an acronym that goes with it, but I can't think of it now, but it'll affect internal upper

GI and it can also affect External like people that you see with limbs that part of the maybe the thumb is missing or toes and We feel real fortunate that Kenner's was all on the inside and I suppose that's superficial but we think of it from our point of view that you know she we wanted to be beautiful and she is and have a good life.

Yeah, absolutely and She was born with her esophagus didn't go all the way down to her stomach and her

Anus Wasn't correct they had to Basically build her an anus which they did the doctors were fantastic And then we came to find out at the very end.

She her Spinal cord was what they call tethered. It was attached at the bottom of her base of her spine and so they did surgery to crack that and all through this

We just there's no possible way. We couldn't make it without the Lord. It's just And I think the miracle that we see is being able to recognize it.

It was You have to give it to him You see the doctors and you know that they're doing everything that they can do and you have support from family and friends

But you have to give it to the Lord because you can't handle it We really found out what you what you eat

Well, there's no way we'd have broke down just like Dennis said and Brian you can't handle it. It's just Devastating we we did have a peace and a calm about us all during the whole ordeal

And We just we gave it to him to begin with and like I said,

I think the biggest miracle in my life is being able to recognize that he's in control and That he takes care of it all.

I Think just adding to what John said The main thing was the peace and the calm that we have we never we never were worried about losing her

We may even though we know that she belongs to the Lord. We always just We knew that everything was going to be okay

And the doctor told us everything happened So quickly is she was born late at night about nine nine o 'clock and I was kind of out of it

I'm John had to fill me in all the details But the very next morning they took her and that was the most difficult thing

The only time that we really broke down and cried when we were separated from her and and of course when we were relieved

There were tears of joy But when the doctors took her they took her ahead of us because I hadn't been released yet And had an incubator and she was just four pounds seven ounces and that was pretty tough and then when we got to children's they were wonderful met us right away and told us what they were going to do and The thing that was so amazing is when the doctor was talking about her esophagus when he had to had to A lot of times they have to stretch them

They didn't have to do that a whole lot with hers her anatomy was was just put together real well inside everything was there was

Just in the wrong place But he said it was tissue paper thin and that just amazed us that they could fix something like that without it just falling apart and It's just amazing everything they could do and all her surgery

She just bounced right back after a while the last one was a little tough on her But she healed so quickly and as a parent you you feel like it's your job

And I'm sure you that have children You're the ones that are supposed to take care of them and make everything better And you can't you can't always do that and especially in Kenner's case

We had to turn it over to the Lord and he has just blessed us over and over and over and we could see

How all our life he prepared us for this moment for this one moment

You know there were there were so many little things that happened in our life that we didn't think anything of and then we could Look back and see well gosh.

This is what it was for it was so that we could accept this and And have a peace about it

It's just and and we did at the time. We didn't have a church family When all this first started, but towards the end we did and that has been a tremendous blessing to have someone

Like Dennis was saying that someone that you knew was really praying for you And then you could feel it you could feel the strength you were getting from from knowing that you had people praying for you

But she's doing great now. No more problems. She's all fixed up had the last of her surgeries in December and It's just been fabulous it's just been quite an experience and we feel extremely blessed and fortunate and I Am especially blessed with John because I had some problems also

And he just had to take over take care of everything He took care of Kenner and I both and he has definitely been my rock through all of this really has

But I guess that's it. It's just been a Seem like a long journey would come to the end of it

It's been a beautiful journey and like Dennis Mentioned we just really want to thank everybody for the support

And we did spend hospital time without a pastor there So when we had our pastor come on the last few surgeries, it was a blessing

It was a virtual blessing to have somebody there just to talk to and occupy our mind while they were doing the surgeries and it seemed like the time just flew and It was wonderful and we've we've just many of you probably know but we've been really blessed by having

Otis and BB our babysitter He's a nurse and so we just the

Lord put him there for us and we recognize it and I like I said I've ever said it before but that's the miracle to us that we can recognize when he works in our life and be able to Appreciate it.

Yeah do where my pregnancy B had said towards the end John told me that Otis said that she thought she might be interested in watching an infant and Then to find it and this was before we knew anything was wrong

So it like John said it just you could see how everything was just set in place You know, there there was someone who was a nurse who had a medical background who?

Would feel comfortable taking care of a child with some problems. So it's just been blessing after blessing for us.

It really has Thank you

The main thing that I get from that testimony is how the Lord orchestrates things Because before the baby was born

Miss B said well, I think I might like to help you with that baby. And when she

Was a nurse that used to call her. Dr. Fisher and and so a lot of the time that she was with Kenner was before Kenner's reconstructed to the reconstructive surgeries if not well, we've been the latter two and Probably not everybody could have taken care of Kenner Under those circumstances and God just put the whole thing

Together for them and they know it and that's what I think such a blessing about it and to see her

Bright eyed and bushy tail she is is a blessing. She almost want to take this thing with her, didn't she?