I remember every single second like it was yesterday. Casey and I sitting in a strange coffee shop with our best friend Michael, pretending to eat breakfast and starting blankly at each other.
We were not okay. Our daughter lay in a hospital bed across the street, passed out from pain from burning 22% of her body, going into shock facing a skin surgery later in that day. In a moment where she absentmindedly grabbed a cup of tea that was boiling hot and pouring it over her face and chest, our world had changed forever. Her skin peeled right off as we stood frozen. The ‘aunties’ in the room, who were there for a woman’s meeting, went right into action tearing off her clothes and putting her in the sink for water to run over her wounds. In another minute they were pushing us out the door insisting we go the hospital. Kieren was screaming at a pitch I had never heard before, and I knew she was in pain, but truly didn’t understand the severity of her wounds. As we drove to the nearest hospital the fear and dread slowly began to sink into my head and heart. It was critical. As we got to the hospital they began to get Kieren’s blood pressure and heart rate, as her screaming started to calm down, which I first thought was a good sign. Suddenly the doctor and nurse had a look of panic in their eyes and I knew I was deeply mistaken. She was going into shock because the blood vessels in her neck were constricted because of the burn in that area of her skin. The rushed her to the ICU area (of a community hospital that was very small and limited). She was stabalized and then we were moved to a Children’s hospital near the city of Cape Town. She screamed and struggled through the night and eventually passed out in the early hours of the morning. We were told she would need a surgery in the morning to help regrow her facial skin and that her burns would all need to be monitored. It was critical and the first 24 hours were the most important. She was very suspeptible to infection and we were in an entire children’s burn ward, filled with other children in pain. When you are burned it’s an excruciating pain because it’s hitting a nerve ending. And that was 22% of her body. We were in shock.
We sat in that coffee shop trying to catch our breath, trying to find out souls, trying to muster courage. Why? How? What will happen?
Michael asked us what were were going to do, and Casey’s response are words I will never forget. He said “we have no idea what will happen with Kieren now, but I know that whatever happens I will worship my God.” He meant it. I meant it. God was still on the throne even in the deepest heart pain we had ever known.
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